Look at the Important Windows 10 1809 features – Issues yet to be Resolved

The Windows 10 semi-annual channel update of October 2018, with version 1809 is out. The latest stable OS build 17763.104 is clear of many problems. The new update KB4464455 is helpful in fixing number of issues which include problems with driver compatibility, third-party antivirus software, task manager and deleting files.

Currently the Redstone 5 Build update has been stopped.

Earlier after Oct 2^nd, the “Update now” feature of Windows 10 software download page was working with a heading “Windows 10 October 2018 Update now available” at the top. But 0.01% of Windows 10 users complained that their files are being deleted due to this upgrade.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

If you are still using the 1703 or 1709 version, you can upgrade to the 1803 version using the above link to April 2018 Creators update.

Some Issues with October 2018 Update

But for those who have done the 1809 upgrade and lost the files in the Documents folder, Microsoft said to contact support. It seems they have ways of getting back lost files. If you have your Documents folder backed up to OneDrive, you might be saved.

In another recent issue on 24^th Oct, 2018 it is found that Microsoft’s Unzip application is also posing problems with another bug. The new issue with 1809 is that, the default Unzip application in Windows 10 doesn’t replace any files when trying to overwrite by extracting the archive. The main problem is that it doesn’t show any warning dialog of overwrite items or not, and fails silently.

Note: So I better advice all of you to wait till Nov 2018, till Microsoft resumes the update with fixes or don’t install at all, if you have manually downloaded it.

Luckily I was not of those 15,000 people who have faced these problems initially. I feel that my files are all intact and working properly. It is a good thing to have them backed up to OneDrive. I don’t save important files to the standard folders in Windows and put them in a different drive.

Overview of October 2018 features in Windows 10

So, out of curiosity, if you want to know what has changed from 1803 to 1809 and the new features in it. Just keep reading.

The important Windows 10 1809 features in the final version of Redstone 5 of October 2018 build, released on Oct 2^nd are as follows –

• File Explorer with dark mode
• Cloud-powered clip board
• Better cloud search experience
• Snip & Sketch screenshot app,
• Storage sense for better
• OneDrive cloud cleanup
• Make Text font Size Bigger
• Your Phone app to integrate Android
• Automatically hide scroll bars in Start menu
• Expanded search to apps, documents and more
• Better share features in File Explorer
• New Game bar and Game mode experiences

It may not be feasible to differentiate the exact “changes” from 1803 to 1809 version. But the list included below are an overall view of what has changed at the macro level. I will also mention about the other minor features which are associated with the “big” features, applicable only to 1809 version.

Change to “Dark Mode” in Windows 10

You now have the flexibility of choosing “black” over “white”.  Eyes get strained sometimes when you look at the same background of “File Explorer” and many others apps, including Windows Settings. This is an alternate color, to change from time to time.

Windows Settings > Personalization > Colors

You can choose your default app mode – 1. Light 2. Dark

In this setting, you can also choose to have “transparency effects” for your app background. You can also set the accent colors from the available “Windows colors” or set a custom color. If you want you can automatically pick an accent color from your background. Similarly you can show your accent color on the following surfaces –

1. Start, taskbar, and action center.
2. Title bars and window borders.

Get more “Fonts” from Microsoft Store

There has been a lot of talk about installation of fonts for non-admin users. This gives the Home or Pro user the easiness to install the required font without any admin privileges. On the other side, you can also install new fonts from Microsoft Store. There are also some premium fonts. These fonts can be filtered based upon languages.

Personalization > Fonts

But if you want all the language fonts, which can also be done with the help of the label “Download fonts for all languages”. But it takes time, execution time, hard-disk, RAM and CPU resources which may not be a good option if you are having an old PC.

Another good option is called as “Adjust text size” which is available under “Have a question?” You can change the size of text in Windows 10 with Ease of Access setting.

Windows HD Color Settings is another option for Gaming Users

If you are interested to get a brighter, more vibrant picture in HDR and WCG videos, games and apps, you can use the “Windows HD color settings” option.

Windows Settings > System > Display

With UHD TV and other kind of high dynamic range (HDR) TV or PC display in the market, you can connect them to your Windows 10. You can see wide color gamut (WCG) video content, images, and more vibrant color picture quality. Microsoft Store also has lot of HDR apps and games.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4040263/windows-10-hdr-advanced-color-settings

You can choose your TV display or PC monitor and adjust their settings for the following.

1. Stream HDR video
2. Play HDR games and apps
3. Use WCG apps.

A preview of how the video looks like with the above settings is also displayed below. You can also set the color profile suited to your aesthetics.

Clipboard History is another new 1809 feature

When cut, copy or paste something in Windows it is copied to clipboard. Till now you had access only to the last item. But now you can access the last 10 clip board items. You just press the Win + V key, a pop-up of the latest clip board history opens. From the list, you can select a particular item and press Ctrl + V to paste at any other place in Excel or Word.

Initially you have to move the slider to “On” to enable the clipboard history function. Then you can sync this history across multiple devices, using Microsoft account. You can also clear your clipboard data for privacy or resource issues.

Make Text bigger for better reading

I love this feature very much. You can keep the size of the apps same, but you can make the text size bigger, using this option.

Windows Settings > Ease of access > Display

A sample text and slider is displayed. You just need to drag the slider to see the preview text for your optimal viewing. Then click the “Apply” button. Below this option there is an old option called “Make everything bigger”. This will increase the size of apps, windows, file explorer and also an increase in the default size.

So for example if you keep 150%, the text you see will be 150% bigger than the default size. As mentioned earlier, it can be adjusted using the “Make text bigger” option.

Storage Sense in context of Cloud-Content

In the first version itself, you can see this option. Windows 10 will automatically free up disk space by deleting temporary files and recycle bins, when the storage goes beyond a low limit. In 1809, when you click the label “Change how we free up space automatically”, you will get some additional settings.

The main adjustment you can make here is for the cloud content. If you want to know more about Storage Sense, you can read it here.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12425/windows-10-free-up-drive-space

If you have Google Drive, OneDrive, Amazon Drive, Drop Box content that is synced to online and also offline. But some of the folders and files are not being used for a lot of time and they are redundant. Then Storage Sense can remove unused cloud-backed content from your device.

You can define the word “unused” by choosing the time option below – Never, 1 day, 14 days, 30 days, 60 days.

New Apps in 1809 version

The Snip & Sketch, Your Phone and Photos app are some of the old features in a new bottle. We previously used to have the “Snipping Tool” as a desktop app. But in 1809 this was improvised with the Snip & Sketch app.

You have now, 3 and 10 seconds to “snip” a screenshot. Then a ribbon is displayed on that screen where you stopped at that instant of time. You can select a rectangular, free form, full-form clip of the screen. You can underline, highlight, do touch writing, crop image, measure and save the images to the disk.

Once you install “Your Phone” app on your Android or iOS phone, then you can connect with your Windows 10 PC using the same desktop app. A complete guide to import photos and send SMS using “Your Phone” is mentioned here.

Photos is another app which Microsoft is pushing on cross-platform architecture. Using this app, you can import photos from your iPhone or Redmi Note 4.