Month: June 2019

Microsoft’s Windows 10 October 2018 Update differs from past Windows updates in an important way: Now, the day-to-day improvements will impact you in additional profound ways compared to additional features. So while we’ve reviewed the new Windows OS, we’ve also separated these new conveniences into their own story.

What’s an element? What’s a convenience? Think of it by doing this: Not every one of you have used Windows 10‘s Paint 3D app. But probably every one of you has managed files within Windows and the cloud, used Windows’ search function, and adjusted how big a font or text. We’re calling these the “conveniences” of the Windows 10 Oct. 2018 Update. They may simply make your life easier.

(Note: Our story is dependant on the final Windows 10 Insider Builds, which led as much as the official October 2018 Update. Microsoft doesn’t appear to have added anything with the announcement, but we’ll check increase this story to mirror any last-minute changes. For now, though, the launch is officially on hold-an undetermined number of users have suffered loss of data from upgrading immediately, so Microsoft has put the update on hold until it solves the issue. We didn’t experience any difficulties with Insider builds, but because always, back up your computer data.)

Bluetooth battery gauges offer reassurance

Connecting a mouse to some PC using a USB charging cord isn’t no more the world, but it’s always handy to understand whenever a truly wireless device-such as the Surface Pen shown within Microsoft’s example-is going to quit the ghost. (In part, that’s since the AAAA batteries it takes aren’t that simple to locate.)

Assuming the connected device is able to report its charging data, you’ll now visit a battery gauge attached to it within Settings > Bluetooth & Other Devices. Its not all device supports battery polling, especially older peripherals. But it’s an opportune method to check into battery status of say, a radio mouse, prior to leaving on a business trip.

Independent text sizing

If you’ve wanted to make Windows easier to read for those with poor eyesight, the traditional answer has been to make use of the Settings > Ease of Access > Display setting to “zoom” Windows in-increasing how big just about any element around the page, including the navigation elements within a window, for instance. That may result in awkwardly sized pages and apps. Now, there’s an alternative way.

Exactly the same Settings menu offers the opportunity to just “Make text bigger,” and enables you to adjust a slider to enlarge or shrink sample text. When you’ve settled on a size, click Apply-and, following a rather alarming BSOD-like screen, Windows will resize all of the text on the current screen in Settings, UWP apps, and even some classic apps. It’s not perfect: Although it resized text on the Edge browser on one of my screens, text inside a group of Chrome an eye on another remained untouched. Notifications were awkwardly formatted, and the control didn’t seem to do anything to the search box. Apart from those caveats, “Make text bigger” is a straightforward method to resize text having to break the bifocals.
Securing your computer from ransomware

A brand new ransomware protection mechanism, controlled folder access, can be found within Settings > Windows Security > Virus & Threat protection. Here, you will find the option of locking down folders much like your Documents folder to Windows and selected apps.Turning on controlled folders is sort of a folder firewall: Windows will block folder access for an app whether it thinks it’s suspicious, preventing that ransomware from attacking your data or holding it hostage. Like a firewall, though, the setting allows you to give access to an app if you’re sure it’s okay.

Windows wants something of your stuff, however: Inside the Virus & Threat Protection menu, you’ll need to go down to Ransomware protection, click the Windows Defender Antivirus options caret, and then allow Windows Defender to periodically scan your computer. (This can be buggy; I sometimes had problems enabling controlled folders without enabling real-time scanning of my PC by Windows Defender, which also necessitated switching off a third-party antivirus program.)
Auto-adjust video playback for outdoor lighting

Like your phone, your PC should adjust its backlight power when you go outside. Many do: if you visit Settings > System > Display, you may see a choice to “Change brightness automatically when lighting changes.” But although this powers up the backlight high enough to allow you to say, type in a Word document, video will still probably look washed out.

Within the October 2018 Update, Windows will adjust your video so it will look better while outdoors. Navigate to Settings > Apps > Video playback, and turn on Adjust video according to lighting. It doesn’t appear to improve your laptop’s backlight, but rather adjust brightness and contrast to make the video more visible. Perhaps naturally, this adjustment will appear washed-out when viewed under normal conditions.

Granted, you’ll need a laptop having a backlight that’s powerful enough to create this selection viable, and a sensor that can detect different lighting levels.

Storage Sense automatically sends unused files towards the cloud

If you may never utilize it, Microsoft’s Storage Sense (Settings > Systems > Storage) may be used to locate and erase unused temporary files, squeezing out a bit more space for the documents along with other user files. Within the October 2018 Update, Storage Sense gains some new powers: a possibly controversial integration with OneDrive.

Inside the October 2018 Update, you’ll have the option to send unused files to your OneDrive cloud, where they won’t occupy local space. It’s the equivalent of automatically moving old boxes of stuff from your garage for an offsite storage space. (Microsoft uses a strange name for this: dehydration.) In this instance, the file won’t disappear; it’ll simply “dehydrate” into one stored inside the cloud, which you’ll need to re-download if you want to access it.

You can turn this on for files that you simply haven’t touched in a given period (Two months, say), or if your PC’s available storage dips below a certain threshold. You are able to tag files as “always available,” which means that they’ll always be stored locally on your computer even if they’re left alone for a long time. Storage Sense was toggled on in my PC, and it’s set to transmit unused files to the cloud every Thirty days as needed.

As Microsoft’s Aniket Naravanekar explained in a recent blog post about Storage Sense, the feature’s purpose is to help Windows to run smoothly. But does which means that that the unused multi-gigabyte games library will be sent off to the cloud, requiring you to definitely re-download it? Let’s hope not.

Search while not having to leave search

While the size the beginning menu within the October 2018 Update remains unchanged, entering a search query inside the Cortana search box now opens a genuinely massive search engine that swallows much of your screen. The advantage here is Windows will essentially open a browser right in your search window, eliminating the need to open a separate browser tab to search. (Windows uses Bing since it’s search engine, automatically.)

You can observe the bigger search engine within the April 2018 Update by entering searching query, then clicking nowhere result “to see Web results”. In the October 2018 Update, the large-format results box opens automatically, that also includes tabs for apps, documents, email messages, and more. There’s one quirk: if you’re used to typing a question after which hitting Enter, Windows will still open a browser window, as before. Training yourself not to do that, to be able to begin to see the in-window google listing, is tricky.

Microsoft’s actually touting this improvement as a server-side update, so you may see it it doesn’t matter how quickly your PC receives the October 2018 Update. As part of the new search function, you need to see blue download buttons that Microsoft sometimes injects whenever you search for a downloadable app. It’s worth noting, too, that Google is trying a similar strategy: tucking search results inside its Chrome 69 omnibox.

Focus assist activates automatically when gaming

Focus Assist is Microsoft’s reputation for a feature that limits or turns off notifications based upon your requirements. In the October 2018 Update, it activates automatically when you’re playing a full-screen game.

A new generation of emoji: Emoji 11

The Windows 10 emoji keyboard could be launched by Win+; which makes sense when you consider it. With the October 2018 Update, Microsoft has incorporated the new Emoji 11 in to the emoji keyboard, which includes characters like redheads, a lobster, and dynamite, in addition to lesser-used languages such as Mtavruli and Hanifi Rohingya.

Dark theme in File Explorer

Members of the Windows Insider beta-testing group become obsessed with certain proposed features. One of these is really a dark theme for File Explorer, which has finally arrived.

Wireless projection modes

Should you typically project a PowerPoint presentation or Onenote notebook for any classroom, you most likely mix and match text, video, and (occasionally) gaming.

A little convenience within Windows (and it is Connect app) is that wireless projection connections will get their dedicated toolbar, together with three modes: a low-latency game mode, a higher-latency video mode (to stream videos smoothly) along with a “productivity” mode that’s somewhere among. We didn’t are able to test this out, however it should help fine-tune wireless connections to sharpen the knowledge.

SwiftKey keyboard predictions arrive on Windows

Microsoft originally promised that its SwiftKey keyboard would arrive when the windows are 10 October 2018 Update, only part of it apparently landed. You are able to turn on SwiftKey text prediction to higher predict auto-completed words, but the other half-the ability to swipe from letter to letter-doesn’t come in the build.

Task Manager reveals per-app power usage

We still don’t possess a built-in Windows capability that reveals the power draw of numerous components. It might be nice, for example, so that you can tell just how much power your laptop’s display consumes. With time, though, the Task Manager has added more and more information about your system. The April Update displayed the GPU resources consumed, and now an additional column displays the relative power each app within the Processes tab.

On paper, this sounds much better than it is. “Power usage” and the related “power usage trend” is displayed with vague terms such as “very low. Which may be beneficial in rooting out an app that’s inexplicably sucking down power, but it doesn’t tell you much in terms of absolute values. Still, it’s a convenience.

Cortana Show Me works together with… Cortana

We’ve previously dug through Cortana Show Me, a tips-like app that tries to put tech media sites like PCWorld out of business with handcrafted walk-throughs of various features. Regardless of. It might be kind of silly if these Cortana-driven walk-throughs were available only from the app itself, and not via Cortana. Well, description of how the are.

Should you or perhaps a family member need assistance with a few basic tasks-try “Show me how to change my background”-they can just speak with Cortana to produce the tutorial.

The mystery surrounding smarter Windows updates

Everyone’s heard the problem reports of Windows spontaneously rebooting and updating a PC in an inopportune time-possibly removing the truth that they failed to configure Windows Update correctly. (Go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Advanced options and make sure the Update notifications checkbox is checked, and perhaps Pause updates as well. Also make certain your Active Hours are configured.)

Putting the blame around the user, though, does nobody any good. One of the more anticipated conveniences inside the October 2018 Update would be a kind of an “update AI.” Microsoft said hello had trained a predictive model that could select the best time to restart your computer and apply an update, and notify you before doing so.

However , we’re not quite sure whether the Smart Updater or Update AI is actually in the Windows 10 October 2018 Update. Because we couldn’t actually test drive it, we asked Microsoft if the feature was present. Microsoft told us that they “nothing to talk about,” so we figured Microsoft left it. But you never know?

While there are more, lesser conveniences floating around-Microsoft sure made a big deal from the capability to find and replace data within Notepad-we think we’ve found many of them you should know about. Now it’s to the snappily-named “19H1” track for Windows 10, the update of Windows that’s due next spring.

Microsoft’s Windows 10 October 2018 Update, officially re-released on Nov. 13, doesn’t provide the standout, marquee features you might have arrived at expect from earlier releases. But as our review demonstrates, several additional features highlight an extended list of under-the-hood, day-to-day improvements.

Our review is dependant on the final Windows 10 Insider Builds, which led up to the official October 2018 Update. Microsoft doesn’t appear to have added anything using the final build, but we’ll check and update this story to reflect any last-minute changes. (Microsoft placed the original launch of the Oct. 2018 Update, also known as version 1809, on hold after a little users suffered loss of data.)

We’ve assigned a review score, but, as always, pay less attention to the amount rather than the way the October 2018 Update will affect you. We’ve separated what we’d call “the little things”-everyday features and conveniences-into their very own article, covering automated OneDrive backups, for instance, and independent text resizing. Here, we’ll discuss the major new features: apps like Your Phone and Microsoft Font Maker, and just how the nifty little Cloud Clipboard works in the real world. One’s particularly important to note: Microsoft Edge.

Microsoft Edge has become an everyday browser

Many initially characterized Edge in the same way they saw Ie: like a vehicle to download Chrome or Firefox, then ignore forever. And who can blame them? It’s been three years since Edge was first introduced, and it’s at the moment gained enough features and performance to be a viable competitor.

Microsoft has long argued that Edge enables longer battery life than the competition-a case we proved a short time ago. Within our extensive testing to look for the best Internet browser from June, Edge’s performance starts to shine through-with one caveat, as we wrote then: “The fact is, as a day-to-day browser Edge is serviceable at best, and Microsoft really needs to step-up its game especially when you are looking at loading multiple tabs.”

Opening 20 media-heavy tabs now feels about 90 to 95 percent of what of I would expect in terms of performance, and that’s with no ad blocker like Ghostery enabled. Pages are almost instantly navigable. The only real glitch I notice is the fact that Ctrl+Tab functionality for opening one more tab isn’t immediately responsive. I can go back and forth between pages very easily. Edge will “tombstone” idle pages, however, and that still slows down open tabs a bit more than I’d like.

As for new features, Edge now blocks videos from autoplaying on individual websites. It works pretty much, though you’ll still see a video window or popup load even if the video doesn’t play. Actually, if you wish to read a news story without ads or video, you could click on the existing “Reading view” book icon in the URL bar-it’s a great feature of Edge, and many people don’t utilize it. And when you need to do, Edge now enables you to highlight words and get definitions right inside the right-click popup window, a feature that reaches ebooks. You’ll also see helpful shortcuts like “Show in folder” inside the Downloads tab within Edge, making downloaded files easy to find.

Google Chrome continues to be far better than Edge in migrating Favorites via the cloud to a new machine. Edge still has trouble passing along passwords. But Edge isn’t painful to make use of anymore. I feel it’s close enough for day-to-day use.

‘Cloud’ Clipboard is really a neat trick

Everyone right now knows the shortcuts for cutting and pasting text within Windows: Ctrl+X to chop or Ctrl+C to repeat, then Ctrl+V to paste. However this clipboard function has improved in 2 different, significant ways within the the October 2018 Update, and they’re two of the best new features.

Within a new setting, Settings > System > Clipboard, you’ll see two options that you can turn on or off: “Clipboard history,” and “Sync across devices.” You’ll need to be signed in a Microsoft account for the second to operate.

When toggled on, the new shortcut Win + V opens past links, images, and text snippets you’ve cut and pasted, and enables you to select them again. Once you use it, you’ll begin to see the appeal.

My only issues with Clipboard’s history are that how far back it is going seems somewhat arbitrary, which the Clipboard window isn’t movable. Pro-privacy users have the choice of turning Clipboard’s cloud storage off. You may also erase what’s stored in Clipboard in your tool and within the cloud, through the Settings menu.

Syncing across devices is better still: It’s a fancy name for copying text from one PC (Ctrl+X or Ctrl+C), and then paste it on another. Yes, if you’re signed in, whatever you cut or copy on a single PC (as much as 4MB) is going to be automagically pasted into the app you’re using on another PC, via the cloud, by typing Ctrl+V. (Both PCs should be attached to the Internet.) The 4MB limit is a painful crimp around the feature’s utility, and it pales as compared to the awesome Mouse without Borders app, plus other solutions for transferring files wirelessly between PCs. However the new Clipboard wins because of its simplicity.

Your Phone: A work happening

I was disappointed by the underwhelming Windows roadmap Microsoft presented at Build, and I can’t help being somewhat let down by the Your Phone app as well-in part, because we’ve seen a number of this before. Prior to the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update debuted, Microsoft displayed a clever method to tie your phone for your PC via Cortana, so you could reply to texts sent to your phone. Enabling Cortana on your phone and PC provided a convenient outcomes of both devices.

Disappointingly, Microsoft ditched it. Your Phone, a new app which (may) appear as a shortcut fitted desktop, now requires the Your Phone Companion app (formerly known as the Microsoft Apps app) to be placed on your Android or iOS phone-yes, another Microsoft mobile app to sit down alongside Edge, Bing, Cortana, or the Microsoft Launcher. (Microsoft has utilized some of these as phone-to-PC bridges before.)

All of your Phone does is allow you to open, view, copy, and share photos that you simply took in your phone, in addition to send and reply to texts. (Deleting a photo from your phone erases it from Your Phone, too.) While that’s handy, if your phone automatically backs up photos to OneDrive, the built-in Windows 10 Photos app already provides this functionality. Texts can also already be sent via Cortana, too, though Your Phone is a convenient shortcut.

I suppose there’s an increasing frustration within the Windows team that key features within the platform like Cortana, are going unused. But will we need another app? Or maybe we all do, is it wiser than Pushbullet?

To become fair, Your Phone is easy and simple to make use of. What we’re seeing at OS launch is a instant to have an app that will likely still evolve, just like pen and voice interactions are gradually working their way into every PC life. Let’s refer to it as a modest start for which we all know is a future where smartphones and Windows PCs collaborate ought to be course.

Microsoft Font Maker is really a fun little gimmick

Microsoft Font Maker isn’t specifically built into the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, though Microsoft released it during its beta phase. In fact, you ought to be in a position to download Font Maker in the Microsoft Store and start using it to make simple fonts out of your own handwriting immediately.

Font Maker works best having a digital pen and a tablet, so from that standpoint it’s somewhat limiting. All you need to do is ink each letter and number in the provided template. When you’re finished, you’ll have formulated a font that you can save to Windows and use within Word, PowerPoint, or wherever. It’s simple, fun, along with a bit gimmicky, but feels very Microsoft in the integration of creativity and productivity. Interested? Here’s our tutorial teaching you using Microsoft Font Maker.

Skype for Windows 10 tries a bit too hard to be fun

At this point, Skype is a little a mess. Part of the problem is this is the quantity of versions: must i use Skype for Business? Skype’s Office 365 app? Video calls included in Microsoft Teams? Skype’s online app? Or would I be better off using the built-in Windows 10 app instead? Additionally the numerous previews and betas which have come and reviewed time, and it’s no real surprise that many have turned to mobile competitors like WhatsApp instead. (Skype is also on phones, of course, where its UI was criticized heavily.)

Using the October 2018 Update, the native app within Windows is receiving the Skype redesign that was announced last year-and, to be honest, lots of people actively dislike. Having a UI that leans heavily toward the customer, you’ll find emoticons (if you want an avocadolove emoticon, Skype has you covered), stickers, emojis, reactions to comments, a gallery window to talk about files and other documents-but no GIFs?

Yes, you may still text chat, perform individual and group video calls, and so on, but there’s a definite emphasis on making Skype fun, while reserving serious, business communication for Microsoft Teams. (Microsoft Teams recently announced a strong free version that may lure classical Skype users.) Whether you like the brand new look of Skype will likely be a matter of taste.

Cortana + Alexa, Snip & Sketch, and other bit players

Microsoft published over 30 separate Insider builds included in the run-up towards the October 2018 Update, and just what filtered out at the bottom included some smaller features that you may want to take a look at.

Raytracing support is here now: We weren’t able to nail this down by the time we originally published the review, but Nvidia confirmed to PCWorld’s Brad Chacos that the October 2018 Update supports DirectX Raytracing, the API which will power the upcoming Nvidia GeForce GTX 2080 GPU. It’s a small but significant improvement: merely a small percentage of gamers will buy the 2080 cards at launch. But ray tracing paints a 3D scene inside a much more lifelike way than traditional PC graphics, modelling individual photons because they bounce off and pass through various objects and surfaces.

Cortana, Alexa; Alexa, Cortana: After at least a year, Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana are now skills in their respective services. If you tell Cortana to spread out Alexa, you’ll have access to everything Alexa can do, including putting in an order from Amazon. May possibly not be considered a new feature within the October 2018 Update, per se, but it’s still a new accessory for Windows.

Snip & Sketch: Screenshotting tools are the stock in trade for individuals who write about Windows, and Windows 10 soon will get a brand new one: Snip & Sketch, which will replace the Snipping Tool currently within Windows. (You’ll obtain a note to that particular effect any time you open it. Also, technology-not only in place of the PrtScreen command.) Snip & Sketch combines a screenshotting tool with the drawing tools obtainable in Photos and elsewhere. My biggest complaint is that each screenshot opens another instance of the app.

HD Color Settings: Pricey HDR-equipped PC monitors probably sell as well as pricey touchscreen-enabled desktop monitors (as with, not so). But when you’re one of the lucky few that has invested in an HDR display, you’ll find new controls (Settings > Display > Windows HD Color Settings) within the Display Settings menu that will help you determine if you’re able to use apps with HDR or wide color gamut settings. Oddly, there’s both an HD Color setting and an HDR calibration menu. Toggling off and on the HDR setting on a Surface Pro 2017 did make a small difference, even through the display wasn’t specifically rated for HDR.

Font installation for everyone: Windows previously treated adding fonts like a protected function, suitable only for administrators. Now, you can now go to the Fonts section within the Microsoft Store app and download away.

Mixed-reality “flashlight:” From what we should can easily see, Windows Mixed Reality is a bust. However for those who have bought into Microsoft’s vision of virtual reality, Microsoft provides you with a lifeline: Rather than wandering around your living room fearful you’ll trip on your cat, Windows Mixed Reality now offers a “flashlight view” that teaches you what’s going on in real life before you (which would normally be blocked from your headset.) A YouTube user named Cappaholic includes a brief video showing the “flashlight” for action.

What’s missing, and what’s next

Some of the new additions that Microsoft tested out within its Insider previews were held back for any future release. The tabbed version of Windows, referred to as Sets, holds promise as an alternate UI for single-screen experiences like laptops, whose windows can get lost among all of the clutter-but it’s not here yet. Planned updates to incorporate detailed geekier details like frame rates and CPU utilization hanging around Bar were scrapped, though it’s still been overhauled to include volume controls.

Microsoft indicated that it would migrate an enterprise technology, called Windows Defender Exploit Guard, to assist Windows 10 block “suspicious behaviors”-but didn’t. We were eagerly anticipating a Smart Updater or Update AI feature to help get rid of the pain of unexpected Windows updates, but it appears to have been pulled. The Timeline feature was designed to include phones; it doesn’t.

Microsoft now shifts gears to the next feature update to Windows 10, with a new nomenclature: “19H1,” referring to the first-half update for 2019. (Microsoft’s Xbox team has begin to use that terminology with Xbox Insiders.) Expect to see the fruits of those labors around April, the same timeframe because the earlier April 2018 Update.

There’s an absolute feel that Windows 10 development is slowing, and some believe that they know why: a re-spin of Windows, referred to as Core OS. We recently received our best hint that Core OS (or WCOS) is real: the announcement of a completely new Windows “experience” inside the Surface Hub 2, and perhaps other devices, in 2020. A major future debut of the revamped Windows would justify what today is a rather ho-hum release.

If you have a tablet or older laptop with just a tiny bit of storage available, give consideration: Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 10 October 2018 Update could cause you some headaches unless you tidy up.

Inside a support document, Microsoft seems to acknowledge that Windows 10‘s Windows Update fails to check PCs for adequate storage before it kicks off, an oversight that could cause the upcoming feature update to repeatedly fail unless laptop computer has enough space to upload it. A Microsoft spokesman denied this, though, proclaiming that Windows will in fact determine should there be enough space for installation. Otherwise, it will request you to delete some files.

Microsoft hasn’t said exactly how much space the upcoming October Update will require, however the company recommends a “regular regimen of system maintenance to help make sure that updates are successful.” Which involves regularly banishing unused files towards the cloud or deleting temporary files.

Fortunately, Microsoft already provides some tools to help you with this particular, including an automatic routine that you could switch on having a toggle: Storage Sense. Found within Settings > System > Storage, toggling on Storage Sense will automatically delete temp files within the Trash can every 30 days, and will perform the same for the Downloads folder if you wish. (This latter feature is off by default, as many people use Downloads as a general repository for random files downloaded from the web.) Microsoft also recommends inserting an Sdcard or attaching another hard drive to supply additional space.

Another alternative would be to click on the This PC bar towards the top of the Storage menu within Settings, which (non-intuitively) expands to show various types of files within your PC: apps, photos, documents, etc. If you click on the “temporary files” line, Windows will scan those files making suggestions of files that may be safely deleted.

Finally, there’s OneDrive. Although the Web interface could be daunting, you are able to click the small cloud icon on the taskbar, register to OneDrive there are already, and dump files into the cloud. Alternatively, you can use a memory stick or perhaps an external hard drive to dump some files as the update happens.

Somewhat ironically, the October 2018 Update includes some features that Microsoft says will facilitate this method in future updates, including a better Storage Sense that will automatically send files you haven’t utilized in some time to your OneDrive cloud storage. But until the October 2018 Update hits your PC, you won’t have access to them.

The conclusion: Windows feature updates are kind of a problem, however they are the vegetables that Microsoft makes your computer eat to keep up and running, and also to enable new capabilities with time. A little bit of prep work will help help you to digest.