“It’s not the plan that’s important, it’s the planning.”
Dr. Gramme Edwards
People are constantly asking me: “What’s new in the computer world Janet?” As of April 11, I can say the Creators Update is new!
Pray tell, what is the Creators Update? It’s the second major update to Windows 10 and it has some new & updated features that might be of interest if you are running Windows 10.
First up is the new 3D Paint program (named 3D Builder). It’s an amazing program that reminds me of my college roommate, an engineering student, who had to draw 3D images for a class. She spent hours drawing cylinders. The 3D Builder can do it in a matter of seconds. Once finished, it can print the 3D object on a 3D printer, not that I have a 3D printer. I suspect I will own a 3D printer when it is capable of printing an edible dinner.
Next up is a deep dive into Virtual Reality and improved gaming experiences. Who knew they could improve Solitaire? Oh wait. My bad! That’s not the style of gaming they are improving.
There are some features I do find admirable. For instance, the Edge browser has been redesigned to be more stable, more responsive, can now support 3D content, and includes a preview of open tabs when you hover on the tab. To improve security, Edge now blocks Flash content by default. Embedded Flash from web pages can be a source of malware.
Sticky notes, one of my favorite windows utilities, now comes with a feature called “Insights”. Insights will auto detect phone numbers, web addresses, email addresses, flight numbers, street addresses, and will offer to dial, open a web page, start an email, check if a flight is on time or get driving directions. While it wasn’t able to give me driving directions to my house, it is pretty intuitive. In its defense, I do live off the beaten path. Which brings me to a much appreciated feature: changes to Windows Updates.
Because I live in the sticks, my only source of internet is Satellite Dish. Satellite dishes are metered connections. Once I’ve consumed my allotted 20 Gigabytes of data for the month, I’m stuck. My choices are to purchase more Gigabytes or suffer with speeds reminiscent of dial-up days. Originally, Windows 10 automatically downloaded critical updates. That became a huge problem when the critical updates consumed all of my data for the month. There was an option to set a time to download if you were on a metered connection, but the metered connection only worked with wireless connections. (My house is wired for networking.) With the new Creators update, I can turn on the metered feature for wired or wireless internet connections. And, because I’m running Windows 10 Pro, I can pause installation of updates up to 35 days. (Home version can pause up to 3 days.) That’s definitely worth the price of the upgrade (which is free).
Free does come with some caveats. Free means view advertisements or figure out how to turn them off. To find the magic OFF switches,
Click on the Windows Menu
Choose Settings and then System and then Notifications and Actions. This page will list a variety of options that can be turned off or on.
It would also be a good idea to review your privacy settings found at Settings->Privacy->Manage my Microsoft advertising and other personalization info (a hyperlink at bottom of page)
And that’s what’s new in the computer world!
Enjoy and Surf Safe,