Windows 10 is getting a big update on April 30. Here’s what you need to know

Microsoft has committed to providing significant updates to Windows 10 every six months, and this season’s update is right around the corner. The company today announced the Windows 10 April 2018 Update – quite amouthful – will arrive on April 30.

If you’ve been running the Windows 10 Insider Program, you’re probably well aware of the features coming, as they’ve been in testing for months. For everyone else, here’s a recap of the biggest changes:

• The Timeline is by far the most notable change. Accessible by pressing Win+Tab, it replaces the old Task View with a mode that lets you see the apps and documents you’ve used in Chronological order. It makes it easy to resume work on an old project by resuming a previous array of Windows without having to recall the name of every single file. Moreover, you can even resume work you’ve been doing on mobile devices, assuming you’ve been using Microsoft apps like Edge and Office.I’ve found Timeline to be incredibly useful since it first showed up on the Insider Program, but if you don’t like the idea of your computer remembering your activity, there are a few ways of disabling it altogether.
• Focus Assist replaces the old ‘Quiet Mode,’ muting notifications temporarily. You can even set it turn on automatically during certain times of the day. Once you turn the feature back off, you’ll see a summary of the notifications you missed while you were in the zone. That said, you can also allow specific notifications to go through the filter – say a call from your significant other.
• Microsoft Edge is getting a bunch of new feature.s For one, you can finally mute tabs. PDFs, books, and Reading view now work in full screen, and the browser can now save your payment information for autofill purposes.
• One of my favorite new features, Dictation, makes it super easy to enter text without typing. Just press Win+H and start yapping. It’s useful if you need to make quick memos while your hands are occupied or if you’re one of those people who thinks best out loud.

The update was previously known as the Spring Creators Update, but Microsoft decided using dates was a simpler naming scheme. That probably makes sense as Windows 10 gets older – keeping track of biannual updates named after seasons and features could get messy.

You can give it a try for yourself next week. Keep in mind Microsoft tends to roll out big updates slowly, but it usually provides an option for those who want to get their hands on the software as soon as possible. We’ll let you know when we find out more as the date comes around.

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