The Windows 10 April Update (1803): The Littlest Big Update
by Brett Howse on May 25, 2018 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Software
- Operating Systems
- Windows
- Microsoft
- Windows 10
Nearby Share
One feature that should be very useful to certain people is Nearby Share. This lets you quickly and easily share files between people from PC to PC, without having to send an email or use a messaging app as the transfer tool. Nearby Share works over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, and will use Wi-Fi as the preference. In an office, this was something done via a USB drive most recently, but with wireless and Bluetooth in all modern laptops, it makes sense to leverage that to avoid a step.
It should be very useful in certain situations, and isn’t tied to an account so you can send to any nearby device. The receiver will have the option of accepting the file. It’s not on by default, but can be toggled on when needed. It’s definitely something you’d not want to leave on.
Easy Bluetooth
Windows 10 now supports a simpler Bluetooth pairing process for some devices which lets you pair devices with a single click. You’ll get a pop-up notification asking if you want to pair a device, and if you say yes, it’s all setup. Devices have to support this though, and ones that require PINs are not going to work with a single click setup.
Windows 10 S Mode
Windows 10 S launched with the Surface Laptop as its first device to offer the constrained version of Windows 10 that restricts users to only running apps from the Store. The idea was to keep people from harming themselves, and to keep performance levels where they should be, by not allowing people to just install whatever they want, and to keep apps in packages that allow for easy removal and less items running at startup. This is pretty much how any modern smartphone works of course, but the downside to it on Windows 10 was that the Microsoft Store is not known as one of the key selling features, so uptake and usuage of Windows 10 S had to be pretty small. With the April Update, this is replaced by Windows 10 in S Mode, which is just a setting that can be enabled on any PC to make it like Window 10 S was. It'll still likely never get used, but it's a much better solution than another version of the OS just for this purpose. There's reasons you'd want this of course - education being a great example - but the average consumer is choosing Windows for the legacy application support, so this new model is definitely the better way to handle it.
The drawback is that S Mode is a one-way setting at the moment. A machine can be set in S mode when imaged using an unattended.xml file and dism, but if it's set back to regular Windows 10, there's not a way to switch back and forth.
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haplo602 - Monday, May 28, 2018 - link
Update itself went fine, however Tablet Mode stopped working after update. I have a convertible laptop (HP Envy x360). When I flip he device into tablet mode, screen rotation kicks in, keyboard and touchpad get disabled but no prompt to switch to tablet mode, when I set the option to not ask and switch, still nothing. I can only switch manually via action center.ಬುಲ್ವಿಂಕಲ್ ಜೆ ಮೂಸ್ - Monday, May 28, 2018 - link
That's hilariousSometimes I think they should replace "Saturday Night Live" with "Comedy Hour Updates"
It would be very entertaining to see all the most obnoxious, dastardly, destructive and moronic "updates" Microsoft has to offer on a weekly basis
Typo - Monday, May 28, 2018 - link
only 1/3 of the computers in my house has gotten the update. Neither of my laptops seem to see it yet.ChristopherFortineux - Friday, June 8, 2018 - link
Laptops usually get pushed back in the update scheme.pjcamp - Monday, May 28, 2018 - link
I'd give all that up for the ability to put a live tile on the desktop. I use a third party app to keep Windows 7 gadgets running because a calendar reminder isn't very useful if I have to remind myself to open the start menu to see it.lmcd - Monday, May 28, 2018 - link
This is a good look at the update for the consumer "Home" SKU, which many users are using. However, for me personally this is single-handedly the best update Windows 10 has had. This update adds two excellent features for developers.For Android Developers, this release launches the Windows Hypervisor platform, which allows for the Xamarin version of the Android Virtual Device Manager to run with Hyper-V enabled (or, more specifically, with Docker for Windows enabled).
Yes, the Xamarin AVD version is still in Beta. No, your rebuttals cannot be heard over the sound of my rejoicing.
For C++ Windows developers, this release adds C++/WinRT, which removes a lot of the constraints around consuming UWP APIs from C++ code, and adds support for UWP CLI tools.
While I haven't explored exactly what the latter does yet, I believe (along with the current UWP API surface area improvements) that the ChakraCore-derived version of Node + NPM could be completely packaged as UWP apps for system-wide use.
draknon - Tuesday, May 29, 2018 - link
Microsoft was nice enough to return the edge shortcut to my desktop. I guess they thought I may have accidently deleted it (it wasn't on accident). Also, they changed the audio options when you right click on the speaker icon in the task bar. I used to be able to go directly to the playback/recording devices from here. But now, the only option is to choose sounds and then click over to the playback tab afterwards. It's another step which gets annoying.elopescardozo - Tuesday, May 29, 2018 - link
I was contacted by a friend that after the upgrade to 1803, his Excel would crash at the first attempt to enter something in a cell. Turns out that this is a known feature : 1803 kills several older Excel versions. Apparently. Microsoft is not planning to repair this. It is either incredibly sloppy programming or a malicious way to force people to upgrade their Microsoft Office. Is this how they recuperate the "free" OS updates?Personally, I hate the way to "simplify" Windows by making active controls unrecognizable: links in the settings menue are generally gray without any indication that they are clickable. Someone should explain that a workstation is not a telephone or a tablet end never will be.
ChristopherFortineux - Friday, June 8, 2018 - link
Product is End of Life. But the issue is 'Security Update for Microsoft Excel 2002 (KB2541003)'t.s - Tuesday, May 29, 2018 - link
One feature that android (on and off) and linux have that windows and mac/ios doesn't have: dark theme/mode. It would be nice too, if ms edge have inverse color that chrome has (extensions).