The Windows 10 Settings in Fall Creators Update Version 1709 – Changes

The latest Windows 10 Version 1709 also called Fall Creators Update is going to have new features. One change is in the Settings area.

From the start of Windows 10 we have already seen the Settings panel to control most of the things. But with the 1709 update we are going to see some more lucrative features in Settings.

The following are the items available in Windows Settings in the 1709 version.

1. System
2. Devices
3. Phone
4. Network & Internet
5. Personalization
6. Apps
7. Accounts
8. Time & Language
9. Gaming
10. Ease of Access
11. Cortana
12. Privacy
13. Update & Security

Most of them are old items, but there are new tweaks in some of the items. The new things that got added up are the Cortana and Phone options. Every setting has got a new icon.

Let use see what has changed in the Windows 10 Version 1709 Settings.

Phone

This has a new spot in the Settings area. You can link your iPhone or Android smart phone. First you need to turn on your Shared experiences.

This feature is basically to switch between your mobile and PC and vice-versa. For example, if you are browsing a web page on your mobile and want to cast it to your PC, you can do so. In the same way, you are writing an email and apps on your mobile and want to continue on your PC, you can do so.

First you need to add your phone to the PC. For this, you need a Microsoft account for linking up. When you enter the mobile number, a link is texted to get the first app. The phone information will not be stored, but standard SMS rates may apply.

Generally for India users, you have to change the International code to 91. You will get a SMS from a typical number like 5676734, to install an app. Go ahead.

Install the “Microsoft Apps” on your Android or iPhone which is also available in the playstore. Now open it and type the Microsoft account credentials.

It will take some time for the mobile phone to link up with your PC.

Now you can browse the web, write emails, use apps on your phone and continue on your PC. For eg. if you are on Chrome in mobile phone and want to continue using your web page, just use the “Share” feature of your browser.

You now have the option “Continue on PC“. There are two options. 1. Continue now or 2. Continue later. If you take the first option, the web page is cast to the PC immediately. You will get a message “Sent to your PC“.

Note: Make sure you are using Microsoft Edge and keep it open. Now the web page opens in it. Another thing that I found is that it is only 1 way – mobile to PC, but not vice-versa.

Cortana

It has its own place in the Settings area. The following are the 4 main options.

1. Talk to Cortana
2. Permissions & History
3. Notifications
4. More details

In the first option, you have the line item
a. Check the microphone

which will check if your mic hardware is working and will set the right settings.

Then you have further options like
1. Hey Cortana
2. Keyboard shortcut
3. Lock Screen
4. Cortana language
5. Default language

The first option takes commands on saying “Hey Cortana” just like in the previous versions. But you can switch it off to save battery if you like.

The keyboard shortcut for Cortana commands are Win + C. You can toggle it on and off.

You can use Cortana even when the screen is locked. The Cortana language can also be set like English (United States), English (United Kingdom) etc.

In the Permissions area you have the following options

1. Review the activity from all of your Cortana devices
2. Manage what you permit Cortana to do, see, and use.

In the second option you can let Cortana use location services and give the right directions. Using the “Contacts, email, calendar & communication history”, Cortana can suggest reminders for your commitments, flight schedules, medicine intake etc. Cortana can also use your browsing history to provide personalized search results for Microsoft Edge websites etc.

If you want anything that Cortana stored, you can just use
Cortana’s Notebook > About me and sign out.

You also have options for the search results produced from Cortana which says Safe Search
1. Strict 2. Moderate 3. Off

As you understand, the strict settings will filter out adult text, images, videos etc. The Off settings will not filter out any adult content etc.

There is also another option – Windows Cloud Search
When you switch it on, your cloud content will be visible in Windows search.

In the History area,
you can toggle the My device history on and off.
The searches done done on your apps, its settings, other history from other signed-in devices etc are stored. These can be deleted with the button that says ” Clear my device history“.

If you don’t like your search to be stored, you can switch off your search history. The Search history settings line item will take you to your Microsoft account profile where you can see what is saved in history.

In the Notifications area you have the following switch
1. Send notifications between devices.

If you have Windows 10 on your phone and PC, Cortana can tell you when your mobile battery is low or when you missed a call, text or app notification etc.

The More details section is more like a help section on the new settings of Cortana.

Gaming

This is another important setting that has changed much in the Fall Creators Update 1709. The following options are there.
1. Game bar
2. Game DVR
3. Game Mode
4. True Playback
5. Xbox Networking

In the Game bar section, you can toggle switch to record game clips, screenshots and broadcast using Game bar. Game bar can be activated using the “X” 3D icon and also show it when you play full screen games verified by Microsoft.

There are also various default shortcuts for like Take screenshot, Record that, Start/Stop recording, Show camera in broad cast etc. These shortcut keys can also be changed.

Game DVR is something connected to Xbox, while playing games. For example, if you want to take screenshots and record your game clips, then Game DVR comes into play. This also allows you to fine tune your settings. This was early present as an app in the Xbox One etc.

But first of all your PC should meet the hardware requirements for Game DVR. If so, then you can decide the folder location where you can save your clips. Record your game in the background while playing the game. But this may impact the performance of the game.

You can also set the recording length like 1 hour etc. You can set the audio quaility, mic volume, system volume etc. You can set the video frame rate like 30 fps or 60 fps which again impacts the performance of your game.

To play your game with best possible experience you can use the Game mode. Generally this is supported by all latest PCs. You can also see the message.

TruePlay is a new feature where you can share your system info with other players of the game. This can give fair share system of playing games. If put this off, it will limit the number of games you play.

Xbox Networking shows all the technical statistics required for your games. It will show whether Internet is connected and Xbox Live services are up and running. The performance which is measured by the latency and packet loss can also be seen. The Xbox Live multiplayer stats can also be seen like server connectivity etc. There is also a “Fix it” button if its not working.

Video Playback

Under Apps settings, you have a new option called Video playback. Using this you can change the video settings for the apps used by Windows 10.

For example, you can cast a video played on a Windows 10 PC to a HD TV. You can make it full screen. Also if your display device supports HD video, then you can switch on the following option.

1. Stream HDR Video

You can also switch on the option that can enhance your video viewing, when you have the right graphics hardware.

1. Automatically process video to enhance it

If on limited bandwidth, you can save it by playing the videos at a lower resolution and also for devices which don’t support high pixel density.

If on laptop, you have the Battery options, to optimize for battery life.

Windows Update

Under Update & Security, the Windows Update has a line item called Advanced options. When you click it, you get some more options.

You can choose how updates are installed. The setting that can be checked is

1. Give me updates for other Microsoft products when I update Windows

This is useful if you want to update other Microsoft products like Office, Xbox, Store apps etc.

You can also pause updates for 7 days. You can enable policy to download updates over metered data connections. Generally, updates are not downloaded over metered connections previously.

The Delivery Optimization is also a new feature which was not there in the 1703 version.

You can
1. Allow downloads from other PCs
if you are on a network.

Here are two options.
1. PCs on my local network
2. PCs on my local network and PCs on the Internet.

This will also cause your PC to send parts of previously downloaded Windows updates and apps to other PCs in your local network. But on metered connection, it won’t upload to PCs on the Internet.

The Advanced options also has the following features –

You can set the bandwidth limits for download and upload settings. The monthly upload limit also can be set up.

System

The Fall Creators Update has new features in the Storage Sense. It is not completely new. But there are some extra options added which will give the Windows 10 user to adjust the storage space on his SSD or HDD.

First of all, the Storage Sense option can be initiated by just pulling the on switch below its caption.

It says that

Windows can automatically free up space by getting rid of files you don’t need like temporary files and content in your recycyle bin.

But there are other options like
1. Change how we free up space

When you click this title, you get another screen with other options like Storage sense running automatically when you’re on low disk space and the amount of disk space cleaned up is shown.

You have further options like
a. Delete temporary files that my apps aren’t using
b. Delete files that have been in the recycle bin for over 30 days
c. Delete files in the Downloads folder that haven’t changed in 30 days

You can also Free up space now, by using the option
> Delete previous versions of Windows.
and press the button “Clean Now“.

This causes your PC to go back to a previous version of Windows and delete it after 10 days.

and under More storage settings

1. Change where new content is saved
2. Manage Storage Spaces

On the right hand side of each setting, you have lot of notes and video to help you understand each section. You can give feedback and get help.

Conclusion

From these new settings in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update 1709 version, one can observe that Microsoft is providing more features for further integration between iPhone, Android and Windows 10.

Also the impetus is laid on Xbox games, which is the main “brand” wagon of Microsoft. Cortana has got a new spot in the settings, which let’s it to be handled in a special way. The main thing that can be observed is that Windows 10 wants it users to fine tune their settings to their personalized requirements.

At the same time it is building apps for Apple and Android Store, in order to link them up.

As we can see the Windows phone is going down, Microsoft is more concentrating on Cloud and Mobile features, which should be useful to the new Internet users. Though Windows 10 has 500 million users, it is still short of its 1 billion mark and hope the Fall Creators Update or the Redmond 3 will give impetus to its build.