The Latest Windows 10 Upgrade Version 2004 Is Out

I installed it yesterday on my Macbook's Boot Camp partition (did the free upgrade from Windows 8.1). OMG, it took forever!

is bush still president in this world?

[quote] It's probably the most boring big upgrade they've ever put out.

Dat’s whut I HEARD!

The new "update" is mostly minor refinements. You can now name virtual desktops and they persist through reboot. Some refinements and additions to the Settings app. Cortana is now an app and you can type into it again, but it loses all home-automation and music integration, so it's purely an Office-related productivity enhancer now. Bleh. But it's separate from the OS now, updates via the Windows Store, so new features can be added more quickly. And you can move and resize the Cortana window now. If anyone cares.

There ARE big changes but only software developers would really care... support for docker containers is improved, and WSL2 ("Windows Subsystem for Linux version 2.0") is a big deal for people who want to develop software for both Windows, Android, and Linux/Unix distros. There are also improvements to "Windows Sandbox" which lets you test untrusted apps in a safe, secure sandbox that cannot possibly affect your actual system.

There are lots of improvements to security under the hood, new improvements for updates, and to setup/install/management tools for organizations, improvements to windows search, and task manager.

Not a whole lot for normal users, though if you pay attention, there should be a few visual improvements here and there.

And they'll start pushing out the "New" Microsoft Edge (which is a rebranded, enhanced "Chrome" variant now) which will transparently replace the old legacy Microsoft Edge. It actually makes the browser included with Windows usable... and the joke about "What is Edge good for? Downloading Chrome" becomes out of date, as Edge is essentially Chrome with some Microsoft enhancements... even can use the exact same Chrome extensions store.

Anyway. It's started rolling out slowly. If you deliberately click the "check for updates" button from the Windows Update section of the Settings app, you may see it and be able to get it. For most, it'll take a matter of weeks to start appearing. Most people should have the option to install by the end of July. If you don't seek it, and don't do anything, you won't automatically get it... you have to specifically state you want it, which is also a nice improvement.

The NEXT update (the "Fall" update, expect around late October/November) will be even smaller... just refinements and fixes with very few new features. It'll even install as a normal 'windows update' rather than a 'new version of windows upgrade'... so a few minutes instead of an hour or more.

The next "big" update will likely be a year from now.

Over the course of the next year or two, Windows will be phasing out support for 32-bit computers. Already, new versions of 32-bit windows are not sold to OEMs, so all NEW Windows 10 computers will be 64-bit. There will come a time in the future where anyone still using 32-bit Windows will no longer receive feature updates.

One of the things I've found out about that I do like is that after you upgrade you'll be given the opportunity to download and install the new Microsoft Edge browser which is now Chrome based, but I find to be even better than Chrome itself. You'll be able to install any of the Chrome extensions you've come to like on Edge directly from the Chrome Web Store.

To get it you'll need to click on MS Edge browser and you'll get the download offer for the new Edge in a popup. The new Chrome based Edge will completely replace the old MS Windows based Edge rather than be yet another browser on your system.

Now if they would just get to a point of killing the Internet Explorer browser altogether or add the ability for the user to uninstall it, I'd be happy.

You can get the new Edge browser at any time... it'll roll out automatically to everyone (even without the new version of Windows). It'll also be available to anyone running Windows 7, Windows 8, any version of Windows 10... OS X, iOS, Android, and soon Linux.

If you don't want it, you don't have to take it.

If you want to, you can wait until the Fall update, which is mostly fixes. The spring update is usually the 'new features' update these days.

I've been having dozens of issues for two years with my Windows 10 laptop. None on my old Windows 7, which I still have. I'd rather they came out with a NEW W7 system.

R8, no issues here. Windows 10 is heads-and-shoulders above Windows 7 in every way. Going back to Windows 7 seems like going back into the dark ages.

It takes two steps to open a picture in W10 instead of one. To enlarge a pic in W7, a scroll on the mouse, in W10, again, two steps, and so on.

Not sure what you're even talking about R10. How does it take two steps in Windows 10? How is it any different from windows 7?

W7: click on pic, it opens in photo viewer. W10: right click, then click on photo viewer, it won't open with one click.

R12, Um. Yeah, it does. Exactly the same. Just double click on the photo and it opens in the photo viewer. Just like Windows 7. WTF are you even talking about?

Wait, wait, R12... are you talking about the "choose which app to open this file" dialog?

You realize that there's a checkbox right at the bottom of that dialog that says "Always use this app to open files like this", right? You check that box, and it selects that app you selected as the "default" for that file type, and it won't ask you again.

At least not until you install a new app that can handle that file type... then it'll prompt you again to see if you want to change the default app. Again, it's as simple as choosing that check-box to say you want the app to be the default.

And this hasn't changed. Win7 had that same dialog. What HAS changed is that Windows 10, for security reasons, doesn't let apps register themselves as the default app... it puts the USER, i.e. YOU, in control. So you'll likely see that dialog one more time (per file type) than on Win7, but that's it.

This isn't rocket science.