Full list of new features in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update

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windows 10

Microsoft is set to release the Windows 10 Anniversary Update sometime soon today. The update brings several new features to Windows 10, as well as a tonne of minor enhancements. There are improvements to the Start Menu, Action Center, Microsoft Edge, the built-in apps, Cortana, and much more. This is just a simple list of some of the things coming with the Anniversary Update today — however, there are quite a lot of changes throughout the operating system. Here’s the full list of features in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, courtesy of ChangeWindows:

Start and Action Center

  • You can now right-click on the header of an app in the Action Center instead of only the name and close icon
  • Dismissing all notifications from one app has been made easier with a larger target
  • The All Apps list and Most Used have been merged
  • “Recently added” can now show up to 3 apps instead of just one
  • All Apps is now full screen in tablet mode
  • The left rail now only consists of icons that can be expanded with the hamburger button
  • The Action Center icon has been moved to the right hand side of the clock
  • The Action Center icon now shows the number of new notifications and logos of the apps that have triggered them
  • Individual app notifications no longer have icons, instead the header now shows the icon
  • Notifications now support hero images and more
  • Clicking the Wi-Fi quick action will now open the Network fly-out instead of toggling Wi-Fi on and off
  • You can now manage all your playback devices from the Sound fly-out
  • When an app is shown with a name like “@{<app package name>}”, there will now be an option to remove it
  • You can now dismiss notifications by middle clicking on them
  • The Action Center has a more polished interface
  • The start menu has a new default tile layout
  • In All apps, the numbered apps are now listed under “#” instead of “0-9”
  • The target to dismiss notifications is now larger
  • You can now sync notifications between desktop and Mobile (as long as Mobile is on build 14352+)
  • The Action Center icon no longer shows the number of new notifications when the taskbar is set to small icons
  • The margin at the top off start is now smaller
  • Scrollbars will now disappear in start as soon as you leave their active area
  • The Recently installed-list is now displayed above Most used
  • Recently installed apps now stay visible under Recently installed for 7 days
  • If a Quick Action turns a certain functionality in your device on or off (Bluetooth, Flashlight, etc.) it will now show On/Off for a short period
  • The Action Center now has an animation when notifications are deleted or moved by Windows

Cortana and search

  • Cortana will now show a button on the top to search for music
  • Cortana is now supported in Spanish (Mexico), Portuguese (Brazil) and French (Canada)
  • Cortana now provides more freedom when creating new reminders
  • Cortana can now provide turn-by-turn directions with the new Maps app
  • Cortana can now sync across devices
    • You’ll now get a notification whenever your mobile device is running out of battery
    • Find my phone/Ring my phone is now available through Cortana
    • You can now share map directions between your devices
  • Cortana can now automatically fetch the required speech language for you
  • Cortana can now give reminder suggestions
  • You can now change Cortana’s language
  • Cortana’s Settings have been moved outside the Notebook
  • Cortana is now available on the lock screen
  • You can now create reminders with photos or shared info from apps
  • Cortana no longer needs to be initiated to get started
  • Cortana now fully supports cross device functionality
  • You can no longer disable Cortana from within her settings
  • Reminders are now no longer sorted on type, but are shown in one list
  • OneDrive is now intergrated in search
  • Improved share UI for reminders
  • Cortana can now search in your Office 365 account
  • You can now let Cortana play music from the Groove Music Catalog
  • You can now set a timer in Cortana
  • You can now enable Cortana to help you on the lock screen with reminders, appointments and messages
  • The buttons for Settings and Feedback in the rail have been moved to the bottom
  • When listening to you, Cortana now shows a sound wave instead of random characters
  • Cortana should now listen more reliably after tapping the mic button
  • Cortana’s home UI no longer shows your cards but hints and a button to show the cards
  • Right-clicking on a file will now allow you to open its location
  • The keyboard shortcut to open Cortana in listening mode is now Win + Shift + C

Desktop

  • Controls in taskbar previews now look better on high resolutions
  • You can now show a window on all your desktops
  • You can now set the taskbar to auto hide only for tablet mode
  • The clock on the taskbar now has calendar integrated into it
  • The clock is now visible on all monitors the taskbar is visible on
  • UWP apps can now show a badge on top of their icon in the taskbar
  • You can now switch desktops by swiping with 4 fingers over the touchpad
  • The File Explorer has a new icon
  • File Explorer is no longer pinned to the taskbar by default
  • Windows will now remember the “Show windows from this app on all desktops”-setting for each window
  • WIN + Alt + D can now open the clock flyout

User Interface

  • The logon screen now uses the lockscreen image as background
  • The upgrade experience has a new design
  • The emoji set has been completely revamped
  • The default emojis are no longer grey, but yellow
  • The lock screen no longer shows your email address
  • When playing media, the media controls will now be shown on top of the lock screen
  • User Account Control has been reworked to match the Windows 10 design language
  • The credential window has been redesigned
  • When closing a snapped app in tablet mode, the other app will take the full screen
  • When your profile starts to load, the background on the lock screen will zoom in a little
  • A number of icons, like the Blu-Ray icon and network icon have been updated
  • The width for the Japanese 12 key keyboard is now wider on small screens in portrait mode
  • Windows Hello will no longer show your name when logging in

Microsoft Edge

  • Edge has been updated from version 25.10586 to version 38.14393 with the following updates
    • Right clicking the back-button will now show a dropdown with pages visited earlier
    • The ellipses-menu has a slightly new design
    • The hub-, webnote- and share-items will no longer appear in the settings-menu when there isn’t enough space on the addressbar
    • When closing Edge, you can now choose to clear the browsing data
    • You can now change the favorites bar to only show icons
    • You can now create a folder right from the favorites bar
    • You can now rename items from the favorites bar
    • You can now require a prompt to pop up before a download starts
    • You can now choose the location where a download should be stored
    • Edge now supports Extensions
    • Extensions can now add an icon to the address bar
    • Tabs can now be pinned to the tab bar
    • The address bar now supports “Paste and go”
    • The address bar now supports “Paste and search”
    • When a download has completed, Edge will not show a notification in the Action Center
    • When the window becomes too narrow, the Hub, Web Notes and Share buttons will appear in the ellipses menu as icons instead of text
    • The padding between the URL bar and Hub-icon is slightly larger
    • You can now upload folders
    • Edge now supports importing favorites from Firefox
    • Imported favorites will now be put in their own folder, instead of the already existing favorites folder
    • The Favorites hub now uses a tree view
    • When closing Edge with running downloads, Edge will now warn you
    • You can now set a default save location for downloads
    • Edge’s default opening settings are now a dropdown
    • When Flash content isn’t the focus, Edge will pause it automatically
    • There is now an accessibility tree view in F12
    • You can now debug extensions through F12
    • You can now use DOM API profiling
    • Developer items no longer appear by default in context menus and have to be enabled by visiting the F12 tools one time
    • Extensions can now be downloaded from the Windows Store
    • You can now swipe to go back and forward
    • “What’s new and tips” has been added to the menu in Edge
    • Download notificaions in Edge now include filenames, download status and site domain on separate lines
    • When a download is opened outside of Edge, Edge will now launch with the download hub enabled
  • EdgeHTML has been updated from version 13.10586 to version 14.14393 with the following updates
    • Support for grab and grabbing values for the cursor property
    • Default parameters
    • Async/await
    • Object.values and Object.entries
    • Opus audio format
    • Time element
    • Date element
    • Output element
    • Color input type
    • Canvas Path2D objects
    • Web Speech API
    • The User Agent String has been updated
    • Improved accessibility features
    • Web Notification API
    • Beacon API
    • Fetch API
  • The following flags have been added
    • You can now enable the ability to unload unpacked extensions
    • You can now set a flag for “Compose scrollbar thumbs independently”
    • You can now set a flag for DirectX settings “Use Windows.UI.Composition”
    • A flag for WebRTC 1.0 is available but not functional and will be removed in a later version
    • ES6 Regex symbols
    • You can now allow Edge to use an unrestricted amount of memory
    • You can now enable H.264/AVC for Object RTC
    • Experimental support for TCP Fast Open can be enabled
    • TCP Fast Open is disabled by default but can be enabled
    • A flag has been added to enable Standard Fullscreen API

Settings

  • New panels, settings and options
    • You can now back-up your Startscreen layout, accounts and passwords to OneDrive
    • Windows Defender has been updated to version 4.10
    • Taskbar settings have been added under System
    • Your personal info and email settings are now split up under Accounts
    • Insiders can no longer change the Feedback behavior, it is now set to always ask questions
    • Windows Defender can now be used offline
    • You can now remove temporary files, downloads, recycle bin and previous Windows installations from Storage
    • You can now choose which app’s notifications are more important to you
    • You can now choose how many notifications an app can have in the Action Center
    • You can now choose between dark and light mode
    • The color for title bars and the color for the taskbar, start and Action Center can now be toggled separately from each other
    • You can now manage on a per-app basis if an app can run in the background or not, or if this has to be handled by Windows
    • Windows Update now allows you to set the time you’re most active in so that it can avoid updating at that point
    • You can now override Active Hours with the Restart Options
    • The Windows Update notification, after installing an update, now takes you to the device’s update history
    • You can now enable Device Portal
    • You can now enable a number of developer-focused settings for File Explorer
    • There are now a number of developer-focused settings for Remote Desktop
    • You can now share your Wi-Fi as a hotspot
    • PowerShell also has a number of developer-focused settings
    • You can now set the position of all quick actions in the Action Center and choose which should be visible
    • The Pen settings have been updated to allow you to set pen shortcuts
    • You can now reset an app from the App settings
    • You can now set whether or not the lock screen should show your email address
    • “Project to this PC” settings have been added under System
    • “Dial Up” settings have been added under Networks
    • “Magnifier” settings have been added under “Ease of Access”
    • There is a progress bar added under “Battery” to indicate the charge of the battery
    • You can now change the sort order of apps on the “Battery”-pane
    • A link to Maps Storage has been added under Storage settings
    • The default pane for Network & Settings is now the new “Status”-pane
    • Settings now has a network speed test integrated
    • Hotspot 2.0 settings have been added under Wi-Fi
    • You can now disable badges on taskbar buttons
    • You can now prevent the lock screen from showing your email address
    • You can now see all add-ons per app
    • Under “Temporary Files”, Windows now shows the amount of storage that pending updates and builds are using
    • Some of the activation info has been removed from “Activation”
    • Under Privacy, you can now enable apps on other devices to start on your PC to continue where you left off
    • Under Privacy, you can now enable apps on other devices to start on your PC through Bluetooth to continue where you left off
    • Apps for websites has been added under System
    • Sharing a network with your contacts in Wi-Fi Sense is no longer possible
    • The IME Settings page now has a “Clear Input History” option
    • You can now let your PC only be visible to project when plugged in
    • Upgrading from Pro to Enterprise no longer requires you to wipe the system and doesn’t require a reboot
    • You can now enable Limited Periodic Scanning which provides a second line of defence when using other Antivirus solutions than Windows Defender
    • Recovery now shows a link to a help thread about starting anew with Windows
    • You can now allow Windows to use your login credentials to automatically finish setting up your account after an upgrade
    • Windows Defender will no longer sow recap notification in normal mode
    • Notifications has been added under “Privacy” to change which apps have access to your notifications
    • “Activation” now has a description to help people change their product key
    • The name, IP address, and mac address to be selectable for Mobile Hotspot are now selectable so that you can copy them
    • The 3D display state will now be saved when upgrading
  • Visual updates and others
    • The Settings app has a new design
    • The selected accent color now has a new marking
    • Power and sleep settings contain some new information about behavior of the lockscreen when using slideshows
    • Wi-Fi Sense and and Paid Wi-Fi settings are now relocated to Wi-Fi Settings
    • The accent color table has been redesigned and is now always shown
    • Battery settings are now displayed on one single page
    • Under “Activation” Windows will now say that the license is coupled to your account
    • Update History is moved out of Advanced Options in Windows Update
    • Individual pages now have their own icon
    • Every sign-in method (Windows Hello, Picture password, etc.) now has an icon
    • Windows Insider Program settings have been moved out of Windows Update
    • When using Search in settings, the initial results will appear in a dropdown instead of full screen
    • The “Updates installed” notification now links to the Update history instead of Windows Update
    • Ctrl + E now sets focus to the search bar
    • The “Change product key” link now has an icon
    • Some of the options under Network and Internet > Status now have an icon and description

Ink Workspace

  • The Windows Ink Workspace is now available

System

  • Improvements to OneCore
  • Fast user switching now also works with Picture Password
  • Improved performance for Japanse IME
  • Windows now has a one-handed Japanese kana keyboard
  • The Text Input Canvas has a new Japanese lined-mode
  • You can now use the Ubuntu Bash natively in Windows
  • Improved Japanese IME with improved predictions, cloud suggestion and typing history
  • Improved battery life for Connected Standby PC’s
  • You can now enable paths with more than 260 characters for NTFS
  • The installation is no longer divided in 3 steps and now shows as just 1 step
  • Improved performance for account migration
  • Windows 10 now provides support for Hyper-V containers
  • Handwriting Recognition support for 23 additional languages
  • Ctrl + Shift + P can now be used to turn of Private mode when Japanese Input Method Editor is used
  • You can now troubleshoot activations
  • It is now possible to link your Microsoft Account to your digital license
  • Improved consistency in scrolling and zooming speeds between monitors when using a multiple-monitor setup with a precision touchpad
  • Improved battery life for Surface devices
  • Projecting to a PC auto-discoverability is now off by default
  • You can now mount iPods as USB mass-storage devices

Apps

  • The Get Skype app has been removed
  • The Windows Feedback app has been removed
  • Skype has been added as a default app
  • Connect has been added as a default app
  • Paid WiFi & Cellular has been added as a default app
  • Sticky Notes has been added as a default app
  • Feedback Hub has been added as a default app
    • You can now react on feedback in the Feedback Hub
    • The Feedback Hub now suggests a category when you’ve typed in your feedback
    • The “Alerts” page in the Feedback Hub has been removed
    • The Feedback Hub will now show Microsoft responses
    • You can now make a screenshot and open Feedback Hub directly with Win + F
  • Option now available to use the Camera app to take a photo and send it with Skype
  • The Win32 Sticky Notes app has been removed

Other features

  • The Credentials window now allows you to paste into the name and password fields
  • Tapping anywhere in the “Set location” notification will now allow you to set a default location
  • The Game Bar now supports more full-screen games
  • Task Manager settings will now be saved after upgrading to a new build
  • Improved learning speed and prediction in the Japanese IME
  • Improved sound and network icon on non-standard DPI settings
  • Improved reliability of Start, Cortana and Action Center
  • Narrator now supports using physical volume buttons to change the volume while Narrator is in Scan mode

And further

  • Windows 10 Education is now supported for the Windows Insider Preview
  • Copyright info has been updated to 2016
  • Windows now identifies itself as version 1607
  • The full buildstring is now displayed at the bottom of the desktop for previews
  • The build numbers for desktop and Mobile are now synced

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