Microsoft will start rolling out next major feature update for Windows 10 next month. Called as Windows 10 October 2018 Update, Windows 10 v1809 brings in a plethora of new features and improvements. In this post, we are talking about some of the new features in Windows 10 v1809 October 2018 Update.

New features in Windows 10 v1809

Microsoft has removed some features in Windows 10 v1809, but it has also added new features. Let us take a look at them.

Windows Settings Changelog

This is one place where changes are very much visible. Windows has now enabled/added features which either has been long awaited or has been very useful to be enabled by default.

Settings Section is more helpful now: Microsoft has been trying to improve Windows Settings to help users to solve their common problems without going anywhere. It now suggests common questions on the sidebar, and also offers tips and suggestions on the home page.
Smarter Windows Update: Windows will use machine learning to figure out when the update should be installed. Right now it’s either predefined or manual. Depending on how you use your PC, and when you use the PC, it will now offer a smarter solution on when to update your PC.
Dedicated HD / HDR Settings: Windows now offers anew Windows HD color page which lets you configure HDR settings.
Work for different Region? If yes, You can change the regional format settings like Calendar, First day of the week, Currency, Dates, Times, and Currency.
Keyboard: Typing insights are now available along with SwiftKey which now powers the touch and on-screen keyboards.
Bluetooth: Similar to smartphones, you can see battery percentage of devices like mouse, keyboard within settings. They should also appear in the action center.

Apart from there are two subtle, but important changes. First, Focus Assist will automatically enable for all the games, and the mouse can be centered on the screen when using the magnifier tool.

Microsoft Edge Changelog

Reading & PDF: Edge offers themes for reading along with line focus which will help you in reading big articles. When reading PDF and Books you can add notes, pin/unpin the toolbar, look up definitions of words, refresh the books pane using a pull gesture, pinned books will have a progress icon view, and local PDf files appear in history.
Edge Hub & UI: It’s settings page has been redesigned to give a HUB like look with an acrylic navigation pane. When it comes to UI, a lot of cosmetic changes including drop shadow tabs, icons instead of text, and you can now control which website can play the video automatically. If any website starts playing media, the volume icon will light up to draw your attention.

Windows UI Changelog

Dark Mode is taking over Windows. It’s now available for File Explorer, and Settings as well. If you love it, you can now have a true dark mode in Windows.
Finally, a clipboard which is smart. The new Cloud Clipboard experience not only syncs between devices, but you can also see the copied content by using the WIN+V shortcut.
Snipping Experience: The current Snipping tool has been replaced with a Snip & Sketch app which includes support for the freehand screenshot as well. A shortcut will be available in the action center for quick access. You can also configure to open this Snip & Sketch app.
Screen projection: Depending on your content, you can choose how to stream from your PC to an external device. You have modes for gaming, productivity or work, and video.
Mixed Reality: You don’t need to use a monitor anymore for Mixed Reality, and the user can view the real world as well when using the headsets with its inbuilt camera.

System apps changelog

Apps on Windows 10 has received some important changes. Starting with the Phone App now can sync with both Android and iPhone for photos, notifications, SMS and more. The older version of Phone App has been deprecated.

Notepad is one of the apps that has got serious attention. It not only features line endings support for Unix but also for Mac, i.e., LF and CR. You can choose to wrap around text to make sure they are not lost in infinity! Apart from that, you can Zoom in and out and also see line numbers. Making sure Bing is not left behind, right-click, and you can search on Bing.

If any of your apps are consuming too much battery, you can see them under Power usage and tends tabs in Task Manager

Pen Changelog

You can use the new snipping experience by pressing a button on your Pen. You will need to configure your pen though.
Configure your pen to use it as a mouse.
You can ink directly into text boxes.

Activity History Sync with Fresh Install

When you clean install Windows 10 on a new PC, the OOBE or Out of Box Experience setting will offer consumers to enable activity history sync. This means when they use the same account, they can start from where the left.

What do you think of these new changes? Let us know in the comments.