WINDOWS 10 UPDATED
9 NEW TOOLS YOU’LL LOVE
See saved files online with ‘Files on Demand’
As is often the way with Windows, one of the best ‘new’ features is actually an old one that Microsoft previously removed. In Windows 8, you could browse files you saved in Onedrive without having to download them by clicking their placeholder file on your desktop. This was great, because it meant you could access any file, while saving space on your computer by only downloading files as and when you needed them. Inexplicably, Windows 10 scrapped on-demand syncing, which meant you could only access files you chose to sync. In other words, to browse all the files you had stored online, you had to sync the lot.
Thankfully, Microsoft has restored the placeholder option to Onedrive in the Fall Creators Update (FCU). To enable it, right-click the Onedrive icon in the notification area, then select Settings. On the Settings tab, tick the box next to ‘Save space and download files as you use them’ (see screenshot above).
You’ll now see all your online files when you open your Onedrive folder. Those with a blue-cloud icon are currently online, meaning opening the file will automatically download it. Files with a green tick in a white circle are available offline, meaning you won’t have to download them. Rightclicking a file or folder and selecting ‘Always keep on this device’ will ensure the item is always available offline, and its icon will change to a white tick in a green circle.
Redesigned Action Center and Start menu
Windows 10’s Action Center and Start menu continue to evolve with every major update. This time, there are no big new features, but – along with other areas of the operating system – they have been redesigned to use elements of Microsoft’s new Fluent Design style. This gives icons and folders a transparent glow as you hover your cursor over them, so it’s easier to see what icon you’re about to click.
To see this effect in the Action Center and Start menu click Start, Settings, Personalisation, Colours, then switch on ‘Transparency effects’. The Action Center also now divides notifications into separate cards and you can resize the Start menu diagonally by clicking and dragging from the top-right corner.
Find more helpful information about your PC
Click Start, Settings, System, About and you’ll see much more useful information about your PC than in previous versions of Windows. The area is now split into three main sections, with information about your computer’s security status at the top, your PC’S main hardware specifications and details about your version of Windows.
Make contacts more accessible
Microsoft first promised the My People tool in last April’s Creators Update, before postponing it to develop it further. Now ready for release, it lets you ‘pin’ up to three contacts to the taskbar, so you can quickly send them a message, email them or start a Skype call (see screenshot below).
To pin a contact, click the small icon with two people next to the notification area on the right of the taskbar. Click ‘Get started’, click the People tab, then click ‘Find and pin contacts’. Select your contact and he/she will appear as an icon on the right of your taskbar. Simply click the contact to message, email or chat.
Track updates more accurately
Previously, the progress of Windows Update downloads were measured in a single bar, even if multiple updates were being processed at the same time. Now, however, when you go to Start, Settings, ‘Update & security’, Windows Update, you’ll see separate bars that track the progress of each individual update that’s currently downloading.
Automatically delete unused items in your Downloads folder
Storage Sense was one of the more useful additions in April’s Creators Update, and now it’s been improved. Switch it on (click Start, Settings, System, Storage, then click the ‘Storage sense’ slider) and it will automatically delete unnecessary files as before. In the same settings menu, click ‘Change how we free up space’ and you’ll now see the handy extra option to ‘Delete files in the Downloads folder that haven’t changed in 30 days’.
Make the most of the Edge browser’s new features
Edge has been treated to a number of improvements, including the ability to pin your favourite websites to your taskbar. Open the website, click the menu button (three dots), then select ‘Pin this page to the taskbar’ (see screenshot above right). You can bookmark multiple open tabs at once by right-clicking one of them and selecting ‘Add tabs to favourites’.
Edge now has a proper full-screen mode for the first time – press the F11 key to switch this on and off. And the browser’s tools for reading PDFS and ebooks have also been enhanced. You can now adjust the layout of a PDF to make it more comfortable to read, and use Edge’s Add Notes tool (the pen icon at the top right) to annotate PDF documents. Open an EPUB book in Edge and you can highlight, underline or copy passages – select the text, then choose the relevant option from the pop-up menu.
Switch on built-in ransomware protection
Microsoft has added a ransomware blocker to Windows Defender, its built-in antivirus tool, but it needs to be switched on. To do so, right-click the Windows Defender (shield) icon in the notification area, then click Open. Next, click ‘Virus & threat protection’, ‘Virus & threat protection settings’, then switch on the slider under ‘Controlled folder access’ (see screenshot above).
Your user folders will be protected by default, but you can add more by clicking ‘Protected folders’, then ‘Add a protected folder’. However, remember that Windows Defender has performed poorly in every group antivirus test we’ve conducted in the past few years. There’s no harm running it, but always run another antivirus program alongside it, such as Norton or Kaspersky (see our Reader Offers on pages 54 and 68).
Link your Android and Apple devices to your PC
Sadly, this feature doesn’t fully deliver on its promise yet, but may become more useful in future updates. The theory is that if you’re carrying out a task on your IOS or Android phone or tablet, you can continue it on a PC, picking up where you left off. In practice, it’s just a link to an app that lets you send web pages from your device to a Windows PC. You can test it by clicking Start, Settings, Phone, ‘Add a phone’ and following the instructions.