Here. Follow the instructions to get your offline installer, while also skipping the Windows Store requirement. It does require that you have a Win8 product key, but that shouldn't be a problem.

The worst is how it works for users that updated from W7 Home Premium/Ultimate/W8.1 Pro with Media Center.
At first, their get the app for free, but if their make a clean installs of W10, their lost the app, their need to install again W7 or W8 and upgrade again to W10 to keep the app each time that their like to reinstall the OS.

Is what MS has published in Microsoft Answers:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_apps-insider_other/getting-the-windows-dvd-player-app/6c94b519-8b05-462e-a864-b7ad67d5c834?tm=1438117403084&auth=1

I just checked something in Windows 10 and I have to say I'm disappointed. I told Microsoft repeatedly (i.e., gave it as feedback for each OS) that keeping Windows 95 dialogues in the new OS's is annoying. What can't they update the 'set environment variables' dialogue and such so that they'd be at the very least resizeable, or, better yet, use a UI style that's 10 year old and not 20.

Yeah, that's shitty. If Microsoft can keep in their server that a device is eligible for a Windows 10 install they can also keep there if it's eligible for the DVD app.

Thanks, but I guess I rather re-familiarize myself with Linux and try to get Windows 7 working on a VM with GPU passthrough, than waste my time on upgrading to 8.1, then upgrading to 10, doing a clean install and only then getting to the part where I have to make sure that the new OS doesn't leak any information to the cloud without my approval.

If I seem unreasonably adamant on skipping the online upgrade before doing a clean Windows 10 installation, it's because I personally have 7 computers at home to update, so the unneeded extra steps would add up to a significant loss of my time even before we are counting on doing the same for my relatives and their neighbor's cat too.

No worries about it. I was just pointing out that it is possible to get an offline installer for the 8.1 patch. It should also be possible to automate the process, though I haven't delved that deep into Win8 updating. Do ask if you want help with it, I should be able to dig up some instructions as well.

If most of them are stuck on Windows 8 then that's a problem. I still wonder why you need that offline installer. If that's a problem with PC's not being hooked to the internet, then in my experience installing Linux installations need the internet more than Windows ones (though granted I'm sure that can be circumvented).

Anyway, one nice thing about Windows 10 is that PC's can access the update downloads from one another, so you can probably have just one PC set up to update and have the others get the updates over LAN. I'm not totally sure it's that seamless (i.e., that the rest don't have to be connected to the internet at all), but in any case, it would save a lot of bandwidth downloading updates. On the other hand you need to make sure you configure each PC so as not to let the entire world download from you, which is the default.

I uninstall all supposed telemetry updates I can find and set my OS in forever Do Not Update.

This way you still got the crap that came with the initial installation.
Aren't you open to any non-M$ malware without any updates at all?

But I am sure I am getting MS Spyware / Malware with updates.

If I don't visit sites I don't know I should have significant less risk of it. And there is the antivirus.

I am tempted to perform all my online transaction in my Linux Dual Boot.

Love that you not only necro a thread for a 4 months old report, you even ignore the very first paragraph of it.

Not to mention that I find any site that doesn't list its sources as highly questionable by itself.

Thank you, I did need that chuckle.

I'm waiting for positive Windows 10 news to appear in Cortana. I get it, Microsoft's nagging on Windows 7 and 8 users, so no need to keep showing me the same piece of news endlessly. Checking now they seem to be normal Windows 10 articles, but I don't want to keep seeing those negative articles all the time.

Other than that, I'm enjoying the OS.