Windows 10 October 2018 Update features
This is the sixth major windows 10 upgrade that touches every corner of OS, includes a number of new features such as cloud powered clipboard higooglestory that syncs between your devices, a long-awaited dark theme for File Explorer, Your Phone app that allows Text From Your PC, new Snip & Sketch Tool that makes easier to take a screenshot, SwiftKey keyboard that gives you more accurate autocorrections and predictions by learning your writing style, A automatic Video Brightness Feature that automatically adjusts video brightness depending on the ambient light, Huge improvements on Microsoft edge, Notepad, Skype, Game Bar and more.
1 Windows 10 October 2018 Update features1.1 Dark Theme for File Explorer1.2 Clipboard History and Sync1.3 SwiftKey keyboard1.4 Snipping Tool is out, Snip & Sketch is in1.5 Your Phone app (Text From Your PC)1.6 Search Previews in the Start Menu1.7 Change system font size on Windows 101.8 Microsoft Edge Browser Updates1.9 Skype Gets a Big Update1.10 Notepad updated with long-awaited features1.11 New Game Bar Features1.12 Wireless Projection Controls1.13 Power Usage Details in the Task Manager1.14 Adjust Video Based on Lighting1.15 Windows HD Color settings1.16 Inking and 3D in PowerPoint and Word1.17 New Set of emojis1.18 Storage Sense Improvements1.19 Kiosk setup experience1.20 Font Installation for Everyone1.21 Mixed Reality Flashlight Feature
Here the post we have collected, some of the new features introduced in Windows 10 version 1809 (October 2018 Update).
Dark Theme for File Explorer
With Windows 10’s October 2018 Update Microsoft added the much-anticipated dark theme support to the File Explorer context menus, including the context menu that appears when you right-click your desktop. Which as well as looking stylish should mean that you’ll be able to use your PC in a darkened room without quite as much eye strain. To enable this Head to Settings > Personalization > Colors, scroll to the bottom and for Choose your default app mode, choose Dark. It doesn’t effect Edge, however, which has its own dark mode setting.
Clipboard History and Sync
With Windows 10 version 1809 Microsoft introduced cloud powered clipboard experience that leverages the cloud to copy and paste content across devices. The new cloud-powered clipboard will let Windows 10 users copy content from an app and paste it on mobile devices like iPhones or Android handsets. The experience works just like before, using the Ctrl + C to copy and Ctrl + V to paste. However, now there’s a new experience that you can open using the Windows key + V keyboard shortcut that allows you to see your clipboard history. In addition, the experience includes a button to clear all your history or enable the feature if it’s currently disabled. Also, you can optionally synchronize this clipboard history between your devices, giving you a clipboard that synchronizes itself between your PCs. You also can sync manually by clicking an icon in the clipboard popup, preventing Windows from synchronizing potentially sensitive data like passwords and credit card numbers. Read How To Enable clipboard sync across devices on Windows 10.
SwiftKey keyboard
Microsoft purchased the SwiftKey keyboard back in 2016. SwiftKey is still available for Android phones, iPhones, and iPads, and now it’s coming to Windows 10 that gives you more accurate autocorrections and predictions by learning your writing style.” It also offers swipe-to-type support, letting you type by swiping your finger from letter to letter rather than tapping each letter. The built-in touch keyboard is now “powered by” SwiftKey. Currently, this is only available when typing in English (United States), English (United Kingdom), French (France), German (Germany), Italian (Italy), Spanish (Spain), Portuguese (Brazil), and Russian. To enable SwiftKey keyboard,
Press Windows + I to Open Settings.Click on Devices.Click on Typing on the left side.Here Under “More keyboard settings,” click the Suggestions and autocorrections link.Turn on or off the toggle switch for the languages you have installed on your computer.Once you’ve completed the steps, Windows 10 will provide suggestions and autocorrections depending on the settings you have selected.
Snipping Tool is out, Snip & Sketch is in
The latest feature update introduces New Screenshot Utility (snip & sketch app) With Annotation Tools that make it easier to take a screenshot of a section of your screen, a single window, or your entire screen. You can press Windows+Shift+S to access the tool, However, there’s a setting under Settings > Ease of Access > Keyboard that makes the new tool appear when you press the Print Screen key on your keyboard. Once you’ve taken a screenshot, the new Snip & Sketch tool lets you draw on it and add annotations, including arrows and highlights. Also, the new Snip & Sketch tool automatically adds your screenshot to the clipboard, which can streamline your screenshot-sharing process.
If you launch the old Snipping Tool instead, you’ll see a message saying the “Snipping Tool will be removed in a future update.” Microsoft has stopped developing, not removed the Snipping Tool from the October 2018 Update, but it may be removed in the next version of Windows 10.
Your Phone app (Text From Your PC)
Windows 10 now includes a “Your Phone” app that will bring Windows 10’s smartphone integration features that allow to access your photos and send SMS using your PC instead of the phone. Microsoft even put a shortcut to this app on the default desktop. For Android phone users running Android 7.0 or newer, the Your Phone app lets you text from your PC and instantly access photos from your phone on your PC. In the future, Microsoft plans to add syncing notifications from your Android phone. This is already available in the Cortana app, but Microsoft wants to make it easier to discover. iPhone owners are, unsurprisingly, more restricted in terms of Windows compatibility, as iOS already maintains such close links with macOS, Apple’s Mac software. However, they will be able to send a link to a Windows PC via the Continue on PC feature, which is actually already available on Windows 10.
Search Previews in the Start Menu
Windows 10 will bring a new search experience, which removes Cortana as the protagonist and puts a new user interface for the search. When you start typing to search for something, Windows now shows you a preview pane with more information about your result. This new interface has search categories, a section to return to where you stayed from recent files and the classic search bar of the search. The result of the search also has a new double-panel interface to facilitate the search of applications and documents. Such as if the Start menu decides a web search is the best result for your search, you’ll see Bing search results right there in the Start menu. If you search for an application, you’ll see options like “Pin to Start” for that application. You’ll also see a document preview if Windows decides a particular document on your PC is the best result.
Change system font size on Windows 10
Starting with Windows 10 version 1809, you can change the font size for the entire system, That includes quickly adjust the font size for the Start menu, titles, message boxes, palette titles, icons, and tooltips for all apps.
Open Settings.Click on Ease of Access.Click on Display.Under “Make text bigger,” use the slider to select the font size you want.Click the Apply button.Once you’ve completed the steps, the size of the font will change across Windows 10 and apps.
Microsoft Edge Browser Updates
Microsoft has done a bunch of work on the Default Edge web browser too. With the latest Windows 10 version 1809 Redesigned “…” Menu and Settings page has been added for Microsoft Edge for users to easily navigate and allow more customization to put commonly-used actions on front. When clicking on “….” in the Microsoft Edge toolbar, you will now find a new menu command like “New tab” and “New Window”. And the new improved settings menu that breaks the options into subpages, arranged by category. Microsoft Edge also introduces a new media autoplay control that allows control of whether a site can autoplay videos on a per-site basis. You can configure this setting for a particular site by going into the “Website Permission” section when browsing the site. and you would need to click “manage permissions” to get started. This section can be accessed by clicking on the lock button (SSL sites) or the information button (non-ssl) to the left of the address in the address bar. Edge has also been updated with more “fluent design” touches, and now features a tweaked tab bar with a new depth effect. Microsoft Edge already provides a very good read view for PDF documents and e-books. The company has now expanded this section with a dictionary that explains individual words when reading View, Books, and PDFs. Simply select a single word to see the definition appear above your selection. In Reading View, you can now choose different page theme colors and pick which ones your eyes like the best. There’s also a new “Line focus” tool that will highlight sets of one, three, or five lines as you read to help you focus. While in Reading View, Books, or the PDF viewer, you can now select a word and Edge will automatically display a dictionary definition for that word. You can also click the speaker icon here to hear the word spoken aloud with the correct pronunciation. You can read our dedicated post: Windows 10 version 1809 Microsoft Edge features from here.
Skype Gets a Big Update
Skype application for Windows 10 also received a major update, which brings new features and refinements to the app. The new Skype app for Windows 10 offers improved calling experience, allows you to take snapshots of important moments within a call. customize the themes, an updated contact panel, and the ability to customize the group call “canvas,” dragging people around to choose who you want to see on the screen. Microsoft has also made it easier to start sharing your screen during calls.
Notepad updated with long-awaited features
Microsoft added Some “interesting” feature to Notepad where a user can highlight text and search for it on Bing. This feels more like a push to get people to use Bing rather than providing a useful feature for everyone. Also, Microsoft has finally updated Notepad to support End of Line characters used by Linux, Unix, and Mac. This allows you to open files created in Linux or on a Mac in Notepad and have them render properly, rather than being displayed on a garbled single-line mess. Microsoft Added the option “wrap-around” for the function “Find / Replace”. Notepad will store previously entered values and checkboxes and automatically apply them when you reopen the Find dialog box. In addition, when you select text and open the “Find” dialog box, the selected word or a fragment of the text will be automatically placed in the query field the company explains. There’s a new zoom feature, too. Just click View > Zoom and use the options to zoom in and out. You can also hold down Ctrl and press the plus sign (+), minus sign (-), or zero (0) keys to zoom in, zoom out, or reset to the default zoom level. You can also rotate your mouse wheel while holding the Ctrl key down to zoom in and out.
New Game Bar Features
The Xbox Game Bar has received a massive overhaul in Windows 10 October 2018 Update. Earlier, the game bar was just a small bar with basic settings about game mode. Now if you press Windows Key + G to open the game bar, you will Notice Microsoft added number of features there such as built-in audio controls that let you choose your default audio output device or control the volume of other applications on your system. There’s also a “Dedicate resources” toggle in the Game Bar. This enables a new Game Mode option that will improve game performance on PCs with many background tasks running. It also offers performance visualization features so that you can see your game’s frames per second (FPS), CPU usage, GPU VRAM usage, and system RAM usage over time.
Wireless Projection Controls
Starting with version 1809 While projecting your screen wirelessly, you’ll now see a bar at the top of your screen—just like when using Remote Desktop. Windows 10 will show a new control banner at the top of the screen when you’re using the “Projecting to this PC” feature that provides an easy way to disconnect or reconnect. Clicking the gear button allows you to optimize the screen latency depending on the mode that you’re using:
Game mode — minimizes the screen to screen latency to make gaming over a wireless connection possible.Video mode — increases the screen latency to ensure the video on the big screen plays back smoothly and without glitches.Productivity modes — strikes a good balance between game mode and video mode where the screen latency is responsive enough that typing feels natural while ensuring videos don’t glitch frequently.
Power Usage Details in the Task Manager
With the latest Windows 10 Version, 1809 Task Manager now includes 2 new columns in the “Processes” tab to show the energy impact of the running process on their system. This should help users to understand which apps/services are using the maximum power vs. the least power-hungry apps. The metric takes CPU, GPU & Disk into evaluation when calculating power usage.
Power usage: This column will provide an instantaneous view of apps/services using power.Power usage trend: This column provides a power usage trend over 2 mins for each running apps/services. This column will be blank when you start an app but will populate based on power usage every 2 mins.
Adjust Video Based on Lighting
There’s a new “Adjust video based on lighting” option under Apps > Video Playback that automatically adjusts video brightness depending on the ambient light. It uses the light sensor on your device to determine the amount of surrounding light, and then based on a predefined algorithm, it adjusts video brightness in order to improve image quality and make it possible to view objects on the screen even in direct sunlight. For example, it may make dark scenes brighter if you’re watching in a very bright room. To enable Auto Adjust Video Based on Lighting on Windows 10 version 1809,
Windows HD Color settings
Microsoft added a new settings page titled Windows HD Color settings, under the Display Settings page. That will tell you the HD capabilities of your display and allow you to configure various HD related features. If your display supports it, you can then enable HDR and WCG, enable the ability to stream HDR videos, and adjust the brightness for standard dynamic range (SDR) content. The new setting basically helps you understand and configure your device for HDR content. It’s worth noting that the setting works only if you have an HDR-capable display.
Inking and 3D in PowerPoint and Word
Not everyone uses a pen with their computer, but those who do will be pleased to learn that the October 2018 Update brings several enhancements to inkings, such as the ability to transform your scribbles into perfectly formatted slides and a smarter PowerPoint Designer that will suggest slide designs based on your handwritten ink. Microsoft has also added over 30 new animated 3D models to Word and PowerPoint for all to use.
New Set of emojis
The latest Windows 10 build has incorporated all the 157 new emojis that were announced as part of Unicode 11. The list includes a whole bunch of new characters, including superheroes, redheads, a softball, a pirate flag and even a llama. Users will be able to access the entire pack by using the Emoji Panel (WIN+.) or the touch keyboard. With the latest builds, you’ll also find that Microsoft made tweaks to some of Microsoft’s existing emoji – here are some examples:
Storage Sense Improvements
Windows can now automatically remove OneDrive “files on demand” you haven’t opened in a while from your PC to free up space. They’ll be re-downloaded when you try opening them again. To enable this, head to Settings > System > Storage, enable Storage Sense, click “Change how we free up space automatically,” and choose when you want to remove OneDrive files under “Locally available cloud content.”
Kiosk setup experience
The Kiosk setup experience has been tweaked in the new build with a new assigned access configuration page in Settings that uses a wizard to walk users through the creation process. In the past, Microsoft Edge hasn’t been available in Kiosk mode because it, and third-party web browsers, need special permissions beyond those required by most Windows apps, but that also changes from this build.
Font Installation for Everyone
Older versions of Windows only let users with administrative privileges install fonts, and those fonts were then installed for all users system-wide. Windows 10’s October 2018 Update improves on this and gives everyone the ability to install fonts. When you right-click a font file in File Explorer, you can select either “Install” to install it just for your user account or “Install for All Users” to install it for all users on the system. Only the latter option requires Administrator permission. While viewing a font file’s preview after double-clicking it, the “Install” button will now install the font only for the current user.
Mixed Reality Flashlight Feature
Microsoft introduced an interesting feature for those who use Mixed Reality Headsets. Called the “Flashlight”, it will allow users to take advantage of the connected camera and see the surroundings without removing the headsets. The feature will basically allow users to broadcast a video feed from the camera to the headsets so the user is aware of the surroundings. Mixed Reality Flashlight can be accessed at any time with the Start menu, a button shortcut, or a voice command. Once activated, you’ll see a portal into the real world that uses the camera feed on your headset to let you peek into the real world around you. The portal is tied to your controller, allowing you to shift it around with a wave of your hand. Make Text Bigger: Windows 10 lets you increase text size across the entire system, including in the Start menu, File Explorer, and in the Settings app. To do so, head to Settings > Ease of Access > Display. Adjust the “Make everything bigger” slider to increase text to your desired size. Auto Suggest for Registry Editor: when you type something into Regedit a drop-down box will now appear with suggestions to help you autocomplete to the address bar. Means when you a registry key path, Registry Editor will automatically list suggestions in a drop down box that you can select to complete the path. Windows Defender Application Guard Improvements: The WDAG feature that allows users of Professional and Enterprise PCs to run Microsoft Edge in a protected container has been improved. It now launches faster. System administrators can also enable a Group Policy setting that will allow users of the protected Edge browser to download files to the host file system. Narrator Improvements: The narrator ships with a new keyboard layout designed for screen reader users. It also contains many new features, like the ability to search for text on your screen using the new Find feature. New Group Policies for Microsoft Edge: System administrators can configure a variety of new Microsoft Edge group policies. New policies can control full-screen mode, printing, saving browser history, the home button, and whether users can override security certificate errors. Which feature did you love more, Share on the comments below. Also Read
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