What's new in the Microsoft Windows 10 October 2018 Update?
The Windows 10 October 2018 Update might be best known for some of the problems it caused, but it also added some features that can help business users and IT pros.
Fall is a time of transition. Leaves change color, the weather gets colder and Windows 10 shops have a new feature update to account for.
Microsoft released the Windows 10 October 2018 Update at the beginning of October. Before anyone could really settle in, however, the update made headlines for the all the wrong reasons when Microsoft had to recall it because it was deleting files after the update.
Despite the initial stumbling blocks, the Microsoft Windows 10 October 2018 Update includes new features that can help enterprise users and IT alike.
What are the new features?
Your Phone app. The Your Phone app in the Microsoft Windows 10 October 2018 Update creates a single location for users to take advantage of all the smartphone integrations with Windows 10.
With Google Android 7.0 and higher, for example, users can open the shortcut on their desktops and send texts from their PCs or access photos from their phones. If users work with the Continue on PC feature to share items such as website links from their phones to their PCs, it now goes to the Your Phone app.
Windows Update now attempts to predict the best time to perform an update through machine learning.
Screenshot and annotation changes. With the Microsoft Windows 10 October 2018 Update, users can pinpoint a specific section of their screens or a specific window to capture. They can then use the Snip and Sketch tool to draw, highlight or annotate the screenshot.
SwiftKey. The Microsoft Windows 10 October 2018 Update integrates SwiftKey, which Microsoft purchased in 2016, into the touch keyboards on touch-enabled devices, such as tablets and 2-in-1s. With SwiftKey, users should see better auto-corrections and predictions.
SwiftKey also introduces swipe-to-type capabilities, which allow the user to slide his finger across the keyboard to type rather than push down on each character. The new keyboard also allows users to view statistics on how often they use suggested words, what keystrokes they've saved and more.
Windows Security. The Windows Security app -- formerly Windows Defender Security Center -- introduced the current threats functionality, which allows IT to scan for any potential security issues on a device, including viruses that are currently on the device or that have been quarantined before they could infect it.
Windows Update machine learning. Windows Update now attempts to predict the best time to perform an update through machine learning. It tracks user patterns in terms of when they are inactive and for how long to determine if a user stepped away for a moment -- in which case it won't update -- or if he is truly done working -- in which case it would update.
With Windows 10, Microsoft emphasized virtualization-based security, such as Device Guard and Credential Guard, to keep corporate information off ...
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