Everything New in Windows 10’s April 2018 Update, Available Now

Microsoft is ready to release Windows 10’s “April 2018 Update.” It was originally going to be called the “Spring Creators Update” and was codenamed “Redstone 4.” This is Windows 10 version “1803”, and it launches today, April 30, 2018.

You can get the April 2018 Update in a couple different ways. If you already have a Windows 10 PC and have automatic updates enabled, the update will be delivered to you when it’s ready for your machine. That roll-out begins on May 8. If you are an advanced user and would like to get the update today, visit this blog post to learn how.

• Go back and forth in time. Easily scroll back in time to find things you were working on earlier today or a few weeks ago.1
• Find activities easily. Click the new Task bar icon to see all your activities on a specific day grouped by hour, including all the things you did using Microsoft Edge and Office 365 on your tablet and mobile phone.2 If you don’t see what you need, you can easily search Timeline to find it.
• Remove activities whenever you want. Delete activities from a specific day or hour.

To get started with using Timeline, click the new Task view icon in the taskbar to see all your activities on a specific day, grouped by hour, and easily search for something you’d like to go back to (you can also open Task view by pressing Windows logo key + Tab).

Nearby Sharing

Nearby Sharing lets you instantly share your videos, photos, documents, and websites with people and devices near you over Bluetooth or Wi-Fi. Say you’re in a meeting with your boss and need to quickly send them the report or PowerPoint presentation you’re looking at on your screen, Nearby Sharing helps you do this quickly and easily. Here’s what you can do with Nearby Sharing.

• Share quickly. Send any video, photo, document, or webpage viewed on Microsoft Edge to people nearby by clicking on the share charm in the app or right-clicking to get the share menu. You can share a report with a colleague in your meeting room or a vacation photo with your best friend in the library.3
• Take the quickest path. Your computer automatically picks the fastest way to share your file or webpage, either over Bluetooth or Wifi.
• See who’s available. Bluetooth allows you to quickly discover potential devices with which you could share.4

Focus Assist

As Yusuf mentioned last week, most of us spend between 3-6 hours – each day – on screens. Much of this time is spent on social media, where the constant stream of distractions across our myriad of devices makes it hard to focus. With this update, we’re introducing Focus Assist to help you stay in the zone. Focus Assist helps you get more done by easily blocking notifications, sounds, and alerts to create distraction-free work times. This is helpful if you’re giving a presentation or trying to focus on a paper, you can use Focus Assist to block interruptions or distractions. Here’s how it works.

• Work the way you want. Focus assist gives you the flexibility to choose when to block interruptions. Turn on Focus assist whenever you want to get things done without distractions, like notifications, sounds, and alerts. Or set Focus Assist to turn on automatically at certain times during the day.
• Stay connected when you need to. You can make sure your most important people breakthrough by creating a priority list of those you always want to reach you, even when you’re working. Or when you need complete concentration, block all notifications.
• Catch up quickly. Find out what you missed while you were heads down on a project. As soon as you finish working, a summary of notifications and alerts appears on your screen.

You can quickly toggle Focus Assist on or off from a quick action button in the Action Center. Or, to set up your rules with Focus Assist, just go to display settings > Focus Assist to pick which scenarios will automatically turn on this feature.

Microsoft Edge

We’re also helping you focus on the web with updates to Microsoft Edge, from muting tabs to auto-filling cards on web forms. Here’s a look at what’s new in Microsoft Edge with this update.

• Mute-a-tab. Simply click the audio icon or right-click the tab to mute and unmute the tab that is playing sound.

• Autofill cards on web forms. Use Microsoft Edge to securely save your address, credit card, and other information on top retail sites so that you have the option of autofill on web payment forms.5
• Clutter-free printing. Print web pages from Microsoft Edge without pop-ups and other unnecessary clutter. Enable the “Clutter-free printing” option in the print dialog and print only the content you want.6

• Full-screen reading experience. Take Books, PDFs, and Reading view pages full-screen, for a distraction-free reading experience. To enable full-screen reading, you can click on the double-arrow icon on the reading bar, or in the more menu or hit F11 on your keyboard.
• More EPUB book options. Read EPUBs books in Microsoft Edge—whether downloaded from the web, which you can save with the latest Windows update, or purchased from the Microsoft Store. You’ll also find reading suggestions at the Books tab in the “Hub” menu.
• Grammar tools. Microsoft Edge has added Grammar tools support in reading mode for web pages and books to help improve reading comprehension to create a more inclusive reading experience.
• Fluent Design. Microsoft Edge now supports an updated Dark theme and much better contrast with all colors, text, and icons.
• Microsoft Edge on your phone and tablet. Get Microsoft Edge on your Android phone, tablet, iPhone, or iPad. Just go to the apps store on your device and download Microsoft Edge for free. Then use Microsoft Edge on your phone or tablet to read EPUB books you’ve saved, currently a preview feature. Or start reading a webpage on phone or tablet, send the page to your PC, and pick up reading right where you left off.

The Diagnostic Data Viewer Shows What Windows Sends to Microsoft

Microsoft is still trying to alleviate the privacy concerns around Windows 10 by being more transparent. To that end, there’s a new “Diagnostic Data Viewer” application. This will show you, in plain text, the exact diagnostic information your Windows 10 PC is sending to Microsoft. It even shows all the information stored in Microsoft’s cloud about your specific hardware device.

To enable this feature, had to Settings > Privacy > Diagnostics & feedback. Toggle the “Diagnostic data viewer” option “On”. This screen notes that this feature can take up to 1GB of disk space to store this data on your PC. Once you’ve enabled it, you can click a “Diagnostic Data Viewer” button to go to the Microsoft Store and download the free Diagnostic Data Viewer application for your PC, which will allow you to view the information. You can use the search box to find specific data or filter by different types of events.

Microsoft now allows you to delete the diagnostic data collected from your device, too. Just click the “Delete” button under Delete diagnostic data on the Settings > Privacy > Diagnostics & feedback screen.

Non-Administrator users now have more control over the diagnostic data they send to Microsoft, too. All Windows users can now head to Settings > Privacy > Diagnostics & feedback and select either Basic or Full diagnostic data. Previously, only system administrators could change this setting.

Microsoft is also enhancing the online Privacy Dashboard with a new “activity history” page, making it easier for people to see the information Microsoft is storing on them. And, when you set up a new PC, there’s a new first-time setup process that offers individual screens for various privacy settings, making them easier to configure.

Quick Pairing for Bluetooth Devices

ir” feature that will make it easier to pair Bluetooth devices with your PC is arriving in this update. Just place a Bluetooth device in pairing mode near your PC and you’ll see a notification asking you to pair it, so you won’t even have to open the Settings app and navigate to Bluetooth settings.

Initially, this feature only works with the Surface Precision Mouse, and device manufacturers will have to add support for it. But it’s the Windows version of a feature that’s coming to every modern platform, including Fast Pair on Android and the easy pairing process of Apple’s AirPods or a W1 chip-enabled set of Beats headphones on an iPhone. Along with Bluetooth 5.0, this should make using Bluetooth devices easier to use and more powerful on every platform.

Progressive Web Apps in the Windows Store

The Microsoft Edge browser gains a number of new features that allow running Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) on Windows 10. This is basically a new standard for web apps that behave like desktop apps. Each app gets its own window and taskbar shortcut, can run offline, and can send notifications. Google, Mozilla, and Microsoft are all supporting PWAs, and even Apple is adding some support for this technology.

Microsoft will index PWAs and offer them via the Microsoft Store app, allowing you to install them like any other Windows 10 app. In the future, you’ll also be able to install them directly from Microsoft Edge, according to the Microsoft employees in this Twitter thread.

In the future, this means that Windows 10 may get solid versions of Google apps like Gmail and Google Calendar as Progressive Web Apps available in the Microsoft Store. It also means that developers can design one app that works practically everywhere rather than having to make separate apps for different platforms. As Microsoft’s UWP platform isn’t attracting as much developer interest as Android and iOS, this is a way Windows 10 could get many more high-quality apps in the future.

Faster Update Installation

Even if you don’t care about Windows 10’s updates—or especially if you don’t care about Windows 10’s updates—you’ll like this one. This update will speed up the installation of these twice-a-year updates in the future. More of the update process is done in the background while you’re using your PC, which means the time you have to sit and wait for the update to install is decreased. This online update process is run at a low priority, so it shouldn’t slow your PC down while using it.

According to Microsoft’s tests, the “offline” update time—that is, the time you have to wait while staring at an “Updating” screen after rebooting your computer—has gone from an average of 82 minutes to 30 minutes.

You Can Now Manage Fonts in Settings and Install Them From the Store

As part of the process of retiring the old Control Panel and moving everything to the new Settings app, there’s now a Fonts screen at Settings > Personalization > Fonts that will allow you to view, install, and uninstall fonts.

Fonts are also available in the Microsoft Store for easier installation. Click the “Get more fonts in the Store” link on this screen and you’ll open the Fonts collection in the Microsoft Store, allowing you to download and install fonts in an easier, more convenient way.

Microsoft Edge Improvements

Edge now has a redesigned “hub”—the popup that shows your bookmarks, history, downloads, and even eBooks from the Microsoft Store. When right-clicking a book in the library view, you can now choose to pin it to your start screen. Edge’s favorites bar now automatically appears on the new tab screen assuming you have at least one favorite. There’s also a redesigned dark theme with darker blacks and more contrast, as well as more acrylic-style fluent design throughout Edge’s interface.

Microsoft’s web browser can now remember information like your name and address and automatically fill in forms on websites, something competing browsers have been doing for years. It can sync this information across your devices an even automatically fill your credit card information on websites, if you like. It doesn’t remember the CVV code, so you still have to enter that at checkout.

You can now right-click a tab and select “Mute Tab” to silence it. When browsing in InPrivate mode, you can choose to allow certain extensions to run and optionally fill in passwords, if you like. You can choose to never save a password for a specific website and Edge will never ask you to save your password on that site again.

The full-screen mode you can access by pressing F11 has been improved. You can now hover your mouse cursor near the top of the screen or swipe down from the top of the screen with a finger to access the navigation bar without first leaving full-screen mode.

There’s also a new “Clutter-free printing” option. When printing in Edge, set the Clutter-free printing option to “On” and Edge will print the web page without ads and other unnecessary clutter. This won’t work on every website, however.

The reading experience has been redesigned, so there’s a more consistent experience whether you’re reading PDF documents, web pages in Reading View, or EPUB books from the Windows Store. There’s also a better bookmark management feature for creating and working with bookmarks inside documents. There’s a new full-screen reading experience too, and any notes and bookmarks you create will sync across all your devices. Microsoft made a variety of improvements to EPUB layout and now supports EPUB Media Overlays for audio narrated books.

Under the hood, Edge now supports Service Workers and the Push and Cache APIs. This means that websites can send notifications that appear in your action center, even when they’re not open in your web browser. And certain websites can use the local cache to work offline or boost performance. The Web Media Extensionspackage is now installed by default, too, so Edge now supports the open OGG Vorbis audio and Theora video formats. For example, these formats are used on Wikipedia. Edge also supports CSS extensions for OpenType Font Variations, allowing single font files like multiple fonts with different attributes. Developers can now dock the DevTools vertically for more screen space.

Touchpad gestures are now available, too—assuming your laptop has a Precision Touchpad. Gestures like pinch-to-zoom and two-finger-panning work on your laptop’s touchpad just like they work on a touchscreen.

Cortana

Turn up the heat and the beat. Cortana now lets you manage your smart home and play your favorite music and playlists on Spotify from your PC using just your voice.11 Cortana has expanded home automation skills, making it even easier for you to control your smart home devices while you’re on the go. For example, want to come home to a warm house from a long day at work? Just tap Cortana on your PC and say “Hey Cortana, set the living room thermostat to 72 degrees” to control your ecobee3, ecobee3 lite, ecobee4, Honeywell Lyric, Honeywell Total Connect Comfort, Nest Learning Thermostat, Nest Thermostat E and more. To set up your connected home with Cortana, open Cortana on Windows 10 or go to the Cortana app on your phone, click the Notebook icon, then click Connected Home. From there, you can connect your favorite smart home accounts and control your devices from anywhere you use Cortana.

With Spotify now available with Cortana on PC, you can use the power of your voice to play your favorite music. For example, if you want to kick back and relax after a long day of work, simply tap on the microphone icon on your Windows 10 taskbar or say “Hey Cortana” then say “Play some chill music on Spotify” and she’s on it. To get started, simply try saying “Hey Cortana, play some chill music on Spotify” and Cortana will guide you through linking your Spotify account to Cortana. Or, open Cortana on Windows 10, click the Notebook icon, then click Music and link your favorite provider, like Spotify, TuneIn or iHeartRadio.

My People Settings

The My People feature that debuted in Windows 10’s Fall Creators Update has a number of improvements, too. My People now supports drag and drop, so you can drag and drop contacts in the My People popup to reprioritize them or drag and drop the people icons on your taskbar.

In the Fall Creators Update, My People only allowed you to pin three people to your taskbar, but you can now choose how many you want to pin—from one to ten. Head to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar to find this option. People pinned to the My People popup can now send you animated emoji notifications, too.

Windows will now suggest apps you may be interested in that integrate with My People. You can disable this from Settings > Personalization > Taskbar, if you like.

HDR Video on More PCs

Microsoft is expanding HDR video support to more devices. Many new devices are capable of playing HDR video, but were not calibrated for it in the factory. To check whether your device can play HDR video, head to Settings > Apps > Video playback. If you can set the “Stream HDR video” option to On, your device is capable of playing HDR video, if properly calibrated first.

To use Microsoft’s new experimental calibration tool, click the “Change calibration settings for HDR video on my built-in display” option here.

Graphics Settings for Multi-GPU Systems

There’s now a new Graphics settings page that allows you to choose which GPU you want applications to use if you have a multi-GPU system. Both NVIDIA and AMD have their own control panels for this, but this is a new standard way to do it in Windows, no matter what graphics hardware you’re using. The options you set on this screen will override any settings in the NVIDIA or AMD control panels.

To find this option, head to Settings > System > Display > Graphics settings. You can browse for an .exe file on your system and choose which GPU Windows should use for it from here. The “Power saving” option will be your integrated graphics, while “High performance” will be the discrete or external GPU that uses more power. If your PC has both an internal discrete GPU and an external GPU connected, Windows will use the external GPU when you select High performance.

App Permission Options

When you toggle “Let apps use my camera hardware” under Settings > Privacy > Camera to “Off”, legacy desktop apps will not be able to use your webcam. Previously, this only applied to new Windows Store apps. This means Windows now has an easy software option that will disable access to your webcam for all applications. However, because what’s done in software can be overridden by software, you may still want to cover your webcam or unplug it when you’re not using it.

There’s no way to control which legacy desktop apps can access your webcam. If access is on, all desktop apps can view it. If access is off, no desktop apps can view it.

Windows now allows you to control which UWP (Store) applications have access to your full file system, or your Pictures, Videos, and Documents folders. When an application wants access, it has to ask you for permission. Under Settings > Privacy, you’ll find four new tabs for controlling access to your File System, Pictures, Videos, and Documents.

Focus Assist Replaces Quiet Hours

The “Quiet Hours” feature that allowed you to mute notifications during specific time periods has been renamed to “Focus Assist”.

Focus Assist will automatically turn on in specific situations, such as when you’re duplicating your display or playing DirectX games in full-screen exclusive mode. It also supports different notification priorities, so you can allow high-priority notifications through and temporarily block low-priority notifications. You’ll see a summary of any notifications you missed when you disable Focus Assist.

To customize exactly how this works, head to Settings > System > Focus Assist. The options here allow you to set your own notification priority and hours when Focus Assist should automatically enable itself. You can also toggle Focus Assist on or off by right-clicking the notification icon at the right corner of your taskbar and using one of the “Set focus assist” options.

Language Packs in the Windows Store

Language packs are now delivered via the Windows Store, and you can install them by heading to the Windows Store or using the Settings > Time & Language > Region and language screen, which has been redesigned.

Microsoft says they’ve started using artificial intelligence and machine learning for their translations, and that having language packs in the Store means they can be updated with improvements more frequently.

Display and DPI Scaling Options

Information about your display hardware is now available under Settings > System > Display > Advanced display settings.

Windows 10 still struggles to get older apps looking good on high DPI displays, but there’s a new “Fix scaling for apps” option under Settings > System > Display > Advanced scaling. When you enable it, Windows will try to automatically adjust apps so they don’t look blurry. Even if you don’t have this setting enabled, Windows will display a “Fix apps that are blurry?” popup if it detects there may be blurry apps on your screen.

More per-app settings to override system DPI scaling behavior for an individual program are also available by right-clicking an .exe file or desktop shortcut, selecting “Properties”, selecting “Compatibility”, and then clicking the “Change high DPI settings” button.

HomeGroup Is Now Discontinued

We hope you’re no longer using the HomeGroup feature on your home network, as it’s now been disabled. Microsoft encourages you to use modern solutions like OneDrive file sharing, or the Windows 10 Share functionality for folders and printers.

HEIF Image Support

Windows 10 now supports viewing images in the High Efficiency Image Formatwithout any third-party software. This image format is used by the Camera app when taking photos on modern iPhones, and Google is also adding support for it to Android.

The first time you try to open an HEIF or HEIC file, it will open in the Photos app and the app will guide you through installing the required codecs from the Microsoft Store. After you install them, these images will display normally in the Photos app, and thumbnails and metadata will also appear in File Explorer.

Password-Free Login on Windows 10 in S Mode

Microsoft now allows you to sign into your PC without entering a password at all—but only if you use Windows 10 in S Mode, for some reason. If you do, you can download the Microsoft Authenticator app for your Android phone or iPhone and set up Windows Hello to use it as a sign-in method.

You won’t see a password anywhere in the Windows settings screen or sign-in options if you set this up. You will still have a PIN you can use to sign in if you don’t have your phone.

Microsoft Store

• Reimagined localization and Windows local experience. Now you can find your desired language (Local Experience Pack – or “Language Pack”) right in Microsoft Store or in the Settings menu. The Settings app has improved discoverability and usability of features supported for each language. Having the Local Experience Packs in the Microsoft Store allows us to take advantage of user feedback via Language Community App to release better translations more frequently. This will consistently improve the experience of our international customers with Windows.

• Font Settings and Fonts. Fonts are an important asset for your visual creativity. We’re introducing new experiences for managing your fonts in Settings, and for acquiring additional fonts from Microsoft Store. Along with the new Settings experience, we are introducing a curated set of fonts as a new content type in Microsoft Store. To find them easily, there is a link from the Fonts page in Settings directly to the Fonts collection in Microsoft Store. We will continue to add new fonts to the collection so keep checking.

New Settings and Other Changes

Microsoft always makes a number of small changes, adding little features throughout Windows 10 and redesigning bits of the interface. Here are a few of them:

• OneDrive Status in the Navigation Pane: Information about the syncing statusof folders stored in OneDrive now appears in the File Explorer’s left navigation pane. To toggle this feature on or off, click the “View” button on the ribbon and click “Options”. Click the “View” tab, scroll down, and toggle the “Always show availability status” option under Navigation pane on or off.
• Windows Update System Tray Icon: A system tray icon now appears when there’s a warning or alert message you’d see under Settings > Update & security > Windows Update.
• Windows Update Will Now Block Sleep: If you have your computer connected to AC power, Windows Update will now prevent the PC from going to sleep for up to two hours to update it, if an update is required. This increases the chances that an update completes while you aren’t using your PC instead of while you are.
• Password Recovery for Local Accounts: You can set security questions for local user accounts, and you can answer these questions from the sign-in screen to regain access to your computer if you ever forget your local account’s password. To set security questions, head to Settings > Accounts > Sign-in Options > Update your security questions.
• More Fluent Design: Windows 10’s interface uses the new acrylic-style fluent design in more places, from the Settings app and touch keyboard to the taskbar, share interface, and clock popup.
• A Redesigned Game Bar: The Game Bar that appears when you press Windows+G has also been redesigned for streamlined access to its various options. You can now select a Game Bar theme: Dark, Light, or your current Windows theme.
• Emoji Typing Improvements: The emoji keyboard, accessible by pressing Windows+. or Windows+; , won’t automatically close after you select an emoji, so you can more easily type multiple emojis at once. Press the Esc key or click the “x” to close it. The touch keyboard will also suggest emojis when you type words like “unicorn”.

• Startup App Management: Startup apps can now be managed from Settings > Apps > Startup. Previously, this option was hidden in the Task Manager.
• Redesigned Windows Defender Settings: The Settings > Update & security > Windows Defender screen is now named “Windows Security” instead, and it’s been redesigned to provide quick access to various security options, including account and device security.
• Categories in Privacy Settings: The Settings > Privacy screen now has categories in its navigation pane, splitting Windows privacy settings from the app permission management pages.
• Quick Access to App Settings: You can now right-click an app tile or shortcut in the Start menu and select More > App Settings to quickly open its settings page, where you can customize the app’s permissions, reset it, uninstall it, or delete its data. This screen is also accessible by heading to Settings > Apps & features, clicking an app’s name, and clicking “Advanced options”. This screen now also shows an app’s version number, startup tasks, and command line alias.
• Snipping Tool and Paint 3D: The Snipping Tool for capturing screenshots now has an “Edit in Paint 3D” button.
• Modern Keyboard Settings: A new keyboard settings page is available at Settings > Time & language > Keyboard. It allows you to switch between layouts, toggle settings like key sounds and autocorrect, and tweak advanced keyboard settings. Some settings have been removed from the Control Panel now that these options are available here.
• Prefer Cellular Data: You can now tell Windows to prefer cellular data over Wi-Fi—either all the time, or only when Wi-Fi connectivity is poor. This option is available under Settings > Network & Internet > Cellular, if you have cellular hardware in your computer.
• Narrator in Safe Mode: Windows now allows you to use the text-to-speech Narrator feature even while booted into Safe Mode.

• Data Usage for Wi-Fi and Ethernet: The Settings > Network & Internet > Data Usage screen now allows you to set data limits, enforce background data restrictions, and view data usage on Wi-Fi and wired Ethernet connections in addition to cellular data connections. You can right-click the “Data usage” tab on the Settings screen and select “Pin to Start” to see your data usage as a live tile on your Start menu.
• Choose Your Handwriting Font: You can choose the font your handwriting converts to from Settings > Devices > Pen & Windows Ink > Change the font of the handwriting experience.
• Embedded Handwriting Panel: You can now tap modern text fields—like those in the Settings app—with a pen and hand write text directly into the text field from an expanded handwriting panel that appears.
• Handwriting Panel Improvements: The handwriting panel is better at re-recognizing words if recognized incorrectly when you draw over your existing handwriting to correct it. The buttons on the handwriting input panel have also been rearranged.
• Reset Game Mode Settings: You can reset all your Game Mode settings to their default values by heading to Settings > Gaming > Game Mode > Reset Game Mode Settings.
• Easier Windows Hello Setup: You can set up Windows Hello Face, Fingerprint, or PIN sign-in straight from the sign-in screen by clicking the “Windows Hello” button under Sign-in options.
• Control Automatically Hiding Scrollbars: Windows automatically hides scrollbars in new UWP apps, but you can now disable this from Settings > Ease of Access > Display > Automatically hide scroll bars in Windows.
• Disable or Enable the Color Filters Hotkey: The Color Filters hotkey is now disabled by default, but you can toggle it on or off from Settings > Ease of Access > Color filters.
• View and Clear Your Dictionary: You can head to Settings > Privacy > Speech, Inking, & Typing to view words you’ve added to your user dictionary and clear it, if you like.

• Disk Cleanup in Storage Settings: The Windows Disk Cleanup functionality has been added to the new Settings app under Settings > System > Storage > Free up space now.
• More Modern Sound Options: Many sound options, such as switching devices and troubleshooting your audio, have moved to Settings > System > Sound. There’s also new page at Settings > System > Sound > App volume and device preferences where you can choose your preferred sound output and input devices system-wide and for individual apps.
• Word Suggestions With a Hardware Keyboard: When typing with a hardware keyboard, you can now enable word suggestions and use the arrow keys and Enter or Space keys to select them. This feature is disabled by default, only available for English (United States), and targets English language learners, education, and accessibility, according to Microsoft. This option is available under Settings > Devices > Typing > Show text suggestions as I type on hardware keyboard.
• Work Folders On-Demand: The “Work Folders” feature that allows companies to make files available on their employees’ PCs now has a new “On-demand file access” option. When this is enabled, Work Folders will function like OneDrive in File Explorer, making all the files visible but only downloading them when you open them.
• Eye Control Improvements: Microsoft added integrated eye control features to the Fall Creators Update. Improving on it, they’ve now added easier scrolling and clicking options, as well as links to common tasks and a pause button on the eye control launchpad. This is still considered a “preview” feature, and only works if you have a specialized eye-tracking peripheral.
• Multilingual Text Prediction: When typing multiple languages with the touch keyboard, you no longer have to manually switch languages. Windows will automatically show word predictions from the three languages you use most frequently. You can disable this feature from Settings > Devices > typing > Multilingual Text Prediction, if you like.

Work smarter with AI-powered inking features in Office on Windows

New inking innovations are coming to Office 36515 in the next few months. Here’s what you can expect:

• Intelligent editing in Word. Use your digital pen to make editing Office docs easier than ever: Strikethrough words to make them disappear, make room to insert text, circle text to select, highlight with precision.

• Power to your point. Use your digital pen to work on your PowerPoint presentations. You can easily convert handwritten headlines, text and hand-drawn shapes into a presentable format.

• OneNote Math Assistant. Ink math assistant in OneNote for Windows 10 helps you solve handwritten equations, provides step-by-step instructions, and even graphs the results to enhance learning and problem-solving.

Windows and Office are getting even better together

Sign in to Office, Sign in to Microsoft. With the April 2018 Update, we’re launching a brand new, industry-leading Single Sign-On experience. Signing into one Microsoft app or service on a device signs you into them all. Using your personal Microsoft account, or the account given to you by your work or school, you will now be able to sign into Office 36516 and use that same account across a full range of Microsoft apps and services. And, just as you’d expect, it works both ways – by signing in to Windows you sign in to Office.

This experience is available to Office Insiders Fast today and will be available to all Office 365 subscribers by June. To get started you’ll need to have the April 2018 update installed, along with the latest version of Office. While all new accounts added will be able to opt into this by default, it can be extended to accounts you have already added as well. Just head to the Settings app, click “Accounts” followed by “Email & app accounts.” Choose the account you added previously and select “Microsoft apps can sign me in” from the drop-down.

And don’t worry, if you’d rather be selective in which Microsoft apps you sign into we’ve got you covered – simply choose “Apps need to ask me to use this account” from the Settings app and things will work just as they have before.

We hope you enjoy all the great new features included in the Windows 10 April 2018 Update, designed to help you make the most of your time. You can learn more about how to get the update in this blog post here. If you want to experience the Windows 10 April 2018 Update first hand, you can do so starting May 8 at your local Microsoft Store in person or online. You can even get a free consultation from our expert Answer Desk technicians to determine if your device is eligible for the update, or help you set up and customize a new device.

What’s new in the Windows 10 April 2018 Update

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1 Timeline shows up to 30 days of past activities.

2 Timeline shows activities done on tablet and mobile phone when users are signed into their Microsoft accounts. Office 365 subscription sold separately.

3 Sharing is only available between Windows 10 PCs. Nearby sharing must be enabled on both devices.

4 Recipients can choose whether to accept the item a user wants to share.

5 Support may vary for certain type of websites and by region and CVV information is never saved.

6 This option will only be visible for certain types of web pages.

7 User must download Microsoft Edge on iOS and Android phones, follow setup prompts, and link the mobile phone to the PC in PC settings.

8 Touch-enabled device required; pen accessory may be sold separately. Tap to ink available in UWP and XAML fields. User must enable in pen settings.

9 Compatible on select devices with Intel 8th Generation chipsets.

10 PC requirements may vary for available apps and content.

11 Cortana available in select markets; experience may vary by region and device. Cortana Skills only available in the US and work with select home automation and music services (paid subscriptions may be required). Some experiences may require Spotify Premium, users must accept Spotify’s Privacy policy and Terms of Use. Spotify available in select markets only. A free Spotify account and Internet access is required to stream music. To stream music ad-free, Spotify Premium is required. Catalog size and service availability varies by market over time