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technotes<br />
» EPINIONS<br />
If you need backwards<br />
compatibility with 16-bit<br />
application and games,<br />
you’ll have to install<br />
the 32-bit edition of<br />
Windows 10.<br />
“If you install the 64-bit<br />
version of Windows 10 then<br />
(as on Windows 7 and 8.1) you<br />
lose native 16-bit capabilities<br />
— the only way you’ll be able<br />
to run older apps is via some<br />
form of emulation or in a<br />
dedicated virtual machine.”<br />
WINDOWS 10 AND LEGACY APPS<br />
One thing that has not been talked<br />
about in <strong>APC</strong> is the state of play<br />
regarding 16-bit legacy programs<br />
(games and so on). Will they run under<br />
Windows 10?<br />
Robert McLardy<br />
Ed replies: That depends which edition of<br />
the OS you have. Windows 10 doesn’t<br />
actually alter the situation with regards to<br />
backwards compatibility and 16-bit apps<br />
at all — as on Windows 7 and 8, the 32-bit<br />
version of Windows 10 will still let you<br />
natively run 16-bit applications. However,<br />
if you install the 64-bit version of Windows<br />
10 then (as on Windows 7 and 8.1) you<br />
lose native 16-bit capabilities — the only<br />
way you’ll be able to run older apps is via<br />
some form of emulation or in a dedicated<br />
virtual machine.<br />
POWERLINE AND SWITCHES<br />
I have been re-reading the April mag<br />
regarding networking with powerline<br />
adaptors, which I am going to do. Page<br />
43 has a photo of a D-Link AV2 2000<br />
and above it is a multiple plug or switch<br />
or something I can’t see any description<br />
of. Is it to allow several items to be<br />
hooked to the adapter. Where can I<br />
get it and what is it called please? The<br />
description just says neater than cables<br />
across the floor. Yeah! I want one!<br />
Lyndon Hutchinson<br />
Ed replies: The picture on page 43 is<br />
actually of a simple Ethernet wall plate,<br />
as described in the second paragraph of<br />
the main story. Installing one will require<br />
running Ethernet cables in your wall<br />
and/or floor cavities — the results are<br />
nice and neat, but setup is obviously<br />
quite a bit more involved than with<br />
powerline’s plug-and-play approach.<br />
If you need multiple ports, you can still<br />
use power line: there are some older<br />
products (released around 2011) that<br />
offer a multi-port Ethernet switch at one<br />
end and a single-port powerline plug at<br />
the other from the likes of D-Link and<br />
NetComm. Alternatively, you should be<br />
able to just plug a standalone network<br />
switch directly into the output of a<br />
single-port powerline plug…<br />
WINDOWS 10 SLOW<br />
PERFORMANCE<br />
I have read all your articles on the<br />
Windows 10 technical preview with<br />
great interest. However, the one area<br />
which seems not to be well covered<br />
is its performance. I have tried it on<br />
two machines.<br />
The first is a gaming machine<br />
running an Intel Core i7-2600K with<br />
an Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 graphics<br />
card. I first loaded an early release of<br />
the preview and did not like its look<br />
and feel, so I restored Windows 8.1. It<br />
seemed to perform reasonably but I<br />
didn’t have it loaded long enough to<br />
really put it through its paces.<br />
Recently I downloaded the latest<br />
version available. Look and feel were<br />
greatly improved, but my computer<br />
ground to a halt. Star Wars: The Old<br />
Republic could not be played at all,<br />
and that doesn’t require a huge<br />
amount of resources.<br />
I also have it on an Intel dual-core<br />
laptop with a clock speed of 2.4GHz.<br />
In order to get a reasonable level of<br />
performance I had to end several<br />
Microsoft processes and only then<br />
was it was usable.<br />
I believe the public must be<br />
alerted to a serious performance hit<br />
with Windows 10, as many are likely<br />
to be enticed to jump in due to it<br />
being a free upgrade. I believe the<br />
major hit to the gaming machine is a<br />
bug, as the first load of Windows 10<br />
was not so slow. Perhaps it is a result<br />
of rolling back and then reloading<br />
Windows 10, in which case it is a<br />
defect in the software. Personally I<br />
will keep trying it, but unless I see a<br />
major improvement, I will remain on<br />
Windows 8.1.<br />
Jeffrey Travers<br />
Ed replies: Those definitely sound like<br />
problems that could be caused by the<br />
preview build being non-final and many<br />
drivers (including GPU drivers) not yet<br />
being optimised for Windows 10. We’ve<br />
not had significant performance issues<br />
with Microsoft’s new OS in our testing,<br />
but we’re investigating its gaming speed<br />
(in particular) for an upcoming feature.<br />
Stay tuned…<br />
<strong>APC</strong>MAG@FUTURENET.COM<br />
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