Windows 10 ante portas

[rase]

MS Windows 10 is coming soon. I assume that the developers at Intel are busy getting the development environment and the compilers ready for the new OS version. Any news on the topic? Should we refrain from installing Windows 10 during the first months?

[TimP]

I don't see any Intel compiler related considerations in the use of Windows 10.  Support of it was listed as one of the goals in the public ifort 16.0 beta test.  I don't fully understand that, as I found I still needed StartButton in order to use Intel compilers, and there has been no option to specify Windows 10 in problem reports.  I haven't seen anything about Microsoft modifying the request they made of Intel not to create a usable start menu item for Intel software on Win8.x.

Note that ifort 15.0 update 4 added support for VS2015, which appears to be the only recent Microsoft update which requires a corresponding update in Intel compilers.

With Windows 10, you have no control over the frequent slow automatic updates, so you would not want to use it without an unmetered high speed internet connection, nor, as Microsoft said, on your primary machine.  I have been able to use it over TWC, which may run as high as 1Mb/s connecting to Microsoft.  The main advantage I see in Windows 10 is the ability to work with Microsoft mail servers which I could no longer reach in Windows 7, without the cumbersome interface of Win8.x.

[Steven_L_Intel1 · Accepted solution]

I've been running the current Visual Fortran on Windows 10 without issues. Typically we don't have problems with new Windows versions, unlike on Linux and OS X, where breaking binary interfaces is the norm. New VS versions are another topic.... We will, of course, claim support for Windows 10 as soon as is practical, but I see no reason to hold off.

[TimP]

In my experience, Windows 10 has increased difficulties with presence of incompletely removed old versions of Intel software tools, but I agree with Steve that's not a reason to hold off (unless you're expecting someone to come up with an automated Intel tools cleanup utility).

I removed my VS2005 and 2008 installations, rather than trying to run them on Win10, as they are of no use with current ifort anyway.

[Massimo]

Allow me to "jump in" this topic instead of opening a new thread. I am currently running Fotran Composer XE2011 under MS Visual Studio 10 in Windows 8.1 64 bit. The Win10 update is coming soon, VS10 is declared as compatible with Win10 (I cannot paste the link to MS announce otherwise the spam filter blocks the post). What about Composer XE2011? I am on leave until end of August, I cannot upgrade to any new version of the compiler until I'm back in my institution (I'll certainly do once back, but now it is not possible), it is therefore crucial for me not to be stuck by issues with Win10 because right now I am doing some programming. Does anyone if XE2011 runs correctly under Win10?

Thank you in advance.

[Steven_L_Intel1]

I expect it will - we don't typically have issues with new Windows versions (unlike Linux and OS X). However, this is not a combination we have tested.