Windows 10 came out almost 4.5 years ago, and during this time managed to get 7 major updates. And it would seem that Microsoft only corrected old problems and created new ones because little has changed outwardly – in fact,
This is one of the reasons that there are enough users using assemblies a year ago. And before the release of the next major update – 1909 – let’s still see what new and interesting Microsoft added to Windows 10 for the entire time of its existence.
Dark mode
In recent years, with the development of OLED displays, a boom began on a dark topic: it appeared in Android and iOS, in various browsers and readers. Microsoft decided to keep up with the trend and added a dark theme to the Anniversary Update (1607), which it refined a couple of times.
As a result, it can now be called full-fledged – most of the system applications will really be with a dark background.
Ability to attach windows to corners
Take any window and drag it into a corner – the system will compress it to a quarter of the screen. Pull to the side, and the window will occupy half the screen, and the system will offer to attach another application on the other side.
Such a convenient implementation of the multi-window mode appeared in Windows 8, but there it was quite simplified, and only in version 1511 it came to its current form.
Conveniently disable flash drives
Oh, this safe removal of the device is known and “loved” by probably the majority of Windows users. However, starting from version 1809, you can forget about it: by default, the “quick delete” mode is activated. It allows you to disconnect the flash drive at any time without losing data on it –
however, you will have to pay for it with a slightly reduced write speed, but hardly anyone wants to return the old mode of operation.
Universal touchpad driver
MacBook users rightly scolded not the most accurate and convenient touchpads for Windows laptops with a bunch of drivers from different manufacturers.
However, recently the situation has seriously improved: the touchpads of most ultrabooks are not inferior in quality to those of the MacBook (except that they are smaller), and Microsoft, in turn, introduced the so-called Precision Touchpad Driver in the 1709 assembly.
Its essence is that it replaces drivers from laptop manufacturers and brings support for three- and four-finger gestures to all compatible devices with their convenient and detailed settings.
At the moment, the vast majority of laptops, even simple solutions for 15 thousand rubles, support this driver out of the box.
Linux inside Windows
The share of desktop systems on the Linux kernel does not exceed 1.5%, but most developers sit on such OSs. And Microsoft decided to simplify their lives by creating Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) in build 1709:
This is the compatibility layer for running Linux applications. In the beginning, he allowed only Ubuntu to be used, but now the list of compatible distributions is longer.
Of course, WSL is not a full-fledged Linux, but still, it supports the bash shell, sed, awk utilities, Ruby, Python interpreters, and much more – in general, a sufficient number of developers have remained quite such an innovation.
Improved work with updates
After the release of Windows 10, a mountain of criticism fell on Microsoft: users complained about annoying updates that started to be installed at the most inopportune moment, moreover, they rebooted the PC without a demand.
As a result, Microsoft has seriously reworked the algorithm for working with updates: now you can set the PC activity hours at which the system will never reboot, the updates themselves are set less noticeable for users, and if desired, they can be postponed for a long time.
Of course, it’s impossible to completely get rid of updates (and it’s not necessary), but now they at least minimally interfere with normal computer work.
Smartphone Integration
5 years ago, Apple managed to “make friends” the iPhone on iOS 8 with Mac on macOS Yosemite, and Microsoft has been trying since assembly 1607.
Alas, the main emphasis is still on smartphones with Android because of their greater openness, and at the moment implemented a lot of features – for example, viewing notifications and quick response to them.
In addition, in the builds of 1909, the function of calls directly to Windows is actively tested using a paired smartphone.
Emoji Panel
Emoji over the past five years have become extremely popular, and now not a single major release of iOS passes without introducing a couple of dozen new emoticons into the system.
Microsoft decided to follow the trends starting with the assembly of Windows 10 1709 – just then the panel for using them appeared in the system.
Of course, there aren’t as many emojis as there are in mobile OSs, but still, there’s still half a thousand emoticons for most users.
Graphics card information in task manager
Microsoft slowly but surely turns the task manager into a full-fledged diagnostic utility: for example, starting from build 1709, you can see the load on each video card in the system, not only the GPU but also the video memory and video coding units.
And in the 2020 update, it is also planned to add the temperature of the graphic chip there – for most users this makes unnecessary more professional utilities like GPU-Z.
The advent of the cloud clipboard
Every day we constantly copy and paste something, it can be fragments of text or even photographs. And sometimes it happens that you want to paste the copied information onto another PC, and since the assembly of 1809, this has become possible thanks to the cloud clipboard.
In addition, it now has a log, so you definitely won’t lose the once copied data.
Windows Sandbox
A year ago, to run an additional copy of Windows, we had to deploy a virtual machine, which was long enough and not always convenient.
However, in version 1903 Microsoft went to meet users and added the so-called Sandbox to the system, which can be launched with just one daw in the settings.
Of course, it has fewer capabilities than full-fledged virtual machines, but for most users, the available functionality is quite enough.
Improved system search and more
A pair of disks, a hundred programs, thousands of files – this can be found on every second PC. Manually searching for information on them is unrealistic, and Microsoft, realizing this, is constantly refining its system search.
And in the version 1903, a long-awaited function appeared: now the search in the system searches not only among installed applications or files in libraries but also in general throughout the system and all disks.
In addition, it became possible to learn some data from the Internet directly in the search window: for example, writing the word “weather”, the system will give you a situation outside the window in your city.
Advanced Game Bar
One of the most underrated features of Windows 10. Using this game panel, you can take screenshots of the game, record video of the gameplay, and even immediately stream it.
Moreover, in the 20H1 update, an FPS counter will appear in it, as well as showing the load on the CPU, GPU and the amount of RAM used – in general, the Game Bar is becoming an excellent tool for monitoring the operation of a PC in games, and now it is the easiest way to record game-play without installing third-party utilities.
Improved Notepad (seriously)
It would seem that Notepad is a program that does not change not only for years but for decades. However, in reality, this is not entirely true, and in version 1809 Microsoft seriously changed it “under the hood”, adding support for UNIX styles (for example, the end of line character EOL is now correctly recognized, and a file created for macOS does not turn into a mess).
Notepad also learned to show the current line and character number, the encoding of the text in the document, and even look for the selected fragment in Bing. In general, the level of the same Notepad ++ is still far, but for most users, such a built-in text editor has become less useless.
“Time Machine”
Well, actually, this is a Timeline. Another cloud feature that collects on one screen many of your actions over the past month. Open a page in Edge? She will appear here.
Did you edit the photo a week ago? And she will be here. Moreover, the progress is synchronized between your devices, which is quite convenient.
Normal screenshot manager
The Scissors application appeared in Vista, and for a long time, it was the only way to take a screenshot of a screen area built into the system.
And only in Windows 10 1809, Microsoft added a tool called “Fragment and Sketch”, which is called by clicking on PrtScr and allows you to take screenshots of the entire screen and its area or any window, after which it is possible to quickly edit and save the resulting image.
Solving window scaling issues
The release of Windows 10 coincided with the massive appearance of laptops and ultrabooks with high-resolution displays at low diagonals.
Alas, the system did not work very well for them: most of the programs were either small or blurry. However, neither Microsoft nor the application developers were idle: the first created an effective type of scaling, while the second began to actively implement it.
As a result, at the moment in Windows 10, it is difficult to find a blurry or small application.
Full-fledged work with notifications
A notification center appeared in Windows 10, and Microsoft released a special API to work with it. As a result, most messengers already have a setting that includes the so-called system notifications, when all notifications from all programs look the same and fall into the notification center, which is very convenient.
And in Windows 1909 a full-fledged notification setting appeared: how many of them from each program is shown in the center, what is their priority, can they be shown on the lock screen, and so on.
Windows hello
Biometric user identification is by no means new; in smartphones, on Android and iOS she is already more than 5 years old, and laptops with fingerprint sensors were produced more than 10 years ago.
However, Microsoft went a step further and added Windows Hello to assembly 1607. It allows you to unlock the system not only with a fingerprint but also with the built-in camera. In addition, it works in other applications – for example, it can be used to view passwords in Chrome by simply placing a finger on the sensor.
Windows Defender
The antivirus built into Windows for a long time caused only a grin: it was not even capable of basic protection, and there was no question of any isolation of the system core.
However, in Windows 10, Microsoft took it seriously, and at the moment it is one of the best antiviruses for Windows, the capabilities of which will suffice for most users. So you should not put the same free Avast instead – you will only worsen the protection.
As you can see, Microsoft was not idle, and in Windows 10 for the entire time of its existence, a lot of new features were added – more than a couple of hundred. I tried to select the most interesting and significant, and if you know any more – share them in the comments.