Microsoft Announces Windows 10 features coming in fall update during 2nd day of Build 2017 Conference…

The Fall Update has been named Fall Creators Update. This is part of Microsoft’s new plan for updating its current operating system semi-annually. While not committed to any specific dates, expect it to be delivered in October of 2017.

One change will be a new design language called Microsoft Fluent Design System. This is the most current version of what started as the “Metro style apps”. This version adds shading, blur effects and animations to the Windows interface and to apps.

More information about the Fluent Design system is available at http://fluent.microsoft.com/.

Windows Story Remix is another addition that is designed to blend photos and videos into stories with a soundtrack, theme and movie transitions. This should be the long need replacement to Microsoft’s Movie Maker which though works for what it does, doesn’t have a lot of features. I can’t wait to get my hands on this new addition.

Other new features announced work not just with Windows but with mobile devices running Microsoft apps on Android and iOS devices:

Timeline – Let’s you jump pack in time to open apps and documents as though you had never left them. Timeline allows you to jump back in time to find what you were working on. It works by using a scrollbar allowing you to scrub through a history of open apps, documents and more. “The Timeline feature essentially allows the user to rewind their system to a previous point in time, similar to how you would rewind a movie. Rewind back to the point in which you wish to resume from, and your system will restore itself as if it had never progressed passed that point.”

Pick Up Where You Left Off – This is a Cortana feature that already exists in current Window’s 10 Builds. The idea is that Cortana would track what you’re working on and offer to resume on a document when you switch from a mobile device to a PC or vise-versa. This is similar to Apple’s handoff feature in MacOS.

Clipboard – seems like Microsoft is running a theme here, with the clipboard now being able to be shared between devices as well. OneClip- For those who were living under a rock in May of 2015, you likely missed out on the original hype for OneClip. In short, it was a Microsoft Garage project that leaked to the public, available on a plethora of platforms including Windows, Android, and iOS. Shortly after it had leaked, Microsoft pulled the service from the public, denying access to anyone outside of Microsoft. The main goal of this function is to clip once and paste everywhere. This is all part of Microsoft focusing on productivity enhancements that will improve the way that we work between our devices.

OneDrive Files On-Demand - Microsoft executives say this is the single most requested new feature in the new update. It brings back the "placeholders" feature that was abruptly dropped in early preview releases of Windows 10. With this update, Windows 10 users will once again be able to open File Explorer and see a full representation of all files stored in OneDrive, regardless of whether they're synced locally.