Windows 10 related News, Discussions and Updates

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Microsoft's February Patch Tuesday Moved to March 14

We will deliver updates as part of the planned March Update Tuesday, March 14, 2017.

Our top priority is to provide the best possible experience for customers in maintaining and protecting their systems. This month, we discovered a last minute issue that could impact some customers and was not resolved in time for our planned updates today.

After considering all options, we made the decision to delay this month’s updates. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by this change to the existing plan.


February 2017 security update release – MSRC
 
New update:

  • Security Update for Adobe Flash Player for Windows 10 Version 1607 (for x64-based Systems) (KB4010250).
 
There’s another Windows 10 update coming this year after the Creators Update, says Microsoft


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Windows 10 will soon let you block desktop apps from installing(Windows Insider build 15042)


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Microsoft is adding a last-minute feature to its Windows 10 Creators Update that is designed to block desktop apps from installing. The latest Windows Insider preview build of Windows 10 includes options to only allow apps from the Windows Store, but the feature appears to be set as allowing apps from anywhere to install by default. It could be a useful feature to enable on a family PC to prevent rogue desktop apps from being installed.

Windows 10 will soon let you block desktop apps from installing - The Verge
 
Microsoft Windows 10: 'Second update', Focused inbox and mentions come to Mail app

Microsoft has been working on the next update to its operating system Windows 10, ever since the announcement last year at the launch of Microsoft Surface Studio. The next version of Windows as previously reported is dubbed as Microsoft Creators Update. This update comes right after the launch of Anniversary Update in August last year.

But interestingly, the company shared some details about the version that will come after Creators Update. The second update has not been given an official name but it is being labelled as “Second Update in 2017” as reported by Forbes . The details were revealed when noted developer Rafael Rivera took a screenshot of the upgrade timelines during the announcement made by Microsoft during Ignite Australia earlier this month.

There were no official details on the features that will come with the second update, but we can expect the radical redesign of the UI termed as “Project NEON” to come with the second update. One important thing that the report hinted at was the arrival of ‘Windows Cloud’ .

Windows Cloud is pegged to compete with Chrome OS where it will be preloaded on devices without any cost. It will spiritually succeed Windows RT as it will only run Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps. Another report pointed out that the OS will run win32 apps but only if those apps were sourced from Windows Store.

In addition to Windows Cloud, the second update will come with a suspected ‘People Bar’ that was delayed from Creators update
according to Thurrott . One thing to note is that the Creators update will come with a new feature which will allow Samsung users to unlock Windows 10 devices using Samsung Flow.

Microsoft also rolled out updates for it UWP Mail and Calendar apps where the Mail app will finally get the Focused Inbox feature that is already present on its iOS and Android apps. Mail app gains another feature that will allow users to ‘mention’ other email users. The feature works like ‘tagging’ or ‘mention’ works on other platforms like Facebook where you use ‘@’ symbol in an email and tag a name.

Once you tag a person, their name is highlighted in the message in blue helping them quickly see that they have been asked to take some action in the email according to the set context. Tagging automatically adds the person in the ‘To’ field if they have not already been added.

Calendar app gains coloured categories which will allow the users to quickly categorise events in a number of colours. Microsoft has also added ‘Interesting Calendars’ to the app which allows users to easily and quickly import calendars that take the data from Bing. Some examples of these calendars can be to keep a tab on your favourite TV shows, sports teams or movies.

The company will expand features from different regions and interest groups to this feature. Last but not the least, the app gains the ability to show you details about your travel reservations and package delivery details from the overview area.

This will help people quickly check the details of the travel reservation or delivery details without hunting for the email in the focused inbox or the other inbox, enabling users to quickly check in for lights or change hotels or rental car reservations from the calendar app.

Microsoft Windows 10: 'Second update', Focused inbox and mentions come to Mail app Tech2 Mobile
 
Windows 10 Creators Update will let you block apps which are not from official app store

Microsoft doesn’t want you to install apps which are not from its own Windows Store. The company is reportedly set to release a new
Windows 10 Creators Update which will include a new feature that will allow blocking of app installation if it is not from the official store.

Similar to Apple macOS’s Gatekeeper, the feature lets users restrict the installation of apps built using the Win32 API. This option has been added to essentially protect the device against bloatware and malware. As a report on Ars Technica explains, if you go to the Settings menu after the new update, there are three options – allow apps from anywhere (which is the default setting), allow apps from anywhere but prefer apps from the Store, and a third option to only allow apps from the Store.

With the restrictive settings in place, installation of only those Win32 apps will work which have been shipped through the official Store using the Project Centennial technology. To help understand the Project Centennial is the Desktop App Converter, which lets one convert desktop applications to the Appx format used by Windows Store apps.

Interestingly, if you apply the restrictive settings, only the new apps will be stopped from installing. Existing Win32 apps will continue to work. Now, this also allows one to install approved Win32 apps and then apply the restrictive setting to protect against malware.

Furthermore, it allows Win32 app developers encourages to update their apps to the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) which is Microsoft’s framework for apps to run on all Windows 10 devices. Recently, Microsoft has also appealed to developers to use UWP, saying it is the best way to reach its millions of Windows 10 users. To put into perspective, Windows 10 is said to be Microsoft’s last version of the popular computer software and going forward, Microsoft plans to continue bettering the software. The setting will essentially make every version of Windows 10 offer a similar restriction to the Windows 10 Cloud edition.

Additionally, it is speculated that the feature will require a paid upgrade to regular Windows 10 or Windows 10 Pro to change out of the setting. Now, this would give Windows an iOS-like experience, where legacy apps can’t be installed and Store acts as the gateway to any third-party apps.

While it is not officially confirmed if this feature will ship with the new version Windows 10 will be made available commercially, the new Creators Update is expected to be released in April.

Windows 10 Creators Update will let you block apps which are not from official app store
 
Microsoft is making it easy to stop Windows 10 rebooting your PC randomly for updates

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The “snooze” capability allows you to pause the update process completely for three days when you need uninterrupted time on your device. In addition, we are widening the “Active Hours” time so Windows doesn’t install an update at times when you want your device to be ready to use

Providing customers with more choice and control in the Creators Update - Windows Experience BlogWindows Experience Blog
 
Microsoft Windows 10 updates will now be 35% smaller

For people who love Windows 10, and some crisp downloads, Microsoft has a good news for you. This comes with Microsoft’s recently announced Unified Update Platform, which has been rolling out to Windows Insiders since November, and will be available to all retail users starting with the release of the Creators Update coming this year.

Last year, Microsoft announced its latest effort ‘Unified Update Platform’ for reducing Windows 10 update sizes. It had then mentioned that users can expect the “download size to decrease by approximately 35 percent when going from one major update of Windows to another.”

Post its announcement in November, Microsoft started pushing preview builds packed with this update delivery technology out to Windows 10 Insiders. Basically, how this works is, the Unified Update Platform enables users to download portions of the update, which means only the changes that have been introduced in the latest build as compared to the current version, can be downloaded.

This could include copying files as-is that have not changed between builds, or it could involve applying “binary deltas” or “diffs” to old files to generate newer files. Since only parts of the OS will be downloaded to provide updated features, the updates are naturally smaller and faster. “We’ve converged technologies in our build and publishing systems to enable differential downloads for both PC and Mobile,” Microsoft wrote in its blog .

Further to understand this better, when a full build is downloaded that is called Canonical download packages, and when it is selectively done, like in case of Microsoft’s Unified Update Platform, it is called Differential download packages. A full build is a self-contained update that contains all files for the update, and does not rely on any files on your device. Canonical download packages tend to be larger in size and may take longer to download.

Now, the idea of Differential download package does sounds really simple, however, as Microsoft’s Laura Butler points out in a Twitter post, it’s no easy task given the decades of legacy code and patches. Essentially, for a major release like the Creators Update, users will still need to download a full build obviously, but how the Unified Update Platform comes in play is that after that full build, the next feature update would be selective, and consequently significantly smaller. For Windows Insiders those downloads should be even smaller, but it’s a bit of a trade-off since those systems get hit with more frequent updates.


Microsoft Windows 10 updates will now be 35% smaller
 
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