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Windows 10 May 2019 update: the best new features

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The Windows 10 May 2019 update is here—and you can start using it today, if you’re so inclined. Before you take the plunge, it would be nice to know what’s actually changing with the latest update and why you might want to go to the trouble of updating. I’ve installed the update on at least one PC (probably more by the end of the day), and here
Welcome to Windows 10 build 1903, aka the May 2019 update.
The Windows 10 May 2019 update is here—and you can start using it today, if you’re so inclined. Before you take the plunge, it would be nice to know what’s actually changing with the latest update and why you might want to go to the trouble of updating. I’ve installed the update on at least one PC (probably more by the end of the day), and here are some of the major new features you’ll find.
Performance improvements (Spectre fixes)
Last year, the Meltdown and Spectre exploits made waves in the industry—and we’re still dealing with the fallout. I noticed after updating my motherboard firmware and installing the April 2018 update that some of my benchmarks were noticeably slower—SSD random IO performance on NVMe drives was hit particularly hard. The May 2019 update is supposed to improve performance with some optimizations to the existing Spectre patches. I don’t expect it to make a huge difference, but any improvement is welcome.
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Windows 10 Light theme
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Windows 10 Dark theme
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My old 1809 build Start Menu, which doesn’t look all that different.
Modified Start Menu and light theme
Microsoft is cleaning up the Windows 10 Start Menu, plus there’s a new “light theme” that replaces the previous somewhat darker theme. You can see the old and new Start Menus above, and while the lighter theme isn’t something I really care about, others surely do. Note that if you’ve previously set a custom theme (like me), you won’t immediately get pushed to the light theme.
Game bar updates
The Game Bar is improving as well, if you happen to use it. There’s a built-in gallery for screenshots and videos, ‘improvements’ (maybe) to sharing screenshots and videos—like the ability to add text to create memes. Yeah. You can already have the Game Bar auto-share images via Twitter, which is a good way to get people to unfollow you if you take lots of screenshots I suspect.

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