Windows 11 | Windows 10 News on these iconic operating systems. => Windows 10 and 11 Builds => Topic started by: javajolt on August 26, 2017, 07:27:42 AM
Title: The definitive Windows 10 Creators Update review 2 of 2
Post by: javajolt on August 26, 2017, 07:27:42 AM
Beam streaming, along with the ability to create local clips and screenshots, exists in the Game Bar, which with the Creators Update works in even more classic Windows PC games. What's more, there's a new dedicated section in the Settings app which brings old and new gaming settings to the forefront of Windows for PC gamers to configure. Everything from Beam streaming to Game Mode and more is available to tweak and change, much like a PC gamer would expect.
Game Mode is probably one of the more interesting new features arriving for PC gamers. Microsoft is touting Game Mode as a new feature that optimizes your PC to provide a much better and consistent gaming experience when playing intensive games. What it does is dedicate more graphics and processing power to whatever game you're playing, which as a result should give you a slight boost in frame rate, faster load times and a more stable gaming experience.
Game Mode actually works with older PC games too. Not only is it limited to newer, Windows Store games, but it's an excellent bonus for PC gamers who have their entire gaming libraries with Steam. You can enable Game Mode by opening the Game Bar and selecting the Settings button, but only after you enable it in System Settings first. All of these new gaming enhancements are also making their way to Xbox One, as well.
Overall, the new improvements for gamers with the Creators Update are an incentive alone to upgrade. Microsoft is taking PC gaming seriously again, and the Creators Update really shows it. Even without the Xbox integration, Microsoft is pushing via the Windows Store, older Windows PC gamers should, in theory, perform better with Game Mode, if their games support it.
Apps
Alongside the Creators Update, Microsoft is also updating several stock apps that come bundled with Windows 10, including Mail, Groove and even Paint! Yes, Paint has been updated in the Creators Update and is honestly one of the reasons this update is called the Creators Update. For whatever reason, Microsoft decided it was time to give Paint a new lick of ... well, paint. No longer is it that old, Win32-style program you've become so accustomed to. It's been redesigned and rebuilt as a Universal Windows Platform (UWP) app, with a whole new twist on creativity.
Instead of being a lightweight image editor like it was in previous versions of Windows, Paint is now a full-fledged editor. No longer does it focus on the 2D aspect of creativity either. With the new Paint app being called "Paint 3D," you can probably guess it has a pretty big 3D spin on it. There's a whole new community area, too, where you can share your 3D creations and download other people's 3D creations. It's a little overkill, but considering your creations can be displayed as holograms on a device like the HoloLens, it's pretty cool.
It's also rocking a far more touch friendly user-interface, which is definitely a needed improvement over the older Paint app. It has Pen support and is overall more powerful than the older Paint, which is to be expected. Now, for those of you who actually liked the older Paint app, there's nothing to be worried about. Microsoft hasn't removed the old Paint app from the system, so you can still access it by navigating to it in the Start menu.
Moving onto other updated system apps, Mail also received some love from Microsoft. There's a new Focused Inbox that categorizes your email into two sections: an inbox for your most important email, and all other mail. I personally find the Focused Inbox to be somewhat annoying, especially considering I'm constantly receiving emails from new contacts. Luckily you can turn the Focused Inbox off via the Mail app's own settings.
Other improvements to the Mail app include being able to "@ mention" anybody in your contact list and have them automatically included in the email chain when you send an email. Cortana can also read your email and automatically suggest reminders and other things without you having to manually request it to set a reminder.
Groove Music and Movies & TV have also received some new user-interface changes, which align their UIs further while also introducing a new pivot UI that older Windows phone fans may appreciate. Starting with the Creators Update, the Movies & TV app can now stream in either standard definition, Full HD or 4K, depending on whether the video you're renting or buying supports those definitions. This is excellent news for those early adopters jumping on the 4K bandwagon.
(http://s2.postimg.org/fozpvz9rt/cu-pip.jpg)
There's also a new picture-in-picture mode, which allows you to minimize the window into a much smaller one that stays on top of all your other open windows. It can be resized and moved, and it is great for when you need to watch something while doing something else at the same time on the same screen. This new picture-in-picture mode is something developers can tap into for their own apps. Skype can take advantage of this new picture-in-picture mode, for example.
(http://s2.postimg.org/c6npzl8vt/cu-groove.jpg)
The new Groove Music app removes Your Groove and replaces it with "Recommended music," which is essentially the same thing. It also introduces the same pivot-like UI found in the Movies & TV app. There are several smaller tweaks, including some much-needed performance enhancements that overall make both the Groove Music and Movies & TV apps a pleasure to use on the Creators Update.
Windows Photos, another essential Windows app has also received some new improvements. There's a search function that allows you to search keywords for specific things in your local or cloud-photo library. The app will automatically tag photos based on time, place, people and the things within a photo. For example, if you take a picture of the London Eye, then search for the term "London Eye" in the Photos app, it should pull up the photo you took.
The Settings app has also been tweaked, with some improvements that make using it far easier. A lot of Windows settings have been re-categorized into more fitting areas, and a few areas have been redesigned completely. Some options have been changed from toggle switches to check marks, and sliders to drop down menus, making the app feel far more polished and complete.
(http://s2.postimg.org/cxgg5db95/cu-settings.png)
What's more, there's a new troubleshooting area in the Update and Security section, which can help with fixing issues your PC may be having. There's a long list of potential problems that your PC could run into, and selecting each possible point of error will run a troubleshooter that attempts to fix the problem. I'm honestly surprised it wasn't there sooner.
There are a whole bunch of new Personalization settings, including a new Themes area that allows you to download and free and paid themes from the Windows Store. These themes can customize your wallpaper, accent color, cursor, and sounds, although most of them as of right now simply customize the wallpaper and accent color. You've also got the option of setting any color for your accent too, instead of being limited to a specific amount like previously.
Microsoft also redesigned the Bluetooth area and gave every Settings page its own contextual sidebar with additional links to other system settings, including older Control Panel settings. Microsoft is slowly deprecating the Control Panel bit by bit, and with the Creators Update, even more, settings can now be found in the Settings app. The Creators Update definitely brings the best version of the Settings app yet.
Overall, a number of system apps have been updated, and if you're a user of any of the built-in Windows 10 apps, I'm confident you'll enjoy all these new improvements. But the updates to Groove and Mail will arrive via the Windows Store and not with the Creators Update itself, which is something to keep in mind.
Privacy
Microsoft is also making some changes to how users can configure and access privacy settings with the Creators Update. Previously, Microsoft had been heavily criticized for making privacy settings confusing and "out of the way" from users, making it difficult for people to adjust and customize their own privacy settings. In the Creators Update, Microsoft is putting privacy settings front and center in Windows 10.
If you're upgrading from a previous version of Windows, or from one of the older versions of Windows 10, you'll get a prompt when the upgrade completes, asking you to adjust all your new Windows 10 privacy settings. If you're setting up a new Windows 10 PC with the Creators Update, there's a new dedicated privacy settings screen that Microsoft rebuilt that gives detailed explanations of what each setting does, and how it benefits the user or Microsoft.
One example of how Microsoft has simplified privacy settings in Windows 10 is how it minimized the different levels of diagnostic data collected from three levels to just two: Basic and Full. The Basic level collects less data that gets sent to Microsoft. The Redmond giant says it is taking privacy control very seriously in Windows 10, and with the Creators Update, it really shows.
There's also a new privacy dashboard that gives users an overview of all the privacy settings and options available on Windows 10. When logged into a Microsoft Account, you can see everything Windows is logging via the privacy dashboard, with options to clear data that you no longer need and adjust settings, without actually needing to be on your Windows 10 PC.
The privacy dashboard logs things such as websites browsed with Microsoft Edge, searches made with Cortana, location, and your Cortana Notebook. Again, with the new privacy settings in Windows 10, you can turn all of this off if you don't want the data to be logged, but if you do, the privacy dashboard is an excellent place to see everything going on with your devices and your Microsoft Account.
Microsoft is being far more transparent when it comes to privacy in Windows 10 with the Creators Update. After receiving a lot of criticism for handling privacy settings poorly in previous versions of Windows 10, the Creators Update puts Microsoft on the right track when it comes to privacy control, while making it simple and easy to understand what each privacy option does for the user, whether it is setting up a new Windows 10 PC for the first time or adjusting the settings later.
Security
Security is a big deal for Microsoft in Windows 10, with the company touting this latest version of Windows as the most secure Windows ever. And it definitely shows with new security enhancements for Windows Defender, new security settings and more. There's a new Windows Defender Security Center that gives you an overview of the security and health of your device, including quick access to functions such as quick-scan, firewall options, family settings and more.
The Defender app has a whole new look that falls perfectly in line with other Windows 10 apps, something that I think has been needed for a couple years. It'll now generate "health reports," and give you alerts for whenever Windows needs to scan or has scanned your PC. If there's a threat or a problem, Windows will let you know, and it will sometimes even let you know when there isn't a problem, which I find to be more annoying than anything.
Built into the Defender app is a new Fresh Start option, which is useful for when your PC is in a bad state. You could use the Refresh Windows option built into Settings, but the Fresh Start option in Windows Defender is a little more vigorous. If your PC comes preloaded with bloatware, the Fresh Start option won't restore that bloatware provided by your hardware maker, and will instead install a true clean version of Windows.
Unfortunately, unlike the Refresh Windows option, the Fresh Start functionality won't be able to save your already installed programs, which some might consider a good thing considering the option is literally to give your machine a fresh start. I find this function is great for when you want to clean-install a new version of Windows without downloading the ISO and copying the files to a USB drive first. It's more simple and convenient, which is excellent.
Microsoft also made some major improvements to Windows Hello, as it's now almost instant with facial recognition. If you use a Surface Pro, Surface Book or any Windows Hello-capable device with facial recognition, you'll find that with the Creators Update the authentication process is almost too quick to even notice it happening. This is honestly one of my favorite improvements made to Windows Hello since it debuted. Microsoft also made it so the preview window when setting up a new face with Windows Hello shows more detail as to what the sensor is actually looking at.
(http://s2.postimg.org/mpsb2i0xl/cu-hello.jpg)
Other improvements to security in the Creators Update include a new Dynamic Lock feature, which when paired with your phone via Bluetooth will lock your PC automatically after a certain amount of time if you walk away from your device. With the Bluetooth connection between your phone, if you walk far enough away from your PC, that Bluetooth connection will break, and Windows will begin the Dynamic Lock process, which waits a minute or two and then locks the device until your phone is back in Bluetooth range.
It's a great feature in theory, but it's flawed by a lack of configurable options. For example, I find that with my Windows Phone, my PC will just lock itself when I'm using it because my phone dropped out of Bluetooth connectivity for reasons unknown. There's also no way to adjust how long Windows will wait before it locks after the Bluetooth connection has dropped.
(http://s2.postimg.org/jwz3ih0l5/cu-appblock.jpg)
Moving onto more security enhancements, there's a new option that blocks all programs from installing from outside the Windows Store, essentially locking the user to the Windows Store for all their apps and games. Now before you panic, this option is off by default and as far as I'm aware, Microsoft has no plans on changing that. This is a security feature that can be enabled if the user wants, as it keeps your PC secure by refusing to run any application executables that aren't from the Store itself.
Most individuals likely don't want that extra level of security, which is entirely understandable. But enterprises might. I also find myself turning this feature on for devices like tablets, where I know I won't be needing any programs from the web anyway. What's more, if you'd rather have the feature on but still use the added security of blocking applications from installing from outside the Store, you can install your programs first and then enable the installer block. This way, your already installed programs will continue to launch, but new ones won't be able to install unless you turn the block off again.
Windows 10 Creators Update review: Conclusion
The Creators Update brings many more changes under the hood than on the surface, and that's not a bad thing. The Windows Update improvements, for example, are some of the biggest and most exciting changes coming in Windows 10 Creators Update. Nobody likes constant software updates, so it's great to see Microsoft making necessary changes to the Windows Update module to help cater to those who don't like installing updates all the time.
It's also great to see Microsoft further improving some in-house apps, including Groove, Mail, and Settings. I love that the Settings app is now more appropriately categorized, with some options within settings being redesigned to better suit the configuration ability that they offer. Night Light is another excellent feature added to Windows, although I would definitely like to see it evolve with more configurable options with the next release of Windows 10 because right now the feature is pretty bare.
I also really like some of the smaller changes made to the Creators Update. Things like sidebars only show up when you hover your mouse over them but otherwise remains a thin line, which looks so much better.
There are also several battery life improvements, changes to the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth setup processes, and a whole lot more. The Creators Update is much more of a refinement update than anything, and I absolutely love that. The Anniversary Update basically perfected the original Windows 10 release, and now the Creators Update brings even more refinements. I think we're at a point now in which I can confidently say if you're still using an older version of Windows, the Creators Update is now the version of Windows 10 that is ready for you.
Now we're at a point in which Windows 10 is essentially solid, and I'm hoping Microsoft will start pushing the boat out again with the next major release of Windows 10 slated for the fall. I'd like to see some user interface overhauls, something that doesn't appear to have happened with the Creators Update. The Creators Update looks just like the Anniversary Update, which I think was done on purpose to encourage users to upgrade faster. That's fine, but I do believe it's time to give the Windows 10 UI a fresh coat of paint.
I'm not a fan of the update's name, but that's not really a problem. There are also no improvements to Tablet Mode, which is a bummer considering the Tablet Mode experience with Windows 10 is far from perfect. I was hoping to see more Windows 8-era tablet features and functions make their way back into Windows 10 with the Creators Update, much like some of them did with the Anniversary Update, but that didn't happen.
I'm also really not a fan of the fact that I can't turn off "set tabs aside" in Edge. At least give me the option to customize my tabs are the way I like within Edge. I'm constantly hitting the set tabs aside button accidentally, which closes all my tabs and saves them for later.
Are the Windows 10 Creators Update the best version of Windows 10 yet? Absolutely. Do I recommend you upgrade? Absolutely. Windows 10 is finally good, and it's time to start taking advantage of all the new Windows 10 improvements, especially if you're still using Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.