Slashdot Asks: Windows 10 Creators Update Goes Live On April 11, Will You Upgrade?

Microsoft said today it will start rolling out Windows 10 Creators Update, the latest major update to its current desktop operating system, starting April 11. The company says Windows 10 Creators Update brings with it a range of new features. Some of the chief ones are:

1. Visual previews of tabs in Microsoft Edge.
2. Edge now has built-in support for ebooks.
3. Microsoft Paint now lets people create models in 3D.
4. Picture-in-Picture mode for videos. Essentially you can now have a small window with video playing on it placed on top of any other application.
5. Night Light: A baked in feature in Windows that will allow you to change the color and tone of display so that it doesn't pain your eyes to look at the screen at night.
6. Dynamic Lock: The feature first requires you to pair your phone or tablet with the computer. Once done, it will automatically log you out everytime you're away from desk (or technically speaking, the device is out of the computer's proximity).
7. Native support for surround sound.
8. Ability to scribble and make notes on Microsoft's Maps app.
9. Game mode: It "ensures" your computer is always maximizing its resources for an optimal gaming experience.
10. Built-in support for mixed reality handsets.

Over the past two years, we have seen numerous instances where Microsoft has been pushing Windows 10 update to customers who have Windows 7 or 8 running on their machines. There are still hundreds of millions of customers who're yet to upgrade from Windows 7, arguing that they either prefer how Windows 7 looks and functions, or (in some cases, and) why fix something when nothing is broken. That said, would you consider upgrading your system to Windows 10 Creators Update?

Comments

Well lets see...

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Visual previews of tabs in Microsoft Edge.

I don't use Edge.

2. Edge now has built-in support for ebooks.

See #1.

3. Microsoft Paint now lets people create models in 3D.

If it's anything like Paint was for graphics then most likely I'd use something more robust instead of Paint to make 3d stuff. Assuming I have 3D stuff to make in the first place.

4. Picture-in-Picture mode for videos. Essentially you can now have a small window with video playing on it placed on top of any other application.

That sounds annoying.

5. Night Light: A baked in feature in Windows that will allow you to change the color and tone of display so that it doesn't pain your eyes to look at the screen at night.

Honestly not sure about this one. My eyes are fine looking at the screen at night.

6. Dynamic Lock: The feature first requires you to pair your phone or tablet with the computer. Once done, it will automatically log you out everytime you're away from desk (or technically speaking, the device is out of the computer's proximity).

Just what I always wanted for my computer, another attack vector for breaking in.

7. Native support for surround sound.

That's nice, don't have surround sound but I seriously think that's a nice feature.

8. Ability to scribble and make notes on Microsoft's Maps app.

I don't use Maps and in fact if I could uninstall it I did or would if I could.

9. Game mode: It "ensures" your computer is always maximizing its resources for an optimal gaming experience.

I found it annoying when Windows unexpectedly loaded up things like a session record when I fired up Minecraft one day because "gaming experience". Do not annoy me further please.

10. Built-in support for mixed reality handsets.

Like surround sound this is nice but not something I use.

Over all I have little incentive to update Windows, more incentive to reformat and use another operating system on my only Windows machine left in my collection. The reality however is they will most likely force this update on me one way or another so if it bugs me to much I'll have no more Windows machines "just for certain games" because the operating system those games relies on is far to annoying for me to continue to in that market when better alternatives I'm already running on a gaming laptop I have running Linux are available.

Sabotaging old versions

[SmaryJerry]

I swear Microsoft always seems to not only not support old versions but actively creates issues to force you to upgrade. On windows 7 just on March 15th they pushed a "security update" to 2010 Microsoft office that basically makes any file with macros in it crash unexpectedly many times a day. I had to roll back the updates on every computer in our office and disable windows updates because we rely heavily on macros. It's so frustrating that things can work fine and they break it. Now we have to think about upgrading to the lastest operating system and Microsoft office which both already changed the way VBA works so transitioning and keeping our existing macros running is going to take many months of work.

Harder to counter Microsoft spying on you

[Misagon]

According to "Barnacules Nerdgasm" on Youtube, who previously worked on Windows at Microsoft, people he know who are still inside have told him that "telemetry" (I.e. spying) will get harder to disable in future updates. Whether all of these will be in this next update or in a future one is hard to say.

He commented to his own video with this:

I've been talking to a few 'insiders' at Microsoft that are also saying that many of the things like App Store and Telemetry are now being hard coded into key services like explorer.exe and critical system services that if stopped will crash the box immediately. The reason for this is obviously to prevent programs like anti-beacon from disabling these services. It's pretty obvious at this point that Microsoft wants the data at any cost and their cover story is bullshit. I'll update you guys when I know more or when the Windows releases are public that contain these changes and we'll do a video on how to create a network bridge between your system and the internet to prevent telemetry from working even with all the services on the box trying to make contact.ï