Windows 10 October 2022 Update review: Little refinements make a big difference

It's been virtually seven months since the final Windows 10 feature update was released to the public, and we're due for another big one. After some early on issues, Microsoft today will begin rolling out the Windows 10 October Update to the world again, bringing with it new features, enhancements, and more to millions of Windows 10 PCs.

Microsoft has gotten very good at making sure these big new updates don't change much on the surface, ensuring users won't exist freaked out by huge new changes once the update is installed. The changes will only go credible one time y'all start excavation a little bit. On that note, we did some digging to find the near significant new changes and features available in the October 2022 Update.

To be clear, the big issue that caused Microsoft to initially pull the update has been fixed, significant when the update reaches you, you won't need to worry nearly losing your files when the update eventually installs itself.

Video walkthrough
Desktop and File Explorer
Cortana and Search
Your Telephone
Snipping Tool
Deject Clipboard
Microsoft Border
Windows Settings
Miscellaneous
Conclusion

Video walkthrough

Reading not your thing? Check out our in-depth video walkthrough showcasing all the noteworthy new changes and features in the October 2022 Update.

Windows 10'due south desktop and File Explorer

Starting with the October 2022 Update, you can now name live folders in the Showtime menu. In the past, yous could not name folders you created in Kickoff. It works just like naming a group of tiles, yous drag one tile over another, create the folder, and a text box at the elevation of the folder gives you an opportunity to name it.

There'southward besides a new context menu pattern that appears in some apps and text boxes. This is the best have on a context carte Microsoft has ever put into Windows, merely unfortunately, information technology's not the but context menu available in the OS. Microsoft'southward context menu dilemma nevertheless exists, pregnant you'll notice unlike context menu designs all across the organisation when in unlike apps.

The new context carte du jour is animated and features Acrylic Blur effects that make it look beautiful when opened. The other prissy design alter with these context menus is that they as well feature icons next to all the listed options. I also dear how this context menu blueprint provides formatting options when opened in a text field where text supports formatting. So instead of having to call up the different keyboard combinations for making text bold or italicized, you tin can now right-click and printing a button that does it for you.

Microsoft also updated the File Explorer with a new dark mode UI, which brings it in line with other congenital-in system apps that support nighttime mode. This is a change y'all'll capeesh if yous employ your PC belatedly at night and don't want your retinas burned to a well-baked by opening File Explorer to take hold of a file. This too makes the context menus on the desktop nighttime, which is a prissy touch.

Admittedly, File Explorer'southward new nighttime mode is not perfect. I think it looks nice on the surface, only many have expressed their dislike of the different shades of gray used to accomplish the dark looks. Some likewise don't like how the icons appear when night fashion is enabled. I don't have an issue with this. What I do take a problem with is how dark way isn't consequent across all the inbox apps, and more importantly, how it isn't applied to all of File Explorer.

Y'all'll detect that even with dark mode enabled; in that location are nonetheless several parts of File Explorer that simply aren't nighttime. The copy dialog, for instance, is nonetheless blindingly white, as is the file properties window. None of these areas have been themed to lucifer night mode, making them fifty-fifty more jarring when messing around in the File Explorer with dark fashion switched on. I wish Microsoft would take spent more than time theming every role of File Explorer with night mode.

The new context menu design is great, but it'due south only used sparsely throughout the OS. File Explorer'southward dark mode is a promising start, but Microsoft needs to do more work to "consummate" information technology.

Windows 10's Cortana and Search

The search user interface is now much wider and emphasizes search over Cortana beingness a personal assistant. In the previous Windows 10 update, Microsoft outright ripped out the Cortana "glance view" feature, which emphasizes Cortana's virtual assistant side of things over search. In the October 2022 Update, Microsoft is standing to make Cortana more search orientated.

At present, Cortana's UI is much wider and gives the user the pick of searching specific categories within the OS. And then upon opening search, you'll observe five big boxes that highlight search within Windows. Y'all won't even see the Cortana icon anymore; it's now a search glyph. When searching, you'll be presented with a UI that's divide down the middle; on the left are your search results, and on the right are more than details about your specific searched file or web result.

I love the new search UI, simply unfortunately, it doesn't fix Windows 10's inconsistent search trouble, which sees users search for something but have other things come up up equally results instead. For example, sometimes, the user can search for an app, but instead of that app being the top result, a similar app volition be the height issue instead. Microsoft is enlightened of this problem and is working on improving search in a time to come update.

Beneath the search categories in Cortana's Home is a bigger accent on Timeline. You'll see your terminal iii Timeline activities, allowing you to pick upwardly where you left off straight from search instead of opening Timeline to do it. Beneath that is Cortana, which suggests commands you lot can ask at the click of a button. There is not really whatever Cortana UI in Windows ten right now, which is weird. For at present, though, Cortana's presence in search is very minimal, and rightly then, as many didn't like Cortana'southward dominance in the search area anyway.

Windows ten's new Your Phone app

Ever since Microsoft gave up on its ain mobile platform, the company has been obsessed with ensuring Windows PCs are best friends with Android and iOS. With the Oct 2022 Update, that effort takes a jump frontward as Microsoft begins to integrate your phone with your PC with a new app called "Your Telephone."

Microsoft has large ambitions for this app, with the eventual goal of being able to control your Android phone straight from your PC. Right now, it but works with Android phones, but Microsoft promises that iPhone functionality will exist coming at some point, albeit in a limited country cheers to Apple's limitations on what third-party developers take admission to on iOS.

Using the Your Phone app, Android users can hook upwardly their phones to their PCs and share photos and SMS messages between the devices. This ways that yous tin can start and respond to SMS messages yous've sent on your phone directly on your PC. The SMS sync capabilities work OK, only it could be faster. It takes a few seconds for messages to come through in the Your Phone app once the text has landed on your phone, and sometimes it tin take up to five seconds to send an SMS using the Your Phone app, which makes things feel sluggish.

I've likewise noticed that sometimes the Your Phone app will finish sending notifications when new SMS letters come through later on a period of time, and that the notifications themselves, when they exercise come through, aren't actionable, meaning I have to open the app to answer to a text rather than just responding to it directly from the notification. These are all problems that can be solved via app updates independently from the OS.

The other Your Phone feature that works right now is the ability to encounter and share the last xxx photos taken on your phone, directly on your PC. The photos-sync role in Your Phone works way improve than it should. Your photos evidence upward as if they are locally available on your device, and y'all can edit them, share them across apps, and even drag them out of the Your Telephone app and into other apps or the desktop. Information technology works similar magic and is super simple.

No longer do you have to expect for photos to upload to the cloud before yous can download them onto your PC or rely on a cable to plug into your PC then that you tin can transfer photos to it. Information technology'due south worth noting as well that the app features a pretty UI, with a straightforward layout with Your Telephone'south features in the left sidebar and content taking upwards the remainder of the app.

Your Telephone in the October 2022 Update is a skilful first. In that location is room for improvement, which is likely why Microsoft is all the same tagging the app as in preview in some areas, simply overall, the feel is OK. I am looking forwards to Microsoft building upon the foundations information technology has laid out.

How to setup the Your Phone app

The new Snipping Tool in Windows 10

If you're a fan of screenshotting stuff within Windows 10, Microsoft has reworked that entire experience; gone is the old snipping tool and in its place is a new, universal snipping bar that'southward accessible using the Windows cardinal, Shift, and S. Information technology simplifies the screenshot experience, providing you with 3 screenshotting methods: rectangular snip, freeform snip, and full-screen snip.

Once the screenshot is taken, Windows will pop upward a notification saying it has automatically been added to your clipboard, significant you can instantly paste information technology into a social network, app, or location. But, if you click the notification, it'll have you lot to a defended screenshotting app that allows you to edit it further with ink.

This doesn't replace the straightforward WIN + PrtnScn key combination that takes a full screenshot and puts it on a dedicated screenshots folder in your Pic area. But information technology does supervene upon the WIN + Shift + S primal combination that was used for the old snipping app. You can set the new snipping feel to prove upwards by pressing PrtScn on your keyboard if that'southward something y'all'd prefer, which I recommend anybody does as it makes invoking the new snipping bar a lot easier.

Windows x's new Deject Clipboard

Microsoft'south new clipboard feel in the October 2022 Update is arguably i of this release's biggest new features, even though it's off by default. Microsoft has built a new clipboard history characteristic into the Os that when enabled will save everything you've copied in a session for pasting later. And so, no longer will Windows immediately forget the last thing you copied when you re-create something new.

This new clipboard role can be accessed at any time using the WIN + V central combination, and once invoked you will be able to scroll through everything you've copied in that session. In addition to merely remembering everything you've copied, it also has the capability of syncing that copied data to the cloud, allowing you to sync data across all of your devices that are logged in with the same Microsoft Account.

That's where the "Cloud Clipboard" name comes in. If you enable the syncing capabilities in improver to the history function itself, you will be able to re-create text and images on one device and paste information technology on some other. Microsoft is aware that some users may non similar the idea of syncing everything yous copy to the deject, which is why this functionality is off by default.

Microsoft will also be bringing the Cloud Clipboard to SwiftKey on Android in the future, meaning you'll exist able to copy and paste content betwixt non only Windows devices, but your Android devices likewise.

The clipboard will just think what y'all've copied per session, meaning if you log out or restart your PC, the clipboard will be empty when you log back in. There is a function that allows you lot to "pin" copied content to the clipboard, however, which will save it permanently until it's unpinned again. Pinning something you've copied will allow you lot to retain it in the clipboard even after a restart.

The nigh significant problem with this new feature is that information technology's utterly undiscoverable unless y'all've been told it exists. For one, it's off by default, and the switch to turn it on is buried in the Settings app. Even when it'south on, there's no existent obvious way to invoke it unless you lot know the key combination. Microsoft really needs to work on making this function more discoverable to users.

How to enable the new Cloud Clipboard feature

Microsoft Edge

As is always the case with a new Windows x characteristic update, Microsoft added new features and improvements to Microsoft Edge. Most of the improvements are nether the hood, with the only real differences on the surface being some modest UI changes and behavior tweaks.

Users can at present finally customize which buttons prove up forth the right-paw side of the accost bar. Previously, those buttons were inexplicably non customizable, but now, y'all can change them. Y'all tin hide them, or add together more. There's also a subtle drib-shadow effect credible across the tabbed, which is nice.

Microsoft also updated the "Settings and more than" menu with an improved UI that as well includes icons and reveal effects, which wait pretty nice. The settings area itself has as well been updated with the same UI yous tin observe in the Hub expanse, meaning both areas now characteristic consequent designs that should brand things less confusing.

Also new in Edge with the October 2022 Update is the ability to block websites from automatically playing audio or video content.

You tin now mute tabs earlier any sound begins playing, fifty-fifty if there is no audio element on the webpage. Just right-click the tab, and select mute.

The PDF reader has been improved with small-scale changes, and the PDF icon has been updated with a much nicer looking 1. If you tried Border when Windows 10 get-go came out and didn't similar it, endeavour it again. It's improved two-fold since information technology'south initial debut.

Windows 10 Settings

There are more settings than ever in the Settings app in the Windows 10 October 2022 Update. Microsoft has continued to add together more of its legacy Control Panel into Settings, and this fourth dimension sound settings are the latest to be ported over. Y'all can customize all your organization sound settings directly in the Settings app, including setting your default audio source for input and output.

Microsoft added a new "typing insights" feature into the Settings app that will continue runway of all your typing habits and data, but like SwiftKey does on iOS and Android. This is off by default, but once enabled, you will see typing statistics such as autocompleted words, suggested words, keystrokes saved, and spelling corrections.

Windows Defender has been renamed to Windows Security in the Settings app, and the Windows Security settings app at present features Fluent Design in some areas. Microsoft has as well given Commitment Optimization its own category underneath Windows Update. Previously, it was buried within the Windows Update area.

Bluetooth devices will now finally too show y'all their battery percentages when connected to your device. This is something that was available in the Surface app initially, but it's now built natively into Windows x.

The Settings app too provides tips and tricks on its homepage and will even propose questions existence ordinarily asked in the sidebar of specific categories, providing quick and piece of cake answers to those questions.

Lastly, and this is a big one, Windows Update at present uses automobile learning to determine when the best time is to install a new update. Microsoft continues to try and improve the system backside Windows Update so that information technology doesn't interrupt your workflow. Automobile learning should permit Windows Update to figure out when yous are and aren't using the PC, and slot in a good time to warning you that an update is fix. This functionality works in the background and isn't configurable. Since this is the first release to feature such functionality, it'southward non been tested all that much, so it's too early to make up one's mind if the Machine Learning is actually helping.

Miscellaneous changes, improvements, and notables

Game Bar has been updated with a new UI, which looks much cleaner. Y'all tin can still stream direct to Mixer, and in a future update, Microsoft will be calculation performance data to the Game Bar, besides.

The built-in Skype app for Windows ten has been updated to the aforementioned version of Skype for desktop. This is version 8, significant it comes with the new modernistic UI and more. In fact, you'll find that the Windows ten app is faster than the desktop one, thanks to it using React Native.

App windows will no longer feature a colored accent around them by default. Now, the colored border is only dark grey, which matches the drib-shadow effect backside windows, making for a cleaner UI. Y'all can plough on the colored borders, only otherwise, colored borders are no longer the default beliefs.

For reasons unknown, Timeline is nonetheless incredibly laggy. Animations are not smooth, and that makes using the feature feel sluggish and broken even on the highest-stop PCs. I find that the lag is present mainly on devices with screen resolutions higher than 1080p. Microsoft really needs to set up this.

October 2022 Update final thoughts

The October 2022 Update is non a major release. At this betoken, that's par for the course when it comes to "Windows as a Service." This is nonetheless a great update, though, packing lots of lilliputian changes and improvements that make using the OS more pleasant.

Every bit should ever be the example with a new release, the Oct 2022 Update is the all-time version of Windows x yet. It's more refined and well-put together. Microsoft has really nailed making sure these updates don't change everything all at once, every bit users hate nothing more than than coming back to their PC and finding everything has changed.