Windows 10 (reviewed) was released on 29 July 2015 and was followed by the free Anniversary Update on 2 August 2016. The next big Windows 10 update is the Creators update, scheduled to arrive in Spring 2017. Here’s your complete guide to Windows 10.
Also see: Surface Pro 5 | Surface 4 | Surface PC | Surface Book 2 | Surface Phone
Update 11 January : Coming soon in Windows is the ability to pause updates so they no longer get in the way just when you’re in the middle of something. Version 15002 , available for Insiders, adds an option to pause Windows updates for up to 35 days in Professional, Education, and Enterprise editions.
Microsoft has been working on the next big update to Windows 10 for some time and it was revealed in October 2016. The latest information comes from MSpoweruser which says the update has been slightly delayed until April 2017 and that its version number will be 1704. This is actually a date: the fourth month of 2017.
It could still change, but the update is scheduled to be ‘finished’ by mid- to late January and then tested and bugs fixed before its public release.
At the 26 October event, Microsoft announced a whole load of new features for the update, which is codenamed Redstone 2. Here’s a selection of the main ones to look forward to.
The Creators Update is codenamed Redstone 2, but already there are rumours of the next big Windows 10 update: Redstone 3. Part of this will be some graphical changes, and these have their own codename: Project NEON. As MSpoweruser reports , the changes won’t be major, but will introduce blurring (called “Acrylic”) and animations that make things simpler and more consistent. Ultimately, it’s a lot like the Aero interface introduced in Windows Vista, and the blurring and animations you see in iOS, such as when you scroll up and emails or text run behind a title bar, and when the title bar shinks and even disappears when you scroll down a web page.
The updates will change the look and feel of some of Windows 10’s native apps, such as Groove, but will later be opened up to developers. NEON also includes the HoloLens and 3D features in Windows.
3D content was a focus for Microsoft, with Windows 10 focusing greater on 3D content, which spans to Paint and Powerpoint too! And yes, Paint got a fresh lick of paint – pun intended.
You can now create 3D shapes in Paint and share them directly with your social followers, or SketchUp network – better still, print them directly on your 3D printers, nifty.
Arguably the biggest new feature is the new Windows Holographic interface.
