The Windows 10 Anniversary Update that was released to Home users in the summer is now available under the Current Branch for Business servicing option.

The Windows 10 Anniversary Update that was released to Home users in the summer is now available for widespread enterprise deployments.

The Anniversary release, version 1607, has been designated as available to Windows 10 machines that receive updates under the Current Branch for Business (CBB) servicing option.

Apart from the Home version of Windows 10, most other flavors of the OS can be set to receive updates under the CBB. A PC on the CBB path will be updated about four months after the Home version of Windows 10, allowing additional time to validate an update’s quality and application compatibility.

This delay to allow bugs to be fixed would seem to be particularly important in the case of the Anniversary Update, which triggered complaints about frozen systems and broken web cams among home users. A group of Windows 10 Home users have previously petitioned Microsoft to allow them to delay updates.

Describing the Anniversary Update’s availability under the CBB, Michael Niehaus, director of product marketing at Microsoft, said in a blog post: “This is an important milestone and signifies that this version has been validated by customers, OEMs and partners giving organizations the confidence to further accelerate deployments at scale.”

The release addresses 1,000 items of feedback from home users and enterprises performing pilot deployments.

The Anniversary Update can be downloaded to PCs on the CBB and will be available to CBB machines via Windows Update and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) in January. Unlike machines that use Windows Update, computers that are managed using WSUS or System Center Configuration Manager, will require IT admins to choose when to apply the update.

The other version of Windows 10 designated as a supported CBB release is 1511, released in November last year. The launch version of Windows 10, 1507, won’t be patched or updated after March next year.

Niehaus says there has been a 3x increase in deployments of Windows 10 by enterprise over the past six months, but doesn’t reveal the size of these deployments or the number. Businesses rolling out Windows 10 include the Australian Department of Human Services, Hendrick Motorsports and Crystal Group of Companies.

However, some third-party figures on Windows 10 roll-outs have been less rosy, with an audit of more than 400,000 business PCs in North America finding that 99 percent of had not been upgraded to Windows 10.

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Now that Apple’s introduced the first major update to its MacBook Pro lineup in years, it’s time to square off the best of the best in Mac and PC laptops to see who currently prevails in this age-old rivalry. 

The contenders

The newest Surface Book is a top-of-the-line model with a Core i7-6600U, a GeForce GTX 965M, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. The updated product line varies from $2,400 to $3,300 (our model) in price. All three net you a 6th-gen Skylake dual-core Core i7 chip, and all three get you the same Performance Base with a GeForce GTX 965M. The only differences are in the size of the SSD and how much RAM you get. Only the SSD would affect performance significantly.

On the Apple side, the contender is a $2,400 MacBook Pro 15 with a quad-core Core i7-6700HQ, 16GB of LPDDR/2133, and a 256GB SSD. I also had partial access to two MacBook Pro 13’s. The first was the non-touch bar model with a Core i5-6360U, 8GB of LPDDR/1866, and a 256GB SSD ($1,500). The second was the Touch Bar version with a Core i5-6267U, 8GB of LPDDR/2133, and a 256GB SSD ($1,800).

Why this contest isn’t rigged

Let’s make it clear from the outset: This isn’t a direct comparison of the laptops based on cost, but an attempt to compare the performance of the new MacBook Pros to that of similar PC laptops.

For those who’ve noticed the considerable price delta between the Surface Book i7 and the 15-inch MacBook Pro, the stack of other PCs used in this comparison will help smooth out that line. You might argue that it’s silly to compare a $3,300 Surface Book i7 against an $1,800 MacBook Pro 13, or a $1,100 Dell XPS 13 against an $1,800 MacBook Pro 13, or a $1,400 Dell XPS 15 against a $2,400 MacBook Pro 15. But these are all real-world models that you’ll find in a store, rather than configurations contrived to hit a number. Price differences are just part of the comparison puzzle.

For the same reason, we’re not loading the same OS on all the laptops—no OSX on PCs, no Windows on Macs. Real people wouldn’t do that, and neither will we.

Cinebench R15 multi-threaded performance

Our first test is Cinebench R15. This is a 3D rendering test based on Maxon’s Cinema4D engine. The test is heavily multi-threaded, and the more cores or threads you can throw at it, the better the performance. The test is is a pretty harsh reminder that if your tasks demand a quad-core, listen to them.

Between the two quad-cores, the Dell XPS 15 crosses the finish line first—but not by much. Let’s just call it mostly a tie.

Among the dual-cores, the Core i5-based MacBook Pro 13 is last, but not by much. It’s basically the same as the last-gen XPS 13 with a similar Core i7-6560U.

The surprise is where the Surface Book i7 finishes. Its 6th-gen CPU is hanging right with the 7th-generation Kaby Lake CPUs in the new HP Spectre x360 13 and the new Dell XPS 13.

Cinebench R15 single-threaded performance

Cinebench R15 has an optional test that lets you measure the single-threaded performance. It’s a valuable way to gauge how fast a laptop will be in applications or tasks that don’t use all the cores available.

The surprise to many will be the result from the Dell XPS 13. Its 7th-generation Core i5 CPU could hang with the Core i7 chips on heavier loads, but on lighter loads, it ends up being last. That’s because Core i7 chips in laptops excel at short, “bursty” loads. Once you heat them up, the clock speeds crank back. When running a test in single-threaded mode, the Core i7’s advantage with short burst loads shows up big-time.

The real shocker is how the HP Spectre x360 with a 7th-gen CPU comes out the clear winner. The quad-core MacBook Pro 15 or Dell XPS 15 were expected to lead the pack, but nope. That Kaby Lake CPU is indeed pulling its weight.

Cinebench R15 OpenGL performance

Our last Cinebench R15 test measures performance with OpenGL, a popular graphics API used for rendering professional CAD/CAM applications and a few games.

The results here break down into three bands. At the bottom is the new MacBook Pro 13 and an older Dell XPS 13 model. Both use Intel’s Skylake CPU and include “faster” Iris 540 graphics with 64MB of embedded DRAM inside the CPU. Both are nearly dead-even, which validates this test for comparing OSX to Windows 10 performance.

The second band up is a shocker to me. The pair of 7th-gen Kaby Lake laptops from Dell and HP are a good 25 percent faster than the 6th-gen Skylake laptops in OpenGL. The Iris 540 laptops were expected to come out in front. The results made us wonder whether this isn’t some driver optimization that Intel put into Kaby Lake but not Skylake.

The last band is the graphics performance of the discrete-GPU laptops. Unexpectedly, the GeForce GTX 960M in the XPS 15 finishes just ahead of the GTX 965M in the Surface Book i7. The MacBook Pro 15, with its Radeon Pro 450, finishes in a firm third place. Some MacBook Pro reviews have said the graphics don’t measure up in games, while in “work”-related tasks, they rules. So far, no one has seen that to be true.

GeekBench 4.01 multi-threaded performance

Another popular cross-platform benchmark is Primate Lab’s GeekBench. Experts may disdain its cross-platform results between ARM and x86. Within the same micro-architecture, however, it’s pretty kosher, especially when running the newest 4.01 version of the popular test. There is  also a score to report for the MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar

The first result we’ll look at is the multi-threaded performance. Like Cinebench R15, you can see the quad-core XPS 15 and MacBook Pro 15 step away from the dual-core laptops. It’s just more proof that if your tasks really need a quad-core chip, pay for it.

On the dual-cores, the redesigned HP Spectre x360 13 again shows the newest 7th-gen Core i7’s clock speed advantage over the Skylake models. The Surface Book i7 and MacBook Pro are pretty much dead-even. For MacBook Pro 13 fans that might be something to crow about, because we’re talking about a Core i5 MacBook Pro 13 vs. a Core i7 Surface Book.

GeekBench 4.01 single-threaded performance

Moving on to the single-threaded performance in GeekBench 4.01, there are a few patterns we can discern. First, that 7th-gen Core i7 in the HP Spectre x360 13 is indeed faster in lighter loads, outpacing the Surface Book i7 and the Core i5-equipped MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar.

The Dell XPS 15 inches over the MacBook Pro 15, but the real takeaway is this: If you don’t do many multi-threaded tasks on your laptop, you don’t need a quad-core CPU.

GeekBench 4.01 OpenCL performance

GeekBench also has an OpenCL test that simulates popular Computer Language tasks on a GPU that would normally be handled by the CPU.

The first takeaway: Unlike in the OpenGL performance tests, the older Iris 540 in the Skylake dual-cores is faster than the Kaby Lake integrated graphics for whatever tasks Prime Labs thinks best represent OpenCL.

The second takeaway: OpenCL loves fast GPUs. The Surface Book i7 and its GTX 965M run away with this test, and trash the MacBook Pro 13. For those who didn’t pony up for the MacBook Pro’s faster Radeon Pro 455 or 460 GPU, it’s hard to watch how thoroughly the the Surface Book i7 smokes the 450-equipped MacBook Pro. The Surface Book’s GTX 965M even makes a mockery of the GTX 960M in the XPS 15.

LuxMark 3.1 OpenCL GPU Render Performance

When you play the benchmarketing game, one truth that’s often overlooked is that no one test defines the entire category. You can’t take the results from Geek Bench 4.01 OpenCL and declare it representative of all OpenCL performance.

To balance Geek Bench 4.01, I also ran the free LuxMark 3.1 OpenCL test. This takes a scene and renders it using the LuxRender engine on the GPU (or CPU if you ask it to.)

The results put these GPUs a lot closer than the OpenCL numbers from Geek Bench 4.01 would have you believe. In the end, both the XPS 15 and Surface Book i7 again both clearly win. But would this be true if it were a Radeon 460 in the MacBook Pro 15? Probably not.

Blender 2.78 Performance

The last “work”-related graphics test we’ll run is Blender 2.78. This a free rendering application popular in a lot of indie movies. For a test render file, I used Mike Pan’s BMW Benchmark and set Blender to ray-trace the scene on the GPU rather than the CPU. The result is, frankly, beyond ugly. The Surface Book i7 finished in about eight minutes, and the XPS 15 took another two more minutes. The MacBook Pro 15 took more than an hour to complete the task.

This doesn’t mean the MacBook Pro 15’s Radeon Pro 450 is a dog. The other benchmarks should tell you that the Apple isn’t that bad in some tasks. Still, this kind of performance disparity indicates a serious problem at the OS or driver level, or something with this compile of Blender. Unless or until that mystery is solved, you’ll want to do your Blender renders on a PC laptop.

Tomb Raider performance

The last graphics test is Tomb Raider. It’s an older game available in both OSX and Windows and includes a built-in benchmark. While we could set the graphics settings the same on both platforms, we couldn’t quite sync the resolutions. Depending on the laptop, we could set the horizontal resolution at 1680-, 1650-, or 1600×1050 (the latter, for the Macs). The graphics setting on all of the laptops was Normal.

If you can’t bear to look, don’t: The Surface Book i7 and XPS 15 soundly thrashed the MacBook Pro 15. The Radeon Pro 460 would not make a difference here, either. If you want gaming performance at any decent levels, no surprise—buy a PC.

Battery life

The final test is for all-important battery life. The same 4K-resolution were used, open-source Tears of Steel short video, looping continuously. On the Windows laptops, we used the Movies & TV player, and on OSX Sierra, we used QuickTime.

All of the laptops had their screens set at 250 to 260 nits in brightness. All laptops had the adaptive brightness setting turned off. All were tested with Wi-Fi disabled and with earbuds plugged into the analog ports. One thing to note: The Windows laptops are left in their default power settings, which means they use their last bits of battery life to shut off unused apps and slightly dim the screen. OSX was set not to dim the display on battery—otherwise, it immediately dims the screen once unplugged.

Our results on the pair of MacBook Pros were amazingly similar. Started both early in the morning and watched until they died in the early evening. Both were minutes apart.

Apple claims about 10 hours of run time in iTunes. We were pretty close in QuickTime at nearly 9 hours. The variance can be attributed to the video file and the settings the company uses.

For the MacBook Pro 15, that’s pretty impressive. The battery life for 15-inch laptops with quad-core CPUs, discrete graphics, and high-resolution screens tends to be mediocre. For example, look at the XPS 15 and its six hours of run time. (Dell offers an XPS 15 battery with about 50 percent more capacity—but it’s also heavier.)

Even worse is the Samsung Notebook 9 Pro, another quad-core laptop with the addition of a 4K screen. Ouch. Overall, I’d say the MacBook Pro 15 has decent battery life for a quad-core.

Moving to the MacBook Pro 13, the result is a little more nuanced. With roughly nine hours of run time, it compares well to some laptops, such as the XPS 13 with a QHD+ touchscreen. But there are a lot more PCs ahead of it. You know, like the Surface Book i7, which sets the bar at an amazing 13 hours of video run time. Other laptops with better video stamina include the newest XPS 13, HP’s redesigned Spectre x360 13, and even the older Surface Book. When you consider that all three are also generally faster, it’s not good.

The cost equation

The most important question for users isn’t related to an obscure OpenCL benchmark but to how much these laptops cost. To help you understand just how much of a premium Apple and Microsoft are charging, I mapped out the cost of most of the laptops that appeared here, along with other configurations worth highlighting.

That top-spec Surface Book i7, formally known as Surface Book with Performance Base,  really pushes the boundaries of what people will pay for a dual-core laptop. To be fair, this is no ordinary laptop. It has a 1TB SSD and 16GB of RAM, plus pen support, a tablet mode, and probably class-leading GPU performance. But umm, yeah, 3,300 bucks.

Apple is no stranger to nose-bleed altitudes. When you throw a Core i7, 1TB SSD, and 16GB of RAM into the MacBook Pro 13 with Touch Bar, you’re looking at  $2,900. And you don’t even get the discrete GPU, touch, and tablet or pen support of the Surface Book. Apple’s most powerful MacBook Pro 15 tilts the meter all the way to $4,300. Granted, that’s with one of Intel’s priciest mobile CPUs and a whopping 2TB SSD, but that’s also the price of a modest used car.

Compared to a “normal” PC, both Microsoft and Apple give you a lot less performance for your cash. The Dell XPS 15, which pretty much aces the new MacBook Pro 15 except in battery life, is $1,400.

Take that Dell XPS 15 and load it up with a 1TB M.2 SSD, 32GB of RAM (which isn’t available on the MacBook Pro 15), a GTX 960M, 4K touchscreen, and a larger battery: $2,600. That’s only $200 more than what Apple charges for a machine with 16GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and the slowest Radeon Pro GPU.

You can do the same with the new HP Spectre x360 or Dell’s current XPS 13. Both give you a lot more value than either the MacBook Pro 13 or the MacBook Pro 13 Touch Bar.

Conclusion

Ten tests and one price comparison later, the PC wins. Again.

That’s no surprise. The MacBooks are caught in a tough spot—even if they were running higher-performance configurations. They’re both ultra-expensive compared to most PCs, and at the top-end, outclassed in GPU performance by Microsoft’s comparably expensive Surface Book i7.

It’s not all bad news for the Mac, though. The MacBook Pro 15’s battery life is impressive for a 15-inch laptop with a quad-core CPU and discrete GPU. Comparably powerful quad-core laptops we’ve seen can’t touch it in battery life. Even the MacBook Pro 13s do relatively well in battery life compared to a similar PC.

The problem for Apple and Mac fans is PC makers just don’t ever stand still. And as we know, Apple seemingly does that now with its Macs.

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Search for files and folders by date:

The more files you have, the more frustrating it can be to find the exact one you’re looking for. That’s especially true when you’re using search terms that are common to dozens or even hundreds of saved documents.

One great way to narrow the list is to enter a date-related search operator along with matching parameters, using the search box in the upper-right portion of File Explorer (Windows Explorer in Windows 7). For example, datemodified:2013 tax allows you to filter search results to show only files that contain the word tax and were last saved in 2013.

The search parameter you enter after the colon can be any date, even a partial one. So datemodified: June 2016 works even with the space included. To find only files before or after a given date, use the > and < operators, as in datemodified: >1/1/2016

If you prefer a point-and-click interface, just type datemodified: by itself and use the calendar or predefined options below it.

In Windows 8.1 and Windows 10, you’ll find date-related shortcuts on the Search tab, which appears on the File Explorer ribbon when you click in the search box.

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A look at the most significant changes due to hit Microsoft’s evolving OS in the coming year.

Microsoft has made many promises about what Windows 10 will do, and while some have materialized, others still remain ambitions.

As a perpetual work-in-progress, Windows 10 continues to accrue new features, as Windows catches up with Microsoft’s vision of it being an OS that runs anywhere, syncs with the cloud and has an intelligent assistant at its core.

While Windows 10 will be buffed up by the arrival of the Windows 10 Creators Update early next year, 2017 as a whole will see the OS undergo significant changes, some of which are long-awaited. Here’s what to look out for.

Windows 10 phones edge closer to replacing desktop PCs

Microsoft has long pushed the idea that Windows 10 on phones will be so powerful, it’ll be akin to carrying a full PC in your pocket, courtesy of the OS’ Continuum feature.

“With Continuum for phones, we believe that any screen can be your PC,” Joe Belfiore, Microsoft’s corporate VP of the operating systems group, told the Microsoft Build Developer Conference in 2015, going on to add:

“Imagine the effect this could have on mobile first countries, where individuals could be as effective with the phone that they’re buying.”

Today the reality of using Continuum on Windows 10 falls somewhat short of Belfiore’s future-gazing. While a select Windows 10 phones, such as the Lumia 950, can be hooked up to mouse, keyboard and monitor and used as a Windows desktop there are significant limitations. Only one fullscreen app can be used at a time, legacy Windows apps won’t run on existing handsets and even Universal Windows Platform apps need to explicitly support Continuum.

However, in addition to the possibility of legacy apps running on smartphones, see below, various improvements to Continuum are due to land with the Creators Update in early 2017.

These include support for more PC features, such as running multiple Windows side-by-side on the desktop, pinning apps to the Taskbar and hitting the Windows button to bring up the search box. Other improvements include the ability to keep your phone in your pocket and have it connect wirelessly to a docking station and to independently customize the Windows Start screen on the phone display and on a PC monitor.

Running classic Windows software on your phone

This one’s a rumor but based on solid foundations, and with the potential to transform Windows 10’s appeal on mobile if correct.

The big fly in the ointment when it comes to using Windows 10’s Continuum feature to run a phone as a PC is that Windows 10 phones only run Universal Windows Platform apps. This incompatibility means that widely-used Windows apps from desktop PCs can’t be used on handsets.

However, by sniffing around inside Windows 10’s code, users have uncovered signs that Microsoft is working on bringing these apps to Windows phones.

The code in question suggests that Microsoft is building an emulator that would allow desktop x86 apps to work on the ARM64-based handsets.

As reported by ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley last month, Twitter user WalkingCat found a reference to what he termed “Windows’s hybrid x86-on-ARM64 tech” in Windows’ codebase, which also referenced the term, “CHPE.”

The clue chimed with Foley, who said her sources had told her that Windows 10 will gain this x86 on ARM64 emulation capability, but not until Fall 2017.

Foley guesses that C stands for Cobalt, the codename for x86 emulation on ARM, and that HP relates to the tech giant HP, which has been working with Microsoft on its the HP Elite x3 Windows Phone, a Windows 10 handset that can serve as a desktop PC via Continuum.

Microsoft certainly has good reasons for wanting such emulation to work. If Windows 10 phones could run as Windows desktops with full support for legacy apps, without having to resort to remote desktop software, Windows 10 phones could suddenly be far more appealing to business.

Return of OneDrive placeholders

Since the launch of Windows 10, many users have been petitioning Microsoft to reintroduce placeholders to the OS’ built-in OneDrive cloud storage service.

In Windows 8.1, placeholders, also called smart files, let users see all of their files stored on OneDrive, whether those files were stored on the device or not.

This feature was removed from Windows 10 but is now due to be bought back in Windows 10 File Explorer when browsing OneDrive. The returning feature will work in a similar fashion to Windows 8.1’s placeholders, showing users files both stored locally and on OneDrive, allowing them to download files and folders to the device and keep them in sync with OneDrive.

Orchestrate Windows apps using Linux tools

Microsoft recently updated Windows 10 to let users run a range of Linux tools from inside the OSand seems committed to continuing to improve support for Linux command-line software in Windows.

In Windows 10, Ubuntu/Linux software runs on top of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Users run Linux software and issue commands at the command line via the Bash shell.

Microsoft is working to increase the range of commands that can be run via the shell but perhaps the most significant change on the horizon is increased interoperability between the Bash and Windows environments. Effectively this will let developers call Windows applications from within Bash — allowing them to write a Bash script to automate a complex build that includes Windows applications — and to invoke Bash applications from Windows PowerShell.

These changes will be generally available in Windows 10 after the Creators Update early next year.

Easy communication with friends and family

Next year’s Creators Update will boost Windows 10’s social credentials, with a series of changes to make it simpler to stay in touch and share content with friends and family.

The Windows MyPeople feature will allow users to pin their favorite contacts to the right-hand side of Windows taskbar. Clicking on a pinned contact’s face brings up email or Skype messages from only that person and files can be dragged files to that person’s face for quick sharing. Informal check-ins also become easier, with the Shoulder Taps feature allowing pinned contacts to send friends animated emojis and other clipart, which pop up above that contact’s face on the taskbar.

Focusing Windows around virtual and augmented reality

Microsoft plans to put 3D and virtual reality at the heart of Windows 10, as it bets on the success of low-cost headsets due out next year.

Acer, Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo will release virtual reality head-mounted displays, with prices starting from $299.

Some of these headsets will be released in March, to coincide with the release of the Windows 10 Creators Update, which will include various tools to simplify the creation and sharing of 3D content, including a new version of Microsoft Paint.

In a demo earlier this year, Microsoft showed how Windows 10 could work on virtual reality headsets, demonstrating a mock-up of a virtual space with a large TV screen and virtual shelves stocked with apps and 3D models, and with the Edge browser appearing as a large window in the wearer’s view.

Another demo, this time using the far more expensive Microsoft HoloLens, showed Microsoft’s Edge browser as a window in the user’s vision, from which the demoer dropped actual-sized 3D models of stools from the furniture site Houzz around the room, in order to see what they looked like in real life.

Allowing Windows to function in this way is Windows Holographic, a variant of the Microsoft OS that provides a platform for virtual and augmented reality headsets to run Universal Windows Platform apps.

More detail on Microsoft’s VR and AR plans are expected this week at the WinHEC conference in China.

Better battery life

Windows 10 PCs and tablets should have better battery life after the Creators Update lands in March, thanks to changes to how the OS is patched.

The steady stream of updates isn’t going to slow down but they are going to suck up less bandwidth and reduce strain on phone and laptop batteries.

Download sizes for major updates will be cut by about 35 percent and battery life of Windows 10 mobile devices will improve, due to each device spending less time checking for updates.

The improvements will stem from Windows 10’s new Unified Update Platform, already used for Windows 10 on phones, which only updates each device with the files it needs, rather than delivering all updates to date, and doesn’t rely so heavily on the user’s device to process update data.

Windows Defender Application Guard

Coming to Windows 10 Enterprise users early next year, Windows Defender Application Guard is designed to help protect firms against online threats.

The new safeguard will add container-based isolation to Windows 10’s Edge browser.

Application Guard will ensure that when Edge accesses a website not designated as trusted, the browser will be launched inside a container, a virtualized environment isolated from the rest of the Windows OS.

If the site tries to download and run malicious code on the device, that code remains within the container, unable to permanently compromise the Windows device or the wider network, and disappears when the browser session shuts down.

Unlike the software-based sandboxes that are offered by other browsers, Microsoft says that Application Guard provides a hardware-based container that offers greater protection to the device.

Other enterprise-focused changes in the forthcoming Creators Update include improvements to Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection’s ability to detect and respond to network attacks, an upgrade to the Windows Analytics dashboard to display additional information about the composition of IT estates, a new tool for in-place UEFI conversion, and a mobile application management feature for protecting data on employees’ personal devices.

Home Hub

Rather than building hardware to challenge voice-controlled virtual assistants such as Amazon Echo and Google Home, it seems as if Microsoft is working on transforming Windows 10 into what it calls a Home Hub.

Evidence of this shift comes from a Windows Central interview with unnamed sources. These sources claim that Home Hub will turn Windows into a shared computing environment for the home, allowing family members to more easily share calendars, apps and services.

A future-gazing Microsoft video from 2013, dug out by ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley, shows how this system might eventually work. In it, family members share access to photos, apps and calendars on a screen attached to a wall and interact with computers around the home, for example scanning carrots to find appropriate recipes. Adding credence to the Home Hub rumor are references to Home Hub being a shared family account in Windows 10, as discovered by Twitter user WalkingCat.

ZDNet’s Foley also references a recent Microsoft job posting for a software engineer in the Windows and Devices Group, which is seeking someone to expand Windows’ “family” credentials.

According to the ad, this engineer will play a critical role in helping families to “share pictures, videos, applications, games, and other purchases easily” and to “communicate freely and stay in touch” using Windows 10.

Blue light reduction

One more unconfirmed new feature appears to be aimed at helping Windows 10 users get a good night’s sleep.

Being exposed to blue light from computer screens late at night can supposedly disrupt the body’s sleep cycle.

To counter this disturbance, Windows 10 already has f.lux software that reduces blue light emitted by screens close to bedtime.

But it seems that Microsoft may be working on its own feature to address the issue.

Twitter user Core has discovered references to “BlueLightReduction” hidden within early builds of the OS being tested under the Windows Insider Program, a setting which appears as if would be toggled from Windows 10’s Action Center.

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Check your System Restore settings:

For many years, System Restore has been one of the most useful tools available for diagnosing and repairing Windows problems. Using System Restore (especially in Safe Mode), you can undo troublesome app installations or driver updates.

But System Restore only works if it’s turned on and properly configured. On Windows 10 devices, you might find that System Restore is disabled for the system (C:) drive.

Unless you’re convinced you’ll never need to use System Restore, I strongly recommend that you turn this feature on. From any supported Windows version, you can check the current configuration and change it if necessary by opening Control Panel > System And Security > System. Click Advanced System Settings in the sidebar on the left and then click the System Protection tab.

Select the C: drive from the Protection Settings list and click Configure. In Windows 8.1 and 10, this leads to a simple on-off switch. In Windows 7, you can choose whether to save previous versions of files as well as system settings. In either case, make sure you reserve enough space for the last restore point.

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Where do you draw the line on personal privacy? The right options are different for everyone. This guide shows the privacy settings that will help you to create the right balance of privacy and convenience in Windows 10.

Over the past year, We’ve read countless “privacy guides” for Windows 10. Most are well-intentioned, but they invariably take a simplistic approach to privacy: Just turn off every switch in the Privacy section of the Settings app.

If you do that, you’re not understanding the privacy landscape, which encompasses far more than just those settings. You’re also missing some important additional steps.

Windows 10 is a mix of software and services. With every session, a Windows 10 device exchanges a great deal of information with Microsoft’s servers. That’s neither unusual nor alarming. Microsoft’s chief rivals, Google and Apple, are also blending services into their software, with the goal of making your life easier and making that software more reliable.

So are other tech companies that you don’t think of as software companies: Amazon, with the Echo. Tesla, with its self-updating, software-driven cars. Your thermostat and your home security system.

There’s something profoundly satisfying about a service that anticipates your every move, reminding you when to leave for an appointment to arrive on time, or to pick up flowers for your anniversary tomorrow. Your digital personal assistant, whether it’s Siri or Cortana or Alexa or Google, needs to be able to see your calendar and contacts to make that magic happen.

But when that sort of personal attention goes too far, it “crosses the creepy line,” to use a phrase that Eric Schmidt probably regrets uttering when he was Google’s CEO.

The thing about that line is that it’s drawn in a different place for everyone. There are people who are thrilled at the idea that their PC or mobile device is so familiar with their actions that it can anticipate what they’ll do next. I know others who would like to build a virtual Faraday cage around their computing hardware so that none of their personal details can escape.

Both of those viewpoints, and everything in between, are perfectly valid. That’s why the software and services we use are loaded with switches and dials designed to help you take control of their potential privacy impact.

In this post, We’ll walk you through the big privacy questions for Windows 10, with enough context to help you decide which settings are right for you.

Note that this guide assumes you are using Windows 10 on a personal PC or one in your small business. If you are in an enterprise setting, or if you are in a regulated industry, you should seek professional assistance to ensure that you’re meeting proper standards.

Let’s start with the part of your PC that has the biggest impact on your personal privacy.

THE NETWORK

No one knows more about your online identity than your Internet service provider. Every packet you send or receive from anywhere online goes through their servers. When you travel and connect to Wi-Fi networks that are under the control of others, the owners of those networks can see every connection you make and can intercept their contents.

Regardless of the platform you use, that’s why it’s important you use encrypted connections for any kind of sensitive communications. Using a virtual private network whenever possible is an excellent best practice.

Windows 10 does offer one obscure option that can help protect third parties from tracking your movements based on your connections to Wi-Fi networks. (Note that this feature requires support from your Wi-Fi adapter, so if you don’t see this option, the most likely explanation is that your hardware doesn’t support it.) Under Settings > Network & Internet > Wi-Fi, turn the Use random hardware addresses setting to On.

That step keeps third parties from matching your Wi-Fi adapter’s hardware address with your personal information, making it more difficult to track your location.

THE BROWSER

Countless third-party ad networks and analytics companies use cookies and other tracking technology to record your movements around the web and to correlate your online activities with your offline identity.

The result is a digital fingerprint that can be extraordinarily detailed and, unfortunately, outside of your ability to change.

To limit the amount of information that those ad and analytics companies know about you from your web browsing, consider third-party anti-tracking software such as Abine’s Blur, which is available for every web browser except Microsoft Edge. (That lack of solid support for add-ons is one reason I can’t yet recommend Edge as a full-time browser for most Windows 10 users.)

Another privacy product worth considering is Ghostery, although some are suspicious of this browser extension because of its uncomfortably close ties to the online advertising industry.

Ad-blocking software can also provide some privacy protection as a side-effect of performing its basic function. Here, too, watch out for close ties between some ad-blocking add-ins and the third-party trackers they supposedly protect you from.

Note that none of these steps is unique to Windows 10. Anti-tracking software is typically a browser add-in and works with most popular browsers.

THE OPERATING SYSTEM

With those two big, platform-independent factors out of the way, we can now turn to Windows 10 itself. When you use a Windows 10 device, it is capable of sharing the following types of information with Microsoft’s servers:

Your location

Windows 10 can determine your location to help with actions like automatically setting your current time zone. It can also record a location history on a per-device basis. Go to Settings > Privacy > Location to control the following:

• Location on/off?Use the master switch at the top of this page to disable all location features for all users of the current device.
• Location service on/off?If location is on for Windows, you can still turn it off for your user account here.
• General location?This allows you to set a city, zip code, or region so that apps can deliver relevant content.
• Default location?Click Set default to open the Maps app and specify the location you want Windows to use when a more precise location is not available.
• Location history?Click Clear to erase the saved history for a Windows 10 device.

If location is on, a list at the bottom of the Settings > Privacy > Location page allows you to disable access to that data on a per-app basis.

Your input

If you enable Cortana, Windows 10 uploads some info from your devices, such as your calendar, contacts, and location and browsing history, so that Cortana can make personalized recommendations. If you don’t want any accounts on your PC to use Cortana, follow the steps in this article to disable the feature completely: Turn off Cortana completely.

Windows 10 uses some feedback from the way you type, write, and speak to improve performance for you and as a way to improve the overall platform. This isn’t keystroke logging; rather, the operating system uses a very small amount of information. A separate feature uses your speech and writing history to make better suggestions in Windows and Cortana.

You can control this collection with two sets of controls:

Under Settings > Privacy > General, click Info about how I write and turn it off so that your typos aren’t used to improve things like the built-in spell checker.

Under Settings > Privacy > Speech, inking, & typing, under the Getting to know you heading, click Stop getting to know me to turn off personalization.

To clear previously saved information associated with your Microsoft account, click the first link under the Manage cloud info heading. That takes you to this Bing Personalization page, which includes this prominent button:

Click Clear to remove that saved information from the cloud.

Files and settings

When you sign in with a Microsoft account, you have the option to save files to the cloud using OneDrive. Windows 10 also syncs some settings to OneDrive, allowing you to have the same desktop background, saved passwords, and other personalized settings when you sign in with that account on multiple PCs.

If you use a local account, of course, none of your settings are synced. If you use a Microsoft account, you can turn off syncing completely or remove certain settings from the sync list by going to Settings > Accounts > Sync Your Settings.

OneDrive is an opt-in service. If you don’t sign in, it does nothing. You can’t save files to OneDrive accidentally, and no files are uploaded without your explicit permission, which you can revoke any time. To disable OneDrive for all users on your PC, follow these instructions: Shut down OneDrive completely.

Telemetry

Microsoft, like all modern software companies, uses feedback from its installed base to identify problems and improve performance. In Windows 10, this feedback mechanism produces diagnostics data (aka telemetry) that is uploaded to Microsoft at regular intervals. The data is anonymized and is not used to create a profile of you.

The default telemetry setting for all consumer and small business versions of Windows 10 is Full, which means that the uploaded data also includes details (also anonymized) about app usage. If you are concerned about possible inadvertent leakage of personal information, I recommend that you go to Settings > Privacy > Feedback & diagnostics and change the Diagnostic and usage data setting to Basic.

THE APPS

Although the number of subcategories under the Privacy heading in Settings seems daunting, most of them govern access to your information by Windows Store apps. That set of apps includes those that are preinstalled (Mail, Calendar, Groove Music, Photos, and so on) as well as those you acquire from the Store.

Most of the categories offer a single on-off switch at the top, which you can use to disable all access to that feature by all apps. If you leave the feature enabled, you can use a list of apps at the bottom of the page to enable or disable access on a per-app basis.

This capability works the same with the following categories: Camera, Microphone, Notifications, Account Info, Call History, and Radios. The Other Devices category lets apps automatically share and sync info with wireless devices that aren’t explicitly paired with your PC. Use the Background Apps category to specify which apps are allowed to work in the background.

If Location is enabled, you have the option to disable location access on a per-app basis and to disable Geofencing.

The Contacts, Calendar, Email, and Messaging categories allow you to control which apps can have access to these features. If you want to share content from an app using email or messaging, this option has to be on for that app. Note that Mail and Calendar, People, and Phone always have access to your contacts; Mail and Calendar are always allowed to access and send email and always have access to your calendar.

Finally, one horribly misunderstood setting is available under Settings > Privacy > General. Advertising ID controls whether Microsoft serves personalized ads to ad-supported apps. If you turn this option off, you still get ads, but they’re not personalized. In any case, your information is not shared with advertisers.

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Summary

Details

Update 8/16/16: The Windows 10 Anniversary Update has begun rolling out for Windows 10 Mobile. The Anniversary Update includes additional features and improvements for your Windows 10 phone. To manually check for the update, on Start, swipe over to the All apps list, then select Settings > Update & security > Phone update > Check for updates. Note that availability may vary by manufacturer, model, country or region, mobile operator or service provider, hardware limitations and other factors.

The Windows 10 Anniversary Update has begun rolling out for customers around the world*. The Windows 10 Anniversary Update is full of new features and innovations that bring Windows Ink and Cortana** to life; a faster, more accessible and more power-efficient Microsoft Edge browser; advanced security features; new gaming experiences and more. The Windows 10 Anniversary Update will start rolling out to Windows 10 Mobile phones in the coming weeks.

The Windows 10 Anniversary Update is being rolled out to Windows 10 PCs across the world in phases starting with the newer machines first. You don’t have to do anything to get the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, it will roll out automatically to you through Windows Update if you’ve chosen to have updates installed automatically on your device. However, if you don’t want to wait for the update to roll out to you, you can manually get the update yourself on your personal PC. If you’re using a Windows 10 PC at work, you will need to check with your IT administrator for details on your organization’s specific plans to update.

Here are a couple ways you can manually get the Windows 10 Anniversary Update

Go to Settings > Updates & Security > Windows Update

1. In Windows Update simply click Check for Updates.

2. The Anniversary Update will appear as, Feature update to Windows 10, version 1607. Click update and the update will begin downloading and installing.

Another way to get the Windows 10 Anniversary Update will be by clicking “Learn more” just below the “Looking for info on the latest updates? In Windows Update.

From there you’ll be taken to a support page on Microsoft.com that will allow you to download the ISO file to your PC.

We hope you enjoy the Windows 10 Anniversary Update!

*Windows 10 Anniversary Update will be available in all countries where Windows 10 is available.
**Cortana available in select markets

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Everything you need to know about the Surface Studio, Microsoft’s new all-in-one PC designed to tempt professional artists and designers over to Windows.

The Surface Studio is an all-in-one PC with premium specs, designed to wow professional artists, designers, architects and other creatives.

While the $2,999 price tag will deter most consumers, Microsoft seems to be targeting the Studio at design professionals, who would otherwise be using Apple Macs alongside specialist devices like Wacom’s Cintiq drawing tablet.

The Studio is a machine with a lot to recommend it, but one that could still be a leap too far for creatives already heavily invested in alternative tech.

Executive summary

• What it is: The Surface Studio is a high-end, all-in-one PC aimed at being a drafting table and canvas for creatives.
• Why it matters: The machine marks Microsoft’s first venture into designing desktop PCs and may put pressure on Apple and other manufacturers to crank up specs on competing machines.
• Who it is for: Artists, designers, architects — creative professionals who want a machine that shows off their work at its best.
• Why you should get it: For its super sleek, razor-sharp display that lets users draw straight onto the screen.
• Why you shouldn’t get it: The price is too high or you’re a professional already heavily invested in alternative software and hardware.
• How to get it: Pre-order online, although stock is limited according to Microsoft

What it is

An all-in-one, Windows 10 PC designed to dazzle users with its superlative display.

The screen, a 28-inch touchscreen LCD monitor, is ‘the thinnest in the world’ according to Microsoft, and sits on a counterbalanced hinge that makes it easy to push down onto the desk, and start drawing on with a digital pen.

The monitor’s 4K+ resolution and ability to display more than one billion colors, as well as to show drawings and documents at 1:1 scale with their paper equivalents, is designed to give professionals the ability to see how their creations would look in the real world.

Sketching on the screen with the Surface Pen is made easier when the Studio is used with the newly released Surface Dial, a brushed silver knob that can be rotated to select a new color when drawing on the screen or to turn the image.

Why it matters

From the point of view of artists and designers, the Studio offers a high-end computer built around their creative needs, which does away with having to use a separate drawing tablet and computer.

Even if creatives ignore the Surface Studio, its release is good news, likely to prompt incumbents like Apple and Wacom to spec up and cut the prices of new machines — in particular for the iMac, which the Studio has been compared to many times, despite the iMac lacking a touchscreen.

By following up the immaculately designed Surface Book laptop with a striking machine like the Surface Studio, Microsoft also appears to be trying to establish itself as a competitor to Apple on the design front.

Who it is for

Broadly, the Studio seems to be aimed at anyone who draws or designs for a living.

In launch videos, the Studio was seen being used by artists, architects and product designers.

The multi-purpose nature of the Studio, a machine that combines a Windows desktop PC with the functionality of a separate digital drawing tablet, such as the Cintiq 27 QHD Touch, will likely make the $2,999 price tag easier to swallow among those in the creative industries.

Why you should get it

If you draw or design for a living there are plenty of reasons why you might want the Studio. For example, there’s the quality of the display and the ease with which the Surface Pen draws on the screen. Microsoft describes this experience as virtually as fluid as drawing on paper. Then there’s the Studio’s significant graphical processing power, the ability to view documents and drawings actual size on screen and the ease with which you can switch push down the monitor and begin drawing.

Why you shouldn’t get it

Despite the Studio’s looks, its high price makes it hard to recommend as a consumer purchase, particularly when an iMac with a higher resolution, and only very slightly smaller screen, will cost less money.

Even professional creators are unlikely to abandon their current expensive setup for a Studio, as Mikako Kitagawa, principal research analyst with Gartner, pointed out.

“An all-in-one device is not the most cost-effective device, as the users pay for both the computing unit and monitor at the same time,” she said.

“Creative professionals have already invested heavily in hardware and software. For instance, many professional illustrators use a high-end drawing tablet and high-resolution monitor at the same time.”

If those same professionals exclusively use macOS, as is the case in some creative outlets, then the high cost of switching to Windows will also be a deterrent, she said.

There is also Microsoft’s odd decision not to include the $99 Surface Dial with the Studio, despite the peripheral featuring so heavily in demos of the machine, and being particularly useful for tasks like changing colors while drawing with the Surface Pen.

How to get it

The Surface Studio is available to pre-order from Microsoft, with prices starting at $2,999 and shipping starting from 12 December. Microsoft has warned the machine will be available in limited quantities.

Tech specs:

$2,999: 1TB drive; Intel Core i5 CPU; 8GB RAM; 2GB GPU

$3,499: 1TB drive; Intel Core i7 CPU; 16GB RAM; 2GB GPU

$4,199: 2TB drive; Intel Core i7 CPU; 32GB RAM; 4GB GPU

Display: 28″ PixelSense Display; 4500 x 3000 resolution; 192 DPI; Color settings: Adobe sRGB, DCI-P3 and Vivid Color Profiles; Touch: 10-point multi-touch; Aspect ratio: 3:2 TB drive; Intel Core i5 CPU; 8GB RAM; 2GB GPU

Processor: Quad-core 6th Gen Intel Core i5 or i7

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M 2GB GPU GDDR5 memory or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M 4GB GPU GDDR5 memory

Storage: 1TB or 2TB ‘rapid hybrid drive’

Memory: 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB RAM

Wireless: 802.11ac Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.0; Xbox Wireless built-in3

Dimensions: Display: 25.09 x 17.27 x 0.44 in (637.35 x 438.90 x 11.4 mm); Base: 9.84 x 8.66 x 1.26 in (250.00 x 220.00 x 32.20 mm)

Weight: 21.07 lbs max (9.56 kg)

Connections: 4 USB 3.0; Full-size SD card reader (SDXC compatible); Mini Displayport; 3.5mm headset jack; Compatible with Surface Dial onscreen interaction

Cameras: 5.0MP front-facing camera with 1080p HD video

Audio: Dual microphones; Stereo 2.1 speakers with Dolby Audio Premium

Buttons: Volume and power

Surface Pen

Surface Keyboard

Surface Mouse

Power cord with grip-release cable

Security: TPM chip for enterprise security; Enterprise-grade protection with Windows Hello face sign-in

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Clean up your desktop:

There’s nothing wrong with a messy desktop, but at some point you might need to impose a little order on the chaos. Cleaning the piles of paper and junk from your real-life office might take a weekend of labor. Fortunately, cleaning up the Windows desktop is considerably simpler.

If you like the convenience of using the Desktop folder as a temporary storage place, you can hide the clutter in seconds: Right-click any empty space on the desktop, click View, and then click to remove the checkmark from Show Desktop Icons.

All your desktop shortcuts and files are still there, but they’re no longer covering up your carefully chosen background image. To get to those files, open File Explorer and type Desktop in the address bar. Even quicker: Pin a Desktop shortcut to Start.

Other options on the desktop’s View menu allow you to change icon size (warning: The Large Icons setting is really large) and to align those icons to a grid so they snap neatly into position.

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