Microsoft’s Windows 10 April 2018 Update arrives on Monday

 

Microsoft is finally naming its next Windows 10 update today. The Windows 10 April 2018 Update was originally scheduled to release on April 10^th, but Microsoft hit a blocking bug that pushed the release to the very last day of April. Microsoft is now releasing its April update for people to manually download on Monday April 30th, before it’s more broadly rolled out to machines on May 8th.

Microsoft is changing up its naming structure for this particular Windows 10 update, after the company referred to it as the “Windows 10 Spring Creators Update” inside the operating system and in various public documentation until recently. “I think people were really craving a lot more simplicity,” explains Aaron Woodman, a director at Microsoft, in an interview with The Verge. “We floated a number of different names to a lot of customers that provided that proactive feedback, and really the simplest way to help people understand the update was to give it a time that people can clearly understand and works really globally much more efficiently.”

Windows 10’s new Timeline feature

The Windows 10 April 2018 update includes a new Timeline feature for recalling previous apps you were working on across machines, or even the ability to open your browsing history from Microsoft Edge for iOS and Android. Microsoft is also adding a new dictation feature, alongside an improved Focus Assist feature for silencing notifications. Microsoft’s Edge browser is also getting a mute tab feature with this update, and the company is refreshing its Xbox Game Bar with a new design.

Most of the features in this latest update are fairly minor, but welcome changes for regular Windows 10 users. Microsoft is now pressing ahead with its next update, codenamed Redstone 5. The update, due later this year, will include clever tabs for apps, and will even feature a dark mode for File Explorer. Microsoft hasn’t named its future update just yet, and the company is looking for feedback on the new naming. “I actually honestly don’t know,” says Woodman, when asked whether the next update will have a similar name. “I believe this is a strong likely candidate to continue, but I also want to be willing to be wrong for customers as well.”