The Windows 10 Fall Creators Update Feature Focus
by Brett Howse on November 10, 2017 8:00 AM EST
Windows 10 has finally settled into a groove. We are just over two years from the initial release of Windows 10. Part of the promise of Windows 10 was Windows as a service, or in other words, continual updates to Windows rather than monolithic version releases every couple of years. However, the haphazard schedule of feature updates was not pleasing to one stable customer of Microsoft’s. Businesses don’t love surprises, and they need time to plan ahead, and test, in order to deliver the vision that Microsoft has envisioned for Windows 10 going forward, so 2017 is the first year we get to see the new spring and fall updates, first with the Creators Update on April 11, 2017, and now the Fall Creators Update which became widely available on October 17, 2017.
The biannual release schedule still might be too aggressive for a lot of enterprises, but it’s a balancing act for Microsoft to keep the features coming for consumers, security updates coming for enterprise, and of course, keeping Windows 10 fresh in the eyes of everyone. Hopefully this new schedule works out though, since it’s nice to see fewer, smaller updates, rather than annual massive updates which may cause even more challenges.
| Windows 10 Version History | |||||
| Version | Version Number | Release Date | |||
| Windows 10 Original Release | 1507 | July 29, 2015 | |||
| November Update | 1511 | November 10, 2015 | |||
| Anniversary Update | 1607 | August 2, 2016 | |||
| Creators Update | 1703 | April 5, 2017 | |||
| Fall Creators Update | 1709 | October 17, 2017 | |||
And a smaller update is arguably what we’ve had for both of the 2017 releases for Windows, and that’s certainly not a bad thing. That’s not to take away from the many small changes and fixes under the hood, but more a fact that Windows 10 is solid, and stable, and updates only need to further smooth out some of the rough spots, and add a few new ideas for people to utilize. Windows 10 is now well known, with an official monthly active user base of over 500 million devices. It’s a solid number, despite being well under initial targets at launch.
With the Fall Creators Update, Microsoft has added quite a few new features, including some that missed out on the April update. They’ve taken the first step towards an improved OS and app design language since Windows 10 first launched, they’ve added more accessibility, more security, and finally added one of the top feature requests since Windows 10 launched. Let’s dig into the changes.
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Lunaria - Saturday, November 11, 2017 - link
This was the update that made me go back pre-creators update. I am done with them for now. It must be the first time they messed up DX so much, all because of some placebo game mode, some useless game bar and what the hell is that new feature that they added about cheaters gonna do? I sent them feedback about it, and pointed out how clunky it is, how much frame drops I am getting after it and how "disable fullscreen optimizations" or adding game mode toggle in the settings panel and then hiding that same toggle from us in this update is just terrific. They already messed up plenty of things. Sure your games alt tab faster in fullscreen exclusive mode... who cares if they don't run properly? I am on version 1151 build whatever, some February 2016 one. Immediately changed the update server IP so I do not get updates. Leave me alone. If they want to market gaming as a thing, they should go back to their origins and take their stable DX core, reduce latency even further, implement low profile recording with minimal impact and most importantly ask users if they want to use those features or even worse if it goes bad again, those "features". They improved it, yes, but it doesn't even come close to the smooth heaven that gaming before it was added was. Not to mention the creators tools that most people do not need. The Settings menu is getting populated slowly with useful and not so useful information, but it is nothing impressive and I doubt it will ever be. Microsoft if you get only 10 people to test your features, you will recieve better and more valuable feedback than pushing those things to users who will find a way to disable and not use them because you forced them to do so. Give us back what we love and don't Telemetry on us or force us to use Windows Defender, thank you.bill44 - Saturday, November 11, 2017 - link
Whatever happened to Windows 10 Color Management?WFCU supposed to bring in stage 2 improvements to color management, but looks like it's been left out.
Wide COlor Gamut support is useless without it.
Lunaria - Saturday, November 11, 2017 - link
Not to mention they reset my gamma settings all the time.Icehawk - Saturday, November 11, 2017 - link
Let me know when they figure out how to make W10 not bork a good % of my machines when upgrading, super annoying having to rollback and have wasted an hour.Lolimaster - Sunday, November 12, 2017 - link
Stick to win7 and maybe get a xbox one for those games that are win10 exclusives?Lolimaster - Sunday, November 12, 2017 - link
Nothing else justifies having win10 for productivity.marvdmartian - Monday, November 13, 2017 - link
No doubt! At least flash something up on the screen, letting me know that you're pushing an update, and installing it. That way, I'm not suddenly dealing with a crippled machine, that is spending so much of its resources installing a bunch of (mostly useless) "new & improved" apps, and wondering why it's not doing what I want it to do?At least you got a notification of updates, with previous versions of Windows. W10, you're not sure, until you finally get so frustrated, that you reboot....and only THEN get the "Please wait, installing updates" message.
My 2nd favorite part of W10, is the apps that they don't want you to uninstall....even if there's no chance in hell, that you will EVER use them! Because, who doesn't want a bunch of crapware, clogging up your OS, right??
Apple Worshipper - Sunday, November 12, 2017 - link
Windows sucked and will continue to do so. iOS is the undisputed future while iPads will be the one and only true form of mobile computing going. All others are not even worth speaking aboutMarburg U - Sunday, November 12, 2017 - link
And, as ALL the previous updates. This gives out the "interactive windows station" error, on half my computers. Another great job. Probably it will take me 4 days to reformat everything (AGAIN).Glock24 - Sunday, November 12, 2017 - link
Another change I noticed is that that air now using more of the "modern app" control panels. For example, when you right click the network icon and select "network and sharing center" you her one of those new control panels, which I personally dislike. The one good thing though is that it's now possible to set any network as "public" or "private" in the new network control panelAnother change I noticed is on the task manager. It now shows GPU usage and also shows multiple GPUs where it applies.
I've not seen any of the new "Fluent Design". Is that only for " modern apps"? If so I'll never see it, as I uninstall all of those as I find them very annoying.