Windows 10 is picking up a bunch of new features starting today.

If you’ve been keeping an eye on the Windows Insider Preview updates over the last 6 months, there won’t be any major surprises. But with the Windows 10 October 2018 Update starting to roll out to people who aren’t in the Insider program, now’s a good time to brush up on what’s new.

First up, if you can’t wait to install the update, you can type Check For Updates into the search bar on your Windows 10 computer and follow the on-screen prompts to force the update. Otherwise you can wait for your computer to automatically download and install the update sometime in the coming weeks.

Microsoft is giving users more control over automatic updates, including the ability to update at night when plugged in and not running on battery power. The company says it also takes up to 31 percent less time to install this update than the last major feature update.

There’s a long list of new features in Windows 10 and Office 365, but here are a few highlights:

  • The new Cloud Clipboard gives you clipboard history and allows you to copy on one PC and paste on another.
  • The Your Phone app allows you to access Android photos and text messages on a computer or pick up where you left off browsing on an iPhone.
  • Timeline for Android phones allows you to pick up where you left off on a different device. The feature requires the Microsoft Launcher app, and Timeline for phone is coming soon to iPhones as well.
  • The Microsoft To-Do app is gaining ink/pen support.
  • The Microsoft Edge web browser now supports themes, grammar tools, and an offline dictionary, among other improvements. You can also choose whether or not media on web sites should play automatically or not.
  • Microsoft is bringing the SwiftKey keyboard to Windows, bringing gesture-based swiping support to the touch keyboard, as well as text, phrase, and emoji suggestions.
  • There are 157 new emoji thanks to support for Unicode 11, as well as some updated designs for existing emoji.
  • You can now add names to folders in the Start menu.
  • Windows Defender Security Center is now just called Windows Security.

There are also a number of updates to the security settings and new features for Windows Mixed Reality, search, and the PC Gaming experience, as well as new versions of some Microsoft apps including Skype, Microsoft Forms, and Font Maker.

You can find way more details in Microsoft’s blog post announcing new features for Windows 10 and Office 365.

Support Liliputing

Liliputing's primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the "Shop" button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we'll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you're using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or...

Contribute via PayPal

* If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Subscribe to Liliputing via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 9,545 other subscribers

5 replies on “Microsoft’s Windows 10 October 2018 Update is here”

  1. First, lets wait to see what it breaks, then wait for a way to fix it. So far every single update made at least a handful of systems Im responsible for unable to boot.

  2. First thing that comes to mind is: how can i disable the cloud clipboard. You know… In case I’m not into my personal data being on M$ servers..

    1. Don’t know if you’re running Windows 10 Linus, but I got the update and first thing I did was check to see how this cloud clipboard thing is configured. Apparently, you can hit the Windows menu and type “c” and first thing in search results is “Cloud Clipboard Syncing System Setting”. From there apparently it gives you the option to sign into your Microsoft account or just stay signed into your local Windows administrator account – which is what I am doing. Apparently the cloud clipboard sync feature requires being signed into a Microsoft account. So as long as I’m not signed into my Microsoft account, I believe nothing is saved to the cloud automatically. But I don’t really know.

  3. Uh oh, what will Microsoft break this time? Last year’s Fall Creators Update killed my Wifi. I never have problems like this with Linux!

Comments are closed.