Microsoft's next big Windows 10 feature update is here. Codenamed '19H1,' and known officially as the Windows 10 May 2019 Update, this release brings with it a few new features and lots of improvements to already existing ones. Let's take a look!
More on the May UpdateWindows 10 May 2019 Update
Here's a list of expected changes:
Search and Cortana
We expect to see these changes and enhancements:
Settings
Here's a list of features and changes we expect in Settings:
Apps
These are the apps-related enhancements we expect:
Miscellaneous changes
And some other random changes:
Catch up on all the changes from the previous Windows 10 updates
Seeing a feature that isn't listed here? Perhaps it was added in a previous Windows 10 update. Check out our changelogs for those below!
Updated May 22, 2019: We updated this changelog with the latest changes found in release build 18362.
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Windows 10 is a series of personal computeroperating systems produced by Microsoft as part of its Windows NT family of operating systems. It is the successor to Windows 8.1, and was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and broadly released for retail sale on July 29, 2015.[12] Windows 10 receives new builds on an ongoing basis, which are available at no additional cost to users, in addition to additional test builds of Windows 10 which are available to Windows Insiders. Devices in enterprise environments can receive these updates at a slower pace, or use long-term support milestones that only receive critical updates, such as security patches, over their ten-year lifespan of extended support.[13][14]
One of Windows 10's most notable features is support for universal apps, an expansion of the Metro-style apps first introduced in Windows 8. Universal apps can be designed to run across multiple Microsoft product families with nearly identical code—including PCs, tablets, smartphones, embedded systems, Xbox One, Surface Hub and Mixed Reality. The Windows user interface was revised to handle transitions between a mouse-oriented interface and a touchscreen-optimized interface based on available input devices—particularly on 2-in-1 PCs, both interfaces include an updated Start menu which incorporates elements of Windows 7's traditional Start menu with the tiles of Windows 8. Windows 10 also introduced the Microsoft Edgeweb browser, a virtual desktop system, a window and desktop management feature called Task View, support for fingerprint and face recognition login, new security features for enterprise environments, and DirectX 12.
Windows 10 received mostly positive reviews upon its original release in July 2015. Critics praised Microsoft's decision to provide a desktop-oriented interface in line with previous versions of Windows, contrasting the tablet-oriented approach of 8, although Windows 10's touch-oriented user interface mode was criticized for containing regressions upon the touch-oriented interface of Windows 8. Critics also praised the improvements to Windows 10's bundled software over Windows 8.1, Xbox Live integration, as well as the functionality and capabilities of the Cortana personal assistant and the replacement of Internet Explorer with Edge. However, media outlets have been critical of changes to operating system behaviors, including mandatory update installation, privacy concerns over data collection performed by the OS for Microsoft and its partners and the adware-like tactics used to promote the operating system on its release.[15][16][17][18][19]
Microsoft aimed to have Windows 10 installed on at least one billion devices in the two to three years following its release (which hasn't happened four years later).[13] It became more popular than Windows 7 (though in 2019 Windows 7 is most used in many countries most of in Africa, and in China). As of June 2019, the operating system has an estimated usage share of 58% of all the Windows versions on traditional PCs[20] (and has over 50% share on all continents except Africa, where it's still the most used version) and thus 46% of traditional PCs run Windows 10.[21][20] Across all platforms (PC, mobile, tablet and console), 36% of devices run some kind of Windows, Windows 10 or older.[22]
Development[edit]
At the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference in 2011, Andrew Lees, the chief of Microsoft's mobile technologies, said that the company intended to have a single software ecosystem for PCs, phones, tablets, and other devices. 'We won't have an ecosystem for PCs, and one for phones, and one for tablets—they'll all come together.'[23][24]
In December 2013, technology writer Mary Jo Foley reported that Microsoft was working on an update to Windows 8 codenamed 'Threshold', after a planet in Microsoft's Halo video game franchise.[25] Similarly to 'Blue' (which became Windows 8.1),[26] Foley called Threshold a 'wave of operating systems' across multiple Microsoft platforms and services, scheduled for the second quarter of 2015. Foley reported that among the goals for Threshold was to create a unified application platform and development toolkit for Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox One (which all use a similar Windows NT kernel).[25][27]
In April 2014, at the Build Conference, Microsoft's Terry Myerson unveiled an updated version of Windows 8.1 (build 9697) that added the ability to run Windows Store apps inside desktop windows and a more traditional Start menu in place of the Start screen seen in Windows 8. The new Start menu takes after Windows 7's design by using only a portion of the screen and including a Windows 7-style application listing in the first column. The second column displays Windows 8-style app tiles. Myerson said that these changes would occur in a future update, but did not elaborate.[28][29] Microsoft also unveiled the concept of a 'universal Windows app', allowing Windows Store apps created for Windows 8.1 to be ported to Windows Phone 8.1 and Xbox One while sharing a common codebase, with an interface designed for different device form factors, and allowing user data and licenses for an app to be shared between multiple platforms. Windows Phone 8.1 would share nearly 90% of the common Windows Runtime APIs with Windows 8.1 on PCs.[28][30][31][32]
Screenshots of a Windows build which purported to be Threshold were leaked in July 2014, showing the previously presented Start menu and windowed Windows Store apps[33] followed by a further screenshot in September 2014 of a build identifying itself as 'Windows Technical Preview', numbered 9834, showing a new virtual desktop system, a notification center, and a new File Explorer icon.[34]
Announcement[edit]
Threshold was officially unveiled during a media event on September 30, 2014, under the name Windows 10; Myerson said that Windows 10 would be Microsoft's 'most comprehensive platform ever', providing a single, unified platform for desktop computers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, and all-in-one devices.[35][36][37] He emphasized that Windows 10 would take steps towards restoring user interface mechanics from Windows 7 to improve the experience for users on non-touch devices, noting criticism of Windows 8's touch-oriented interface by keyboard and mouse users.[38][39] Despite these concessions, Myerson noted that the touch-oriented interface would evolve as well on 10.[40]
In regards to Microsoft naming the new operating system Windows 10 instead of Windows 9, Terry Myerson said that 'based on the product that's coming, and just how different our approach will be overall, it wouldn't be right to call it Windows 9.'[41] He also joked that they could not call it 'Windows One' (alluding to several recent Microsoft products with a similar brand, such as OneDrive, OneNote, and Xbox One) because Windows 1.0 already existed.[42] Tony Prophet, Microsoft Vice President of Windows Marketing, said at a San Francisco conference in October 2014 that Windows 9 'came and went', and that Windows 10 is not 'an incremental step from Windows 8.1,' but 'a material step. We're trying to create one platform, one eco-system that unites as many of the devices [sic] from the small embedded Internet of Things, through tablets, through phones, through PCs and, ultimately, into the Xbox.'[43]
Further details surrounding Windows 10's consumer-oriented features were presented during another media event held on January 21, 2015, entitled 'Windows 10: The Next Chapter'. The keynote featured the unveiling of Cortana integration within the operating system, new Xbox-oriented features, Windows 10 Mobile, an updated Office Mobile suite, Surface Hub—a large-screened Windows 10 device for enterprise collaboration based upon Perceptive Pixel technology,[44] along with HoloLens‑augmented reality eyewear and an associated platform for building apps that can render holograms through HoloLens.[45]
Additional developer-oriented details surrounding the 'Universal Windows Platform' concept were revealed and discussed during Microsoft's developers' conference Build. Among them were the unveiling of 'Islandwood', which provides a middlewaretoolchain for compiling Objective-C based software (particularly iOS software) to run as universal apps on Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile. A port of Candy Crush Saga made using the toolkit, which shared much of its code with the iOS version, was demonstrated, alongside the announcement that the King-developed game would be bundled with Windows 10 at launch.[46][47][48][49]
Release[edit]
On June 1, 2015, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 would be released on July 29, 2015.[12] Microsoft began an advertising campaign centering on Windows 10, 'Upgrade Your World', on July 20, 2015 with the premiere of television commercials in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The commercials focused on the tagline 'A more human way to do', emphasizing new features and technologies supported by Windows 10 that sought to provide a more 'personal' experience to users.[50][51] The campaign culminated with launch events in thirteen cities on July 29, which celebrated 'the unprecedented role our biggest fans played in the development of Windows 10'.[52]
The Sims 3 starts with a solid Sim creator where you choose the gender and general appearance of your character. It’s always up to you to decide who your Sim will become based on various choices you make throughout the game. The game is open ended with a myriad of possibilities at your disposal, so the ultimate goal is to be a person you want to be.But let’s get back to the beginning. Sims 4 gratis downloaden. The persona is a guide for your character that gives you as much structure for the game as you need. Plus, you can craft its personality through the selection of both positive and negative traits and the assumption of a persona.
Features[edit]
Windows 10 makes more consistent the user experience and functionality between different classes of device, and addresses shortcomings in the user interface that were introduced in Windows 8.[38][39][53]Windows 10 Mobile, the successor to Windows Phone 8.1, shares some user interface elements and apps with its PC counterpart.[54]
The Windows Runtime app ecosystem was revised into the Universal Windows Platform (UWP).[30][55][56] These universal apps are made to run across multiple platforms and device classes, including smartphones, tablets, Xbox One consoles, and other compatible Windows 10 devices. Windows apps share code across platforms, have responsive designs that adapt to the needs of the device and available inputs, can synchronize data between Windows 10 devices (including notifications, credentials, and allowing cross-platform multiplayer for games), and are distributed through Microsoft Store (rebranded from Windows Store since September 2017).[57] Developers can allow 'cross-buys', where purchased licenses for an app apply to all of the user's compatible devices, rather than only the one they purchased on (e.g., a user purchasing an app on PC is also entitled to use the smartphone version at no extra cost).[31][58][59]
On Windows 10, Microsoft Store serves as a unified storefront for apps, video content, and ebooks.[60] Windows 10 also allows web apps and desktop software (using either Win32 or .NET Framework) to be packaged for distribution on Microsoft Store. Desktop software distributed through Windows Store is packaged using the App-V system to allow sandboxing.[61][62]
User interface and desktop[edit]
The 'Task View' display is a new feature to Windows 10, allowing the use of multiple workspaces.
A new iteration of the Start menu is used on the Windows 10 desktop, with a list of places and other options on the left side, and tiles representing applications on the right. The menu can be resized, and expanded into a full-screen display, which is the default option in Tablet mode.[38][53][63] A new virtual desktop system was added. A feature known as Task View displays all open windows and allows users to switch between them, or switch between multiple workspaces.[38][53] Universal apps, which previously could be used only in full screen mode, can now be used in self-contained windows similarly to other programs.[38][53] Program windows can now be snapped to quadrants of the screen by dragging them to the corner. When a window is snapped to one side of the screen, Task View appears and the user is prompted to choose a second window to fill the unused side of the screen (called 'Snap Assist').[53] Windows' system icons were also changed.[63]
Charms have been removed; their functionality in universal apps is accessed from an App commands menu on their title bar.[38][53] In its place is Action Center, which displays notifications and settings toggles. It is accessed by clicking an icon in the notification area, or dragging from the right of the screen. Notifications can be synced between multiple devices.[54][63] The Settings app (formerly PC Settings) was refreshed and now includes more options that were previously exclusive to the desktop Control Panel.[64][65]
Windows 10 is designed to adapt its user interface based on the type of device being used and available input methods. It offers two separate user interface modes: a user interface optimized for mouse and keyboard, and a 'Tablet mode' designed for touchscreens. Users can toggle between these two modes at any time, and Windows can prompt or automatically switch when certain events occur, such as disabling Tablet mode on a tablet if a keyboard or mouse is plugged in, or when a 2-in-1 PC is switched to its laptop state. In Tablet mode, programs default to a maximized view, and the taskbar contains a back button and hides buttons for opened or pinned programs; Task View is used instead to switch between programs. The full screen Start menu is used in this mode, similarly to Windows 8, but scrolls vertically instead of horizontally.[39][66][67][68]
System security[edit]
Windows Hello unlock prompt on a Surface Pro 4 while using Enpass (a password manager)
Windows 10 incorporates multi-factor authentication technology based upon standards developed by the FIDO Alliance.[69] The operating system includes improved support for biometric authentication through the Windows Hello platform. Devices with supported cameras (requiring infrared illumination, such as Intel RealSense) allow users to log in with iris or face recognition, similarly to Kinect. Devices with supported readers allow users to log in through fingerprint recognition. Support was also added for palm-vein scanning through a partnership with Fujitsu in February 2018.[70] Credentials are stored locally and protected using asymmetric encryption.[71]
When Windows 10 was first introduced, multi-factor authentication was provided by two components: Windows Hello and Passport (not to be confused with the Passport platform of 1998). Later, Passport was merged into Windows Hello.[72][71]
The enterprise version of Windows 10 offers additional security features; administrators can set up policies for the automatic encryption of sensitive data, selectively block applications from accessing encrypted data, and enable Device Guard—a system which allows administrators to enforce a high-security environment by blocking the execution of software that is not digitally signed by a trusted vendor or Microsoft. Device Guard is designed to protect against zero-day exploits, and runs inside a hypervisor so that its operation remains separated from the operating system itself.[69][73]
Command line[edit]
Win32 console windows can now be resized without any restrictions, can be made to cover the full screen by pressing Alt+↵ Enter, and can use standard keyboard shortcuts, such as those for cut, copy, and paste. Other features such as word wrap and transparency were also added. These functions can be disabled to revert to the legacy console if needed.[74]
The Anniversary Update adds Windows Subsystem for Linux, which allows the installation of a user space environment from a supported Linuxdistribution that runs natively on Windows. The subsystem translates Linux system calls that the Linux system uses to those of the Windows NT kernel. The environment can execute the Bash shell and 64-bit command line programs. Windows applications cannot be executed from the Linux environment, and vice versa. Linux distributions for Windows Subsystem for Linux are obtained through Microsoft Store. The feature initially supported an Ubuntu-based environment; Microsoft announced in May 2017 that it would add Fedora and OpenSUSE environment options as well.[75][76][77][78][79][80][81]
Storage requirements[edit]
To reduce the storage footprint of the operating system, Windows 10 automatically compresses system files. The system can reduce the storage footprint of Windows by approximately 1.5GB for 32-bit systems and 2.6GB for 64-bit systems. The level of compression used is dependent on a performance assessment performed during installations or by OEMs, which tests how much compression can be used without harming operating system performance. Furthermore, the Refresh and Reset functions use runtime system files instead, making a separate recovery partition redundant, allowing patches and updates to remain installed following the operation, and further reducing the amount of space required for Windows 10 by up to 12GB. These functions replace the WIMBoot mode introduced on Windows 8.1 Update, which allowed OEMs to configure low-capacity devices with flash-based storage to use Windows system files out of the compressed WIM image typically used for installation and recovery.[82][83][84] Windows 10 also includes a function in its Settings app that allows users to view a breakdown of how their device's storage capacity is being used by different types of files, and determine whether certain types of files are saved to internal storage or an SD card by default.[85]
Online services and functionality[edit]
Windows 10 introduces a new default web browser, Microsoft Edge.[86] It features a new standards-compliant rendering engine forked from Trident, annotation tools, and offers integration with other Microsoft platforms present within Windows 10.[87][88] Internet Explorer 11 is maintained on Windows 10 for compatibility purposes, but is deprecated in favor of Edge and will no longer be actively developed.[89][90]
Windows 10 incorporates Microsoft's intelligent personal assistant, Cortana, which was first introduced with Windows Phone 8.1 in 2014. Cortana replaced Windows' embedded search feature, supporting both text and voice input. Many of its features are a direct carryover from Windows Phone, including integration with Bing, setting reminders, a Notebook feature for managing personal information, as well as searching for files, playing music, launching applications and setting reminders or sending emails.[91][92] Cortana is implemented as a universal search box located alongside the Start and Task View buttons, which can be hidden or condensed to a single button.[63]
Microsoft Family Safety is replaced by Microsoft Family, a parental controls system that applies across Windows platforms and Microsoft online services. Users can create a designated family, and monitor and restrict the actions of users designated as children, such as access to websites, enforcing age ratings on Microsoft Store purchases, and other restrictions. The service can also send weekly e-mail reports to parents detailing a child's computer usage. Unlike previous versions of Windows, child accounts in a family must be associated with a Microsoft account—which allows these settings to apply across all Windows 10 devices that a particular child is using.[93][94]
Windows 10 also offers the Wi-Fi Sense feature originating from Windows Phone 8.1; users can optionally have their device automatically connect to suggested open hotspots, and share their home network's password with contacts (either via Skype, People, or Facebook) so they may automatically connect to the network on a Windows 10 device without needing to manually enter its password. Credentials are stored in an encrypted form on Microsoft servers and sent to the devices of the selected contacts. Passwords are not viewable by the guest user, and the guest user is not allowed to access other computers or devices on the network. Wi-Fi Sense is not usable on 802.1X-encrypted networks. Adding '_optout' at the end of the SSID will also block the corresponding network from being used for this feature.[95]
Universal calling and messaging apps for Windows 10 are built in as of the November 2015 update: Messaging, Skype Video, and Phone. These offer built-in alternatives to the Skype download and sync with Windows 10 Mobile.[96][97]
Multimedia and gaming[edit]
Windows 10 provides heavier integration with the Xbox ecosystem. Xbox SmartGlass is succeeded by the Xbox Console Companion (formerly the Xbox app), which allows users to browse their game library (including both PC and Xbox console games), and Game DVR is also available using a keyboard shortcut, allowing users to save the last 30 seconds of gameplay as a video that can be shared to Xbox Live, OneDrive, or elsewhere.[98][99] Windows 10 also allows users to control and play games from an Xbox One console over a local network.[100] The Xbox Live SDK allows application developers to incorporate Xbox Live functionality into their apps, and future wireless Xbox One accessories, such as controllers, are supported on Windows with an adapter.[101] Microsoft also intends to allow cross-buys and save synchronization between Xbox One and Windows 10 versions of games; Microsoft Studios games such as ReCore and Quantum Break are intended as being exclusive to Windows 10 and Xbox One.[102]
Candy Crush Saga and Microsoft Solitaire Collection are also automatically installed upon installation of Windows 10.[103][104]
Windows 10 adds native game recording and screenshot capture ability using the newly introduced game bar. Users can also have the OS continuously record gameplay in the background, which then allows the user to save the last few moments of gameplay to the hard disk.[105]
Windows 10 adds FLAC and HEVC codecs and support for the Matroska media container, allowing these formats to be opened in Windows Media Player and other applications.[106][107][108]
DirectX 12[edit]
Windows 10 includes DirectX 12, alongside WDDM 2.0.[109][110] Unveiled March 2014 at GDC, DirectX 12 aims to provide 'console-level efficiency' with 'closer to the metal' access to hardware resources, and reduced CPU and graphics driver overhead.[111][112] Most of the performance improvements are achieved through low-level programming, which allow developers to use resources more efficiently and reduce single-threaded CPU bottlenecking caused by abstraction through higher level APIs.[113][114] DirectX 12 will also feature support for vendor agnostic multi-GPU setups.[115] WDDM 2.0 introduces a new virtual memory management and allocation system to reduce workload on the kernel-mode driver.[109][116]
Removed features[edit]
Windows Media Center was discontinued, and is uninstalled when upgrading from a previous version of Windows.[117][118] Upgraded Windows installations with Media Center will receive the paid app Windows DVD Player free of charge for a limited, but unspecified, time.[119] Microsoft had previously relegated Media Center and integrated DVD playback support to a paid add-on beginning on Windows 8 due to the cost of licensing the required DVD playback related patents, and the increasing number of PC devices that have no optical drives.[120]
The OneDrive built-in sync client, which was introduced in Windows 8.1, no longer supports offline placeholders for online-only files in Windows 10.[121][122] This functionality was re-added in Windows 10 version 1709, under the name 'OneDrive Files On-Demand'.[123]
Users are no longer able to synchronize Start menu layouts across all devices associated with a Microsoft account. A Microsoft developer justified the change by explaining that a user may have different applications they want to emphasize on each device that they use, rather than use the same configuration across each device. The ability to automatically install a universal app across all devices associated with an account was also removed.[124]
Web browsers can no longer set themselves as a user's default without further intervention; changing the default web browser must be performed manually by the user from Settings' 'Default apps' page, ostensibly to prevent browser hijacking.[125]
Parental controls no longer support browsers other than Internet Explorer and Edge, and the ability to control browsing by a whitelist was removed.[126] Also removed was the ability to control local accounts, and the ability to scan a machine for applications to allow and block.[citation needed]
The Food & Drink, Health & Fitness, and Travel apps have been discontinued.[127]
Drivers for external (USB) floppy drives are no longer integrated and must be downloaded separately.[118][128]
While all Windows 10 editions include fonts that provide broad language support, some fonts for Asian languages (Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, etc.) are no longer included with the standard installation to reduce storage space used, but are available without charge as optional font packages. When software invokes text in languages other than those for which the system is configured and does not use the Windows font fallback mechanisms designed always to display legible glyphs, Windows displays unsupported characters as a default 'not defined' glyph, a square or rectangular box, or a box with a dot, question mark or 'x' inside.[129]
Windows Defender could be integrated into File Explorer's context menu in Windows 8.x, but Microsoft initially removed integration from Windows 10, restoring it in Windows 10 build 10571 in response to user feedback.[130]
User control over Windows Updates was removed (except in enterprise versions). In earlier versions users could opt for updates to be installed automatically, or to be notified so they could update as and when they wished, or not to be notified; and they could choose which updates to install, using information about the updates. Windows10 Pro and Enterprise users may be configured by an administrator to defer updates, but only for a limited time.[131] Under the Windows end-user license agreement, users consent to the automatic installation of all updates, features and drivers provided by the service, and implicitly consent 'without any additional notice' to the possibility of features being modified or removed. The agreement also states, specifically for users of Windows 10 in Canada, that they may pause updates by disconnecting their device from the Internet.[132][133][134]
Features removed in version 1607[edit]
In the Home and Pro editions, Cortana can no longer be fully hidden, as it was made the default search experience in the Windows shell for all users. On previous revisions, a generic search experience without any Cortana branding and functionality is used if it is disabled. As with previous builds, users must still opt-in and grant permission for the software to perform data collection and tracking in order to fully enable Cortana's personalized features. If this functionality is not enabled, Cortana operates in a feature-limited mode with basic web and device search functionality, nearly identical to the non-Cortana search experience on previous builds.[135][136]
In April 2016, Microsoft announced that it will no longer allow Cortana web searches to be executed through any other web browser and search engine combination but Microsoft Edge and Bing, intentionally disregarding user settings. Microsoft alleges that other web browsers and search engines results in a 'compromised experience that is less reliable and predictable', and that only Microsoft Edge supports direct integration with Cortana within the browser itself.[137][138]
Certain features related to embedded advertising in the operating system can no longer be disabled on non-Enterprise or Education versions of Windows 10 using management settings such as Group Policy,[139] including disabling Microsoft Store and Universal Windows Platform apps, 'Microsoft consumer experiences' (which pushes tiles to the Start menu advertising promoted Microsoft Store apps, typically following a new installation of Windows 10), Windows Tips, turning off the lock screen (which can optionally display ads as part of 'Spotlight' tips), or enforcing a specific lock screen background. Critics argued that this change was meant to discourage Windows 10 Pro from being used in business environments, since Microsoft was making it less attractive by reducing the amount of control administrators have over their devices' environment without using an enterprise version of Windows 10.[139]
The ability to share Wi-Fi credentials with other contacts via Wi-Fi Sense was removed; Wi-Fi passwords can still be synced between devices tied to the same Microsoft account.[140]
The ability to change the Exit Windows, Windows Logoff and Windows Login sounds was hidden in Version 1607, although these features can be enabled by going to the Windows Registry and under the EventLabels folder and setting the value to 0.[141]
The ability to show the All Programs list on-click from Start Menu was removed. Instead, they will show automatically once the Start button is pressed.
Windows Update no longer shows if the current updates have been disabled or enabled by Administrators.
Features removed in version 1703 and 1709[edit]
Windows Update will no longer postpone the download of certain critical updates if the device is connected to a network that was designated by the user as being 'metered'. Although meant to prevent the updates from utilizing data allotments, this behavior had been used as a workaround by users to avoid the requirement for all updates to be automatically downloaded.[142]
Devices containing an Intel Atom 'Clover Trail' system-on-chip are incompatible with Version 1703, and cannot be upgraded to 1703 or subsequent versions of Windows 10.[143]
Server Message Block version 1 (SMB1) is disabled by default on version 1709. The Home and Pro editions only disable the SMB1 server but retain the SMB1 client, so they can connect to SMB1 network shares. The Enterprise and Education editions disable the SMB1 entirely. This version of the 30-year-old protocol gained notoriety in the WannaCry ransomware attack, although Microsoft had been discouraging its use even before.[144]
The Interactive Service Detection service, introduced in Windows Vista to combat shatter attacks, is removed in 1703.[145]Syskey was removed in 1709, with Microsoft recommending the use of Bitlocker instead.[146]
Features removed in version 1803[edit]
HomeGroup, a home network sharing feature first introduced in Windows 7, is removed.[147] It is replaced with a new feature called 'Nearby Sharing.'[148]
The Games Explorer, first seen in Windows Vista, has been removed. Launching the command 'shell:games' will prompt an error.[149]
Language control in the Control Panel has been removed and moved to the Settings app.[150]
By default, Windows 10 no longer automatically backs up Windows Registry in the
RegBack folder. Microsoft recommends using System Restore instead.[151][152]
Features removed in version 1809[edit]
The Hologram app has been replaced by the Mixed Reality Viewer.[153]
Features removed in version 1903[edit]
The sync feature of the desktop version of the Microsoft Messaging has been removed.[154]
Editions and pricing[edit]
Windows 10 is available in five main editions for personal computing devices, of which the Home and Pro versions are sold at retail in most countries, and as pre-loaded software on new computers. Home is aimed at home users, while Pro is aimed at small businesses. Each edition of Windows10 includes all of the capabilities and features of the edition below it, and add additional features oriented towards their market segments; for example, Pro adds additional networking and security features such as BitLocker, Device Guard, Windows Update for Business, and the ability to join a domain. The remaining editions, Enterprise and Education, contain additional features aimed towards business environments, and are only available through volume licensing.[155][156]
As part of Microsoft's unification strategies, Windows products that are based on Windows 10's common platform but meant for specialized platforms are marketed as editions of the operating system, rather than as separate product lines. An updated version of Microsoft's Windows Phone operating system for smartphones, and also tablets, was branded as Windows 10 Mobile.[157] Editions of Enterprise and Mobile will also be produced for embedded systems, along with Windows 10 IoT Core, which is designed specifically for use in small footprint, low-cost devices and Internet of Things (IoT) scenarios and is similar to Windows Embedded.[155][156]
On May 2, 2017, Microsoft unveiled Windows 10 S (referred to in leaks as Windows 10 Cloud), a feature-limited version of Windows 10 which was designed primarily for devices in the education market (competing, in particular, with Chrome OS netbooks), such as the Surface Laptop that Microsoft also unveiled at this time. The OS restricts software installation to applications obtained from Microsoft Store; the device may be upgraded to Windows 10 Pro for a fee to enable unrestricted software installation. As a time-limited promotion, Microsoft stated that this upgrade would be free on the Surface Laptop until March 31, 2018.[158] Windows 10 S also contains a faster initial setup and login process, and allows devices to be provisioned using a USB drive with the Windows Intune for Education platform.[159][160][161][162][163] In March 2018, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 S would be deprecated due to market confusion, and would be replaced by 'S Mode', an OEM option wherein Windows defaults to only allowing applications to be installed from Microsoft Store, but does not require payment in order to disable these restrictions.[164][165]
Preview releases[edit]
A public beta program for Windows10 known as the Windows Insider Program began with the first publicly available preview release on October 1, 2014. Insider preview builds are aimed towards enthusiasts and enterprise users for the testing and evaluation of updates and new features.[166] Users of the Windows Insider program receive occasional updates to newer preview builds of the operating system and will continue to be able to evaluate preview releases after general availability (GA) in July 2015—this is in contrast to previous Windows beta programs, where public preview builds were released less frequently and only during the months preceding GA.[38][40][167][168][169] Windows Insider builds continued being released after the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows10.[170][171]
Public release[edit]
Microsoft promoted that Windows 10 would become generally available (GA) on July 29, 2015. In comparison to previous Windows releases, which had a longer turnover between the release to manufacturing (RTM) and general release to allow for testing by vendors (and in some cases, the development of 'upgrade kits' to prepare systems for installation of the new version), an HP Inc. executive explained that because it knew Microsoft targeted the operating system for a release in 2015, the company was able to optimize its then-current and upcoming products for Windows 10 in advance of its release, negating the need for such a milestone.[172][better source needed]
The general availability build of Windows10, numbered 10240, was first released on July 15, 2015 to Windows Insider channels for pre-launch testing prior to its formal release.[173][174] Although a Microsoft official said that there would be no specific RTM build of Windows 10, 10240 was described as an RTM build by media outlets because it was released to all Windows Insider members at once (rather than to users on the 'Fast ring' first), it no longer carried pre-release branding and desktop watermark text, and because its build number had mathematical connections to the number10 in reference to the operating system's naming.[175][176][177][178][179][180] The Enterprise edition was released to volume licensing on August 1, 2015.[181]
Users are able to in-place upgrade through the 'Get Windows10' application (GWX) and Windows Update,[182] or the 'Media Creation Tool', which is functionally identical to the Windows 8 online installer, and can also be used to generate an ISO image or USB install media.[183] In-place upgrades are supported from most editions of Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 and Windows8.1 with Update 1, while users with Windows8 must first upgrade to Windows8.1. Changing between architectures (e.g., upgrading from 32-bit edition to a 64-bit editions) via in-place upgrades is not supported; a clean install is required.[184][185] In-place upgrades may be rolled back to the device's previous version of Windows, provided that 30days have not passed since installation, and backup files were not removed using Disk Cleanup.[186]
Windows 10 was available in 190countries and 111 languages upon its launch, and as part of efforts to 're-engage' with users in China, Microsoft also announced that it would partner with Qihoo and Tencent to help promote and distribute Windows10 in China, and that Chinese PC maker Lenovo would provide assistance at its service centers and retail outlets for helping users upgrade to Windows10.[187][188][189] At retail, Windows 10 is priced similarly to editions of Windows 8.1, with U.S. prices set at $119 and $199 for Windows 10Home and Pro respectively. A Windows 10 Pro Pack license allows upgrades from Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro.[190][191] Retail copies ship on USB flash drive media or DVD-ROM media.[192] New devices shipping with Windows10 were also released during the operating system's launch window.[193]
Windows RT devices cannot be upgraded to Windows10.[185][194]
Free upgrade offer[edit]
During its first year of availability (ended on July 29, 2016),[195] upgrade licenses for Windows10 could be obtained at no charge for devices with a genuine license for an eligible edition of Windows7 or8.1.[191][196][197]
This offer did not apply to Enterprise editions, as customers under an active Software Assurance (SA)contract with upgrade rights are entitled to obtain Windows 10 Enterprise under their existing terms. All users running non-genuine copies of Windows, and those without an existing Windows7 or8 license, were ineligible for this promotion; although upgrades from a non-genuine version were possible, they result in a non-genuine copy of10.[170][187][197][198][199]
On the general availability build of Windows10 Version 1507, to activate and generate the 'digital entitlement' for Windows10, the operating system must have first been installed as an in-place upgrade. During the free upgrade, a genuineticket.xml file is created in the background and the system's motherboard details are registered with a Microsoft Product Activation server. Once installed, the operating system can be reinstalled on that particular system via normal means without a product key, and the system's license will automatically be detected via online activation - in essence, the Microsoft Product Activation Server will remember the system's motherboard and give it the green light for product re-activation.[184][200][201] Due to installation issues with Upgrade Only installs, in November 2015, Windows 10 Version 1511 was released with additional activation mechanisms. This build treated Windows7 and Windows8/8.1 product keys as Windows10 Product Keys, meaning they could be entered during installation to activate the free license, without the need to upgrade first to 'activate' the hardware with Microsoft's activation servers.[202] For major Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10 OEM Product Keys are embedded in the firmware of the motherboard and if the correct edition of Windows 10 is present on the installation media, they are automatically inputted during installation. Since the release of Windows 10 version 1709, Microsoft decided to release multi-edition installation media, to alleviate installation and product activation issues users experienced due to accidentally installing the wrong Edition of Windows 10. Despite the 1-year free upgrade offer having long expired, all activation mechanisms involving Windows 7 and Windows 8 keys still work with all subsequent builds of Windows 10, even Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1 product keys that have never been used for a previous Windows 10 installation.
The Windows Insider Preview version of Windows10 automatically updated itself to the generally released version as part of the version progression and continues to be updated to new beta builds, as it had throughout the testing process. Microsoft explicitly stated that Windows Insider was not a valid upgrade path for those running a version of Windows that is ineligible for the upgrade offer; although, if it was not installed with a license carried over from an in-place upgrade to 10 Insider Preview from Windows7 or8, the Insider Preview does remain activated as long as the user does not exit the Windows Insider program.[170][171]
The offer was promoted and delivered via the 'Get Windows10' application ('GWX'), which was automatically installed via Windows Update ahead of Windows 10's release, and activated on systems deemed eligible for the upgrade offer. Via a notification area icon, users could access an application that advertised Windows10 and the free upgrade offer, check device compatibility, and 'reserve' an automatic download of the operating system upon its release.[203][204] On July 28, a pre-download process began in which Windows10 installation files were downloaded to some computers that had reserved it. Microsoft said that those who reserved Windows10 would be able to install it through GWX in a phased rollout process. The operating system could alternatively be downloaded at any time using a separate 'Media Creation Tool' setup program (similar to Windows8's setup program), that allows for the creation of DVD or USB installation media.[183][193][205][206]
Microsoft announced in May 2016 that the free upgrade offer would be extended to users of assistive technologies; however, Microsoft did not implement any means of certifying eligibility for this offer, which some outlets thereby promoted as being a loophole to fraudulently obtain a free Windows 10 upgrade. Microsoft said that the loophole is not intended to be used in this manner.[207][208][209] In November 2017, Microsoft stated that this program would end December 31, 2017.[210]
Licensing[edit]
During upgrades, Windows10 licenses are not tied directly to a product key. Instead, the license status of the system's current installation of Windows is migrated, and a 'Digital license' (also known as 'Digital entitlement' in version 1511 or earlier) is generated during the activation process, which is bound to the hardware information collected during the process. If Windows10 is reinstalled cleanly and there have not been any significant hardware changes since installation (such as a motherboard change), the online activation process will automatically recognize the system's digital entitlement if no product key is entered during installations. However, unique product keys are still distributed within retail copies of Windows10. As with previous non-volume-licensed versions of Windows, significant hardware changes will invalidate the digital entitlement, and require Windows to be re-activated.[184][200]
Updates and support[edit]
Unlike previous versions of Windows, Windows Update does not allow the selective installation of updates, and all updates (including patches, feature updates, and driver software) are downloaded and installed automatically. Users can only choose whether their system will reboot automatically to install updates when the system is inactive, or be notified to schedule a reboot.[211][212] If a wireless network is designated as 'Metered'—a function which automatically reduces the operating system's background network activity to conserve limits on Internet usage, most updates are not downloaded until the device is connected to a non-metered network. Redstone 2 allows wired (Ethernet) networks to be designated as metered, but Windows may still download certain updates while connected to a metered network.[142][213] Updates can cause compatibility or other problems; a Microsoft troubleshooter program allows bad updates to be uninstalled.[214][215]
Windows Update can also use a peer to peer system for distributing updates; by default, users' bandwidth is used to distribute previously downloaded updates to other users, in combination with Microsoft servers. Users can instead choose to only use peer-to-peer updates within their local area network.[216]
The original RTM release of Windows10 ('Windows10, released in July 2015') receives mainstream support for five years after its original release, followed by five years of extended support, but this is subject to conditions. Microsoft's support lifecycle policy for the operating system notes that 'Updates are cumulative, with each update built upon all of the updates that preceded it', that 'a device needs to install the latest update to remain supported', and that a device's ability to receive future updates will depend on hardware compatibility, driver availability, and whether the device is within the OEM's 'support period'—a new aspect not accounted for in lifecycle policies for previous versions.[217][197][218][219] This policy was first invoked in 2017 to block Intel Clover Trail devices from receiving the Creators Update, as Microsoft asserts that future updates 'require additional hardware support to provide the best possible experience', and that Intel no longer provided support or drivers for the platform. Microsoft stated that these devices would no longer receive feature updates, but would still receive security updates through January 2023.[220]
Feature updates[edit]
Windows 10 is often described by Microsoft as being a 'service', as it receives regular feature updates that contain new features and other updates and fixes.[197][221][222][223] In April 2017, Microsoft stated that in the future, these updates would be released twice a year every March and September.[224]
The pace at which feature updates are received by devices is dependent on which release channel is used. The default branch for all users of Windows10 Home and Pro is 'Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted)' (formerly 'Current Branch', or 'CB'),[223] which receives stable builds after they are publicly released by Microsoft. Each build of Windows 10 is supported for 18 months after its original release.[223] In enterprise environments, Microsoft officially intends that this branch is used for 'targeted' deployments of newly-released stable versions so that they can be evaluated and tested on a limited number of devices before a wider deployment. Once a stable build is certified by Microsoft and its partners as being suitable for broad deployment, the build is then released on the 'Semi-Annual Channel' (formerly 'Current Branch for Business', or 'CBB'), which is supported by the Pro and Enterprise editions of Windows 10.[223][212][225] Semi-Annual Channel receives stable builds on a four-month delay from their release on the Targeted channel,[223] Administrators can also use the 'Windows Update for Business' system, as well as existing tools such as WSUS and System Center Configuration Manager, to organize structured deployments of feature updates across their networks.[223][212]
The Windows Insider branches receive unstable builds as they are released; it is divided into two channels, 'Fast' (which receives new builds immediately after their release), and 'Slow' (whose releases are slightly delayed from their 'Fast' release).[223]
Enterprise licensees may use the Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC (formerly LTSB) edition, where 'LTSC' stands for 'long-term servicing channel', which only receive quality of life updates (i.e. security patches), and has a full, 10-year support lifecycle for each build.[223][225] This edition is designed for 'special-purpose devices' that perform a fixed function (such as automated teller machines and medical equipment). For this reason, it excludes Cortana, Microsoft Store, and all bundled Universal Windows Platform apps (including but not limited to Microsoft Edge, hence these builds ship only with Internet Explorer as browser).[226][227][223][197][228][229] Microsoft director Stella Chernyak explained that 'we have businesses [that] may have mission-critical environments where we respect the fact they want to test and stabilize the environment for a long time.'[230] Three LTSC builds have been released, correlating with the 1507, 1607, and 1809 versions of Windows 10, respectively.[231][232]
Mainstream builds of Windows 10 are labeled 'YYMM', with YY representing the two-digit year and MM representing the month of release. For example, version 1809 was released in September (the ninth month) of 2018.
In July 2017, Microsoft announced changes in the terminology for Windows branches, as part of its effort to unify the update cadence with that of Office 365 ProPlus and Windows Server 2016.[233][223] The branch system now defines two paces of upgrade deployment in enterprise environments, 'targeted' initial deployment of a new version on selected systems immediately after its stable release for final testing, and 'broad' deployment afterwards. Hence, 'Current Branch' is now known as 'Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted)', and 'Current Branch for Business' for broad deployment is now referred to as 'Semi-Annual Channel'.[234][223]
In February 2019, Microsoft announced changes again in delivering updates in beginning the next feature update: a single SAC will be released and SAC-T will be retired, and users are no longer able to switch to different channels. Instead, these updates can be deferred from 30, 60 or 90 days, or depending how the device was configured to deferred the updates.[235] In April 2019, it was announced that, in addition, feature updates will no longer be automatically pushed to users.[236]
Version 1511 (November Update)[edit]
The second stable build of Windows10 is called version 1511. Its build number is 10586. It was codenamed 'Threshold 2' (TH2) during development. This version is installed by the November Update, which began to be distributed via Windows Update on November 12, 2015. It contains various improvements to the operating system, its user interface, bundled services, as well as the introduction of Skype-based universal messaging apps, and the Windows Store for Business and Windows Update for Business features.[240][241][242][243]
On November 21, 2015, the November Update was temporarily pulled from public distribution.[244][245] The upgrade was re-instated on November 24, 2015, with Microsoft stating that the removal was due to a bug that caused privacy and data collection settings to be reset to defaults when installing the upgrade.[246]
Version 1607 (Anniversary Update)[edit]
The third stable build of Windows 10 is called version 1607. It was codenamed 'Redstone 1' (RS1) during development. This version is installed by the Anniversary Update, which was released on August 2, 2016, a little over one year after the first stable release of Windows 10.[247][248][249][250] Codename 'Redstone' was originally thought to have been set aside for two feature updates. While both were originally to be released in 2016, the second was moved into 2017 so that it would be released in concert with that year's wave of Microsoft first-party devices.[251][252][248]
The Anniversary Update introduces new features such as the Windows Ink platform, which eases the ability to add stylus input support to Universal Windows Platform apps and provides a new 'Ink Workspace' area with links to pen-oriented apps and features,[253][248] enhancements to Cortana's proactive functionality,[254] a dark user interface theme mode, a new version of Skype designed to work with the Universal Windows Platform, improvements to Universal Windows Platform intended for video games,[247] and offline scanning using Windows Defender.[255] Redstone also supports Windows Subsystem for Linux, a new component that provides an environment for running Linux-compatible binary software in an Ubuntu-based user mode environment.[256]
On new installations of Windows 10 on systems with secure boot enabled, all kernel mode drivers issued after July 29, 2015, must be digitally signed with an Extended Validation Certificate issued by Microsoft.[257]
This version is the basis for 'LTSB 2016', the first upgrade to the LTSB since Windows 10's release. The first LTSB release, based on RTM (version 1507), has been retroactively named 'LTSB 2015'.
Version 1703 (Creators Update)[edit]
The fourth stable build of Windows 10 is called version 1703. It was codenamed 'Redstone 2' (RS2) during development. This version is installed by the Creators Update, which Microsoft announced on October 26, 2016.[258][259] Version 1703 was released on April 11, 2017 for general availability,[260][261] and on April 5, 2017 for manual installation via Windows 10 Upgrade Assistant and Media Creation Tool tools.[262] This update primarily focuses on content creation, productivity, and gaming features—with a particular focus on virtual and augmented reality (including HoloLens and virtual reality headsets) and on aiding the generation of three-dimensional content.
It supports a new virtual reality workspace designed for use with headsets; Microsoft announced that several OEMs planned to release VR headsets designed for use with the Creators Update.[261][260][263]
Controls for the Game Bar and Game DVR feature have moved to the Settings app, while a new 'Game Mode' option allows resources to be prioritized towards games.[264] Integration with Microsoft acquisition Mixer (formerly Beam)[265] was added for live streaming.[264] The themes manager moved to Settings app, and custom accent colors are now possible.[264] The new app Paint 3D allows users to produce artwork using 3D models; the app is designed to make 3D creation more accessible to mainstream users.[266]
Windows 10's privacy settings have more detailed explanations of data that the operating system may collect. Additionally, the 'enhanced' level of telemetry collection was removed.[264] Windows Update notifications may now be 'snoozed' for a period of time, the 'active hours' during which Windows will not try to install updates may now extend up to 18 hours in length, and updates may be paused for up to seven days.[264] Windows Defender has been replaced by the universal app Windows Defender Security Center.[264] Devices may optionally be configured to prevent use of software from outside of Microsoft Store, or warn before installation of apps from outside of Microsoft Store.[165] 'Dynamic Lock' allows a device to automatically lock if it is outside of the proximity of a designated Bluetooth device, such as a smartphone.[267] A 'Night Light' feature was added, which allows the user to change the color temperature of the display to the red part of the spectrum at specific times of day (similarly to the third-party software f.lux).[268]
Version 1709 (Fall Creators Update)[edit]
The fifth stable build of Windows 10 is called version 1709. It was codenamed 'Redstone 3' (RS3) during development. This version is installed by the Fall Creators Update, which was released on October 17, 2017.[269][270][271] Version 1709 introduces a new feature known as 'My People', where shortcuts to 'important' contacts can be displayed on the taskbar. Notifications involving these contacts appear above their respective pictures, and users can communicate with the contact via either Skype, e-mail, or text messaging (integrating with Android and Windows 10 Mobile devices). Support for additional services, including Xbox, Skype for Business, and third-party integration, are to be added in the future. Files can also be dragged directly to the contact's picture to share them.[272] My People was originally announced for Creators Update, but was ultimately held over to the next release,[273][274] and made its first public appearance in Build 16184 in late April 2017.[270] A new 'Files-on-Demand' feature for OneDrive serves as a partial replacement for the previous 'placeholders' function.[275]
It also introduces a new security feature known as 'controlled folder access', which can restrict the applications allowed to access specific folders. This feature is designed mainly to defend against file-encrypting ransomware.[276]
Version 1803 (April 2018 Update)[edit]
The sixth stable build of Windows 10 is called version 1803. It was codenamed 'Redstone 4' (RS4) during development. This version is installed by the April 2018 Update, which was released as a manual download on April 30, 2018, with a broad rollout coming on May 8, 2018.[277][278] This update was originally meant to be released on April 10 but was delayed due to a bug which could 'increase chances of a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)'.[279]
The most significant feature of this build is Timeline, which is displayed within Task View. It allows users to view a list of recently-used documents and websites from supported applications ('activities'). When users consent to Microsoft data collection via Microsoft Graph, activities can also be synchronized from supported Android and iOS devices.[280][281][282][275]
Version 1809 (October 2018 Update)[edit]
The seventh stable build of Windows 10 is called version 1809. It was codenamed 'Redstone 5' (RS5) during development. This version is installed by the October 2018 Update, which was released on October 2, 2018.[283] Highlighted features on this build include updates to the clipboard function (including support for clipboard history and syncing with other devices), SwiftKeyvirtual keyboard, Snip & Sketch, and File Explorer supporting the dark color scheme mode.[284]
On October 6, 2018, the build was pulled by Microsoft following isolated reports of the update process deleting files from user directories.[285] It was re-released to Windows Insider channel on October 9, with Microsoft citing a bug in OneDrive's Known Folder Redirection function as the culprit.[286][287]
Microsoft resumed the rollout of 1809 on November 13, 2018 for a small percentage of users.[288][289]
Version 1903 (May 2019 Update)[edit]
The eighth stable build of Windows 10, version 1903, was released for general availability on May 21, 2019 after being on the Insider Release Preview branch since April 8, 2019. Due to new practices introduced after the problems affecting the 1809 update, Microsoft is using an intentionally slower Windows Update rollout process.[290][291][292]
New features in the update include a redesigned search tool—separated from Cortana and oriented towards textual queries, a new 'Light' theme (set as default on Windows 10 Home) using a white-colored taskbar with dark icons, the addition of symbols and kaomoji to the emoji input menu, the ability to 'pause' system updates, automated 'Recommended troubleshooting', integration with Google Chrome on Timeline via an extension, support for SMS-based authentication on accounts linked to Microsoft accounts, and the ability to run Windows desktop applications within the Windows Mixed Reality environment (previously restricted to universal apps and SteamVR only). A new feature on Pro and Enterprise known as Windows Sandbox allows users to run applications within a secured Hyper-V environment.[293][294]
Features in development[edit]
In May 2017, Microsoft unveiled Fluent Design System (previously codenamed 'Project Neon'), a revamp of Microsoft Design Language 2 that will include guidelines for the designs and interactions used within software designed for all Windows 10 devices and platforms. The new design language will include the more prominent use of motion, depth, and translucency effects. Microsoft stated that the implementation of this design language would be performed over time, and it had already started to implement elements of it in Creators Update and Fall Creators Update.[295]
On December 7, 2016, Microsoft announced that as part of a partnership with Qualcomm, it planned to introduce support for running Win32 software on ARM architecture with a 32-bit x86 processor emulator, in 2017. Terry Myerson stated that this move would enable the production of Qualcomm Snapdragon-based Windows devices with cellular connectivity and improved power efficiency over Intel-compatible devices, and still capable of running the majority of existing Windows software (unlike the previous Windows RT, which was restricted to Windows Store apps). Microsoft is initially targeting this project towards laptops.[296] Microsoft launched the branding Always Connected PCs in December 2017 to market Windows 10 devices with cellular connectivity, which included two ARM-based 2-in-1 laptops from Asus and HP featuring the Snapdragon 835 system-on-chip, and the announcement of a partnership between AMD and Qualcomm to integrate its Snapdragon X16 gigabit LTE modem with AMD's Ryzen Mobile platform.[297][298]
System requirements[edit]
The basic hardware requirements to install Windows 10 are the same as for Windows 8.1 and Windows 8, and only slightly higher than Windows 7. The 64-bit versions require a CPU that supports certain instructions.[301] Devices with low storage capacity must provide a USB flash drive or SD card with sufficient storage for temporary files during upgrades.[302]
Some pre-built devices may be described as 'certified' by Microsoft. Certified tablets must include Power, Volume up, and Volume down keys; ⊞ Win and Rotation lock keys are no longer required.[303]
As with Windows 8, all certified devices must ship with UEFI Secure Boot enabled by default. Unlike Windows 8, OEMs are no longer required to make Secure Boot settings user-configurable, meaning that devices may optionally be locked to run only Microsoft-signed operating systems.[304] A supported infrared-illuminated camera is required for Windows Hello face authentication, and a supported fingerprint reader is required for Windows Hello fingerprint authentication.[196] Device Guard requires a UEFI system with no third-party certificates loaded, and CPU virtualization extensions (including SLAT and IOMMU) enabled in firmware.
Beginning with Intel Kaby Lake and AMD Bristol Ridge, Windows 10 is the only version of Windows that Microsoft will officially support on newer CPU microarchitectures.[305][306] Terry Myerson stated that Microsoft did not want to make further investments in optimizing older versions of Windows and associated software for newer generations of processors.[307][308] These policies were criticized by the media, who especially noted that Microsoft was refusing to support newer hardware (particularly Intel's Skylake CPUs, which was also originally targeted by the new policy with a premature end of support that was ultimately retracted)[309][310] on Windows 8.1, a version of Windows that was still in mainstream support until January 2018.[311][312] In addition, an enthusiast-created modification was released that disabled the check and allowed Windows 8.1 and earlier to continue to work on the platform.[313]
Windows 10 Creators Update and later does not support Intel Clover Trail system-on-chips, per Microsoft's stated policy of only providing updates for devices during their OEM support period.[220][143]
As of the May 2019 update, the minimum amount of disk space has been increased to 32 GB. In addition, on new installations, Windows permanently reserves up to 7 GB of disk space in order to ensure proper installation of future feature updates.[314][315]
Reception[edit]
Critics characterized the initial release of Windows 10 in July 2015 as being rushed, citing the incomplete state of some of the operating system's bundled software (such as the Edge web browser), as well as the stability of the operating system itself on launch.[316][317][318] However, TechRadar felt that Windows10 would be 'the new Windows7', citing the operating system's more familiar user interface, improvements to bundled apps, performance improvements, a 'rock solid' search system, and the Settings app being more full-featured than its equivalents on8 and8.1. The Microsoft Edge web browser was praised for its performance, although it was not in a feature-complete state at launch. While considering them a 'great idea in principle', concerns were shown for Microsoft's focus on the universal app ecosystem, noting that
It's by no means certain that developers are going to flock to Windows10 from iOS and Android simply because they can convert their apps easily. It may well become a no-brainer for them, but at the moment a conscious decision is still required.[317]
Engadget was similarly positive, noting that the upgrade process was painless and that Windows10's user interface had balanced aspects of Windows8 with those of previous versions with a more mature aesthetic. Cortana's always-on voice detection was considered to be its 'true strength', also citing its query capabilities and personalization features, but noting that it was not as pre-emptive as Google Now. Windows10's stock applications were praised for being improved over their Windows 8 counterparts, and for supporting windowed modes. The Xbox app was also praised for its Xbox One streaming functionality, although recommending its use over a wired network due to inconsistent quality over Wi-Fi. In conclusion, it was argued that 'Windows10 delivers the most refined desktop experience ever from Microsoft, and yet it's so much more than that. It's also a decent tablet OS, and it's ready for a world filled with hybrid devices. And, barring another baffling screwup, it looks like a significant step forward for mobile. Heck, it makes the Xbox One a more useful machine.'[319]
Ars Technica panned the new Tablet mode interface for removing the charms and app switching, making the Start button harder to use by requiring users to reach for the button on the bottom-left rather than at the center of the screen when swiping with a thumb, and for making application switching less instantaneous through the use of Task View. Microsoft Edge was praised for being 'tremendously promising', and 'a much better browser than Internet Explorer ever was', but criticized it for its lack of functionality on-launch. In conclusion, contrasting Windows8 as being a 'reliable' platform albeit consisting of unfinished concepts, Windows10 was considered 'the best Windows yet' and was praised for having a better overall concept in its ability to be 'comfortable and effective' across a wide array of form factors, but that it was buggier than previous versions of Windows were on-launch.[316]ExtremeTech felt that Windows10 restricted the choices of users, citing its more opaque setting menus, forcing users to give up bandwidth for the peer-to-peer distribution of updates, and for taking away user control of specific functions, such as updates, explaining that 'it feels, once again, as if Microsoft has taken the seed of a good idea, like providing users with security updates automatically, and shoved the throttle to maximum.'[320]
Critics have noted that Windows10 heavily emphasizes freemium services, and contains various advertising facilities. Some outlets have considered these to be a hidden 'cost' of the free upgrade offer.[321][322][323] Examples of these have included microtransactions in bundled games such as Microsoft Solitaire Collection,[324][321][325][326] default settings that display promotions of 'suggested' apps in Start menu and 'tips' on the lock screen that may contain advertising,[322][323] ads displayed in File Explorer for Office 365 subscriptions on Creators' Update,[323] and various advertising notifications displayed by default which promote Microsoft Edge when it is not set as default web browser (including in a September 2018 build, nag pop-ups displayed to interrupt the installation process of competitors).[327][328]
Market share and sales[edit]
Up to August 2016, Windows 10 usage was increasing, with it then plateauing,[330] while eventually in 2018, it became more popular than Windows 7[331][332] (though in 2019 Windows 7 is still more used in Africa and countries elsewhere, e.g in Asia). As of March 2019, the operating system is running on more than 800 million devices[333]
Twenty-four hours after it was released, Microsoft announced that more than 14million devices were running Windows10.[334] On August 26, Microsoft said more than 75million devices were running Windows10, in 192countries, and on more than 90,000 unique PC or tablet models.[335] According to Terry Myerson, there were more than 110million devices running Windows10 as of October 6, 2015.[336] On January 4, 2016, Microsoft reported that Windows10 had been activated on more than 200million devices since the operating system's launch in July 2015.[337][338]
According to StatCounter, Windows 10 overtook Windows 8.1 in December 2015.[339][340]Iceland was the first country where Windows 10 was ranked first (not only on the desktop, but across all platforms),[341] with several larger European countries following. For one week, late in November 2016, Windows 10 overtook first rank from Windows 7 in the United States, before losing it again.[342] By February 2017, Windows 10 was losing market share to Windows 7.[343]
In middle of January 2018, Windows 10 had a slightly higher global market share than Windows 7,[331] with it noticeably more popular on weekends,[344] while popularity varies widely by region, e.g. Windows 10 is still behind in Africa[345] and far ahead in some other regions e.g. Oceania.[346]
Update system changes[edit]
Windows 10 Home is permanently set to download all updates automatically, including cumulative updates, security patches, and drivers, and users cannot individually select updates to install or not.[118] Microsoft offers a diagnostic tool that can be used to hide updates and prevent them from being reinstalled, but only after they had been already installed, then uninstalled without rebooting the system.[347][348] Tom Warren of The Verge felt that, given web browsers such as Google Chrome had already adopted such an automatic update system, such a requirement would help to keep all Windows10 devices secure, and felt that 'if you're used to family members calling you for technical support because they've failed to upgrade to the latest Windows service pack or some malware disabled Windows Update then those days will hopefully be over.'[349]
Concerns were raised that due to these changes, users would be unable to skip the automatic installation of updates that are faulty or cause issues with certain system configurations—although build upgrades will also be subject to public beta testing via Windows Insider program.[347][349] There were also concerns that the forced installation of driver updates through Windows Update, where they were previously designated as 'optional', could cause conflicts with drivers that were installed independently of Windows Update. An example of such a situation occurred just prior to the general release of the operating system, when an Nvidiagraphics card driver that was automatically pushed to Windows10 users via Windows Update caused issues that prevented the use of certain functions, or prevented their system from booting at all.[347]
Criticism was also directed towards Microsoft's decision to no longer provide specific details on the contents of cumulative updates for Windows 10.[134] On February 9, 2016, Microsoft retracted this decision and began to provide release notes for cumulative updates on the Windows website.[350]
Some users reported that during the installation of the November upgrade, some applications (particularly utility programs such as CPU-Z and Speccy) were automatically uninstalled during the upgrade process, and some default programs were reset to Microsoft-specified defaults (such as Photos app, and Microsoft Edge for PDF viewing), both without warning.[351][352]
Further issues were discovered upon the launch of the Anniversary Update ('Redstone'), including a bug that caused some devices to freeze (but addressed by cumulative update KB3176938, released on August 31, 2016),[353][354] and that fundamental changes to how Windows handles webcams had caused many to stop working.[355]
In June 2017, a Redstone 3 Insider build (which is known as rs_IoT on Mobile) was accidentally released to Insider as well as non-Insider users on all Windows 10 PCs and Mobile, but the update was retracted, with Microsoft apologizing and releasing a note on their Windows Insider Program blog describing how to prevent the build from being installed on their device.[356] According to Dona Sarkar, 'because an inadvertent deployment to the engineering system that controls which builds/which rings to push out to insiders.'[357]
A Gartner analyst felt that Windows 10 Pro was becoming increasingly inappropriate for use in enterprise environments due to support policy changes by Microsoft, including consumer-oriented upgrade lifecycle length, and only offering extended support for individual builds to Enterprise and Education editions of Windows 10.[358]
Critics have acknowledged that Microsoft's update and testing practices had been affecting the overall quality of Windows 10. In particular, it was pointed out that Microsoft's internal testing departments had been prominently affected by a major round of layoffs undertaken by the company in 2014. Microsoft relies primarily on user testing and bug reports via the Windows Insider program (which may not always be of sufficient quality to identify a bug), as well as correspondence with OEMs and other stakeholders. In the wake of the known folder redirection data loss bug in the version 1809, it was pointed out that bug reports describing the issue had been present on the Feedback Hub app for several months prior to the public release. Following the incident, Microsoft updated Feedback Hub so that users may specify the severity of a particular bug report. When announcing the resumption of 1809's rollout, Microsoft stated that it planned to be more transparent in its handling of update quality in the future, through a series of blog posts that will detail its testing process and the planned development of a 'dashboard' that will indicate the rollout progress of future updates.[359][360][361][361][289][362]
Distribution practices[edit]
Microsoft was criticized for the tactics that it used to promote its free upgrade campaign for Windows 10, including adware-like behaviours,[363] using deceptive user interfaces to coax users into installing the operating system,[15][16][17][18] downloading installation files without user consent,[364][363] and making it difficult for users to suppress the advertising and notifications if they did not wish to upgrade to 10.[364][363][365] The upgrade offer was marketed and initiated using the 'Get Windows 10' (GWX) application, which was first downloaded and installed via Windows Update in March 2015.[15][18]Registry keys and group policies could be used to partially disable the GWX mechanism, but the installation of patches to the GWX software via Windows Update could reset these keys back to defaults, and thus reactivate the software.[364][363][365][366][365][16] Third-party programs were also created to assist users in applying measures to disable GWX.[367]
In September 2015, it was reported that Microsoft was triggering automatic downloads of the Windows 10 installation files on all compatible Windows 7 or 8.1 computers configured to automatically download and install updates, regardless of whether or not they had specifically requested the upgrade. Microsoft officially confirmed the change, claiming it was 'an industry practice that reduces the time for installation and ensures device readiness.' This move was criticized by users who have data caps or devices with low storage capacity, as resources were consumed by the automatic downloads of up to 6 GB of data. Other critics argued that Microsoft should not have triggered any downloading of Windows 10 installation files without user consent.[363][364][368]
In October 2015, Windows 10 began to appear as an 'Optional' update in the Windows Update interface, but pre-selected for installation on some systems. A Microsoft spokesperson said that this was a mistake, and that the download would no longer be pre-selected by default.[17] However, on October 29, 2015, Microsoft announced that it planned to classify Windows 10 as a 'recommended' update in the Windows Update interface some time in 2016, which will cause an automatic download of installation files and a one-time prompt with a choice to install to appear.[369][370] In December 2015, it was reported that a new advertising dialog had begun to appear, only containing 'Upgrade now' and 'Upgrade tonight' buttons, and no obvious method to decline installation besides the close button.[16]
In March 2016, some users also alleged that their Windows 7 and 8.1 devices had automatically begun upgrading to 10 without their consent.[371] In June 2016, the GWX dialog's behavior changed to make closing the window imply a consent to a scheduled upgrade.[372][373] Despite this, an InfoWorld editor disputed the claims that upgrades had begun without any consent at all; testing showed that the upgrade to Windows 10 would only begin once the user accepts the end-user license agreement (EULA) presented by its installer, and that not doing so would eventually cause Windows Update to time out with an error, thus halting the installation attempt. It was concluded that these users may have unknowingly clicked the 'Accept' prompt without full knowledge that this would begin the upgrade.[374] In December 2016, Microsoft chief marketing officer Chris Capossela admitted that the company had 'gone too far', by using this tactic, stating that 'we know we want people to be running Windows 10 from a security perspective, but finding the right balance where you're not stepping over the line of being too aggressive is something we tried and for a lot of the year I think we got it right.'[375]
On January 21, 2016, Microsoft was sued in small claims court by a user whose computer, shortly after the release of the OS, had attempted to upgrade to Windows 10 without her consent. The upgrade failed, and her computer was left in a broken state thereafter, which disrupted the ability to run her travel agency. The court ruled in favor of the user and awarded her $10,000 in damages, but Microsoft appealed. However, in May 2016, Microsoft dropped the appeal and chose to pay the damages. Shortly after the suit was reported on by the Seattle Times, Microsoft confirmed that it was updating the GWX software once again to add more explicit options for opting out of a free Windows 10 upgrade;[376][377][373] the final notification was a full-screen pop-up window notifying users of the impending end of the free upgrade offer, and contained 'Remind me later', 'Do not notify me again' and 'Notify me three more times' options.[378]
In March 2019, Microsoft announced that it would display notifications on Windows 7 devices informing users of the upcoming end of extended support for the platform, and direct users to a website urging them to upgrade to Windows 10 or purchase new hardware. This dialog will be similar to the previous Windows 10 upgrade prompts, but not explicitly mention Windows 10.[379]
Privacy and data collection[edit]
Privacy advocates and other critics have expressed concern regarding Windows10's privacy policies and its collection and use of customer data.[380] Under the default 'Express' settings, Windows10 is configured to send various information to Microsoft and other parties, including the collection of user contacts, calendar data, and 'associated input data' to personalize 'speech, typing, and inking input', typing and inking data to improve recognition, allowing apps to use a unique 'advertisingID' for analytics and advertising personalization (functionality introduced by Windows 8.1)[381] and allow apps to request the user's location data and send this data to Microsoft and 'trusted partners' to improve location detection (Windows8 had similar settings, except that location data collection did not include 'trusted partners'[320]). Users can opt out from most of this data collection,[320][380] but telemetry data for error reporting and usage is also sent to Microsoft, and this cannot be disabled on non-Enterprise versions of Windows10.[320] Microsoft's privacy policy states, however, that 'Basic'-level telemetry data is anonymized and cannot be used to identify an individual user or device.[382] The use of Cortana also requires the collection of data 'such as Your PC location, data from your calendar, the apps you use, data from your emails and text messages, who you call, your contacts and how often you interact with them on Your PC' to personalize its functionality.[380][383]
Rock Paper Shotgun writer Alec Meer argued that Microsoft's intent for this data collection lacked transparency, stating that 'there is no world in which 45pages of policy documents and opt-out settings split across 13different settings screens and an external website constitutes 'real transparency'.'[380] Joel Hruska of ExtremeTech writes that 'The company that brought us the 'Scroogled' campaign now hoovers up your data in ways that would make Google jealous.'[320] However, it was also pointed out that the requirement for such vast usage of customer data had become a norm, citing the increased reliance on cloud computing and other forms of external processing, as well as similar data collection requirements for services on mobile devices such as Google Now and Siri.[380][383] In August 2015, Russian politician Nikolai Levichev called for Windows10 to be banned from use within the Russian government, as it sends user data to servers in the United States. The country had passed a federal law requiring all online services to store the data of Russian users on servers within the country by September 2016, or be blocked.[384][385][386] Writing for ZDNet, Ed Bott said that the lack of complaints by businesses about privacy in Windows10 indicated 'how utterly normal those privacy terms are in 2015.'[387] In a Computerworld editorial, Preston Gralla attempted[how?] to defend Microsoft by making the false claim[why?] that 'the kind of information Windows10 gathers is no different from what other operating systems gather. But Microsoft is held to a different standard than other companies'.[388]
The Microsoft Services agreement reads that the company's online services may automatically 'download software updates or configuration changes, including those that prevent you from accessing the Services, playing counterfeit games, or using unauthorized hardware peripheral devices.' Critics interpreted this statement as implying that Microsoft would scan for and delete unlicensed software installed on devices running Windows10.[389] However, others pointed out that this agreement was specifically for Microsoft online services such as Microsoft account, Office 365, Skype, as well as Xbox Live, and that the offending passage most likely referred to digital rights management on Xbox consoles and first-party games, and not plans to police pirated video games installed on Windows10 PCs.[389][390] Despite this, some torrent trackers announced plans to block Windows10 users, also arguing that the operating system could send information to anti-piracy groups that are affiliated with Microsoft.[391] Writing about these allegations, Ed Bott of ZDNet compared Microsoft's privacy policy to Apple's and Google's and concluded that he '[didn't] see anything that looks remotely like Big Brother.'[387] Columnist Kim Komando argued that 'Microsoft might in the future run scans and disable software or hardware it sees as a security threat,' consistent with the Windows10 update policy.[392]
See also[edit]References[edit]
External links[edit]
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Windows is pushing the boundaries of what's possible on a personal computer, with capabilities like touch input, a voice-based virtual assistant, face login, and mixed reality. The latest released version of Windows 10, called May 2019 Update (or version 1903) is largely a tightening and polishing update, without much in the way of goodies or new marquee features. The next semiannual release in the fall is expected to bring more exciting features. Lack of shiny new updates aside, the OS is already so full of cool features that I pity those who don't use it.
Some earlier feature adds still deserve attention, including Cloud Clipboard (a lifesaver if you do lots of copy-and-pasting), Timeline, Focus Assist, Game mode, Dark mode, Nearby Sharing, parental controls, and an updated News app. Your Phone is an app that syncs photos and SMS messages from Android phones. These join the voice-based digital assistant Cortana, Windows Hello face login, and the other Windows exclusives. Even with all its forward-looking features, however, the OS remains familiar to longtime Windows users.
What's New in Windows 10?
For those familiar with Windows 10, below is a quick rundown of the latest features in the May 2019 Update:
The previous Window 10 update, called the October 2018 update (or version 1809), added several more high profile features than the May 2019 Update. Here are the highlights:
Prior to that release, the April 2018 Update added major new features including Timeline, Focus Assist, Nearby Sharing, 3D modeling, and Cortana Smart Home Control. As with most updates, the May 2019 Update kills off some less-used features. Read 6 Things Microsoft Is Killing With the Windows 10 May 2019 Update for details.
Windows 10: A Success Story
With over 800 million installations (according to Microsoft), Windows 10 now claims over 56 percent of the Windows market (StatCounter), and Windows as a whole has 87 percent of the desktop OS market worldwide (NetMarketShare). By comparison, all versions of Apple's macOS account for less than 20 percent of U.S. computers and less than half that worldwide. Linux as a whole gets less than 2 percent, and Ubuntu and Chrome OS both sit below 1 percent, whether you look at StatCounter or NetMarketShare numbers.
The newest Windows still runs the vast majority of the millions of existing desktop programs, something competing desktop operating systems can't boast. Yes, that means it still uses the much-derided Registry to maintain configuration settings, but on today's fast hardware, that's no longer much of an issue. Microsoft now recommends against using any third-party registry-optimizing software for Windows 10.
How to Get Windows 10
If you're running Windows 10, getting the latest is a simple matter of running Windows Update, accessible from the Settings app. You should see the text 'Feature Update to Windows 10, version 1903.' For more detailed setup info, read How to Download the Windows 10 May 2019 Update. If you don't see the update in Settings > Update & Security, you can force the issue by heading to the Windows 10 Download page and running the update assistant app. If the update isn't ready for your PC, the Windows Update page of Settings now clearly tells you so.
Windows 10 May 2019 Update is a free upgrade for current Windows 10 PC owners. It's also preinstalled on all new Windows PCs, but if you're coming from Windows 7 or earlier and didn't take advantage of the entire year it was a free upgrade, you can get the software via download or on USB sticks for $139.99 list for Home and $199.99 for Pro. Your data and programs come along for the ride when you update from previous versions, though it's always a good idea to back up your data before an OS upgrade.
Starting with the May 2019 Update, Microsoft increases the minimum hard drive size requirement for Windows 10 to 32GB from 16GB for new installations—still hardly massive by today's hardware standards. The other system requirements remain surprisingly low: a 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM. The 64-bit version of Windows 10 increases the RAM requirement to 2GB. You'll also need a DirectX 9-capable graphics card and a display with at least 800-by-600 resolution.
Windows 10 is available to most users in just two editions: Home and Pro (with 32-bit and 64-bit options for each), but all of the major features appear in both versions. Pro adds business-y things like network domain joining, Hyper-V virtualization, group policy management, and BitLocker encryption. That last one may be of interest to security-conscious personal users, too.
There are, of course, other editions of Windows 10 for special use cases: The Enterprise version of Windows 10 is still an option for large organizations that want bulk licensing deals. Two Education versions target K-12 institutions: Windows 10 Pro Education and Windows 10 Education. And let's not forget the lightweight edition that powers Internet of Things devices and the Raspberry Pi: Windows 10 IoT Core.
Interface
Windows 10 presents almost no learning curve for longtime Windows users, while managing to incorporate many of the advances of Windows 8—faster startup, tablet capability, better notifications, and an app store. Its windowing prowess remains unmatched, letting you easily show the desktop and snap windows to the sides and corner quadrants of the screen.
The Start menu is a differentiator from both macOS and Ubuntu, which have no centralized place for the user to start working with apps, files, search, and settings. Chrome OS has a Launcher tool, but that's not as far-reaching as Windows' Start menu. Another differentiator is that programs have their own menus, rather than using the operating system menus along the top of the screen as macOS and Ubuntu do.
Fluent Design, Microsoft's new design language that uses translucency, blurring, and animation to give helpful visual cues, asserts itself more with each update. One fun Fluent effect is called Acrylic Material, which gives elements like menu bars a semi-transparent look and the appearance of depth when the mouse is over them. It now extends to the Start menu, Settings dialog, and Action Center.
New for the May 2019 Update are a true Light Mode, along with an updated, slicker desktop background logo image. Some icons have been modernized, as well. Notably, the Search box next to the start menu is no longer tied to Cortana with the AI's icon attached. Now tapping Cortana's circle icon starts the virtual assistant listening instantly.
Night Light is a favorite interface option of mine. This works similarly to Apple products' Night Shift, adjusting the colors displayed to reduce the blue part of the spectrum, which has been found to interfere with getting a good night's sleep. When you turn on Night Light in Settings, it's enabled from sunset to sunrise by default, but you can change it to hours you specify, or turn it on immediately. Apple Night Shift only offers the last two options. You can even adjust the warmth of the spectrum Night Light uses (see the nearby screenshot).
Another eye-saving feature is Windows 10's Dark theme, which changes built-in apps' presentation to a black background with white text. It's still not quite as all-encompassing as the dark mode in Apple macOS Mojave, but the Windows dark theme now applies to the frequently used File Explorer. Windows dark theme also takes effect in the Start menu, Taskbar, as well as 23 included apps. Oddly, Edge has its own separate setting for light and dark modes.
The Start menu shows the All Apps list without a second button press, and it also shows most used and newly installed apps. I appreciate that you can also set basic folder icons to appear, or not, as you choose. So, for example, you can have icons for File Explorer, Downloads, Documents, and so on appear right above the start button.
Another interface feature I've come to cherish is File Explorer's Quick Access section. This lets you easily find whatever file you were last working on regardless of the application you were using. So, if you edit an image and want to add it to another app, it's right at the top of the Quick Access list. You never have to remember where you just saved a file to find it quickly. One thing File Explorer lacks is tabbed windows, which both macOS and Linux have.
Unfortunately, design differences between the Settings App and Control Panel remain. For most system settings you use the Settings app, but for deep, technical system options, you go to the Control Panel. Though you can get to deeper settings like Device Manager and Disk Management by right-clicking the Start button, Control Panel's no longer an option there. Instead, you see it when you perform certain actions like trying to uninstall a legacy program. You can still open it by simply typing 'Control' in the Start menu search bar. At this point, most settings that most users will need are in the newer Settings app, but techies still see the old-design control panels.
Windows 10 Pro 2019 Iso Free Download
One feature that uses the older interface language, Disk Cleanup, is being replaced by Storage Sense in the new Settings interface. The new feature automatically removes temp files and downloaded installers. You can run it on-demand using the Clean Now button, have it run automatically when your storage gets low, or set it to run on a schedule.
Timeline
This feature takes over the Task View, adding the elements of time, showing your activities over the past 30 days. It could indeed save time if you've been working in Office 365 or browsing in Edge, but it's mostly for use with UWP and Microsoft apps at this point. A plus is that, if you using the Microsoft Launcher on your Android phone, you also see activity from that. (Timeline viewing on the iOS version of Edge is in beta.)
At first, I objected to the feature's combining with the Task View for multiple virtual displays, but have come to the conclusion that it's clearly designed and well implemented. You can see currently running tasks at the top, and the Timeline entries below that. You can even search for your earlier activity. Recently, Microsoft released a Chrome extension that adds activity from Google's browser to your Windows 10 Timeline. I've been using a Firefox extension that does the same thing for several months.
Cloud Clipboard
One of my favorite recent features in Windows 10 is the revamped Windows clipboard lets you access several previously copied items—a convenience that's long overdue on all computing platforms. You access the list of copied items using Windows Key-V instead of Ctrl-V. Syncing the cloud clipboard means that they're accessible on other PCs you're signed in to, and later this will extend to phones via the SwiftKey add-in keyboard. You turn on Cloud Clipboard in a new Settings option. Note that according to Microsoft, 'currently, the clipboard history supports plain text, HTML and images less than 1MB.' The Windows-V interface has been made more compact in the May 2019 Update, with the Pin option behind the (…) overflow menu.
New Screenshot Tools
Related to the clipboard are new screenshot capabilities. You can now hit Windows key-Shift-S to select a section of the screen that will be sent to the clipboard. Your selection can be a rectangle, a freeform shape, or the full screen. Thankfully, the May 2019 Update adds the ability to take a screenshot that exactly fits a window on-screen, too. When you snap a screenshot this way, a panel appears in the lower-right corner of the screen offering the option to mark up and crop the image.
The new Snip & Sketch tool lets you mark up and share your snipping—it even lets you clip a non-rectangular shape and draw circle sections with a protractor. You can crop screenshots, but there's unfortunately no aspect ration option in the crop tool—so you can't designate a square or standard widescreen (16-by-9) crop.
Another very useful screenshot feature ties in with OneDrive, which you can set to store images when you tap the PrintScreen key for full screen capture or Alt-PrintScreen for the window in focus. This saves you the steps of going from the clipboard to image file saving in some image editor, such as Paint.
The Mobile Connection
The Settings app includes a Phone section, which lets you integrate your Android or iOS device with your PC. The Continue on PC app lets any browser on iOS or Android open a webpage immediately on a Windows 10 PC, or to create a notification in the Action Center with the link. For tips on how to get started with this feature, read Sync Your Smartphone to Windows 10 With Continue on PC.
And that's just the start. Using the iOS or Android version of the Edge browser and the Cortana app provides even more integration. The next step, Your Phone, is the topic of my next section.
Your Phone App and Mobile
The Your Phone app lets you see and even drag-and-drop photos from your phone, and engage in SMS text messaging on a connected phone from the PC. You enable these by installing the Your Phone Companion app on the mobile. The catch is that this only works with Android, for now. Microsoft is working with Apple to try to get the same integration on iPhones, but I wouldn't hold my breath, given the tight grip Apple keeps on its platforms.
Next up is access to your Timeline from the phone. This is available in preview, which you can enable on the Play Store's entry for the Microsoft Launcher. Microsoft's goal with all this is to make your mobile devices smarter by tapping into its cloud services, using what the company calls the Microsoft Graph. This includes data from Office 365, LinkedIn, and that gathered by its Bing search service, which crawls the entire web.
Mobile-connected PCs are also an option, with new models powered by Qualcomm CPUs as the latest examples. For these, Windows includes Messaging and Mobile Plans apps.
More for Photos
The included Photos app is not only a decent photo editor, but it also edits videos and supports mixed reality objects. It's dressed in the slick Fluent Design System look, with a translucent window. It also has an AI-powered search function, which means you can type things like 'dog' or 'mountain' and see results containing those items in your photo collection.
Photos lets you import media from any device or folder, and can display raw camera files from popular formats like Canon's .CR2, Nikon's .NEF, and Sony's .ARW. (For the latest raw support, you need to install the Raw Image Extension, available in Windows' app store) You can organize your photos into albums, apply automatic photo editing fixes like red-eye correction, lighting, and color, as well as add Instagram-like filters. The app's interface uses slider bars for easy touch input, and lets you draw on photos and videos.
Photos creates automatic galleries for you based on photos taken at a similar time and place, picking the best of similar photos to include. Its face-recognition and can group all the shots of one person, and finally lets you associate names with the faces.
Video Editing in the Photos App
To automatically create a video with the option to Remix it, tap the Create button and then choose Automatic video with music. From an individual image's Edit & Create button, you can choose Create a video with music. This lets you select two or more photos or clips and join them, apply titles, crops, filter effects and add fitting background music and titles. When I created a movie based on a recent weekend trip, the video's recipients were impressed with the results.
The video editing interface is storyboard based, meaning it doesn't use timeline tracks. You can drag the thumbnails back and forward in the sequence to reorder them, and you can trim individual video clips. A very cool extra is that you can apply 3D effects, and even anchor them to an object in your video with motion tracking. You can use the included mood music or your own tracks. If you choose the former, transitions are timed to the beats.
In the automatic video choice, you can designate someone in your video as the Star. The program identifies faces in the video clips and photos, and it lets you choose one to highlight. It then creates a video in which that person is the most important element.
My People
The My People feature lets you pin contacts to the Taskbar for easy communication via email, Skype, or whatever communication apps later support it. You can drag files to the friend's icon to share files with them, read or send email or Skype messages without opening separate apps. But the most fun part of it happens when you send an emoticon in a Skype chat: The smiley pops up from the user icon and animates with a large winking character, for example, or whatever emotion is being shared.
In the April 2018 Update, My People got some Fluent design, and now lets you add more contacts than the first release—now you can add up to 10. Still, I wish that more messaging apps supported My People—the lack of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger support makes it less useful than it might be.
Cortana Tricks
Cortana, Windows' voice-responsive AI digital assistant, is one of Windows 10's highest-profile features. The intelligent voice assistant predates Apple's Siri on the Mac by over a year. You can even turn off, restart, lock, or log out of your PC using your voice—things you still can't do with Siri without workarounds. There's a confirmation step, so don't worry about shutting down unexpectedly. I find this a great convenience at the end of the day, when I just want to tell the computer to shut down, rather than tap more keys.
With the May 2019 Update, Cortana is divorced from the Windows search bar, but now they're next-door neighbors. Tap the circle next to the system's search box (which covers local documents, apps, settings, photos, and web), and Cortana will start listening, similarly to Siri on a Mac. You can now completely remove Cortana from the taskbar if you prefer.
Cortana's Notebook, which is where you specify your interests so that you'll be notified about what matters to you, has added a few more categories, including On the Go, which pops up suggestions for when you arrive at work or home. Unlike Siri or Google Now, Cortana lets you specify exactly what the assistant knows about you—interests, important people, locations—and you choose whether to have her respond to your spoken 'Hey Cortana,' or whether you want to use the feature at all.
Cortana Reminders can be based on Place, Person, or Time, but they don't have to be. Sometimes you just want to be reminded of something without having to specify any of those. That kind of reminder shows up in Cortana's Whenever group.
You can use Cortana from the lock screen—useful for things like playing a music playlist, asking about the weather, or asking for points of information. Intel's wake-on-voice technology allows you to say 'Hey Cortana!' and have the PC respond even if it's in sleep mode.
Cortana is sort of like an Amazon Echo, but without the need for a separate device. Dedicated Cortana speakers like the Harman Kardon Invoke let you use Microsoft's assistant without a PC. An icon in the Cortana sidebar, that looks like the Invoke speaker itself, makes setting up such devices a snap. It also lets you set up an Amazon Alexa-based smart speaker. Cortana has skills that let you control smart home devices like Philips Hue lightbulbs.
More smart home integrations come to Cortana all the time: ecobee, Honeywell, Nest, and Wink are now supported. To access these, go to Cortana's Notebook, choose the Manage Skills tab, and click Connected Home. Support for IFTTT lets it tie into even more smart home devices and web services using what it now calls applets formerly called (recipes).
Cortana Reminders is also a share target, accessible from the share button in a Universal Windows app. For example, if you're in the Edge web browser, you can hit the Share button, choose Cortana Reminders, and attach the site URL to the reminder. If you do this from the Photos app, the picture is included in the reminder.
Cortana can scan your Outlook.com or Office 365 email for phrases like 'I'll get you the report by the end of the day,' and suggest a reminder. It's a completely opt-in feature, and you have to add Outlook.com or Office 365 as a connected service in Cortana's Notebook. Another capability is Pick Up Where I Left Off, in which Cortana offers to resume all the activities from your last session, such as websites open and documents you're working on.
Microsoft has moved some info that used to live in the Cortana panel over to the Action Center. I'm not really a fan of this, since I can't quickly check my sports and stocks with Cortana anymore. Instead I have to wait for them to appear in the Action Center.
Windows Ink
Touch and pen input support is a major differentiator between Windows 10 and Apple's macOS. Apple sticks with Steve Job's edict that touch screens don't make sense on laptops and desktops, but a touch screen is the most intuitive interface type possible. You see something you want to interact with, such as a button, and you can press it with your finger. Chrome OS supports both touch and stylus input, though that support is not as far-reaching through the operating system as it is in Windows 10.
In using a Surface Book and an Asus Zen AiO Pro Z240IC all-in-one PC (both of which have touch screens) for the past year or so, I've gotten to the point of trying to tap buttons on computers with non-touch screens out of habit. Ubuntu offers some touch support, but it can be hit-or-miss based on the computer you're running.
Windows' digital ink capabilities allow stylus input to work just like a pen or pencil, converting it to text. This is a technologically cool feature, but it will only be of interest to owners of tablets and convertibles like the Surface Pro, the Surface Book, or the Surface Go. The Windows Ink Workspace offers sticky notes (with extra smarts), as well as Sketchpad and Screen Sketch options. It also shows recent apps you've penned in and suggests pen-friendly apps in the Store. The April 2018 Update added a Tap to Ink feature that lets you instantly start writing in any text field. It also reduces inking latency by 30 to 50 percent. You can turn off the feature's icon if you don't expect to use it.
The Ink Workspace can be summoned by clicking a stylus button. You can also take advantage of some Cortana smarts in Sticky Notes. For example, if you write 'Wednesday,' the text is turned to a blue link, and clicking this gives you the option to set a Cortana reminder. I actually had better luck getting Cortana to notice flight information when I typed it in the note, rather than penning it, however. Info on flight status for such notes appears at the bottom of the sticky. New for Sticky Note is a web view, at onenote.com/stickynotes.
Sketchpad offers ballpoint pen, pencil, highlighter, eraser, ruler, and touch writing tools. Sketchpad resembles the whiteboard app on the Surface Hub. It also lets you crop the image, copy it, and share it to any Universal Windows app in the share sidebar. A ruler tool lets you draw perfectly straight lines, and even includes a compass. Double-clicking the pen button or choosing Screen Sketch from the Ink Workspace snaps a screenshot of your desktop and opens it in Sketchpad so you can annotate and draw on top of it with any of the aforementioned tools.
One of the coolest inking capabilities is the pen keyboard. You switch to this mode from the standard on-screen keyboard (or by tapping in a text box with the stylus point). Start writing on the line there, and text predictions show up. Hit Enter, and your writing turns into text in whatever text area you're writing in. It does surprisingly well with even poor penmanship, and striking through your writing deletes it easily.
For comparison, since Apple's macOS doesn't support pen input directly, the company has a clever strategy set to appear in macOS Catalina: Let Mac owners use their iPad for pen and touch input. The system will send the input from the iPad directly to the Mac. Of course, it also means shelling out several hundred dollars for a separate touch-capable device.
On-Screen Keyboard
Aside from pen input in the on-screen keyboard, you can swipe text on touch-screen PCs, à la the mobile SwiftKey keyboard. In fact, the same machine-learning SwiftKey technology appears in the Windows version of the on-screen touch keyboard, meaning it can learn your writing style and vocabulary.
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If you want to type without touching anything, the on-screen keyboard shows a microphone, invoked with Windows Key–H (for hear) lets you use voice dictation in anything on your PC that accepts text input.
Nearby SharingDownload Windows 10 Pro 2019
Apple has long offered a way to get photos and other content to a nearby iPhone or Mac, with AirDrop. Now Windows 10's Nearby Sharing feature lets us Windows users do the same. The feature uses Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and you have to enable it. That's easy, since the option to do so appears the first time you use any app's Share button. As with AirPlay, when you send something, a notification pops up on the recipient's device.
Edge Web Browser Gets Sharper
The Edge web browser that comes with Windows 10 is fast and standards-compatible, and it offers unique tools like Set Aside Tabs, Web Notes (for marking up and sharing webpages), a clean (ad-free) Reading mode, and a built-in Cortana search sidebar via right-click. The e-book reader and store functions once included with the browser will be discontinued as of July 2019, Microsoft announced. The browser will continue to support PDF file viewing, however, but it won't roam the content across your account as was the case for books from its e-book store.
The browser will continue to offer unique features, but Microsoft announced that Edge will move from the EdgeHTML page-rendering engine to Chromium's Blink engine (the same one Google Chrome uses) in 2019. This should result in more site compatibility, but I'm concerned that it will further consolidate Google's dominance of the Internet, since the search ad giant controls the open-source project. One side-benefit to Microsoft's move is that it plans to offer Edge for macOS and older Windows versions as well as Windows 10. You can download the beta of this new browser project at the Edge Insider site.
Edge remains the only browser with support for 4K UHD Netflix streaming, and this is expected to continue after the engine overhaul. I can only hope that most of the unique tools detailed below make it into the new version.
The browser can silence noisy tabs with a click on the speaker icon that appears in any tab issuing sound. You can also silence auto-play videos and music. Edge will autofill online payment forms with secure information, print webpages without all the unessential clutter, and display PDFs in full screen.
Edge's Extensions menu option links to the Windows app store, from which you can get Edge extensions. I tested by installing one I consider essential—LastPass. There are also extensions for Amazon, Evernote, Microsoft Translator, OneNote, Pinterest, Pocket, and more. These should make the browser appealing to more demanding users. There are now over 200 extensions as I write this, though Firefox and Chrome offer thousands. Happily, some strong privacy and ad-blocking extensions are available, including AdGuard and uBlock Origin. (AdBlock and Adblock Plus are also in the store, but I find those less effective.)
Microsoft representatives told me that the reason for the smaller selection is that the Edge team is being very careful in vetting extensions, not wanting another ActiveX-type security nightmare. Coding for IE's extensions uses the same web technologies as Chrome does (HTML and JavaScript), however, and Microsoft says converting existing Chrome extensions is trivial for developers. What's more, the W3C is coming out with a Browser Extension standard, which Microsoft plans to support.
Unlike most browsers' extensions, Edge's appear by default in the overflow menu rather than next to the address bar, but you can add their icons to the toolbar with a Settings option. The LastPass extension worked just as in other browsers. LastPass's on-page features, such as automatic password fill-in, also worked well via the extension.
Tablet and touch-screen users will appreciate Edge's swipe gestures, which let you go back and forth in history, and desktop users will appreciate that right-clicking the back button drops down tab history, as most browsers do. I also appreciate that Edge, like other browsers, offers a Paste-and-go option and the ability to pin tabs. You can also pin webpages to the Taskbar or Start menu. But you still can't set a web image as your desktop background from the browser, as you can in Firefox.
Microsoft has done quite a bit with tabs in Edge, particularly helpful to those who keep lots of tabs open. The browser already showed thumbnail previews of your site tabs when you hover over them with the mouse, but a down-caret button lets you show all the preview thumbs at once for easy skim-ability.
The Set Aside icon at top left lets you send the currently open group of tabs to the background. Just tap the window icon to its left to reopen the set, favorite them, or share them. The tab groups you've set aside remain available even after you shut down and restart Edge.
Action Center
A Windows 10 feature with roots in mobile operating systems is the Action Center. While previous versions of Windows included something also called Action Center, this one is more like a smartphone's notifications plus quick action features. In fact, that's exactly what it is.
The Windows 10 Action Center, similar to Apple macOS's Notification Center, keeps those messages available in a right-side panel. You open Windows 10's Action Center panel from a taskbar button, or on touch screens with a swipe in from the right edge of the screen.
The panel also offers frequently needed functions like power, settings, networking, and screen brightness and rotation. Brightness gets a big boost in the May 2019 Update: Instead of tapping through Suggested, Brighter, and so on, now you get a slider to lower and raise the screen brightness. The Connect action is pretty neat, in that it lets you project your screen onto another one on your Wi-Fi network. I was able to display my Surface Pro's screen on a big Samsung TV with no setup aside from choosing OK on the TV—pretty nifty.
Focus Assist
Focus Assist is accessible by right-clicking on the Action Center icon or by using its Quick Action button. You can set it to allow Priority contacts to get through to you, or to only let alarms work. In the Settings app, you designate who can break through and specify times you want focus. You can even enable the feature while you're gaming on your PC.
Store and Universal Windows Apps
Why do you need an app store on your PC? Mac users have had one for several years, and it offers the advantages of automatic updating and a single source for finding programs you need. It gives you access on all your PCs to apps you've bought. Acceptance to the Windows Store also means an app has been vetted by Microsoft for security. You can even install apps to external memory—something tablet users can appreciate.
For Windows 10, there are even more advantages for these modern apps: They can tie in with the notifications and share panels. For example, if you use the Facebook app rather than going to the Facebook website, you can see notifications for new messages and you can send shareable content via the app.
Windows 10 Store apps are called Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps, meaning they can run on desktops, tablets, phones, the Surface Hub, and eventually on the Xbox and Microsoft HoloLens 3D augmented-reality headset. Modern Microsoft Store apps (aka UWP—Universal Windows Apps) don't come with any Registry baggage.
That's partly why Microsoft delivered Windows 10 S (now considered a Mode rather than an separate OS version), which only runs Windows Store apps. According to the official Windows Blog, going forward, 'customers can choose to buy a new Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro PC with S mode enabled, and commercial customers will be able to deploy Windows 10 Enterprise with S mode enabled.'
Underneath these apps is Windows 10's OneCore platform, a common base that underlies all these device types and allows not only apps, but also device drivers to work with them. UWP apps have one final benefit: They run within containers so that they don't mess with the rest of your system.
Included Apps—Office Mobile, Mail, Calendar
You get a surprisingly full kit of apps with Windows 10. Utilities like Calculator, Camera, Paint 3D, and Voice Recorder are joined by information apps like Maps, News, and Weather. In all, I counted 23 such stock apps and utilities. News has a clean design, customizable topics and sources, and a nifty dark view. The Windows app also syncs with matching mobile versions for iOS and Android. As mentioned above, with the May 2019 Update, you can now uninstall 17 of these apps that used to be mandatory. Not everyone needs the Print 3D app taking up system space. Also arriving with that update are new Notepad options and shortcuts.
The included Mail app is getting smarter, with things like Focused Inbox. This is a great feature that's already implemented in the Outlook for iPhone and Android apps. It filters out all the newsletters and promotions, and only shows you mail from those with whom you regularly correspond, or that is in some other way deemed important by the service. You can of course still see everything else at the tap of a tab, and turn off this focusing for mail you don't want it. You can also use @ signs in an email body to add them to the conversation. Still, the app isn't as powerful as the Office 365 desktop version and still has some quirks, though I must admit that it's now good enough to be my everyday work email client.
The Mail app is integrated with Calendar and Contact apps, available from buttons along the bottom of Mail. Calendar does a presentable job of handling multiple calendars, appointments, and views. The Calendar includes color-coding for event categories, public calendar subscriptions for shows and sports, and cards for deliveries and travel reservations. The cards for travel reservations even have links to online check-in services. Unfortunately, you still cannot create mailing groups in Mail or People and cannot export contacts from the People app.
The Groove Music app can play music sitting on your hard drive or in your OneDrive cloud storage. Impressively, Groove can play FLAC lossless audio, and even includes an equalizer.
Another included app is Movies & TV, which also offers a content store as well as the ability to play your own videos. The Compact Overlay option lets you have a small, always-on-top window showing video while you do other things on your PC.
You still get lots of utility-type apps, too, including a scanner app, alarms, and a voice recorder.
The impressive Maps app lets you use Windows Ink to mark up a map using a stylus or your finger on a touch-screen PC. But that's not all: You can calculate the distance of a line you draw on a map and get directions for any two points you tap. If you don't have a touch screen, the same functionality is possible with a mouse. You can also use a virtual on-screen ruler to make your lines straight. The app has tabs for multiple location searches and directions.
For basic image editing, that old standby, Paint, moves to the Windows Store. Its replacement, the Paint 3D, is the default. Not only does it let you create, customize, and decorate 3D objects, but you can also share them with the Remix3D.com online community. You can even show your 3D creations mixed with real-world backgrounds using the PC's camera. 2D image editing isn't forgetting in the app, despite the name; it slickly handles standard JPGs and PNG editing.
The 3D Viewer (formerly called Mixed Reality Viewer) is an included app that will play a central role in Microsoft's VR strategy along with HoloLens and lower-cost headsets. Along with that, the viewer app can show your 3D creations as part of the real world, using your webcam. You can even anchor an object to a surface, such as your shoulder!
OneDrive and Skype
Two of Microsoft's cloud services—OneDrive for online storage and syncing and Skype for communication—play an increasingly prominent role in Windows 10. There's an important distinction between these and Apple's analogous iCloud for macOS: They can be used on any platform. There are Skype and OneDrive apps for Macs, Androids, and iOS devices, as well as for Windows devices.
OneDrive Files On-Demand spares you from downloading everything to all PCs in your account; instead, the OneDrive folder shows everything, but files that are only in the cloud show a cloud icon in the status column in File Explorer. While OneDrive does a great job syncing Office documents and personalization settings, and Skype is a very rich communication tool, there's still some work for Microsoft to do in integrating them with Windows 10. You can finally share from Photos to OneDrive, but only if you install the OneDrive UWP app. OneDrive still boasts the very useful Fetch capability: If you enable this, you can browse any folders remotely form OneDrive's web interface.
New for OneDrive with the May 2019 Update is the ability to back up and sync the Desktop, Documents, and Photos user folders. You still can't designate any folder on the system for backup, as you can with Google Drive or SugarSync, but those folders contain most of what people want to protect.
The UWP Skype app is finally fully baked. You can directly reply to Skype messages inside Action Center, which happily saves you from opening yet another app. Windows has the potential for parity with macOS's Messaging and Facetime apps, but it's not there yet. The Mac solution is still more seamless, but Windows 10 is getting closer, with an SMS relay option for Android via the Cortana app. Also keep in mind that Skype is a full, standalone VoIP solution that can call standard phones, while the Mac is just hooking into the iPhone's mobile connection and requires proximity of the phone. Like OneDrive, Skype works on all major platforms, not just one.
Tablet Mode
Tablet mode is a trimmed down, more touch-friendly version of the OS, with a full-screen tile-based Start screen. After you pull off the keyboard from a tablet, such as the Surface Pro, or convert a convertible laptop to tablet mode (often by bending the screen backwards), Windows pops up a message asking if you want to switch to Tablet mode, in which the Start menu and modern apps become full-screen.
Touch gestures like closing an app by swiping down from the top of the screen work in this mode, and the All Apps view stretches across the screen with large tiles so it's easier to get to any app.
Gaming in Windows 10
Gaming is one area where Windows is miles ahead of macOS or Ubuntu. And Microsoft continues to make the Window 10 proposition sweeter for gamers. The Xbox app for Windows 10 not only lets them see an activity feed, but it also includes game DVR and can even stream games from an Xbox One to the PC. You can also stream games publicly on Microsoft's Twitch competitor, Mixer.com.
The Xbox and Windows 10 Stores have been unified, and the Play Anywhere initiative means you can buy games for one platform and play them either on the console or the PC. Game progress stays in sync between platforms. Play Anywhere games have begun to appear, and the list has grown since I last checked, now at 44 titles with 5 more 'coming soon.' Notable entries are Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 4, Killer Instinct, ReCore, and Resident Evil. You can keep up with the list on the Xbox Play Anywhere page.
If you're more of a VR and Steam person, Mixed Reality for Steam VR is now fully released. You now have two home bases for your Mixed Reality virtual environments: SkyLoft joins Cliff House as an option. There are more than 2,000 VR titles in the Steam VR library, and you now have a half dozen mixed reality headsets to choose from, from the likes of Samsung, Acer, and Dell.
Beyond the Xbox app, Windows 10's 3D video engine is DirectX 12, which, according to some game developers, could open up a whole new level of realism to games. And Windows 10 lets you turn off VSync and instead enable AMD's Freesync and Nvidia's G-Sync in Universal Windows Platform (UWP) games and apps. The same update also unlocked frame rates for UWP games. You can read more about what Freesync, G-Sync and unlocked frame rates mean for Windows 10 on our sister site, Extreme Tech.
The October 2018 Windows update added support for DirectX ray tracing, a capability found in recent Nvidia graphics cards. This allows for real-time calculation of shadows and reflections, for more performant and realistic game scenes.
The Windows 10 Game Bar (invoked with Windows key-G) lets you enter Game Mode on demand, start streaming to Mixer.com, and DVR recording, and use audio controls. It's now it's a full-fledged app that you can also launch from the Start menu. With the May 2019 Update, the Game Bar makes getting to your captures easier, with a button that takes you to the capture file location.
The OS's Game Mode moves system resources away from background tasks towards the game you're playing. You can also control this and other gaming features in the dedicated Gaming section of Settings. The game-broadcasting capability of Mixer.com boasts sub-1-second latency, for much tighter communication with your audience. It also lets users create their own Arena gamer tournaments on Xbox Live, in support of the burgeoning esports craze.
Not sure which game to play? Choose some from the group of first-rate titles in our Best PC Games feature.
Security and Privacy
When setting up a Windows 10 account, you can set up a local account without the need for a Microsoft account, but you lose many of the OS's best features if you do so. Many critics have nevertheless called out Microsoft for harvesting usage data by default, so the company has clarified privacy choices at setup. Moreover, a Privacy Dashboard lets you see and manage any data saved in your Microsoft account. For details, read Windows 10: How to Protect Your Privacy.
The October 2018 Update renamed the Windows Defender Security Center to simply Windows Security. It also gets an added page showing third-party security software you've installed, made the Current Threats section more accessible, and lets you allow apps to access controlled folders (part of the system's ransomware protection).
IT staff can benefit from Windows 10's enhanced Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (Windows Defender ATP), which prevents and monitors new indicators of attacks. For consumers, the Defender Settings panel offers an option for protection against ransomware, with the Controlled folder access option. Windows Defender Application Guard protection is available to Windows 10 Pro users; this can stave off even sophisticated browser attacks. Windows Defender can schedule regular system scans and shows notifications about threats. As of the latest update, right-clicking Defender's system tray icon offers options to scan for viruses, update virus definitions, and more.
The Dynamic Lock feature lets you log off based on the proximity of your Bluetooth-paired smartphone, using Dynamic Lock. I tried this with a Surface Book and my iPhone X. After I walked about 50 paces away, sure enough, the Surface switched to lock-screen mode. This is a security feature, since it only logs you off when you're away, not on when you come near.
Windows Hello biometric authentication is supported on PCs equipped with a 3D and IR camera like the Intel RealSense devices. You can also use third-party biometric login devices, such as the Eidon Mini fingerprint reader, and a wristband from Nymi that identifies you by your unique heartbeat signature. One device I've had excellent Hello success with is the Logitech Brio 4K webcam. With the latest update, you can set up Hello from the lock screen.
On the software side, Windows Universal Apps and websites you browse in Edge can also use Hello for authentication, similar to identifying yourself on an iPhone or Apple Watch with Apple's TouchID. Apps that support Hello include Dropbox and iHeartRadio.
Like Firefox, Edge now blocks Flash from running unless you green-light it by tapping a puzzle-piece icon. You can choose to always allow Flash, too, but why not take advantage of that extra measure of protection?
The built-in antivirus in Windows 10 have greatly improved over the last few versions, but PCMag's security guru, Neil J. Rubenking, still recommends third-party security software for optimal protection.
You can also enhance your privacy by installing VPN software. This encrypts your data and hides your IP address from intruders. It also prevents your own internet service provider from collecting your browsing data to profile you. For instructions on how to set up a VPN, see How to Set Up and Use a VPN.
In addition to its privacy and security enhancements, parental control in Windows 10 benefits from recent updates. Family settings like site blocking now take effect across Windows, Xbox, and mobile Microsoft apps such as its Android Launcher and Edge browser. The tools also let parents limit spending on the Xbox and Windows stores, as well as restrict and monitor screen time.
What's Next for Windows 10?
At the 2019 Build and Computex trade shows, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and other company execs held out a vision for a modern, person-centric OS that overleaps the bounds of traditional PCs. It seems to be a service-based, always-connected platform relying on the company's Azure cloud and AI computing platform. At present, it's at the vision phase. There's also been a lot of talk among Windows watchers about 'Windows Lite' and 'Windows Core.' These are purportedly upcoming slimmed down and modular versions of the OS, respectively. Microsoft itself has been mum on these developments, however.
Those interested in what the future holds for the OS are more privileged than fans of just about any other software: They can join the Windows Insider Program and experience the features coming to future updates months before they're released. You can sign up for Fast or Slow preview release channels, with the first option being less stable that the latter. This Flight Hub page tells you exactly what features are included in each channel.
Not much is known about the second 2019 update expected this fall—the Insider builds are focused on 20H1—the first 2020 build. The latest preview features include Android screen mirroring, a revamped Protection History interface in Security settings, and password-less account setup using mobile numbers. Also new is integration between Cortana, ToDo, and Outlook, to streamline task creation and visibility. Cortana will also provide Windows support when you say something like 'Cortana, show me how to change my display settings.'
One of the hottest previously announced features was Sets, which lets you run multiple applications in a single tabbed window. This makes sense for a project you might be working on that requires a web browser, word processor, and PowerPoint. Microsoft pulled this feature from Preview versions prior to the 1809 release, and the project seems on hold for now. We may see the feature reappear at some point, though its future is somewhat in question at present.
Based on Insider builds, the 20H1 version is scheduled to include smarter File Explorer search, which will suggest likely hits. It will also get accessibility updates, and more language support for dictation, including 'English (Canada), English (UK), English (Australia), English (India), French (France), French (Canada), German (Germany), Italian (Italy), Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Mexico), Portuguese (Brazil), and Chinese (Simplified, China).'
Because of Windows 10's software-as-a-service approach, new features occasionally show up in between the major updates, so features can show up when they're ready, even if it's between major releases. Good examples to date have included Fluent Design's appearance in several stock apps, updated Family controls, and new Photos app features.
Windows of Opportunity
Whether you're using your voice with Cortana, gesturing on a touch screen, writing with a digital pen, building a 3D model, or playing a PC game, Windows 10 offers a wealth of choices. The platform offers the most choice in form factors, too, from the tiny Raspberry Pi to massive gaming PCs to the large Surface Studio to the giant Surface Hub. Add to those completely new Windows devices like HoloLens, Mixed Reality headsets, and the Harman/Kardon Invoke smart speaker. Windows 10's only device weakness is the defunct Windows Mobile ecosystem, though there are more and more integrations available for iOS and Android devices, including the Your Phone app, along with Cortana, Edge, OneDrive, and Skype mobile apps for those platforms.
Windows 10 Pro 2019 Update
Windows 10 is familiar, innovative, and adaptable to the size and capabilities of the hardware on which it's running. Because it manages to include so much exciting new technology while remaining familiar and intuitive, Windows 10 earns PCMag's Editors' Choice endorsement, an honor it shares with the polished and impressive macOS. For a comparison of the two, you can read macOS vs. Windows: Which OS Is Best?
Microsoft Windows 10
Bottom Line: The leading desktop operating system continues to improve. With the May 2019 Update, Windows 10 adds refinements, tool updates, new visuals, and more control over updates.
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