Prior to the release of a new version of Windows 10 I always write an article on what's new and how you might benefit from it. Then after release there is usually a further article with details of features that either disappeared or were enhanced but overall there isn't a huge amount of benefit for the Customer unless of course they missed the first one. I am going to change my approach this time and focus on a few features that might help improve your experience by understanding some of what is going on in the background.
One of the most common calls I get is that a Computer has gone very slow. This can be something obvious like Malware or a failing Hard Disk but often Microsoft processes that are taking place in the background are slowing down your PC. Understanding these and changing some settings can vastly improve your experience.
I will begin with Windows Update because the way this works has changed over recent versions and particularly for Windows 10 Home users. When a new version of Windows 10 was released (every 6 months) your Computer would automatically download and install it sometimes resulting in very slow performance followed by a couple of hours of updating that left you confused before things changed back to normal. During the last year or so the Half Yearly update has been renamed to a Feature Update and it is no longer automatically applied. You can now run with your current version of Windows 10 for up to 18 months before having to upgrade. At the 18 month stage you are advised that your version of Windows 10 will no longer be supported and you must upgrade to continue support. This has led to a few calls from Customers thinking their licence had expired or Windows 11 was out and they had missed the release. The reality is that if you now want to update your version every 6 months you need to type 'Windows Update' into the search bar, navigate to Windows Update settings and Download and Install the update as per the above image. The plus point is therefore that you don't have huge updates downloading in the background and stealing bandwidth but the downside is that your version of Windows 10 could be 12 - 18 months out of date and because you're not in the habit of going to Windows Update and checking you simply don't know.
In version 2004 they have now added another section to Windows Update called 'View Optional Updates'. In reality this is nothing new and was actually how things used to happen in Windows 7, but people are out of the habit of checking Windows Updates. They are used to everything just happening automatically in the background and whilst extra control can be more desirable it is only true if you know that things have changed and are actively making the manual checks required. The Optional Updates section often contains Driver Updates and if you have problems with your Graphics Card for instance there may well be an updated driver here. However, if you don't know how to check manually then it won't help you. Again there are two sides to every story and Windows Update was known to put incompatible drivers on causing all sorts of problems so many people will be pleased with this change, but again you do need to know that this section is worth checking if you have a problem.
The final item on the Windows Update front is the ability to set Bandwidth limits. Although you now need to manually download and install Optional Updates the monthly Security Updates will still download and install on or shortly after the second Tuesday of the month. This can hit performance at a time when you don't want this to happen. There is of course the 'Pause Updates for 7 days' button now but more advanced users might just want to limit the bandwidth that Windows Updates have access to. This means your PC will remain secure without a 7 day delay but won't be slowed dramatically during the process. There was a previous setting that allowed you to set bandwidth as a percentage of your total bandwidth but you can now choose a precise figure like 1 Mbps to make available to Windows Update. To find this go to Settings \ Update and Security \ Delivery Optimisation \ Advanced Options.
While discussing speed improvements I will just add that Microsoft have made further improvements to the Search Indexer. This is another process that runs in the background and yet was turned off by many people (especially gamer's) because it was perceived to have a huge detrimental effect on performance for very little benefit in return. Microsoft are now attempting to detect peak usage times and not allow processes to run when the current user is already placing high demand on their Computer.
I will finish with a couple of quick improvements that may be of some interest to those that like to delve a little deeper. I often get asked by Customers whether they have an SSD or HDD and whilst for many the speed of the Computer alone will identify that, it is sometimes nice to see it in black and white. If you start Task Manager either with Ctrl \ Alt \ Del or by right clicking the task bar and then navigate to the Performance tab you will see your type of Disk under Disk. While you are there you can also see the temperature of your Graphics Card (GPU). This assumes you have a high spec Graphics Card with the latest drivers installed and is only really likely to be of interest to gamer's.
