Windows 10 Anniversary Update: The Road To Redstone
by Brett Howse on August 2, 2016 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Operating Systems
- Microsoft
- Windows 10
Hey Cortana, Remind Me to Explain Windows Ink
Cortana
Microsoft’s digital personal assistant has been updated as well. The most obvious change is that Cortana can now be accessed on the lock screen. If you’re not too worried about others seeing the lock screen, such as on a home PC, you can even have Cortana access your calendar and email on the lock screen. If you enable voice control with “Hey Cortana” you could even ask Cortana to play a song from across the room. It’s a nice feature, but on a PC it may not be that useful. On a tablet or mobile device, it might get a bit more use.
Perhaps the biggest updates with Cortana is just how much Microsoft has expanded the reach. While Cortana began as a feature of Windows Phone, Microsoft now offers it as a downloadable app on Android and iOS as well. That makes a lot of sense considering how the mobile smartphone game has played out, and gives Windows 10 users the ability to have reminders across their devices.
Speaking of across device abilities, Cortana can now send notifications from a smartphone to the PC. You can even reply to SMS messages on the PC using Cortana, which is pretty handy.
One other change has certainly caused some confusion prior to the release. The ability to turn Cortana off completely has been removed from the update, as well as the ability to assign a different browser/search engine via the registry - from now on users will be limited to Edge and Bing. You can opt to sign out of Cortana to remove the personalized features, but Cortana will still be the default search in the taskbar. It’s a change in policy for sure. As always, you can adjust what Cortana knows about you at any time by using the Notebook, and if you sign out of Cortana you’ll get a non-personalized version.
Windows Ink
It’s fair to say that Microsoft has been a proponent of the stylus input on computers for a long time. Over the years, the capabilities of the inking support have grown, and when Windows 10 launched last year, inking was a first class input method, with the ability to use the pen to write on any dialog box, and more. With the Anniversary Update, they are taking it to the next level with Windows Ink.
Windows Ink is a one-stop shop where you can easily access all of your inking apps, like Sketchpad, Sticky Notes, and others. It’s also an easy way to discover more apps built for the pen, and you can configure the pen here as well. It’s a smart idea to help people use the pen to get more out of the experience.
They’ve also added more features to the inking experience, including a digital ruler. It’s one of those “wow that’s so obvious” additions to the pen input, and being digital it can be more than just a straight ruler. Microsoft showed off at Build a version of Adobe CS with a digital French Curve ruler. I’ve actually tried to use an actual ruler with a stylus before, and it’s a pretty frustrating experience. The digital version is much easier to use, and more adaptable.
Some of the inking is even integrated into Cortana, and now Cortana can automatically decipher hand-written sticky notes in the sticky notes app, and create reminders based on them. Sticky notes are still one of the skeuomorphic ideas, but for some people they are indispensable, even as a digital version.
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Zingam - Thursday, August 4, 2016 - link
My laptop hangs on boot if it went sleeping or hibernating.Hrel - Thursday, August 4, 2016 - link
Fist page: "had gone to far and toned them back." should be "too"*.I'm still skeptical AF about Microsoft. They seem to be in bed with the US Government, NSA especially. Bill Gates has a history of backroom deals, so him being back at the company isn't comforting. The "anonymous" telemetry data is a problem no matter what you do with it so long as ISP's even have the option of data caps. Not to mention the ongoing issue of broadband in America being slow, hard to find, overpriced and just unavailable for ~80% of the geographic area of the country.
But, I will read the rest of this with an open mind.
Hrel - Thursday, August 4, 2016 - link
Finished it:Positives: They added the BASH shell.
Negatives: literally everything else in the article.
Fuck.
IntelligentAj - Friday, August 5, 2016 - link
Am I the only one who didn't have issues installing the update? I downloaded and installed it in about a half hour with no issuesmastacow53 - Friday, August 5, 2016 - link
I installed it on 4 computers, one being an Atom powered, 2g ram, 2009 netbook. I had zero problems.ummduh - Saturday, August 6, 2016 - link
Maybe? I went right to it from 8.1. Took several hours of research to get the installer to work. In the end the fix was to disconnect from all networks after it downloaded/verified, but before it started to install. Kept getting 0x8005007...8? Some such error that had tons of hits and an equal number of "fixes"..slyphnier - Saturday, August 6, 2016 - link
how to get/open WDATP things ? http://images.anandtech.com/doci/10537/WDATP.jpgfirst time after upgrading to anniversary update (win10pro), when login, i got greeted with WDATP
now i look anywhere but can find it anymore
based the screenshot, its Edge browser right ? so i need to access to a link ?
tried security.windows.com but it didnt let me access it
RicheekD - Thursday, August 11, 2016 - link
I've got a Dell Inspiron 13, I upgraded to the anniversary update and had to immediately downgrade. The WiFi keeps disconnecting every 5 minutes.Lerianis - Monday, August 15, 2016 - link
Underhanded? No. The Get Windows 10 prompt was intended to nudge the vast majority towards getting a superior operating system to Windows XP - 8.It worked in doing that, I upgraded all my computers a long time ago to Windows 10 and have yet to regret for even one second doing that.
Windows 10 is the bottom line best Windows OS to come out in the past 15 years and everyone should update to it as soon as possible, even if they have to pay to update to it.
ComposerX - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - link
Well. I said years ago with no more elp files for seven os's, Windows is like Mac in that the one is (even tablets are getting there), and if they to are working on a CPU (am sure they could buy AMD), you never know. I can tell you in Los Angeles. Many still use aluminum macs tweaked. Some have moved to PCS. It was really a bummer to find out a school I was interested in now switched to mainly s due to faster rendering. Man. Apple needs to be loyal to those loyal to them. Tired of face slapping by them. Or price taxes like $200 for a BLACK MacBook. Then I remember a MacBook came out that blew away the MBP. But they stopped production on that big time. No Macro soon. It may be a hack. As mboards have thunderbolt now.