The next Windows 10 feature update is due in October 2018 and should bring with it a few new tricks. It won’t bring a fancy new name like Creator’s Update though. It is called Redstone 5 internally, which is almost a Star Wars reference but I think that was by accident as it’s release name is currently Windows 10 version 1809. So what can we expect from this update?
Windows 10 version 1809 is another major update to the operating system that brings a few improvements. Some include a dark theme for File Explorer, clipboard history, Your Phone and Swiftkey integration.
Dark File Explorer
File Explorer will apparently get the long awaited dark theme. If you like your desktop dark, you will soon be able to have Explorer sit within the theme. I have used Windows 10 dark theme forever and always found it annoying that Explorer sat outside that. Now, with the next update, File Explorer will also be dark.
Clipboard History
Clipboard History brings synchronization to Windows 10. This addition allows you to sync your clipboard between devices and provides a neat manager to access all your copying and pasting. As someone who does a lot of both when I’m putting these blog posts together, I think this is an excellent addition.
Your Phone
Your Phone hopes to offer tighter integration between your Windows 10 device and your smartphone. It enhances Android’s already competent ability to share files between devices with the ability to share messages and sync with Cortana. Apple users will attempt to add syncing between iPhones and Windows 10 but we aren’t sure exactly how yet.
Swiftkey
Microsoft bought Swiftkey a couple years ago and it has found a place on Android and iPhone. It will now be making its way to a keyboard near you in this update. It will form part of Windows’ Touch Keyboard and will now be ‘Powered by Swiftkey’. If you use a touchscreen or like the touch keyboard, you should see a more responsive and more exacting keyboard after the update.
Other updates to Windows 10
Aside from those features, Edge is also seeing the love. It will look and feel different and offer a lot more media and browsing options. There will be more menu options, ‘fluent design’ improvements, better PDF handling, reading and a new toolbar.
The Windows Defender Security Center application will become Windows Security. Aside from the name change, a new ‘Block Suspicious Behavior’ setting will be introduced in the hope that more people will use it as their default security program.
Laptop users will also see power usage within Task Manager. This is a new feature that will show you what impact each process has on power. Power Usage Trend will track this usage so you can see what is draining your battery and do something about it.
Intelligent restart is the final Windows 10 update I think worthy of note. It will learn how you use your device and figure out the best time to perform restarts. It is designed to stop rebooting when you’re in the middle of something and do it when you’re not using it. This is a real quality of life upgrade if it works.
There are a bunch of other improvements coming in the October update of Windows 10 but these I think are the most interesting.
If you have any issues with the October update of Windows 10, the computer repair guys at Dave’s Computers in New Jersey can help. Bring your computer to our store and we will see what we can do!
