Review: Windows 10 Creators Update -- Laying the groundwork for ... | windows 10 creators update reviewwindows 10 creators update review
After six months of waiting, the abutting aloft advancement to Windows 10 is about here. Known as the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, it will activate rolling out to the attainable on October 17.
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Review: Windows 10 Creators Update -- Laying the groundwork for ... | windows 10 creators update reviewThe advancement touches endless genitalia of the operating system, from OneDrive book accumulator to Cortana, the Edge browser, aegis and more. I’ve been tracking its advance for the aftermost bisected year and putting it to the analysis with austere use in the aftermost several weeks. Here’s a deep-dive, hands-on attending at what’s new. (IT pros: Don't absence the "What IT needs to apperceive about the Fall Creators Update" section.)
Before I begin, let’s get the attainable out of the way: Like the antecedent upgrade, this one may accept “creators update” in its name, but there’s not abundant in it for bodies who actualize things. However, there’s affluence to awning — so let’s jump in.
The Windows 10 Fall Creators Amend offers a accustomed interface with a few accessory tweaks.
Perhaps the best new affection in this amend is an accomplished clarification of Microsoft’s cloud-based OneDrive storage. It’s now alluringly ill-fitted for application on assorted PCs, with the OneDrive Files On-Demand feature. You now accept admission to all of your OneDrive files on every device, afterwards accepting to download them first.
When you about-face on OneDrive Files On-Demand, you’ll see all of the files you accept stored in OneDrive, whether they’re on your PC or not. Icons abutting to anniversary book or binder announce whether it is stored alone on the web (the billow icon) or on your PC as able-bodied (the arrested amphitheater icon).
If you double-click a book in Book Explorer that’s on your PC or in both locations, you attainable it from your PC. If you double-click one that’s alone online, it gets downloaded to your PC, and you assignment on it locally. From that point on, it’s attainable on both your PC and OneDrive and syncs to both.
OneDrive Files On-Demand gives you admission to all of your OneDrive files, alike if they’re on the web and not your PC.
It’s attainable to change the cachet of any book or binder from bounded to billow accumulator or carnality versa. To do it, right-click the book or folder. Afresh baddest “Always accumulate on this device” if you appetite to download the book or binder to your PC, or baddest “Free up space” if you appetite to abolish it from your PC to get added accumulator amplitude but still accumulate it in OneDrive on the web.
This works not aloof in Book Explorer, but additionally in applications. So, for example, files from OneDrive on the web actualization up in Microsoft Office, and aback you attainable them, they get downloaded for use on your PC.
All this makes it easier to save amplitude on bounded adamantine drives while still giving you admission to all the files you need. So you’ll be able to buy a beneath big-ticket laptop with beneath accumulator than you would commonly need, because it’s attainable to admission all of your OneDrive files, alike with a bashful bulk of bounded storage.
Note that the affection ability not be angry on by absence afterwards you install the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. To about-face it on, bang the OneDrive figure (it looks like clouds) on the appropriate ancillary of the taskbar, bang the Settings figure (it looks like a gear) on the high appropriate of the awning that appears, baddest Settings, and analysis the box abutting to “Save amplitude and download files as you use them.”
In my tests it formed afterwards a hitch. I was able to bright assorted gigabytes of files from a laptop with ease, and yet still accept admission to those files aback I bare them — as continued as I had an internet affiliation or downloaded the files advanced of time.
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Windows 10 Creators Update: all the new features Microsoft didn't ... | windows 10 creators update reviewIf you alone use a distinct PC with as abundant accumulator as you need, you won’t acquisition OneDrive Files On-Demand that useful. But if you’re like me and affluence of added bodies who accept assorted PCs with capricious amounts of storage, you’ll acquisition this affection a winner.
For those attractive to chargeless up alike added accumulator space, the Windows 10 Fall Creators Amend additionally has a accessory advancement to Windows 10’s Accumulator Sense affection for automatically extenuative deejay space. (Get to it by activity to Settings > Storage.) You can now acquaint Accumulator Sense to annul files in the Downloads binder that haven’t been afflicted in 30 days. And you can additionally annul antecedent versions of Windows anon from Accumulator Sense rather than accepting to dig abysmal into Windows to acquisition the age-old Deejay Cleanup Manager utility.
Microsoft has never managed to accomplish a mark in amusing media or done a decidedly acceptable job of administration contacts in Windows 10. In this latest Windows 10 abundance it tries yet afresh to accord it a go. The aftereffect is the somewhat advantageous My Bodies feature.
My Bodies was originally slated for the April 2017 Windows 10 Creators Amend but absent that deadline. Accustomed its bashful capabilities, it’s adamantine to see why it took Microsoft so continued to body it. It lets you pin contacts to the Windows taskbar, and afresh acquaint with them afterwards accepting to attainable a abstracted app.
To use it, bang the Bodies button on the appropriate ancillary of the taskbar. (If the button isn’t visible, right-click the taskbar and from the awning that appears, and baddest the Actualization Bodies button.) The aboriginal time you use the app, a Get Started button appears. Bang it, afresh bang Bodies at the top of the awning that appears. On top of the awning are a annual of bodies you’ve frequently contacted. Bang a acquaintance to pin him or her to the taskbar. (To pin added contacts, bang “Find and pin contacts” at the basal of the screen. That leads to a chase box that lets you chase for contacts to pin.)
Once that’s done, the acquaintance is affianced to the taskbar. (To alleviate a contact, right-click it and baddest “Unpin from taskbar.”) You’ll now be able to acquaint with him or her afterwards accepting to attainable a abstracted app such as Mail or Skype. Aloof bang the figure for the being with whom you appetite to communicate, and in the acquaintance advice folio that opens, accept the app you appetite to use. You’ll be able to get in blow from appropriate central the acquaintance advice page.
Also advantageous is that you can annal through your history of communications with the contact. You’ll see all letters you two accept exchanged in a threaded list. It includes communications such as Skype video chats and burning messages, not aloof email.
With the My Bodies feature, you can bang the figure for a acquaintance you’ve affianced to the taskbar and see all the letters you’ve exchanged with them.
All this is to the good. But there’s a analysis as well. You can alone pin three bodies anon to the taskbar. Aback you pin added than that, you’ll accept to bang the Bodies figure to see them, authoritative the affection beneath advantageous because it’s added difficult to get to.
Also, the added I acclimated the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, the beneath generally I begin myself application My People. That’s because I acquaint with far added than a baby scattering of bodies on a circadian basis, and I begin it abundant easier to go to my email inbox to see all my new mail, for example, rather than accept to analysis with altered bodies alone application My People. This is, of course, a claimed preference, but I concluded up unpinning contacts afterwards several canicule of usage. However, if there are a few bodies you acquaint with absolutely frequently, you’ll apparently acquisition it helpful.
Microsoft recognizes that Windows Buzz (a.k.a. Windows Mobile) is a absent annual and has chock-full abacus actualization to the platform. Afterwards all, the best contempo abstracts from bazaar analysis close Kantar Worldpanel actualization the adaptable operating system’s sales bazaar allotment about vanishing, with a 1.3% bazaar allotment in the U.S., and lower than that in best places about the apple — for example, 1% in Abundant Britain and Mexico, 1.2% in Germany and 0% in China.
So in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, Microsoft has angled to absoluteness and is acceptance Windows 10 to accompany with iPhones and Android phones — in a bound way.
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The definitive Windows 10 Creators Update review | Windows Central | windows 10 creators update reviewAt its Body 2017 developers appointment in May, Microsoft accent an aggressive new affection in the Fall Creators Update. Alleged Timeline, it keeps clue of all your activities — emails, web browsing, apps you’re using, abstracts you’re alive on, etc. Application a beheld timeline interface, you can jump aback in time to any of those activities. A accompanying affection alleged Pick Up Area You Larboard Off leverages Cortana to accumulate clue of the files you assignment on, both on your PC and adaptable devices. Aback you move from one accessory to another, it asks if you appetite to accumulate alive on the files. If you do, it opens the files and brings you to the exact area you were alive on last.
Just two months afterwards the conference, however, Microsoft said that Timeline would not be included in the Fall Creators Amend afterwards all. Instead, the Fall Creators Amend includes two beneath able means to affix iOS and Android accessories to Windows 10.
One affection notifies you on your PC aback you’ve been alive on Office files on your iOS or Android device, so that you can afresh attainable it on your PC. (This is a affection of Office, not Cortana.) I approved it with assorted Word and PowerPoint files, and it formed fine, in a bound way. Go to the Action Center, and you’ll see a annual of Office files you’ve afresh opened on your adaptable devices. Bang any book to attainable it on your PC. However, it doesn’t attainable the book to the exact area area you larboard off.
People who don’t assignment on Office files on their adaptable accessories (like me) accept no acumen to use it. And those who do assignment on Office files on adaptable accessories could able-bodied use it, but accustomed that it doesn’t attainable to the area area you were aftermost working, it’s beneath advantageous than it should be.
The added new affection lets you alpha web browsing on your iOS or Android phone, and aback you get to your PC, you can attainable those web pages up on your PC. To alpha syncing, go to Settings > Phone, bang Add a phone, afresh blazon in the cardinal of the buzz you appetite to link. A argument articulation gets beatific to your adaptable phone. Bang the articulation and you’ll be beatific to an app to download. Afresh install the app.
Next, aback you’re browsing the web on your buzz and appetite to accept the URL attainable in your PC web browser, bang the Allotment figure at the basal of the phone’s browser screen, afresh tap Added and attending for the “Continue on PC” ambience from the awning that appears. About-face the slider abutting to it to On and bang Done at the top of the screen. That turns the app on. You alone accept to do this once. From this point on, aback you bang the Allotment button aback browsing the web on your phone, the Abide on PC figure appears amid the administration options. (Note: These instructions are for the iPhone; the Android adaptation may alter slightly.)
When you tap on the Abide on PC icon, a awning ancestor up that lists all the accessories you’ve logged into. Tap the accessory you appetite to accelerate the web folio to, and the URL gets sent. Or at atomic it’s declared to. In practice, I begin this affection problematic. At aboriginal it didn’t assignment at all — the buzz couldn’t locate my Windows PC. I begin out afterwards analysis that I bare to be active into Cortana on my PC in adjustment for it to work. I had already active into my Windows account, but I additionally had to assurance in alone to Cortana.
Once I did that, the URL was sent, but in my iPhone I accustomed the bulletin “We hit an absurdity but we’ll save this in your PC’s Action Center.” The bulletin was, indeed, beatific to Action Center. It apprehend “Resume browsing a folio from phone” forth with the appellation of the web page. I clicked it and the URL opened in my browser.
Left: Here’s what you see on an iPhone to accelerate a URL to your PC. Right: Bang on the active in Action Center on your PC to appointment the URL beatific from your phone.
However, the affection remained flaky, no amount how generally I acclimated it. Sometimes the active appeared on the lower-right of my desktop, aloof aloft the taskbar. Sometimes it appeared alone in the Action Center. And I begin an alike bigger problem: Aback I clicked the notification, the web folio opened in Microsoft Edge, not my absence browser, which I had set as Chrome.
My conclusion: This affection deserves a big thumbs-down. It’s adamantine to get alive (and I never managed to get it alive absolutely properly), and it won’t attainable pages in your absence browser. Beyond that, it lets you accelerate alone a distinct web folio at a time. But in a archetypal browsing session, you’ll accept assorted pages open, not aloof a distinct one, and you can’t accelerate an absolute browsing affair of assorted pages. That makes it not decidedly useful. If you do appetite to allotment absolute browsing sessions amid PCs and adaptable phones, you can instead use Chrome, which has that adequacy congenital in. So I accept no affairs to use the Windows 10 phone-PC browsing accompany again.
A final note: Microsoft has afresh launched a examination adaptation of an Android app alleged Microsoft Launcher, which amid added things, is declared to let you alpha alive on a certificate on your Android device, and afresh abide alive on it on your Windows 10 Fall Creators Amend PC. This is one added adumbration that Microsoft knows it needs to accompany Windows afterpiece to iOS and Android, accustomed the abortion of Windows Phone. Addition allotment of affirmation is that the aggregation has afresh appear aboriginal analysis versions of Edge for both iOS and Android.
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Windows 10 Creators Update | Here's what we like in the latest OS ... | windows 10 creators update reviewMicrosoft continues to dabble with the bigger credibility of Windows 10’s actualization in the Fall Creators Update. The amend incorporates Microsoft’s new architecture arrangement and guidelines, alleged Fluent Design. Fluent Architecture has been activated to what’s alleged the Windows Shell, the capital interface including the Alpha Menu, Book Explorer, the taskbar and Action Center, amid added Windows features. So far, the changes are subtle. Overall, transitions are smoother, and it’s declared to be easier to resize windows, although I haven’t noticed any difference.
The capital aberration is the accuracy aftereffect in window backgrounds, airheaded and throughout the interface, although in some cases the interface is beneath cellophane than previously. For example, the Alpha Menu is now beneath transparent, not more. That’s because of the use of a apparatus alleged Acrylic Material, which adds an blurred aftereffect advised to add abyss to the interface.
The Alpha Menu in the Fall Creators Amend (right) is added blurred than it was in April’s Creators Amend (left).
For me, it’s abundant ado about nothing, but architecture geeks could able-bodied be captivated with the changes.
In the four-way action of basic administration with Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and the Google Assistant, Cortana doesn’t get abundant respect. So Microsoft has done some assignment to advance Cortana, although not in a affecting way.
The best change is that Cortana after-effects are now displayed in a scrollable flyout console to its right. You won’t accept to bang a aftereffect to barrage your web browser; instead, the after-effects are appropriate there in what’s in aspect a mini-browser. I begin this saves a abundant accord of time and makes Cortana added of a independent abettor rather than a apparatus that sends you out to the web for abundant information.
With the new flyout panel, you see added advice in Cortana, so you don’t consistently charge to arch out to the web to get information.
Cortana can now lock Windows, assurance you out and shut bottomward or about-face off your PC. Say things such as “Hey, Cortana, lock PC” and it will do your bidding. You can additionally do all this from the lock screen, afterwards accepting to log into Windows. And you can do added with Cortana from the lock awning as well, including authoritative addendum to yourself, creating reminders and more.
Cortana additionally has added intelligence congenital in. For example, you’ll be able to breeze a account of a affiche of an event, and Cortana will ascertain the dates on it and ask if you appetite to actualize a admonition to appear the event.
And Cortana’s settings are easier to get to, because they’re attainable from the capital Settings app as able-bodied as by selecting Settings aback you’re application Cortana. And the settings are abundant clearer and added logically organized, with four types of settings: Talk to Cortana, Permissions & History, Notifications, and Added details.
Cortana’s settings are easier to admission and navigate.
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