6TAKEAWAYS FROM CREATORS UPDATE
Microsoft calls new version of Windows 10 ‘pretty major release’
Microsoft is trying to foster a creative streak within the Windows community with its free update that starts April 11 — even if your definition of being creative boils down to broadcasting the games you play.
“Our vision is to empower the creator in all of us,” says Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for the Windows and devices group, who refers to the Creators Update as a “pretty major release.”
I’ve been running the software on a Surface Pro tablet/PC hybrid and appreciate many of the improvements and touches, though it doesn’t feel as major as Microsoft suggests. And not all of the enhancements fall under the creative bucket. Five key highlights:
1 PAINT GOES 3D.
Microsoft’s Paint program dates to the Reagan administration. Paint now adds the ability to create and modify 3D objects. And if you’re more artistic than I am, you can upload your creation to the Remix3D .com site from within the app and hopefully draw inspiration from others, or at least grab premade 3D objects for your own library. You can export your creations in either 2D or 3D formats. If you have access to a 3D printer, you can print 3D objects as well.
2 MARKING UP PHOTOS AND MAPS.
Here’s another opportunity to flaunt your creative talents and have some fun via the Windows Ink tool inside the Photos app. You can draw on pictures and videos, as I did with the Surface pen. You can draw inside the Maps app, too.
3 IMPROVING THE BROWSER.
Mehdi says more than half the time folks spend in Windows 10 is spent in a browser. The bad news is most often that browser is Google’s Chrome, rather than Microsoft’s own Edge.
As part of the Creators Update, Microsoft says the Edge browser is now faster, more secure and more generous with battery life — Microsoft claims you’ll be able to stream a video up to an hour and a half longer with Edge vs. Chrome. Such improvements are important but not easily noticed.
What you will see is the ability to preview visual thumbnails of your open tabs by hovering over a given tab. And you can set aside all those open tabs to reference later, bringing them back by selecting a “restore tabs” button. Minor quibble: I wish you could name the set of tabs you’ve set aside to look at later.
You can personalize Edge with a variety of “extensions,” including a Pinterest Pin It Button, Amazon Assistant (surfacing deals) and a Translator” that lets you translate Web pages in more than 50 languages. As you might expect, there’s also an extension for Microsoft Office.
4 READ AN EBOOK.
While you’re in the browser, you can read an eBook. For the first time, Microsoft has added an e-book store as part of the Windows Store. As with other readers, you can bookmark pages, summon a dictionary definition (through Cortana) and get other basic features. Microsoft isn’t sharing just how many books will be available at launch.
5 SECURITY.
Through a new Windows Defender Security Center, you can examine the overall security of your system. By clicking inside on a “health report” option, I could get an overview of the most recent scan of my system. Microsoft reported no issues related to battery life, storage or the most recent Windows updates, but there was a recommendation to update a device driver. Unfortunately, Windows didn’t do a good job of letting me know which driver needed updating.
6 GAMING.
There’s now a dedicated games section in the Windows settings. Microsoft has added a “game mode” (turned on by default) that is supposed to prioritize system resources when you’re playing a game, potentially useful if you’ve got a lot of apps running at the same time.
Also new is the ability to broadcast a game using the Beam streaming platform the Xbox team acquired in August. You can start to stream a game by summoning a Game bar by simultaneously pressing the Windows and G keys on your keyboard. This Game bar also has shortcut buttons for taking a screenshot, recording your activity or landing on your Xbox page.