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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Chad - Friday, May 25, 2018 - link
Been running it fine. Installed fine and everything works good. shrug1_rick - Friday, May 25, 2018 - link
Control Panel's still there. As they add features to Settings, they tend to remove them from Control Panel. At the rate they're going it'll be years before CP goes away completely.ChristopherFortineux - Friday, June 8, 2018 - link
Control Panel is still there where it has always been. Somethings are being moved over. This update I personally have not noticed much gone. New menu has grown on me though. As for Command Prompt it is still there. I haven't noticed anything missing from it.Gunbuster - Friday, May 25, 2018 - link
Wish Microsoft would stop calling it an update when they do a complete fresh install and migrate your apps (if they feel like it)Off to Linux Land - Friday, May 25, 2018 - link
Perhaps using the word "refined" in association with consistently damaging Windows 10 updates is a stretch?This last update (1803) locked my pc up ...again. This time with some weird white screen with Cortana info and that annoying Cortana voice. That was probably fixable -- but, like an idiot, I put my money on Microsoft's "help" lines. After several so-called 'techs' (including one with such a heavy Indian accent that I had to politely ask for someone else), they caused me to 'inadvertently' wipe my hard drive clean. So, no more Windows anything for me. I donated my "new" pc to a local needy family. Going to Linux now, and forever.
Maybe Microsoft could use a little 'refinement' in their help department by contracting their online and phone techs in the USA and Canada... and not India?
damianrobertjones - Friday, May 25, 2018 - link
Haa haa haa. You made me laugh. If you couldn't fix windows then have fun with Linux.P.s. Ensure you have a backup at all times.
Zingam - Sunday, May 27, 2018 - link
I installed Linux last week. I wasted several hours trying to set grub to hide the boot menu without any success the best I could do it to set the timeout to 1 sec. The second thing was I installed the proprietary driver and Good bye Linux - it wouldn't pass after the loading screen. It even locked up while navigating the grub boot menu to safe mode. Sorry but Linux as a desktop has always been a trash even compared to Win95.PeachNCream - Monday, May 28, 2018 - link
I've been straddling between Linux and Windows since 8 was released. Dual boot or, more recently, using Linux on my primary PC while an older box runs Win7 just in case I need a MS OS for something. It's been a long and slow transition, but at this point, I've found that I barely turn a PC on these days since my phone I good enough for most chores and I'm already carrying it. However, when 7 is no longer getting updates, I will just walk away from Windows altogether since Linux Mint is perfectly adequate for those few times that I still need a conventional PC for something.ChristopherFortineux - Friday, June 8, 2018 - link
If you rarely need to use your PC just keep Windows 7 on it. By the point you need a new PC chances are you will be an entire phone user.Mikey Wiz - Friday, May 25, 2018 - link
I updated and have had all kinds of problem. Lost connection to WHS, had to reinstall connector. Wifi keeps dropping. Several games deleted. Lost saved passwords. Very annoying to say the least.