Microsoft just announced that the Windows 10 Creators Update will start rolling out on April 11, building upon the foundation laid by ...
Microsoft just announced that the Windows 10 Creators Update will start rolling out on April 11, building upon the foundation laid by vanilla Windows 10 and its subsequent “November” and “Anniversary” updates. While not every feature that Microsoft promised at the Creators Update’s reveal last fall actually made the final cut, it’s still overflowing with helpful new extras that polish rough edges and just plain make things more fun.
CORTANAENABLEINSTALLATION
The first change you'll notice in the Windows 10 Creators Update is literally the first thing you'll see when you boot up: An improved installation process.Microsoft’s taken a lot of heat for Windows 10’s deeper hooks into your personal data. The Creators Update addresses that concern with the introduction of an easy-to-parse privacy dashboard that’s now integrated directly into the installation setup. It’s a handy overview of your broad options. Don’t want every aspect of your system beamed back to Microsoft? Turn the diagnostics to Basic. Don’t want Cortana listening to your microphone, awaiting a verbal summons? Disable speech recognition. (You may still want to dig into Settings privacy section for more granular controls, however.).Note that disabling speech recognition kills another key new installation highlight: The Windows 10 Creators Update’s setup process can be done almost hands-free with Microsoft’s Cortana digital assistant if you have a working microphone. Cortana narrates your options, you tell her what you want, and it’s over in less than five minutes. Nifty!
AMOREHELPFULCORTANA
Speaking of Cortana, the digital assistant’s picked up some other new tricks. Perhaps most notably, the enhanced full-screen version that debuted on the Anniversary Update’s lock screen branches out in the Creators Update, appearing whenever you verbally summons Cortana, whether your PC’s idle or locked for 10 seconds or more. The Windows 10 Creators Update finally gives Cortana the ability to set recurring reminders, so Microsoft’s assistant can help you remember to pay your bills or attend your weekly board game session. And Cortana recently gained the opt-in ability to scan your Office 365 or Outlook email account for commitments you’ve made and automatically configure reminders. So if you told someone you’d book a reservation or deliver a presentation on a certain time, Cortana will toss you a reminder when that time comes—no action needed on your end.
MICROSOFTEDGEENHANCEMENT
After months of losing market share to Chrome, Microsoft’s rolling out a raft of new features to lure you back to Windows 10’s Edge browser. Two of the major draws revolve around downtime. First and foremost, Edge is the only browser that can play Netflix videos at 1080p resolution rather than 720p, and the Creators Update ups that to 4K support. You’ll need a 4K monitor and a bleeding-edge PC with an Intel Kaby Lake processor, though—and hopefully no data cap. Edge is a basic e-reader now too, tying into the Windows Store’s newfound Books section. You’ll find your available books in aptly named new "Books" section of Edge’s “Hub” menu (where you’ll also find webpage bookmarks and articles stashed for later).If you’re a tab addict, you might love Edge’s last major addition: the ability to set aside tabs for later perusal. At any point, you can click the new Set these tabs aside button to the left of the URL bar to whisk them away to a new holding pen for later re-summoning. It’s all or nothing, though; if you want to keep some of the tabs open, you’ll need to move them to another Edge window. Once you’ve set some tabs aside, click the black Tabs you’ve set aside icon to the left of the stashing button to see what you’ve got stored for safekeeping.
PAINT3D
Let’s be frank: A lot of the niftier 3D and VR stuff promised for the Creators Update didn’t make it to the finished product. There’s no scanning app for Windows Phones to turn physical objects into 3D digital items, no 3D support in Office apps, and no wild user-facing VR capabilities. But the next-gen Paint 3D app is there, and it’s a blast.
Paint 3D exists to make crafting cartoony 3D scenes fast, fun, and easy. The app also hooks into Microsoft’s new Remix 3D website, where you’ll find fresh 3D objects created and shared by other Paint 3D users. It’s a blast.
Unfortunately, Microsoft’s Paint 3D tutorial is overly complicated, and the program doesn’t explain itself very well.
FOCUSONGAMING
The Creators Update places a larger focus on gaming, adding a new Gaming hub in the Settings app. The Gaming hub yanks Windows 10’s Game Bar and Game DVR options from the Xbox app (huzzah!) and includes settings for two new features: Broadcasting and Game Mode.
Broadcasting is where you’ll fine-tune the Creators Update’s newfound ability to stream games to your Xbox Live friends via Microsoft’s Beam service. The available settings are pitiful compared to Twitch’s options, though that also makes streaming dead-simple. It’ll probably be most useful if you primarily game on an Xbox console and have a deep friends list there, or if you’ve been picking up pals in Xbox Live-powered Play Anywhere games that have appeared on PCs, like Gears of War 4 or Forza Horizon 3.
You can start streaming your games by opening the Game Bar using the Win + G command and selecting the streaming option.
NIGHTLIGHT
Staring at a screen all day can be tiring on the eyes, and at night it can actually trick the brain into thinking it's still taking in daylight. This happens due to screens emitting something called a blue light. Because of this, users who use their PCs late at night can sometimes find it much harder to go to sleep. To get around this, Microsoft has built into Windows 10 a new function that gives the screen a warm tint during the evenings, which as a result is more easy on the eyes and doesn't confuse the brain into thinking it's still day, meaning you can get to sleep easier when you're done.
The new feature is called Night Light and is built directly into Windows 10's settings app. It's off by default and has basic configurable options, such as changing the intensity of the warm tint and setting a scheduled time for it to come on automatically.
The scheduling option for Night Light is nice, but I've heard complaints from many that the warm tint comes on a little bit too fast. I've timed it, and I believe it takes around two minutes once the setting has been enabled to kick in fully, which is incredibly quick compared to flux's configurable options which can go up to an hour and beyond. The more gradual the warm tint, the less you notice it coming on.
Since Night Light's gradual turn on time is non configurable, you're stuck with it taking two minutes every time it's set to automatically come on. If you manually turn it on, the change is instant of course, but most people want it to take longer, or at least have the option to make the turn on time longer. You can change the intensity of the warm tint, however, which is an excellent addition. You can have it be a much cooler color or a very warm color, where the very warm end of the spectrum is a lot more noticeable than the cooler end. Depending on how badly you are affected by blue light emission, you can adjust the intensity yourself, but the default option should be fine for most.
You can turn the feature on in Settings, and there's a quick-access toggle available in the Action Center too, which is excellent for quickly enabling the feature if you haven't got it set to come on automatically in the evenings.
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