As previously rumored, on November 12th, Microsoft begins rolling out its first major update of Windows 10 for PCs and tablets. Microsoft made the official announcement through its Windows Blog site. The company explains that with the fall update is improving “all aspects of the platform and experience”.
Alongside, the Windows 10 November update, the software giant is releasing the New Xbox One Experience on November 12th, but mobile phones will have to wait a little longer to get this new update.
According to the company, Windows 10 now has “reached the point in the platform’s maturity” where Microsoft can “confidently recommend Windows 10 deployment to whole organizations.”
The new update brings a lot of changes and improvements to the operating system, in fact, “everyday tasks, such as boot time now is nearly 30% faster than Windows 7 on the same device.”
Cortana gets smarter with handwriting recognition when using the Notebook, and the assistant will also recognize phone numbers, email address, and even physical addresses to help you set reminders.
The digital assistant can now keep track your events and movie booking, and when the time to event gets close, Cortana will provide useful information, such as directions and Uber cars.
Microsoft Edge is being improved as well. Now it offers better performance and security, along with tab preview, which allows users to preview a web page before jumping to it. The web browser now is able to sync your passwords, bookmarks, and reading list items across devices with your Microsoft Account. And there is also the option to cast media to devices from sites like YouTube, Facebook, and Pandora.
Microsoft has also been updating its built-in apps, such as Mail, Calendar, Photos, Groove, Xbox, Store, OneNote, Solitaire, and the company is also delivering an early preview of its messaging apps powered by Skype.
There are also tweaks on the Start menu, now users can add a fourth row of Live Tiles, and they can pin up to 2048 tiles on Start, before users only were able to pin 512 tiles.
Another noticeable improvement is the new colored title bars for desktop apps and File Explorer, and now apps a little more consistent on look to those new Windows apps.
Although, it hasn’t permanently fixed, Microsoft is also improving the context menus throughout the operating system to make the experience more consistent.
There are also new icons around Control Panel, Device Manager, and throughout the system.
The Settings app also has been improved with a number of new features, such as now users can install new apps on an external storage (e.g., SD card, USB flash drives, USB hard drive), Windows by default will be able to control which is your default printer, you can disable the background image on the sign-in screen (if you don’t like the Windows 10 logo background), the “Find My Device” feature from mobile phones arrives to the desktop version of the operating system, and Microsoft is making a lot easier to activate Windows 10 when upgrading from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.
Finally, Microsoft is adding changes to the “Reset This PC” feature to allow users to go back to the Windows 10 November update instead to the official Windows 10 July release. In addition, the latest update for the operating system enables Intel’s Speed Shift technology that will allow Windows 10 to delegate frequency and voltage control to the processor, which improves power management and makes the system more responsive.
The update that Microsoft is releasing as the Windows 10 Fall Update or “Windows 10 November 2015” or “Windows 10 November update” is the same version (1511) that Insiders receive a week before of the big release.
The update will download and install automatically, but you can always go to Settings > Update & security > Windows Update and choose “Check for updates” to trigger the download. Also, remember that Microsoft will be rolling out the update slowly, which means that now everyone will be getting the update the same day.
In this article, I’m also adding my video demo walkthrough of the Windows 10 November update, which highlights all the changes, features, and improvements.
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].