May’s Windows 10 Update

Dennis Snider

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Microsoft will be releasing Windows 10 Version 1903 in May, with a codename of 19H1. If all goes well, it is expected sometime in the first half of the month.

The new version will contain a new Windows Sandbox feature, allowing users to test and run any application completely quarantined from the main operating system without, as previously was the case, having to create a whole virtual machine (note that this will only be available in Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise editions).

If you want to install new fonts in Windows, you can now simply drag and drop them into the Font Settings window and they’ll be automatically added for you.

The update includes a new reserve storage function, that sequesters a minimum of 7 GB of your hard drive to make space for Windows updates in future. While this is a good feature in principle, as sometimes vital automatic updates are missed because there wasn’t enough disk space for them, it could be a problem for those who have limited hard drive space remaining. There doesn’t seem to be any way of officially disabling this feature, although it can be hacked by going to Run –> regedit, opening the hive HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\ReserveManager and changing the value for ShippedWithReserves to 0.

A new Windows Light theme will be introduced in the update, selectable from the personalization menu.

The old Disc Cleanup feature has been superseded by Storage Sense. This allows users to remove temporary files and those in important folders with one click. The user can configure what they want Storage Sense to do, including making periodic automatic cleanups.

RAW image format photographs will now be supported in Windows, improving the way the system handles photographs supplied directly from the camera. File Explorer will now offer the same capabilities with RAW files as with other picture formats.

Finally, the new version of Windows will be supporting more options to access your account without a password, the latest one being the ability to sign into Windows using a smartphone.

All of these features can be previewed by logging into the Windows Insider Program via a Microsoft account.