Windows 10 version 21H1: Key enterprise features

Microsoft recently announced the availability of Windows 10 version 21H1, known as the May 2021 Update. Breaking with the major-minor cadence established for Windows 10 feature updates over the past few years, with a major release in the spring and a minor one in the fall, the May 2021 Update offers only a handful of minor changes.

Here are the updates that enterprise users and IT pros should know about:

• Windows Hello multicamera support: If you have an external Windows Hello camera for your PC, you can set the external camera as your default camera. (Windows Hello is used for signing into PCs.) Why should this change matter to you? If you have an external camera, you probably bought it because it’s superior to the built-in, internal one on your computer. So with this change, you’ll be able to use the more accurate camera for logging into your PC.
• Improved Windows Defender Application Guard performance: Windows Defender Application Guard lets administrators configure applications to run in an isolated, virtualized container for improved security. With this change, documents will open more quickly. It can currently take up to a minute to open an Office document in it.
• Better Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Group Policy Service support: Microsoft has made it easier for administrators to change settings to support remote work.

Microsoft also removed support for Windows 2000-era XDDM-based remote display drivers and for the legacy Edge browser in Windows 10 21H1. (The new Chromium-based version of Edge is included in the OS.)

Windows 10 October 2020 Update (version 20H2)

Announced on October 20, Windows 10 version 20H2, also known as the October 2020 Update, offers only minor tweaks — more akin to a service pack of Windows’ days of yore than a typical feature update. Most of what’s in the October 2020 Update debuted earlier in the year in version 2004, the May 2020 Update.

Still, there are a few changes in 20H2 that enterprise users may be interested in:

• The new Chromium-based version of the Microsoft Edge browser is now built directly into Windows 10.
• The System page of Control Panel has been removed. Those settings have been moved to the Settings app.
• The Start menu’s tiled background will match your choice of Windows themes. So the tiled background will be light if you’re using the Windows 10 light theme and dark if you’re using the Windows 10 dark theme.
• When you use Alt-Tab, Edge will now display each tab in your browser in a different Alt-Tab window. Previously, when you used Alt-Tab, Edge would get only a single window.
• When you pin a site to the taskbar in Edge, you can click or mouse over its icon to see all your browser tabs that are open for that website.
• When you detach a keyboard on a 2-in-1 device, the device will automatically switch to the tablet-based interface. Previously, you were asked whether you wanted to switch.
• The Your Phone app gets a variety of new features for some Samsung devices. When using one of the devices, you can interact with the Android apps on your phone from the Your Phone app on Windows 10.

In addition, there are some features IT pros should know about:

• IT professionals who administer multiple mobile devices get a new Modern Device Management (MDM) “Local Users and Groups” settings policy that mirrors options available for devices that are managed through Group Policy.
• Windows Autopilot, used to set up and configure devices in enterprises, has gained a variety of small enhancement, including better deployment of HoloLens devices, the addition of co-management policies, enhancements to Autopilot deployment reporting, and the ability to reuse Configuration Manager task sequences to configure devices.
• Microsoft Defender Application Guard now supports Office. This allows untrusted Office documents from outside an enterprise to launch in an isolated container to stop potentially malicious content from compromising computers or exploiting personal information found on them.
• Latest Cumulative Updates (LCUs) and Servicing Stack Updates (SSUs) have been combined into a single cumulative monthly update, available via Microsoft Catalog or Windows Server Update Services.
• Biometric sign-on has been made more secure. Windows Hello now has support for virtualization-based security for certain fingerprint and face sensors, which protects, isolates, and secures a user’s biometric authentication data.

For more details, see Microsoft’s “What’s new for IT pros in Windows 10, version 20H2.”

Windows 10 May 2020 Update (version 2004)

Released on May 29, Windows 10 version 2004 just barely made it in time to earn its May 2020 Update moniker. Unlike some previous Windows 10 feature updates, version 2004 doesn’t introduce a bunch of major new features. But it does include several useful tweaks to the ways business users and admins interact with the OS, such as the option of signing in without a password, an improved interface for 2-in-1 PCs, and a Cortana reboot that puts productivity first.

Read on for the ways that version 2004 helps make daily work in Windows 10 better.

Cortana means business

Cortana has undergone a soft reboot in version 2004. Microsoft has shifted the focus of its digital assistant away from home users to office workers. In fact, Microsoft has killed many of Cortana’s features and functions that were meant for the home user, such as the ability to control music apps and home tech devices.

Now the emphasis is on using Cortana to assist you for work, mostly with Office 365. You can speak to Cortana or type into its query box for personal productivity tasks such as finding a document, sending an email, or scheduling a meeting. You can also request that it add an item to a to-do list, set a reminder, or update you on your schedule.

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Instead of being tied to the taskbar, the “new” Cortana acts more like a standard app, opening in its own window that can be moved and resized. This version of Cortana will be available first for Windows 10 users in the U.S.

Passwordless sign-ins

Windows 10 2004 lets you use Microsoft’s Windows Hello biometric security system to sign in to Microsoft services on your Windows 10 PC using facial recognition (via your device’s front-facing camera or an attached camera), your fingerprint (if your device has a fingerprint reader), or a PIN. This means that when you sign in to Windows 10, Office 365, OneDrive, Outlook.com or another Microsoft service that requires a sign-in, you can use one of these methods instead of typing in a password — an easy way to boost security.

To turn this feature on, launch the Settings app. Then click Accounts > Sign-in options and under “Require Windows Hello sign-in for Microsoft accounts,” select On. The next time you sign in to Windows 10 or a Microsoft service, Windows Hello will guide you through setup.

Improved design and taskbar quick-add for Calendar app

There’s a new version of the Calendar app in Windows 10 2004. (It’s not exclusive to this update; it can be downloaded separately from the Windows Store app.) Its layout now brings attention to your day’s events better, and a new pane showing your events has been added in month view.

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There’s also a neat new feature that lets you schedule an event without having to open the Calendar app. Click the date on the right end of the taskbar, and a sidebar showing a calendar will scroll in from the right. Click on a day or scroll through the months to pick a day in another month. Then in the text box below the calendar, type in a name for the event or reminder, and choose a time when you want Windows 10 to send you a notification about it. This event or reminder will be added to the Calendar app.

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File Explorer integrated with Windows Search

File Explorer’s search function is now integrated with Windows Search, the search box on the taskbar. So you can use File Explorer to search for your documents in OneDrive, too, if you use Microsoft’s cloud storage service on your Windows 10 PC.

Also, when you click inside the File Explorer search box, a drop-down menu opens below the box listing suggested files that you may be looking for. If you type in letters or words, this list drills down to filenames that have these letters or words. You can launch a file on this list by clicking it. Or, to go to the directory where a file is located in File Explorer, right-click on it and select “Open file location” from the menu that opens.

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Smarter Windows Search, less taxing search indexer

In addition to the integration of File Explorer, there are a number of under-the-hood changes to Windows Search in 2004, including an algorithm that manages the search indexer so it doesn’t bog your system down, improved spell correction for Apps & Settings searches, and hints to clarify search results. The Windows Search pane is also adding “quick-search” buttons for one-click access to local weather, top news, and more.

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Improved notification management

Notifications show up as pop-up cards over the lower right of the desktop and in the Action Center sidebar. Windows 10 2004 brings a few improvements for managing them.

A notification pop-up card now has a gear icon button that lets you turn off all notifications for the app that sent it or go directly to the app’s notification settings. Also, at the top of the Action Center sidebar, there’s a link that goes to the Notifications & Actions section in the Settings app.

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In the Notifications & Actions section, the option to mute all notifications is listed at the top for quick access. You can sort the list of apps by the ones that most recently sent notifications. And screenshots illustrate what happens when you change certain notification settings so that you understand them better.

Customizable virtual desktop names

Virtual desktops help you organize your workspace by creating separate app groupings. For example, you can create one virtual desktop for daily work-related applications, another for personal activities, and a third for a special project you’re working on, keeping all three readily accessible but separate.

One big drawback to Windows 10’s implementation of virtual desktops was that you couldn’t customize their names; they were simply called Desktop 1, Desktop 2 and so on. Version 2004 improves the feature by letting you rename desktops so you can more easily discern which is which at a glance. Another bonus: With 2004, Windows 10 now retains your virtual desktops even after you restart your system.

Your Phone app: voice calls through your Android phone

The Your Phone app was introduced in an earlier Windows 10 update to link your Android smartphone to your Windows 10 PC in various ways: Most of the notifications on your phone can be forwarded to the Windows 10 Action Center sidebar, and you can use Your Phone to compose text messages that are routed out through your phone and to access the photos stored on your phone.

Your Phone in 2004 adds a couple new features: You can use it to answer or decline an incoming call to your phone, or to make a voice call on your PC that is routed out through your phone. When you decline an incoming call, you can use Your Phone to reply with a text or send the caller to your phone’s voicemail. There’s a dialer and contacts list in the app for you to use to make calls. You can also access your phone’s call history from Your Phone.

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A more laptop-like experience for 2-in-1 devices

Windows 10 has long provided a user interface for tablets that more closely resembled Windows 8’s Start Screen interface than Windows 10’s desktop interface. Users of 2-in-1 Windows 10 devices had the option of using both interfaces: You could set your device to automatically switch to tablet mode when you detached the keyboard from a detachable tablet or swung the display back around 180 degrees on a convertible tablet, and to return to laptop mode when you reattached the keyboard or returned the convertible to laptop form.  

Instead of switching you to the old Windows 8-style tablet mode, version 2004 by default switches you to a new tablet UI that mimics the Windows 10 desktop interface, but with increased spacing between icons on the taskbar (for easier tapping) and a Search icon in place of the Search box. When you tap on a text field, such as a form on a web page, the Windows 10 on-screen keyboard appears so you can enter text into the field. And the File Explorer interface switches to its more touch-friendly layout as well.

These UI adjustments automatically change back when you flip your convertible to its laptop form or reattach the keyboard to the tablet.

Easier Bluetooth connections

The 2004 update makes it easier to connect devices and peripherals to your Windows 10 PC through Bluetooth.

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When a nearby Bluetooth-enabled device is set to pairing mode, you can connect your Windows 10 PC to it through the notification card that pops up to alert you of the device’s presence — so you no longer need to go to the Settings app to make the pairing. The notification also now shows the name of the Bluetooth device and its hardware category (headphones, keyboard, mouse, etc.).

Zoomable screenshots in Snip & Sketch

Snip & Sketch, Windows 10’s default screenshot-taking app, gets two useful tweaks: Whenever you capture a new screenshot, any window of a previously taken screenshot is closed, to prevent cluttering the desktop with multiple screenshot windows. (This option can be turned off.) Second, you can now zoom in or out of a screenshot by pressing Ctrl and scrolling a mouse wheel, using a touchscreen, or pressing Ctrl and the + and – keys.

Features for IT pros

In addition to the workflow enhancing features outlined above, 2004 adds several features that Windows administrators and developers should know about:

• Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 makes its debut. Unlike the original WSL, which used an emulator, WSL2 runs on its own kernel. The architecture change should improve performance and compatibility.
• IT admins can require Windows Hello passwordless login for Microsoft services on company devices.
• Windows Defender Application Guard, an IT security tool originally developed for Microsoft’s EdgeHTML-based browser, protects users by isolating files received from untrusted or potentially dangerous sites. In Windows 10 2004 Pro or Enterprise, WDAG also works in the company’s new Chromium-based version of Edge and allows Edge extensions to run in containers.
• From the start, Windows 10 users have been plagued with inconvenient and time-consuming system updates, something that Microsoft has worked hard to alleviate over the years. The company says that in version 2004, user downtime during feature updates has been reduced to 20 minutes and requires just one reboot.
• The company has also enhanced its enterprise Delivery Optimization service to make more efficient use of network resources while downloading installation packages.
• Finally, version 2004 offers the option to download Windows setup files from Microsoft instead of using local files when resetting a PC.

Windows 10 November 2019 Update (version 1909)

At long last, Microsoft has released its fall update to Windows 10. Code-named “19H2” (for 2019, second half), the release, version 1909, is officially called the Windows 10 November 2019 Update.

There’s very little new for enterprises in this update — in fact, there’s very little new for anyone. That’s a break with the past, in which each of the two-a-year Windows 10 feature updates had at least a handful of interesting new features. So think of this not as an update, but as what Microsoft used to call a service pack, which rolled up a series of small, incremental changes, many of them under the hood.

Still, there are a few small changes enterprises should know about:

• Windows containers no longer need to have their host and container versions match. That requirement restricted Windows from supporting mixed-version container pod scenarios. Previously, containers from older versions of Windows 10 couldn’t be run on newer versions of Windows 10. In this update, it’s possible, so that a container made using 1903, for example, can be run on 1909.
• Windows Defender Credential Guard, which protects enterprise users’ logins and credentials against theft, is now available for ARM64 devices. Some Windows 10 convertible PCs use ARM64.
• Enterprises can now use Microsoft’s Intune enterprise mobility management (EMM) service to allow devices running Windows 10 in S mode to install and run Win32 (desktop) apps. Before this, S Mode only allowed devices to run apps from the Microsoft Store. Microsoft Store apps don’t run on the desktop.
• The security of BitLocker encryption has been improved. Whenever BitLocker is used to encrypt a device, a recovery key is created, but before this security improvement, it was possible for an unauthorized user to get access to the recovery key and decrypt the device. Now, PCs have additional security if a key is exposed. Here’s how Microsoft explains the change: “Key-rolling or Key-rotation feature enables secure rolling of Recovery passwords on MDM managed AAD devices upon on demand request from Microsoft Intune/MDM tools or upon every time recovery password is used to unlock the BitLocker protected drive.”

At this point it’s not clear whether in the future there will be one full-featured update and one service-pack-like update per year or whether Microsoft will go back to its two-feature-updates-a-year schedule. (See “5 unanswered questions about Windows 10 1909.”)

Keep reading for key enterprise features introduced in earlier Windows 10 spring and fall updates.

Windows 10 May 2019 Update (version 1903)

At first glance, there doesn’t appear to be a whole lot that’s new in the May 2019 Update, version 1903. But several of these “little things” could affect the way you use a Windows 10 PC daily for work, or how you manage PCs in your office.

Here are a handful of useful features that have shown up in the previews of the May 2019 Update over the last several months. (Please note that Microsoft may decide not to include some of these features in the final release.) In addition, we’ve called out a few other new Windows 10 features that are not part of the May 2019 Update but that business users and IT admins should know about.

(See the subsequent pages of this story for key enterprise features introduced in earlier Windows 10 feature updates.)

1. Cortana and Search go their separate ways

With previous Windows 10 releases, Microsoft tied its digital assistant Cortana tightly to the search function. Both shared the search box at the left edge of the Windows 10 taskbar.

The May 2019 Update turns Cortana and Search into two distinct tools that are no longer tied to another. There’s a new Cortana icon on the taskbar that’s separate from the search box, a change that is meant to lessen confusion between what each is supposed to do. Search is for finding files on your PC and information online. Clicking Cortana activates the personal assistant.

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2. Android phone screen mirroring

Your Phone is an app that was introduced with the Windows 10 October 2018 Update, version 1809. It allows you to forward a web page from an Android or iOS device to your PC for viewing on the larger screen, and also to access photos stored on Android devices from your PC.

The May 2019 Update extends Your Phone’s capabilities, letting you mirror an Android device on your Windows 10 PC. In other words, you can control your Android phone from your PC. Your phone’s screen appears in the Your Phone app window, which you’re able to interact with using your PC keyboard and mouse. This feature works through a Bluetooth connection between both devices.

As of this writing, this feature in the previews of the May 2019 Update works only with Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+/S9/S9+ phones. Microsoft plans to add support for more phones (no time frame specified), which will need to be running Android 7.0 or later.

 

3. Windows Update improvements

The updating tool for Windows 10 is getting three new functions in the May 2019 Update:

The May 2019 Update has a system in place to automatically uninstall updates issued in the future that do not install on your PC correctly. If such an update prevents Windows 10 from starting up, Windows Update tries to determine the cause and blocks the update for 30 days. You still have the option to try to manually install the update.

Second, the May 2019 Update gives Windows 10 Home users an option that Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise and Education users already have: the ability to pause updates for a set number of days. To do so, go to the Settings app and choose Update & Security > Pause updates for 7 days. You can change the duration of the pause period by choosing Advanced options, but the maximum for Windows 10 Home users is seven days at a time. That said, you can do this five times, for a total of 35 days. The update will install when the pause period is up, or you can click Resume updates to install it immediately.

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Finally, if you do a clean installation of the May 2019 Update on your PC, space will be set aside on its main drive to store Windows 10 update files (and also apps, system caches, and temporary files). This is to help ensure that your PC’s main storage won’t get filled up by other files, preventing updates to Windows from being installed.

Microsoft anticipates that 7GB is needed for this reserved space, but you can reduce this somewhat by uninstalling foreign languages and optional Windows 10 features that you’re not using. (To uninstall a language, go to Settings > Time & Language > Language. To uninstall optional features, go to Settings > Apps > Apps & features > Manage optional features.)

4. Safely test apps in Windows Sandbox

When you’re uncertain if an executable file you downloaded is safe, the May 2019 Update lets you test it inside an isolated, lightweight version of Windows. Windows Sandbox keeps programs that you launch inside it contained, so they cannot directly affect or make changes to the main Windows 10 OS on your PC. When you close Windows Sandbox, programs that were running inside it, and any files that were created from them, are deleted.

Windows Sandbox is available only in the Pro and Enterprise versions of Windows 10, and only on PCs with virtualization enabled. After the May 2019 Update is installed, Sandbox needs to be installed through the Settings app: Go to Apps > Apps & Features > Programs and Features > Turn Windows Features on or off, then select Enable Windows Sandbox.

From there, you launch Windows Sandbox by opening the Start menu, typing Windows Sandbox and selecting the program in the search results. (See Microsoft’s Windows Sandbox information page for details.)

5. Simplified sign-in options

Microsoft has simplified the Windows 10 sign-in options in the May 2019 Update. You can now go to a single screen to find out information about the various sign-in options — Windows Hello face or fingerprint recognition, a Windows Hello PIN, a physical security key, your Microsoft password or a picture password — and make your choice right there. This screen is in the Settings app under Accounts > Sign-in options.

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6. Uninstall more default apps

You can now uninstall more of the default Microsoft apps that come preinstalled with a fresh Windows 10 installation. This lets you reduce clutter and save disk space — or even set up a bare-bones Windows 10 configuration for easier maintenance.

The previous October 2018 Update lets you uninstall only Microsoft Solitaire Collection, My Office, OneNote, Print 3D, Skype, Tips and Weather. The May 2019 Update lets you remove several more: 3D Viewer (previously called Mixed Reality Viewer), Calculator, Calendar, Groove Music, Mail, Movies & TV, Paint 3D, Snip & Sketch, Sticky Notes and Voice Recorder.

To uninstall an app, go to the Start menu, right-click on the app on the apps list column, and select Uninstall from the context menu.

7. New functions in File Explorer

File Explorer is getting a few useful enhancements in the May 2019 Update:

When you download files from the internet, they can sometimes be tough to find in your downloads folder because you might not know their filenames. With the May 2019 Update, File Explorer will put the most recently downloaded files at the top of the list by default. (If you’ve already changed your default sort order, however, your preferences will not be overridden.)

Maintaining Linux files through Windows 10 is now easier as well. In the May 2019 update, you can access files in a Linux distro from your Windows 10 PC through File Explorer and manage them like any ordinary Windows file. This includes copying and pasting and dragging and dropping them to other locations in the folder tree. Type explorer.exe from the main directory of the Linux distro to launch File Explorer. (You can find out more about this and other improvements to the Windows Subsystem for Linux at the Microsoft developer blog.)

8. Improved network settings and information

Networking in Windows 10 also gets a couple handy tweaks. First, advanced Ethernet IP settings are now available in the Settings app under Network & Internet > Ethernet. You can configure a static IP address and set a preferred DNS server. (Previously, you could get to these settings only in the classic Control Panel.)

Related to this, a new icon appears in the taskbar’s notification area to indicate when Windows 10 senses that no internet data is coming through its networking. The icon, a globe with a circle-slash symbol on it, is used universally for a lost internet connection through Ethernet, mobile data/cellular or Wi-Fi.

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Three more new Windows 10 features worth knowing about

Microsoft has been releasing other new Windows 10 additions that business users and IT admins should know about. Unlike the other items in this story, they’re not tied to the May 2019 Update and work with current versions of Windows 10.

Timeline extension for Chrome: In previous Windows 10 feature updates, Microsoft rolled out some useful features that were hindered by the fact that they worked only with its Edge browser, which few Windows 10 users have adopted. Perhaps conceding that Edge is never going to gain the user share it had hoped for, Microsoft is now extending those features to rival browsers via extensions you can install in those browsers.

Timeline is one such feature. It tracks your activities in various Windows apps over time — documents you’ve worked on, web pages you’ve visited, and so on — and shows these activities in a series of thumbnails that you can click on to pick up where you left off.

Initially the feature worked only with Microsoft’s Edge browser for web browsing history. But Microsoft has now released a Chrome browser extension for Timeline called Web Activities. With Web Activities installed in Chrome, you can see all the sites and links you’ve visited in Chrome listed on the Timeline — and that includes web-based apps like Google Drive, Gmail and Google Docs. (No word from Microsoft on whether a Timeline extension for Firefox is in the works.)

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Application Guard extensions for Chrome and Firefox: Windows Defender Application Guard is a second feature that initially was available only for Edge. For better security on the web, it allows IT administrators to designate a set of trusted websites. When users navigate to an untrusted site, it runs the Edge browser inside a virtual machine for protection against malware and other threats.

Now Microsoft is releasing browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox that work in conjunction with a Windows Defender Application Guard companion app downloaded from the Microsoft Store. With the app and extensions installed, when you’re using Chrome or Firefox and are about to visit a site or link that’s not trusted, it’ll be opened in the Edge browser under Application Guard instead. (Windows Defender Application Guard is available only for Windows 10 Enterprise and Pro editions on Windows 10 version 1803 or later.)

New Office app: Microsoft has released a free Office app for Windows 10 that’s modeled after its Office.com web portal. It acts as a convenient central hub for you to access Microsoft Office apps. Icons for the apps (Excel, OneNote, Outlook, PowerPoint, Word, etc.) are lined up along the top, and your most recently opened documents are shown along the bottom of the app’s main screen for easy access. The Office app works with Office 365, Office 2019, Office 2016, and Office Online.

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Windows 10 October 2018 Update (version 1809)

The latest version of Windows 10 has many monikers. Its version number is 1809, its code name was Redstone 5, and its official name, announced by Microsoft at IFA Berlin, is the Windows 10 October 2018 Update.

It’s clear that this release was designed mainly to improve and tweak the operating system. Yet Microsoft did add several new features to it. Most are small, but some are major. Here’s a look at 10 new features that could come in handy for business users and IT pros.

(See the subsequent pages of this story for key enterprise features in earlier Windows 10 updates.)

1. New clipboard tool with expanded features

One of the first keyboard shortcuts any Windows user learns is that pressing the Ctrl + V lets you paste an image or text from the clipboard. With this shortcut you can only paste the most recent item copied to the clipboard and can’t go back to earlier ones.

But Windows 10 version 1809 introduces a new clipboard tool that’s triggered when you press the Windows key + V. This tool shows a history of the text and images you’ve cut or copied to the Windows clipboard, letting you go back to any item (not just the most recent) to paste it.

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This clipboard also syncs across multiple Windows 10 PCs that are signed in with the same user account. For example, items you copy to the clipboard on a Windows 10 PC you use at home can be retrieved on your Windows 10 PC at the office.

These two functions have to be turned on. In the Settings app, go to System > Clipboard and select “Clipboard history” and “Sync across devices.”

2. Search Previews extend to apps and files

Search Previews is a feature that was added to the April 2018 Update. When you type a search term into the search box on the taskbar, you can click an arrow icon to open a panel showing a preview of the topmost web result found by Bing.

In version 1809, the search tool automatically expands to show this preview panel, and also supports previewing of documents and apps that are on your PC. Search for a document, and the preview panel shows information about it that includes when it was last modified and where it’s stored on your PC. (You’ve always been able to see this information when you right-click a document and view its properties, but it’s now shown in a more presentable way from the Windows 10 search box.)

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If you search for an app, the preview panel will show a list of documents that were recently opened with it.

3. New screenshot tool functions

Under previous versions of Windows 10, the built-in screenshot tool works like this: Pressing Windows key + Shift + S summons a cropping tool that appears over whatever is displayed on your PC screen. You can use it to select an area of the screen you want to save to the clipboard.

In version 1809, when you select an area to save, you’re presented with the option to open it in a new app, Screen Sketch. (This app might be renamed Snip & Sketch in the final release.) With it, you can do some basic editing on the image, including cropping it and doodling on it.

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Additionally, the cropping tool can also be summoned by clicking the “Screen snip” button on the Action Center panel, which you bring up by clicking the notification icon on the lower-right corner of the Windows 10 desktop.

4. More IT control over Microsoft Edge

New settings in Edge Group Policies let IT administrators disable the following features of the Microsoft browser for users: the Favorites Bar, full-screen viewing mode, printing, and saving browsing history. And admins can configure the Home button and new tab page — for instance, setting the URL that the Home button leads to — and manage extensions.

5. Link your phone to your PC with the Your Phone app

A new app called Your Phone is included with version 1809. It allows you to forward a web page you’re viewing on your Android smartphone or iPhone to your PC. You can resume viewing it from where you left off on the larger screen of your computer, using Microsoft Edge. This integration requires that you download and install an Android or iOS app to activate the link between your phone and Windows 10 PC.

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On smartphones running Android 7.0 or newer, there’s an additional feature: You can use your Windows 10 PC to access the pictures stored on your phone, by dragging them from your phone to your PC.

6. Windows updates install at more convenient times (theoretically)

A common complaint among Windows 10 users is that Windows Update always wants to install updates and restart your PC when you’re right in the middle of something. Version 1809 attempts to mitigate the problem by observing when you are most active on your PC. Based on this information, it estimates the best time to notify you to reboot to install an essential update.

According to a Microsoft blog post, “We’ve been using this model on internal devices, and we’ve seen promising results upon rollout.” It remains to be seen whether ordinary users will experience similar results.

7. File Explorer gets a dark theme

Windows 10 has offered a dark theme that changes the colors of the OS’ user interface and some of its default apps (including Calculator, Calendar, and Mail) since the release of the Anniversary Update in 2016. In version 1809, the dark theme is now available for File Explorer as well.

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Inverting the default black-text-against-light-background interface can extend battery power when you’re using a laptop. It might be easier on your eyes, too, especially if you’re in a low-light environment.

To switch to the dark theme for File Explorer, go to the Settings app, click Personalization > Colors, and select from “Choose your default app mode.”

8. Sign in faster on a shared PC

Windows 10 introduced “shared PC” mode, which lets you configure a PC securely so it can be shared between two or more people — for example, if you want to loan it to a temporary worker or guest. In previous versions of Windows 10, signing out of one account and into another on a shared PC could take a while as the OS reconfigured itself for a different user. Although the steps to switch accounts remain the same, Microsoft says it has sped up the process considerably in version 1809, and there should be little to no wait time after you sign in.

9. A quick settings toolbar for wireless video projection

If you have your PC configured to wirelessly send its display image to a monitor, projector or TV, version 1809 will place a toolbar at the top of the desktop. It lets you quickly disconnect your PC from the external device it’s sending video to.

This toolbar also has three modes you can select to enhance the transmission quality under certain uses. Game mode tunes the interaction between your PC and the external display to be more instantaneous — when you click a button on an app, the result seen on the external display should happen with little to no delay. Video mode helps make video playing on the external display appear smoother. Productivity mode is a mix of the other two modes. This toolbar could be helpful when you’re using a Windows 10 PC to wirelessly project a presentation.

10. Install fonts on a PC without administrator access

In previous versions of Windows, installing a font made it available for all user accounts on a PC. This kind of installation requires administrator privileges. But if you don’t have this privilege on your work PC or one that’s been configured for guest or temporary use in your office, then you cannot install a specific font you may need for a design, document, or presentation that you’re working on.

The April 2018 Update (version 1803) allows users to install fonts downloaded from the online Microsoft Store on their PC without administrator privileges. With version 1809, users can now install a font file downloaded from another source or stored on a USB flash drive.

To do this, in the File Explorer, go to your font file and right-click it. From the menu panel that opens, select “Install.” (“Install for all users” on this menu still requires administrator privileges.)

You can also double-click the font file, which will open a font previewer. Click the “Install” button on the upper-left corner.

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Windows 10 April 2018 Update (version 1803)

At long last, Microsoft has begun rolling out its spring update for Windows 10, version 1803. Following the six-month release cycle of previous feature updates, including the Creators Update in April 2017 and the Fall Creators Update in October 2017, version 1803 was expected in late March or early April 2018; however, the late discovery of a serious bug delayed the release until April 30. Coded-named Redstone 4, the new release is called, imaginatively, the Windows 10 April 2018 Update.

We’ve been tracking the Insider Preview builds of 1803 as they’ve rolled out. Here are the new features that enterprise users and IT should note.

1. Pick up where you left off with Timeline

The much anticipated Timeline feature debuts with the spring release. It’s part of the Task View tool and takes snapshots of your activities in various Windows apps over time — documents you were working on, web pages you visited, and so on. After a series of these snapshots have been archived by Timeline, you can click the Task View icon and scroll vertically back in time through thumbnails of these past activities, or use the search box to search for a specific activity. Click on any thumbnail, and the appropriate app and piece of content will be reopened.

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Using Timeline, you can open a snapshot to resume working on something where you left off. Even better, you can do this across different Windows 10 computers if you sign into them with your Microsoft online user account. You could start work on a document in the Word app using your home computer, and then resume writing it on your work computer at the office.

Be aware that Timeline only takes snapshots of Windows apps that have been designed to support it, such as the Edge browser and Microsoft Office apps. Microsoft is encouraging app developers to update their apps to support Timeline.

2. Get a handle on Microsoft’s diagnostic data harvesting

Attempting to alleviate privacy concerns that have been surrounding Windows 10, the Diagnostic Data Viewer shows you the diagnostic information that the OS sends to Microsoft. It also reveals information about your computer’s hardware that is stored in Microsoft’s cloud. All of this is presented in plain text format and is searchable through a search box in the tool.

As of this writing, the Diagnostic Data Viewer software itself isn’t included in the Windows 10 Insider builds, but Insiders who have installed build 17083 or later can download and install it. To do so, launch the Settings app, go to Privacy > “Diagnostics & feedback,” and turn on the “Diagnostic data viewer” option. A “Diagnostic Data Viewer” button will become active — you click it to launch the Microsoft Store app, which then presents you with the tool to download and install.

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Also on the Settings > Privacy > “Diagnostics & feedback” screen, you’ll find an option to delete all diagnostic data that Microsoft has collected from your device.

3. Share files over Bluetooth

The new Near Share feature lets you send files over Bluetooth to nearby Windows 10 PCs — handy for sharing files in meetings, for instance. All the computers you want to share with must have Bluetooth turned on, must be in Bluetooth range, must have Near Share enabled and must be running the Redstone 4 update.

For in-app use, Near Share works only from Windows apps that support sharing content, such as Photos and Edge. In these apps, when you click the “Share” button, Windows 10 computers nearby that have Near Share turned on will appear on the Share pop-up menu listing the devices that you can share to. In this way you can send an image you’re viewing in the Photos app or the URL for a web page you’re viewing in Edge to a nearby Windows 10 computer.

More useful: from File Explorer, you can use Near Share to transfer any file to another Windows 10 PC. Just right-click the file and choose Share to see the Share pop-up menu described above.

Near Share isn’t activated by default — you and anyone you want to share files with have to turn it on first. Click the Action Center icon located at the right end of the taskbar, and on the panel that slides in, click the “Near Share” button.

4. Enhanced “do not disturb” functions

The Quiet Hours feature has a new name, Focus Assist, and an interface you can access from the Settings app. It’s under System > Focus assist. Here you can set automatic rules for times when you don’t want to be disturbed.

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Focus Assist has three main settings: Turning Focus Assist off lets all notifications from your apps and contacts through. Selecting “Alarms only” hides all notifications except alarms.

Selecting “Priority only” is the middle path; it allows only selected notifications from your priority list through. You can grant priority to apps, people in your contacts, or phone activities (if you have an Android phone with the Cortana app installed). You can also control when you don’t want to be disturbed by these prioritized notifications: during a time range, when you are at a specified location (like home), or when your PC is set to display its screen on another display (such as when you’re giving a presentation).

You can switch among the three main Focus Assist settings on the fly by right-clicking the Action Center icon in the taskbar and making a selection from the pop-up menu.

5. Settings app additions and changes

As has been the case with each major Windows 10 update, the April 2018 Update copies a few more settings and functions from areas of the old Windows user interface to the Settings app.

First up is control of startup applications. In the old days, if you wanted to prevent a background application from loading and running when Windows boots up, you had to launch the Task Manager to set this. Now this control also appears in the Settings app under Apps > Startup. This new way is far simpler: simply click the switch to “off” by the name of the app you don’t want to launch at boot-up.

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Originally in the Control Panel, font control can also be found in the Settings app under Personalization > Fonts. It shows bigger, clearer examples of your computer’s installed fonts. From this interface, you can click “Get more fonts in the Store” to launch the Microsoft Store app. This takes you to the Store’s fonts section, where you can browse fonts to download and install.

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The functionality of the old Disk Cleanup tool is now in the Settings app, too, under System > Storage > Free up space now. (You can still access the original Disk Cleanup. In File Explorer, right-click a drive on your PC (e.g., “C:”) and click Properties from the panel that opens. Click the “Disk Cleanup” button in the next panel.)

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Windows Defender, the suite of security settings and tools that are built into Windows 10, has been renamed “Windows Security.” It’s listed in the Settings app under Update & Security > Windows Security.

6. User interface tweaks

Microsoft has also been busy updating three flagship features of Windows 10: My People, Edge and Cortana.

First released in the Fall Creators Update in 2017, My People lets you pin your email and Skype contacts as shortcut icons on the taskbar. Clicking the icon of a contact opens a menu that lets you communicate with that person immediately — for instance, sending an email through the Windows 10 Mail app or initiating a video call through the Skype app. Originally, you could pin up to three contacts on the taskbar; the April 2018 Update raises this to 10. And its UI now lets you drag and drop to rearrange the order of your contacts pinned on the taskbar.

In the Edge browser, there’s a full-screen view button on the toolbar that appears above an EPUB formatted ebook, a PDF, or a web page rendered in the browser’s “reading view” mode. And its Favorites manager has a better UI that makes it easier to organize your saved bookmarks.

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Under its Notebook panel, Cortana has a new Organizer tab that shows your lists and reminders in an easier-to-view format. Cortana’s Collections feature, which suggests links for you to save and group together as you’re browsing the web with Edge, is now part of the Lists feature under this Organizer tab.

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7. Password recovery for Windows 10 local accounts

If you prefer to sign in to your Windows 10 computer with a local account (as opposed to a Microsoft online user account, such as an Outlook.com one), you can enable password recovery for it. Launch the Settings app, go to Accounts > Sign-in Options and click “Update your security questions.” Fill in answers to the three questions here. In case you ever forget your password when signing in to Windows 10, you’ll be presented these questions. Answer all three questions correctly, and you will be able to create a new password to sign in to your Windows PC.

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8. Linux command additions

Several new Linux-related items have been added to the Command Prompt. Curl and tar tools for downloading and extracting .tar archives are under the directory C:WindowsSystem32 as curl.exe and tar.exe. The new wslpath command will convert a Linux directory path to its Windows version. There are many other additions of a highly technical nature; most apply to developing and running Linux code under Windows 10. You can read about them in greater detail at Microsoft’s Windows Command Line Tools for Developers page.

9. Manage bandwidth under Group Policy

Attention admins: New options have been added to the Group Policy tool for you to control the bandwidth used by Windows Update and by Windows apps automatically updating themselves. One option includes throttling the amount of bandwidth used based on time of day. To access these settings, launch the Group Policy Editor and go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Delivery Optimization.

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Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (version 1709)

Microsoft released the the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (version 1709), its most recent major update to the OS, on October 17, six months after the Creators Update (version 1703) was released. Most of what the Fall Creators Update adds to the OS is under-the-hood features — some new, some revised, and many related to security. Here are some improvements that enterprise users and IT pros should know about.

1. Better OneDrive file management

In previous versions of Windows 10, OneDrive appeared as a folder in File Explorer. When you put files into the OneDrive folder while signed into Windows 10 with a business or personal Microsoft account, they were uploaded to the cloud. If you signed into another Windows 10 computer with this same account, the files in your OneDrive folder were downloaded to that computer.

Having access to your files from any Windows 10 device is handy, but this automatic syncing behavior wasn’t always convenient if your device was connected to a spotty Wi-Fi signal or was low on storage space. That said, you could limit syncing to certain folders within your OneDrive, but anything within those folders was synced.

What’s more, if you had folders and files stored online only, they didn’t appear in your OneDrive folder in File Explorer. To see them, you had to right-click the OneDrive icon in the notifications area of the taskbar and choose “View online” from the pop-up menu; your default browser opened to your cloud OneDrive.

OneDrive in the Fall Creators Update introduces a feature called OneDrive Files On-Demand that’s designed to smooth out OneDrive’s functionality. It lets you set OneDrive so it won’t forcibly sync files stored in the Microsoft cloud to the Windows 10 device you’re currently using, and you don’t have to launch a browser to access online files.

Instead, there are placeholder shortcuts for online files in your OneDrive folder in File Explorer, but the files themselves are not on the device you’re using by default. If you double-click one of these shortcuts, the file it represents will then be downloaded and saved to the device. You can change a downloaded file back to an online-only file by right-clicking it and selecting “Free up space.” And you can mark certain files as “Always keep on this device” if you want them to be permanently available when you’re offline.

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For SharePoint Online teams that collaborate on files online, OneDrive Files On-Demand can help to reduce bandwidth usage, because files won’t be downloaded or re-downloaded on all synced devices whenever a new file is added or a change is made to an existing file in the team site.

2. EMET-style exploit protection

Introduced in 2009, Microsoft’s Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) is a free tool that recognizes security flaws in Windows systems and attempts to prevent malicious code from exploiting them using a variety of techniques. Mainly geared for enterprise use, EMET was for many years a valuable tool for IT pros in protecting user systems. But with Windows 10, Microsoft began baking better security protections into the operating system, rolling out major updates more frequently, and urging its customers to move to the new OS rather than use EMET with an older version of Windows. Although you can still install and run EMET on Windows 10, Microsoft has officially retired it, with an end-of-life date of July 31, 2018.

However, many of EMET’s threat protections have been reborn in the Fall Creators Update as Windows Defender Exploit Guard. It is part of Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection, Microsoft’s enterprise security service. With Exploit Guard in place, threats like dangerous Office macros or websites that are spreading malware will be blocked.

Windows Defender Security Center, the all-in-one security dashboard that was introduced in the spring 2017 Windows 10 Creators Update, has also been upgraded in the Fall Creators Update to include EMET-style exploit protection.

3. Ransomware protection

High-profile ransomware infections such as WannaCry spreading throughout the world’s computers and holding users’ files hostage have made the news recently. Although most of the affected systems were running older versions of Windows, Microsoft is hardening protections against ransomware in Windows 10.

A new feature in the Fall Creators Update is designed to prevent such malware from locking up users’ personal files. The Windows Defender Security Center has a switch called “Controlled folder access.” When it’s turned on, only whitelisted apps are able to access and change files in the Desktop, Documents, Music, Pictures and Videos folders. Should an app that hasn’t been approved try to access these folders, Windows 10 will send an alert.

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4. Virtual machine protection for Edge

Windows Defender Application Guard for Microsoft Edge is a new security feature in the Fall Creators Update aimed at keeping computers safe from zero-day attacks and other malware. It is available only for computers running Windows 10 Enterprise Edition and Hyper-V.

With Application Guard enabled, the Edge browser runs normally when the user goes to a trusted site such as an internal application. But when the user goes to an untrusted or unknown site, Application Guard will launch Edge inside a virtual machine — essentially, a new instance of Windows that’s isolated from the user’s normal operating environment, including memory, local storage, other applications, stored credentials, network endpoints and so on. (Trusted sites and related security settings can be set by an administrator.)

If malware attempts to harm the computer or office network by going through Edge, it probably won’t be able to cause damage because it will be confined within the VM. When the user ends the session, the VM container and any malware in it are discarded.

5. One-click communications

This social messaging and sharing UI was supposed to be included in the Creators Update, but wasn’t ready in time for that release. My People helps you conveniently communicate with people in your contacts list by letting you pin icons for certain contacts (which could be their headshots) to the taskbar. Just click a contact’s icon to communicate with that person through email, instant messaging or video chat. (Taskbar pinning is currently limited to three contacts.)

Howard Wen / IDG

My People requires you and the contacts you wish to pin to have the Windows 10 apps Mail, People or Skype; when you initiate it, it will surface people in your contacts list who have those apps. To activate My People for the first time, launch the People app; to access My People after it’s been activated, click its icon in the notifications area of the taskbar.

6. A quick fix for blurry desktop apps

Sometimes when an older desktop app is shown on a large display with a high resolution, its text and graphics appear blurry. And many desktop apps can become blurry after users dock or undock their laptops, move an app window between displays with different resolutions, or remote into one device from another device with a different display resolution.

Getting apps that become blurry after docking/undocking or otherwise changing the resolution to become crisp and clear again generally requires rebooting Windows. The problem with legacy apps on hi-res displays can sometimes be fixed by manually tweaking the Compatibility settings for the problematic app, but Windows sometimes requires a restart for the changes to take hold. Either way, it’s an inconvenience and a productivity hit for users.

The Fall Creators Update does away with this hassle, helping to maintain system uptime. All the user needs to do is shut down the desktop app and relaunch it for the crisper rendering to take. It should be noted, though, that this feature may not work on all desktop apps, and it won’t work on apps that appear blurry on a second monitor that’s been set as the “extended” screen to the primary monitor.

7. GPU tracking in the Task Manager

The Task Manager, an old-school tool for troubleshooting Windows and keeping tabs on its performance, adds a new trick in the Fall Creators Update: It shows the status of the computer’s graphics processing unit processes on its Performance tab. It also lists the GPU’s memory size and current usage, driver version, the version of DirectX that it’s running, and where the processor is physically located on the computer’s motherboard.

Applications used to view or create graphically rich content — such as animated presentations, videos, and documents or spreadsheets with 3D charts — could be relying on the GPU, and being able to check its status can help diagnose issues with a computer’s overall performance.

8. Windows Update bandwidth limit

This feature should be useful for network administrators: the ability to limit the amount of bandwidth that Windows Update can use to automatically download updates for Windows 10, or share update files with other computers over a local network or the internet.

The option is listed in the Settings app under Delivery Optimization > Advanced options. There are three sliders. The first two let you adjust the amount of bandwidth data that Windows Update can consume during downloads and uploads, ranging from 5% to 100%. The third slider caps the total data that Windows Update can upload per month, from 5GB to 500GB.

Howard Wen / IDG

9. Power throttling for background-running apps

To extend the battery runtime of laptops and other mobile devices running Windows 10, the Fall Creators Update throttles the system usage of apps running in the background. If a user is interacting with an app or if an app such as a video player is running in the foreground, Windows should recognize this activity and prioritize system resources for it. Otherwise, it will put opened apps that aren’t being actively used, or system executables that normally run without user interaction, into an energy-efficient mode that will help the battery last longer — a change that business travelers will welcome.

The power-throttling feature currently works only with Intel Skylake and newer processors. Microsoft says it plans for throttling to support other processors in the future.

10. New device deployment features

Released on June 29, Windows AutoPilot lets IT managers set up customized system configurations (including installed apps) to be deployed from the cloud onto their organization’s Windows 10 computers and other devices. An employee can take a brand-new computer out of the box, turn it on and connect it to the office network — and the device will be automatically configured to the organization’s requirements.

The Fall Creators Update adds a few new capabilities to Windows AutoPilot: self-service deployment for Active Directory domain-joined devices and automatic enrollment in Microsoft Intune, the ability to assign a system configuration to a specific employee, and a resetting mechanism for Windows 10 devices that have already been configured through AutoPilot.

11. Install a virtual machine locally

For users running Windows 10 Professional or Enterprise and Hyper-V, the Fall Creators Update offers an easy way to install a virtual machine from an .iso or .vhd/.vhdx file that’s stored on your computer. From the Hyper-V Manager, choose Action > Quick Create to launch the Create Virtual Machine panel. There, clicking the “Local installation source” button lets you load a virtual machine image stored on the computer.

This story was originally published in July 2017 and most recently updated in May 2021.