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The first major Windows ten update rolls out today, with a bevy of characteristic improvements, bug fixes, and new enterprise capabilities meant to ease the transition to Microsoft's latest operating system. The new update is expected to add together a new Xbox Experience awarding, meliorate visual consistency beyond menus, and ready a troublesome problems in the First Menu structure.

Under the electric current iteration of Windows 10, the Beginning Menu was limited to roughly 500 items, including all Readme's, shortcuts, and uninstall links. Above the 500-item marker, these items vanished — they weren't attainable by searching, and they weren't populated in the Start Carte listing. This 500-item limit has now been bumped to ii,048 — a method that gives users some breathing room, though it doesn't explicate why Windows can't hold an arbitrary amount of data.

One of the major updates today is to Cortana, Microsoft's personal assistant software. Microsoft notes that Cortana can now recognize phone numbers, email addresses, and physical addresses to ready reminders, too equally keeping track of event and moving picture bookings. She tin also volume Uber to accept you lot to a destination, tell you about missed calls (if you accept Windows Phone), and understands movie bookings. Ars Technica adds that Cortana tin set your PC to sleep if she knows that yous're out of the office.

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Users can now set an accent color for menu bars. Epitome by WinSuperSite.

Edge, Microsoft'south new browser, also gets some new features in this updated version of Windows, including the power to synchronize Favorites and Reading list items across multiple devices. Cortana will now tell you lot nearly coupons for retailers if you lot visit their websites, and y'all tin now Miracast from Edge tabs. Unfortunately, Border won't support extensions until 2016. There are a number of pocket-sized improvements to a diversity of applications, including Mail, Calendar, Groove, the Windows Store, and OneNote. Showtime bill of fare advertising is also implemented in this new version of Windows, though users have the option to disable it.

Miracasting in Edge. Chromecasting is sadly not available.

Miracasting in Border. Chromecasting is sadly not available.

This new version of Windows will also allow users to upgrade from Windows 7 or 8 to a make clean install of Windows 10 without having to double-install the Bone beginning. Users who oasis't upgraded still will be able to actuate Windows 10 using pre-existing licenses for Windows 7 and eight.1.

Enterprise improvements

The enterprise improvements to Windows 10 mostly give companies and businesses the ability to defer certain types of updates or cease all telemetry collection by Windows. Microsoft is rolling out two new features — Windows Update for Business and Windows Store for Business, to allow companies to defer certain updates, stagger update cycles within device groups, customize awarding distribution to specific devices within the Windows Store, or even distribute custom applications.

Windows Update for Business (WU4B) allows companies to defer updates and upgrades by a set amount of time. Upgrades can be pushed dorsum for up to eight months, updates can exist delayed up to 4 weeks, and both features can be paused during mission critical intervals. A business that's handling huge amounts of inventory for Christmas, for example, could delay updating or upgrading by upward to 35 days. Windows is as well giving companies the option to preclude all telemetry collection, simply will non extend this feature to home or professional person users.

Businesses also have the option to use the Electric current Branch (Build 10586) or the Current Branch For Business (10240, the original RTM build). Companies that choose to remain on the CB4B will still receive security updates.

Is this the must-have Windows upgrade? Microsoft is certainly claiming so, arguing that if you held back until some bugs were ironed out of Windows 10, this is the time to switch. In the past, of course, those problems fixes typically arrived a year or more after the Bone had been in-market, not a mere four months. On the other hand, if miscellaneous menu bugs and weak applications held you back, this may be a great time to leap.

If, on the other hand, you held off because of privacy concerns, this update actually doesn't offer anything to address the bug and there'southward no sign Microsoft intends to address them at all, at any bespeak in the future. The ability to plough off telemetry gathering volition continue to be reserved for enterprise customers, and you'll still need to lock the OS down to go on it from relaying data to Microsoft.

This puts users who desire to upgrade to DX12 only aren't thrilled with other aspects of the operating system in a difficult position. There's non much we can recommend at this signal across "Lookout man and await." Microsoft's huge success with Windows x's rollout suggests the company will not be particularly interested in tweaking its ambitious plans to win greater customer appointment or win over the users that take been belongings off with diverse concerns.