Windows 10 19H1 – May 2019 Update – New Features

Windows 10 has two updates every year. In 2018 we have seen Build 1803 and 1809 upgrades. Generally one is released in April and other in October.

Following this trend, a 1903 update is likely on the cards. This may be called Redstone 6. This will now be officially called as “May 2019 Update”. 

This is still in Windows Insider Preview Beta stage. You can become a tester of this version, if you want to have a taste of the early features, likely to be released.

Windows 10 May 2019 Update comes with a series of improvements to Start menu, Action Center, Settings app and more. It also introduces a new Windows light theme experience, Windows Sandbox and several other features.

Source : windowslatest.com

Currently it is called 19H1 as part of build cycle. The experimental features can be tested by signing up to the Windows Insider Program.

How to get Windows 10 19H1 Release

1. Press Win+I to open Settings of Windows 10.
2. Click on Update & Security.
3. Next screen, click on Windows Insider Program.
4. On the right-hand side you see, “Get Insider Preview builds” in build 1809.
5. A message that says “Join the Windows Insider Program to get preview builds of Windows 10 and provide feedback to help make Windows better” is displayed.
6. Below it, click on “Get Started”
7. You may need to link up your Microsoft account and select “Skip ahead to the next version of Windows” from the available options.

Windows 10 19H1 release date

Microsoft has made it clear that there will be no Windows 7 SP1 kind of updates. The Windows 10 product series will have a new  release schedule adding features from time to time.

If we see the changes from 2015 onwards, some performance improvements have been made to Windows 10 based on user feedback.

Windows 10 1903 is to be released in the month of May 2019. The “Release Preview” will be tested this month among the Windows Insiders. It will be then released for public consumption at the end of May.

Windows 10 19H1 April 2019 Update – New Features

There is a speculation that the 1903 update will not have many new features. But there may be improvement to the existing features and options in the 19H1 update. The following are the likely Windows 10 19H1 features.

1. Emoji 12.0 Update
2. Improve Gaming
3. Linux inside File Explorer
4. New Chrome Extension
5. Windows Sandbox
6. Light Theme
7. Your Phone
8. Sign-in
9. Cortana & Search
10. Snip & Sketch
11. RAW support
12. Settings
13. Swift Key
14. Sticky Notes
15. Sets

Some of the above feature do exist in 1809 version. Let’s see the new changes that may come in 1903 build.

Emoji 12.0

In the Build of 18277, you can see different emojis finalized by Unicode. When you press WIN+(period) or WIN+(semicolon), you should see emoji have the keyboards connected. This will make them easy to search. You can try keywords like otter, sloth, waffle, ballet shoes, and more.

State of Decay

In Build 18334, some fixes are applied to the new gaming technology being tested in 19H1 update. The State of Decay has undergone lot of changes. You can uninstall and reinstall it, to have it working better. There are more number of slots now. You can go to the Xbox Insider Hub and click Insider content to join.

Linux Files

For UNIX and other types of Linux user, this is happy news. Users can access these files in a WSL distribution of Windows 10. These files can be accessed using command prompt commands. Also File Explorer, VSCode etc kind of apps can be used to do the same.

Chrome activities

A new Chrome extension has been released in Build 18342. It will collect activities from your Google Chrome browser and adds them to the Timeline feature in Windows 10. This can be downloaded from Chrome Web Store.

Windows Sandbox

This feature is useful if you want to test any software. If you find any app or program not working well, you can separately test it in Windows Sandbox.

This will create a isolated environment to test it, keeping viruses and system errors at bay.

In 1903 version, it may support configuration files. Using this you change the settings of the sandbox such as vGPU, networking and shared folders.

Light Theme

You already saw the dark mode which made its way in 1803 version. In 1903 mode, you might see a new light mode.

This will make the Start Menu, Task bar, File Explorer and other windows light in colour. This gives them a modern, filmy kind of look.

Your Phone

This feature was being used to connect your iPhone or Android to your PC.

You can share documents, pictures, videos, files, etc using it. But now in 19H1 version, you can also mirror your Android phone screen to Windows 10 laptop or PC.

This is useful while making training videos. Also you can control different apps of Android using keyboard and mouse. This makes it easy to type and navigate.

Sign-in

There are different options to sign-in as a Windows 10 user. The look and feel of this feature in Settings will have Acrylic blur effects.

Also the way you login will have different options like Hello Face, Hello Fingerprint and Hello PIN.

Cortana & Search

In 1809 you had search was integrated into Cortana. They were inseparable. You could disable Cortana, but that will also disable Search.

Now both features are being separated. You can now disable Cortana and still use Search.

Snip & Sketch

This app is being used to take screenshots etc. The settings have changed and you can even open Snip & Sketch using Print screen key.

You can take screenshot of just one app, instead of whole window. There is option to add borders to snips and also Print option is added.

RAW support

This is one type of file format. These are camera files which are also called “digital negatives”.

Till now Windows 10 did not offer any way to open these type of images.

Now it gives an option through a “Raw Image Extension” app which is still in beta.

Settings

In Windows 10, the use of Control Panel has changed with the introduction of Settings.

It is a different way to change appearance, network settings, personlization, apps, accounts, time & language etc. But now advanced options are being added.

In the April 2019 update, you might see new advanced network settings. Using this feature you could set Static IP and change DNS server settings. Earlier you had to use Internet options to do this.

This video will show the 5 more likely features to be included in the Windows 10 1903 upgrade.

Swift key

With Windows 10 1809 update, Microsoft has introduced SwiftKey intelligence. This technology learns your typing style to give more accurate autocorrections and predictions.

This writing technology was available for touch-devices like iPhone and Android.

This feature is being introduced in more languages in the 19H1 update.

Sticky Notes

These are small text apps, where you can write important content. In October 2018 update, the sticky notes were able to sync across several devices.

Coming 2019, the look and feel of the sticky notes will change in the dark mode.

You can also see them in the OneNote website.

Sets

This is a feature which groups different apps together. It was expected in the 1809 upgrade. But was not released. In the current release of 1903 it may have features like different tabs in a browser.

A group of apps can be removed in one-go using this option. Also if you want to change any settings for a set of apps, it should be possible.

Conclusion

The new 1903 features will really impact the users liking to Windows 10. With Window 7 support time coming to an end in 2020, more number of users are likely to shift to this new OS.

The 1903 (19H1 beta) upgrade has a significant reason to improve on old issues, bugs and errors. As offices and SMBs are likely to shift to Windows 10 with the end of support cycle of previous OS’es, it can dent or reap benefits to Microsoft.

I hope you like the above features of Windows 10 19H1 Beta build, mentioned above. Please let me know which item impressed you the most and want to see in the next real upgrade of Windows 10.