With many businesses now having upgraded to Windows 10, it’s useful to know which of the latest features the O/S can offer that can help you to work smarter, save time, and get better results.
New Features
Although Build 15007 has just been introduced (and it includes some new additions), many technical commentators agree that the most impact was made by the rollout of Build 15002 a few days earlier. Here are, arguably, some of the better and important changes from 15002 Build as identified reported by ‘Insider’ previews, that we can expect to be using soon:
- Reduced Blue Light Pollution: Medical studies have shown that the blue light produced by your computer display at night could be a contributor to health problems e.g. obesity, and even cancer. Build 15002 allows you to decrease the amount of blue light produced at night.
- Dealing with Tabs in Microsoft Edge: You can now minimize tabs that you aren’t using and then restore them later. You can also preview tabs in Edge by clicking the down-caret icon from the tab list, and then scrolling a tab carousel.
- More sensible stroke erasing in ‘Ink’: The stroke eraser in Microsoft Ink now only erases one stroke at a time.
- Cortana improvements: Predictive/suggested, legitimate commands for Cortana are now displayed as you type, and Cortana now delivers recurring reminders for your important events.
- Control over update timing: With Windows Pro, Enterprise, and Education you can pause updates for 35 days.
- Refresh Windows: Rather than a complete re-install there are times when a refresh is a better option. This is now possible via the Settings > Recovery menu, used as part of the Defender app.
- Find all connected devices in one place: They are now (conveniently) all listed on one page.
- Create your own Touchpad gestures: You can now create and set your own gestures using three and four-finger swipes in Touchpad (see Settings).
- Personalisation tracking: Your desktop personalisation changes can now be tracked over time, and rolled back.
- Simplified themes: The themes page (in the Settings Menu) is better organised and easier to use.
- Display settings improvements: Display resolution is now in a more convenient front-and-centre position on the page.
- Create virtual machines fast: In Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, or Education, Hyper-V can be used to quickly create virtual machines, thereby enabling you to securely test a new app, or new software without risk to your PC.
- Accessibility improvements: Narrator now works with WinPE (repair Windows) and WinRE (Windows recovery), and Braille support will be available in Windows 10 soon.
- Easy and effective icon scaling: Your screen icons can now be scaled to the right, consistent sizes.
- Sharing options organized better: Now there is an organized panel on the right-hand side of the screen, rather than fly-out apps.
- Easier web payments: Windows 10 will be able to work with Payment Request API, which stores checkout and shipping preferences in your Microsoft Wallet.
- New calendar options: Windows 10 has will soon support the lunar calendar which is widely used throughout other parts of the world.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
As more businesses switch to Windows 10 with its ‘as a service’ model and automatic updates, the O/S will incorporate more helpful and improved features. These could, of course, help to save money, time and improve efficiency.
This will also mean that businesses will have to find ways of keeping up with the latest updates, which could in itself be time-consuming.
