Windows 10’s next big update, dubbed the “Anniversary Update”, comes out this summer. Here’s what’s been announced so far, along with a few goodies we’ve discovered in the first, second, third, and fourth Insider Preview builds.
While Microsoft hasn’t officially announced a release date, a roadmap on Microsoft’s website promises these new features for “July 2016.” We’re guessing it’ll be released on July 29, 2016, which is the one-year anniversary of Windows 10’s release.
This post was originally written on March 30, 2016, but has since been updated with features from the Insider Previews–the latest being build 14352.
Cortana Becomes a Whole Lot Smarter
Arguably the biggest update is Cortana. Microsoft continues to expand on what Cortana can do, clearly trying to make it the most powerful assistant in an increasingly growing pool of competition (Siri, Google Now, Alexa, and the whole gang). This time around, Cortana comes to the Windows 10 lock screen, so you can invoke her at any time. And, she can push stuff to and from your mobile device, including notifications and text messages. (And remember, sinceCortana is available on Android too, that doesn’t mean you need a Windows Phone to take advantage.)
More interestingly, though, Cortana can parse even more information about stuff it thinks you might need. For example, the on-stage demo showed us that Cortana can respond to things like “Send Chuck the PowerPoint I worked on last night”, or “What toy store did I visit at Build last year?” That’s pretty crazy. Of course, if you’re more privacy-conscious, that’s crazy in all the wrong ways–but it’s a pretty tempting set of features.
Cortana can also make proactive suggestions for you. If you receive email confirmation of flight details, it’ll add them to your calendar. If you promised Chuck you’d send him that PowerPoint in an email, Cortana will know, and remind you to fulfill that commitment later on.
Furthermore, if you add an appointment to your calendar, it’ll know if that appointment overlaps with another, and ask you if you want to re-schedule one of the overlapping events. Or, if you have a meeting during lunch it’ll ask if you want to book a table, or make a to-go order, based on the apps you have available. In short, Cortana is getting more proactive, so you don’t have to be on top of your own stuff–and isn’t that what having an assistant is all about?
Windows 10 Interacts with Your Android Phone (or Windows Phone)
This isn’t finished in the Insider Preview yet, but after the Build keynote, Microsoft also announced that Cortana will now integrate with the Cortana application on your Android or Windows smartphone. You’ll just need to install the Cortana Android app and sign in with the same Microsoft account on both devices. iPhone users are out of luck, as iOS is too locked down for Microsoft to integrate with it as deeply. As of build 14328, this should be working between Windows 10 PCs and Windows Mobile 10 phones running the latest builds. It now works between Android phones and Windows 10 PCs, too–just be sure you have the latest Cortana app installed from Google Play.
Cortana can mirror all your Android phone’s notifications to your PC, giving you all your notifications in Windows 10’s Action Center. You’ll also see a notification on your PC when your smartphone has low battery power, so you’ll know when to charge it. Cortana will offer a “find my phone” feature that can remotely geolocate your phone on a map or ring it if you lose it in nearby. Ask Cortana for “directions to [place]” on your PC, and you’ll see those same directions on your phone. These are just the current features, too, so you can expect Microsoft to add more.
Cortana will also support something called “Messaging Everywhere,” although it wasn’t yet enabled when build 14316 was released. Receive an SMS message on your phone and it’ll pop up on your Windows 10 PC. You can respond from your computer and the message will be sent through your phone. The various features are already integrated into the Messaging app on Windows 10.
More Desktop Apps and Games Come to the Windows Store
The Windows Store is caught in a tough place right now. We want it to get more desktop apps and games, but we don’t want them limited by the Universal Windows Platform (UWP). Microsoft is trying to fix that disconnect in the Anniversary Update.
Regular desktop apps are finally coming to the Windows Store–at least, as long as developers “convert” them to the UWP. This allows for the easy discovery and installation of the Windows Store, but supposedly comes without all the limitations UWP apps traditionally have. We still aren’t quite sure what this means, and which apps might be candidates for a clean conversion without limitations, but it’s an intriguing proposition.
Microsoft will soon release a tool that allows anyone to convert any desktop application on their computer to a sandboxed UWP application. The tool will watch the desktop application run and create a sandboxed application with the appropriate permissions. Developers can use this to convert their own apps for uploading to the Windows Store. You could use it to convert an old desktop application to a UWP application and sideload the application, installing it from outside the Store, if you wanted to.
Games are a big part of this. We’ve already seen that games bought from the Windows Store are missing certain features, like SLI and crossfire support, or the ability to toggle Vsync and borderless full screen. Microsoft says they’re addressing these issues, adding the ability to disable Vsync, better support for multiple GPUs, and more–including support for modding, overlays, and G-Sync and Freesync. That’s in addition to the UWP-exclusive features they have, like live tile support and notifications. Microsoft also says they’ll soon support bundles and season passes in the Windows Store. But only time will tell if games get feature parity with their regular desktop counterparts.
Windows 10 Gets a Dark Theme (and More Theme Options)
When Windows 10 was released, it included a hidden dark theme you could enable by changing a registry setting or by pressing a secret keyboard shortcut in the Store app. You could also change your theme in the Edge browser–but just for Edge. This theme was incomplete. With the Anniversary Update, you can now choose between light and dark modes in Settings > Personalization > Colors. Its designed for Windows Store apps, but not every app will listen to this setting and obey it–some apps, especially those from third-party developers, control their own theme settings. This also means File Explorer will remain as blindingly white as ever.
There’s also now a separate “Show color on title bar” option here, allowing you to only apply your color of choice to the window titlebars and continue using a black Start menu, taskbar, and action center.
Microsoft Edge Finally Supports Browser Extensions
Microsoft Edge was originally supposed to launch with browser extensions when Windows 10 was released, but it didn’t happen. This is a big reason MIcrosoft Edge felt so half-baked and lost so many users. With the Anniversary Update, Edge will finally support browser extensions.
Edge uses Chrome-style extensions, and Microsoft will provide a tool that helps developers quickly convert Chrome extensions to Edge extensions. (Firefox is also moving to Chrome-style extensions, too.) These Edge extensions are already available in the Windows Store, which is where you’ll install them. Extensions are currently available for the Reddit Enhancement Suite, Microsoft Translator, Pinterest, OneNote, Adblock, Adblock Plus, and LastPass.
Edge Gets Click-to-Play Flash, Pinned Tabs, Web Notifications, and Swipe Navigation
Setting the Flash plug-in to click-to-play can help you avoid Flash’s security holes and battery-draining behavior. Edge currently doesn’t offer much control over Flash, with only a single browser-wide “Use Adobe Flash Player” option in its settings.
Microsoft has announced that, with the Anniversary Update, Edge will automatically pause Flash content that isn’t integral to the page and you’ll have to click it to play. Games and videos on web pages should work normally, but Flash advertisements won’t automatically play. Google Chrome already made this change, so Edge is following in Chrome’s footsteps here, too. This isn’t in the Insider Preview just yet, but hopefully it will be soon.
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