Windows 10 Build 10547 Brings Some Nice Changes For Insiders
by Brett Howse on September 18, 2015 11:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Operating Systems
- Microsoft
- Windows 10
It’s Friday and Gabe Aul has unleashed another new build of Windows 10 to people in the Windows Insider Program’s fast ring. Unlike the last build which was mostly just some cosmetic changes, build 10547 looks to fix a few of the complaints that I had with Windows 10 in our review.
One thing that bothered me was that the Start Menu would not allow you to create groups more than three “medium” tiles wide, and with this update, users can select “Show more tiles” in the personalization settings which allows a fourth column of tiles. It’s nice for the desktop, but this should be very beneficial to tablet mode which I felt was wasting a lot of space with just the three column width. Having four columns also allows for two wide or large tiles to be on the same row, which is a much better solution than having to plug holes with smaller tiles even if you don’t really want them. Hopefully the wording changes on the setting, since Show more tiles is not really what the setting is doing, and it is of course a fall back to the Windows 8.1 setting with the same name which actually did allow you to put more tiles on the Start Screen.
Tablet mode also gets some tweaks. I felt that Windows 10 actually lost a step compared to Windows 8.1 in just touch usage. Microsoft appears to be trying to bring back some of the good tablet features that Windows 8 had. A small change which should actually be a nice change is that when you have two apps snapped in tablet mode, you can now snap another app over one of those, just like in Windows 8.1. Microsoft has a graphic that shows the app teeter from side to side to show you which side it is going to replace. It’s a small change, but welcome. Windows 8.1 was pretty solid as a tablet operating system so it’s great to see Windows 10 adding some of those features back.
The core apps are also being updated constantly, and we’ve seen some good changes to things like Mail getting an option to disable conversation view, and the photos app keeps getting iterated to make it a better experience. It has been updated again to make it more obvious which photos are on your PC and which are in the cloud. Other core apps like Xbox app are getting updated, and the Xbox app is gaining a Beta program too much like the Xbox itself has.
The Start Menu has gotten some fixes, and with this build the 512 app limit in the Start Menu has been increased to 2048 apps. While there should not really be a limit here, 2048 should be enough for pretty much anyone as far as installed apps.
Cortana, which before required a Microsoft Account, is now usable with a local account. I’ll have to test to see exactly what this means. In the original version of Windows 10, enabling Cortana with a local account would force the system to switch the account login to a Microsoft Account. It’s not clear from the release notes if you can just log in to Cortana with a Microsoft Account now instead of switching the login, or if it is actually usable with just a local account.
There are, as usual, a few known issues as well including Store Apps may not update automatically, so please check out the known issues before installing in case one of them will directly affect you.
Source: Windows Blog
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versesuvius - Saturday, September 19, 2015 - link
Vaudeville. Useless. Waste of Time. Integrating a couple of simple utilities which can be found open source on the web for free, that work much better than what Microsoft can ever bring itself to make.damianrobertjones - Saturday, September 19, 2015 - link
Maybe people just want the option IN the OS instead of messing around with further applications?versesuvius - Saturday, September 19, 2015 - link
It may be so, but having independent modules that do not want to poke in every corner of the system and want to know about everything you do is a better idea, every time. Linux follows the same philosophy. Small modules that do what they say they do upfront and are very good at it too. And those small utilities work fine on Windows too. For example search for "Classic Shell" and try it on your Windows 7 or 8. And if you do not like it, uninstall it (it uninstalls clean, so you do not have to worry about having to reinstall the entire OS again).jardows2 - Monday, September 21, 2015 - link
You just exposed yourself as a linux troll. Unix philosophy is to have a program do one thing, and do that one thing well. Linux philosophy is to do whatever the winds of change bring. Just look at systemd or any other myriad of linux programs that are trying to "do everything in one program." The quest to replace MS Windows has caused linux to "become" Windows.Microsoft's OS philosophy has always been "one tool to do everything" so to complain about Microsoft integrating tools into the OS shows you simply don't like Microsoft, rather than complaining about the feature.
versesuvius - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
What is wrong with Linux? You should try and find out for yourself. Microsoft philosophy (and Apple too) has always been to milk "consumers" for what it is worth. Happy new Windows to you, Constant Installer!cjb110 - Tuesday, September 22, 2015 - link
It all depends on what you imagine an Operating System to enables you do? Linux seems to go for the 'a base upon which other applications run', Windows is more 'allows you to operate the PC to enable you to work/play/etc'. Neither are ideal, but this is consistent with Windows' approach.Manch - Monday, September 21, 2015 - link
If that was the case, then Win 8 would have been a done well...versesuvius - Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - link
Yes. That was Microsoft's most valiant effort. To show that they are good for something else, too. However, that failed miserably too. Microsoft is still trying to implement Windows NT correctly, or at least bring it up to the original Windows NT wish list (i.e. specification), but after two generations (people that is, not software), it is still trying. Let us wish it good luck. However, when a software company has made a habit of filing for patents of its own bugs, there is not much room left for optimism.NZLion - Saturday, September 19, 2015 - link
Seeing this kind of changes makes me hopeful that they might in future add an option for users to turn on some of the features of win8 that they removed entirely (hot corners, for example).It's great that the changes in this build appear to be there if you want/need them rather than being jarring and forced on users.
ClockHound - Saturday, September 19, 2015 - link
Yeah...like forced driver updates that break the system. Or forced data surveillance. Or forced Win 10 'upgrades'. Good to to see M$ isn't forcing their myopic vision on everyone. Thanks M$!