Author Topic: Review Windows 10 Creators Update 3/3  (Read 62 times)

Offline javajolt

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Review Windows 10 Creators Update 3/3
« on: April 11, 2017, 10:50:55 PM »
Windows Store



Windows Store is receiving some minor new upgrades with the Windows 10 Creators Update. The new features in Windows Store are not major by any means, but they play a huge role in making the Windows Store a better app store in general.

Microsoft has overhauled how games look in the Windows Store. Previously, games and apps had a similar UI for listings, but games now have a much prettier UI. For instance, the hero image no longer takes up the whole space on the header – instead, it only takes a portion of it and the app icon and details overflow over it nicely. This change, once again, is not gigantic, but the changes make game listings a lot prettier on the Windows Store.



You can also now purchase books from the Windows Store…if you live in the United States, that is. Buying books from the Windows Store isn’t any different from buying apps, games, music and movies from the Windows Store – when you hit the Buy button, you can pay for the book via the payment methods that are already setup on your Microsoft Account. And once you buy the book, you can open it up and start reading it from the new book reading experience in Microsoft Edge. It’s very nicely integrated.

And lastly, the Windows Store now shows installation progress on the Action Center. This is also a new feature for the Action Center that allows developers to display in-line progress bar within notifications which was a much-needed addition. As for the Windows Store, when you start downloading a new game or start installing a new app, you will see its download or install progress right from the Action Center without needing to open the Store to check its progress.

Windows Store is evolving with the Creators Update, just like most of the other main components of Windows 10. The improvements contribute towards making Windows Store a slightly better content store, but it still lacks some major features such as a Wishlist – and most notably: a reliable search functionality.

Everything Else

There’s a lot of new things in the Creators Update that we simply can’t cover in a single review. Microsoft has added a lot of minor new stuff to the OS and improved some of the existing features with the Creators Update, so here’s a quick rundown of some of the smaller new features:

Night Mode



There’s a new night mode in Windows 10, called “Night Light.” What this feature essentially does is automatically reduce the amount of blue light produced by your computer’s display, which supposedly helps you sleep better at night. Night Mode in Windows 10 can be enabled manually from the Action Centre, you can also set it up to automatically kick off depending on when the sun sets, or you can specify a period of time during which Night Mode will be enabled every day. Additionally, you can also configure the intensity of it, so it’s basically a full-featured F.lux-alternative that’s built right into the OS.

Night Mode is a fantastic addition to Windows 10, but it needs some improvements. At the moment, night mode kicks in with full intensity when it’s activated rather than gradually increasing the intensity over time similar to how F.lux works. You probably won’t notice this issue at first, but it can get really distracting when the Night Mode is enabled with full intensity from the get go. It would have been a much better experience if there was an option to let the intensity increase over time.

Windows Ink

Microsoft has added a nifty little protractor tool to Windows Ink with the Creators Update. Additionally, you can now resume working on previous sketches that you weren’t able to finish which was a much-needed addition. The Windows Ink API also now powers Microsoft Edge’s Web Notes feature, so that should provide improved reliability.

Picture-In-Picture Mode



There is a new picture-in-mode for apps, simply called the new CompactOverlay. Universal Windows Platform developers can integrate this feature into their UWP apps, and it essentially allows them to show an overlay window that floats over all the other apps in Windows 10. For instance, the Movies & TV app in Windows 10 supports the new picture-in-picture mode and it shows the video you are currently playing on a small overlay that shows up on top of all the other apps in Windows 10 when enabled.

Windows Update



Microsoft is introducing a new Unified Update Platform (UUP) for Windows Update in Windows 10 with the Creators Update that will make the upgrade process a lot faster. When Microsoft releases the next Windows 10 update, users on the Creators Update won’t have to download the whole update – instead, only the required files will be downloaded, so UUP works like delta updates. As a result, users won’t have to download a 3-4GB update – instead, they will only have to download 1-2GB which is really nice. There are some other key changes in Windows Update – for instance, you can now pause updates for up to 7 days, and you can now set Active Hours for up to 18 hours, too (which was a much-requested feature).

A New Share UI



Microsoft is finally upgrading the Share feature’s design in Windows 10 which used to have the classic Windows 8 design for a while. But now, it follows the Windows 10 design and looks much nicer than the previous one. The new Share UI is much more user-friendly and fits nicely into Windows 10. Along with the new Share UI, there is also a revolutionary new share icon which is an interesting change, to say the latest. The old share icon in Windows 10 looked pretty nice, but the new share icon brings in some consistency when compared to other platform and it’s slightly more recognizable by newbies.

These are some of the new minor features in the Creators Update, but there are a whole lot of other smaller features throughout the OS that’s coming with the Creators Update.

Conclusion

Windows 10 Creators Update is a step in the right direction for Microsoft. Redmond is not trying anything far-reaching with the Creators Update, but it’s instead focusing on the small things. Because, well, small things matter.

Major new features such as Paint 3D and Windows Mixed Reality are not supposed to be mainstream yet – they are laying the groundwork for the future of Windows which is arguably quite ambitious. These features are undeniably incomplete at the moment, but what matters the most is whether Mixed Reality becomes a mainstream product for Microsoft. It is highly likely that augmented reality, mixed reality and virtual reality are going to be one of the biggest technologies in the near future, and Microsoft definitely does not want to miss out on the huge opportunity if they want to dominate the future of computing. These features might sound pointless to the average joe now, but the picture will be radically different in the future — at least that’s what Microsoft is hoping.

Microsoft is obviously not forgetting about the present: the Creators Update brings a lot for consumers, and things like Night Light, custom accent colors, Cortana’s Pick Up Where You Left Off, Microsoft Edge’s tab management features, the improved Windows Update and even the new OOBE are some really neat additions to Windows 10. These new features are not perfect by any means, but Windows 10 is always changing and getting better with every update.

The Windows 10 Creators Update Isn't Just For Creators

To sum things up, the Creators Update for Windows 10 is yet another meaningful update to the operating system. It does not bring anything ground-breaking — and that’s perfectly fine, but it brings small new things throughout the whole OS to make the experience much better for users. The Creators Update makes Windows 10 a lot more refined, and it lays the groundwork for what Microsoft sees as the future of computing. There is no doubt that Microsoft still has a lot to do in the future – but that is really the whole purpose of Windows 10 and Microsoft’s Windows as a Service plans: it’s always getting better.



source:mspoweruser
« Last Edit: April 11, 2017, 11:19:15 PM by javajolt »