NVidia ShadowPlay seems to be causing issues with Windows 10 (driver versions 353.30, 353.54, 353.62)

 

I have been using Windows 10 RTM for more than a week and I've already discovered some issues with it. These could be fixed by the 29th of July, which is the date of public release, however I am afraid to say that I have a feeling they will not. Because it is already 29th in Japan and the problems still persist.

 

Issues

 

One of them was with the Photos app. When I double click on a photo to open it up in Photos app, it would close immediately. However, the Photos app could be opened normally to browse the albums. Photos can be viewed from there as well. The problem occurs only when opening via the Explorer.

 

 

Another issue was with the Store app. When you try to watch a trailer from the “Video” store in Full Screen, the Store app would crash.

 

 

The culprit

 

Until today I thought they were problems with the OS.

 

They are not, at least not directly.

 

There is a way you can activate Windows 10 build 10240

In the previous two posts (here and here) I mentioned that I installed Windows 10 build 10240 (hereafter simply will be called Windows 10) on my desktop PC but wasn't able to activate it. Yesterday while reading through the forums I found out that there is a way to get it done.

Launch the Window 10 installer from an already activated Windows 7/8/8.1.

Then Windows 10 will activate just fine. This is on my desktop PC.

Yes, I reinstalled Windows 8.1 on my PC and then ran the Windows 10 installer from there. Remember, you have to have Windows 8.1 (or whatever version you are upgrading from) activated first. Otherwise it will ask for the key, saying that the previous OS wasn’t activated. At least, it asks for the key before doing anything irreparable.

I believe you can do a clean install just fine if the UEFI has the key of the original OS embedded, like most of the tablets and laptops. Perhaps OEM desktop PCs have it embedded as well. You are out of luck, if you have an assembled desktop PC. But I do not believe it is a traditional upgrade. You can simply tell it not to save user data or settings (which must be doing a clean install) within the installer. You will have to use Disk Cleanup after Windows 10 has been installed, if you want to get rid of the remnants of the previous OS. (Select “System File” option and then “Clean previous Windows installation” to do that.)

I was curious as to which key Windows 10 was activated with. I checked the key after installing Windows 10. It was the same “public” key that Microsoft had given away previously. So the key doesn’t really have any meaning as long as you were using a legitimate copy of Windows. Perhaps it didn’t even contact the activation servers. This might change on 29th. Obviously, people who are buying Windows 10 will have to receive new keys.

Still couldn’t activate Windows 10 build 10240

Last night I tried to install Windows 10 build 10240 (which seems to be the RTM build) by first installing build 10162 which I had already downloaded few days ago. I had to do this because Microsoft wasn't  offering the ISO anymore. (If you were trying out Windows 10 insider builds, you had won! I was too careful and I am paying for it now.) Although I could install build 10162, I couldn't activate it hence couldn't update to build 10240 as Windows Update was insisting that Windows was already up-to-date. I knew better.

So I downloaded the build 10240 from “somewhere” (since there aren't any official download links) and did a clean install with the key that I extracted from the tablet. The installation went through fine - no hiccups this time - but I still wasn't allowed to activate it. Same error code as last time.

Dammit!!!

There is nothing I can possibly do at this point but to wait the remaining two weeks before I can activate it. But I don't know which key I will have to use to activate. I have legit Windows 8.1 key and several legit Windows 7 keys but I don't think I would be inputting those. And I definitely don't want to upgrade from Windows 8.1 or 7, even if they are really clean installs.

I probably shouldn't care too much about this issue. Everything will be answered by the 29th of this month. That's less than 2 weeks away. As long as I won't go into any performance issues in Crysis 3, I don't have a reason to go back to Windows 8.1 for now.

I guess you'll hear a rant from me about the issues in Windows 10 soon. There have to be issues, because you can hardly make bug-free software. I should probably use the tablet a bit and see if it is worth holding onto.

Finally installed Windows 10 on my desktop PC but hit a wall!

I did not want to install preview builds of Windows 10 on my main desktop PC because I was concerned about the latency of pre-release drivers which could hurt me in Crysis 3 online. I tested many builds on the tablet but the initial impressions of Windows 10 on the tablet was horrible. So after trying several builds, I went back to Windows 8.1. I was thinking about upgrading the tablet, but held off till Windows 10 came out. I really did expect a miracle from the early builds. After Microsoft published the release date for Windows 10, I knew the builds coming from there onwards would be much more like the RTM. So I tried build 10130 and it was notably better than the previous builds.

 

Up until today, I had build 10162 running on the tablet. I heard the Windows 10 had finally RTMed, but also heard that Microsoft wouldn't be releasing that build to the Windows Insiders. But I wanted to give it a shot and I was amazed by what I saw. A new build!! And it had the same build number as the RTM build: 10240. w00t!

 

I quickly started downloading it. Before finishing with the update process, I decided to install Windows 10 on my main PC. I went to the Windows Insider website and Microsoft had stopped offering the installer or the ISO for PCs. It was still possible to get one for the Windows Phone. But who cares about Windows Phone. Even Microsoft doesn't seem to, now that they are getting rid of 7,800 more workers.

 

Back on the topic. So I couldn't download Windows 10. Luckily, I had downloaded Windows 10 several days ago to install on VirtualBox. Luckily I had it with me so using Rufus, I managed to create a new bootable USB stick with the Windows 10 installer. Sadly, I had not saved the serial number so I had to look around. I found one and could install Windows 10 on the desktop.