By Tracey Capen
The much-anticipated fall update for Windows l0 has arrived. If youre looking for significant changes, youre going to be disappointed.
Version 1511 is an important update, but many of the enhancements are either buried in the Settings menus or under the hood.
The latest Win10, aka Fall Update, is far from a routine patch. According to Microsoft, its about a 3GB download, and on my test system it took around three hours for the full installation. And though it was officially released on Nov. 12, it could take days before it shows up on individual machines. On my test system, the update arrived sometime over the weekend; on my personal system, I received a notification but no actual update — yet.
Aside from Microsoft throttling the release of the update, there are other reasons you might not see Version 1511, according to a MS FAQ.
- The delivery of Version 1511 will be delayed if you migrated to Win10 less than 31 days ago. The original Win10 lets you roll back to Win7 or 8.1 within a month of upgrading to the new OS. Apparently, once you install Version 1511, the roll-back option is disabled. When your Win10 setup reaches its one-month anniversary, Fall Update should show up in Windows Update and be automatically installed.
- If you selected Defer upgrades in the Windows Update advanced options, there could be a delay receiving Version 1511. Note that the option to defer updates applies only to optional patches; security updates are always installed as soon as offered. According to a Win10 help page, new features "wont be downloaded or installed for several months." Windows 10 Home doesnt have the defer-updates option; Win10 Pro does.
- Updates installed before Version 1511 will no longer show up in your update history (Start/Settings/Update & security/Windows Update/Advanced Options/View your update history).
- If you uninstall Fall Update, it wont show up again in Windows Update — youll have to download it directly from Microsoft. How do you uninstall Version 1511? Although the update comes through Windows Update, you wont find it in your update history. Presumably, you use the Go back to an earlier build option (Settings/Update & security/Recovery). There, youll have to step through a series of questions before the process begins.
As generally seems to be the case with Windows 10, there can be many other reasons that an upgrade doesnt appear or install properly. You might, for example, have insufficient room on your hard drive — more of a potential problem on older systems with relatively small drives. Also, you might have to go through several rounds of "Check for updates" to ensure the system is fully up to date. (Win10 seems to be a bit erratic about when patches appear in Windows Update.)
You can check whether you have Version 1511 installed by checking About page (Settings/System/About). Look for the Version number, as shown in Figure 1. If you have problems receiving or installing Fall Update, you can, as a last resort, use the most current Media Creation Tool (site), which includes Version 1511. The tool should let you install Win10 while keeping your personal files. You might have to reinstall your apps.
Figure 1. The About window in Win10s Settings/System section should show Version 1511.
Whats new in Windows 10 Version 1511
As mentioned, the obvious changes included in Fall Update are fairly few. In fact, Microsofts Whats new page highlights just three — and one of those isnt for Windows but the Edge Browser. (As usual, Microsoft has done a poor job of documenting Windows changes.) Here are some changes I found when comparing an upgraded Win10 system with one that is still waiting for the upgrade.
Edge browser: The enhancements to Edge are relatively minor: Power Web users will like the webpage preview. Now, when you have multiple tabs active in the browser, rolling over a tab name pops up a handy thumbnail of its webpage (see Figure 2).............................................
SEE IT HERE..... CLICK CLICK CLICK
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