What's New in the Next Windows 10 Update

The next semi-annual Windows update is due soon. It'll likely be called the April 2019 Update. Ed Bott has a summary of the key features in the latest test build.

I've been using Windows 10 for quite a while now and I generally have few problems with it. The upgrades that Bott covers in his slide show mostly seem like minor tweaks, without any major new features (Sandbox would be, if it worked in the Home edition that I have).

However, there are a few things that make it a worthwhile upgrade:

• What used to be Windows Defender Security Center is now just Security Center. In version 1903 it gets two interesting additions. First is a Tamper Protection setting (shown here), which alerts you if another person or program tries to change your security settings. You'll also find a unified Protection History page that shows all suspicious events (malware detected, Controlled Folder access attempts, and so on) in a single view.
• Nothing derails your concentration like a stray notification. Do you answer that email or instant message request? As before, you can suppress distractions when you're duplicating your display to make a presentation, or when you're playing a game, or during your normal sleep time. Focus Assist adds one new automatic rule in this version: run the current app in Full Screen mode to put up a virtual "Do not disturb" sign.
• The Snip & Sketch app is, slowly but surely, taking over many of the functions previously owned by the legacy Snipping Tool. In this update, it adds the much needed capability to capture a windows rather than just a full screen or an arbitrary rectangle. (For those who still prefer Snipping Tool, it's still there ... for now.)

I will probably post more about this once the upgrade starts rolling out.