Expect changes to the Action Centre and Cortana when Redstone hits your PC
When Windows 8.1 launched in October 2013, many Windows 8 users reacted by saying that Microsoft should have waited until this incarnation was ready before releasing the operating system (OS). A similar response may await Redstone, which will be the biggest Windows 10 update yet when it arrives later this year.
While the new OS has been a hit, with over 200 million devices now running it, Microsoft has been accused of rushing its release. For months many users running the preview version of Windows 10 had expressed concerns that it was too unstable for a full release. They felt vindicated when users of the final version reported that the OS was unreliable, slow and prone to crashing.
Some of these problems have been fixed in recent updates. But the feeling remains that Windows 10 requires an update as substantial as 8.1, not least because the first big update (which arrived in November) caused more problems than it solved. As we reported this update, codenamed ‘Threshold’, removed thirdparty programs and reinstalled any Windows 10 apps you may have deleted.
To avoid these negative headlines Redstone needs to improve Windows 10 without changing how users have to set up the OS on their PCs. But the early signs aren’t promising. Users who have signed up to the Windows Insider Program (https://insider.windows.com), which allows people to test early ‘builds’ of Windows, have experienced multiple problems since receiving the first version of Redstone in December.
They have complained about Desktop apps closing by themselves, default apps being changed and a screen flicker when they hook up a device to another monitor.
We shouldn’t be too alarmed by these glitches. The point of the Windows Insider Program is precisely to identify bugs months before a new version is released to the public. And Redstone is still some way off. It’s now expected to arrive in two parts; the first in June, the second in October. Microsoft has enough time to fix these annoyances.
It also has plenty of time to make sure Redstone’s new features work properly. One of these, according to sources close to the company, will be a revamped Action Centre - the vertical panel that appears on the right showing your app notifications. The Redstone update will add more information to these, making them act like Desktop widgets.
But more significant is the new role for a tool thousands of users have already abandoned: Cortana. Many readers have emailed us to ask how they can remove the voice controlled personal assistant, having decided it’s just a nuisance. Sadly, you can’t, though it can be disabled.
Microsoft hopes that Redstone will revive Cortana. The tool will ‘float’ around Windows 10, providing assistance in every part of the OS, such as offering search options when you’re in a document. At the moment, in contrast, Cortana sits politely in your Taskbar, waiting to be summoned.
If Cortana’s forthcoming ubiquity reminds you of Clippy, Microsoft’s widely loathed assistant last seen in Office XP, you’re not alone. Many Windows experts fear that Cortana will become just as annoying, pestering you everywhere you go.
Microsoft’s main challenge is to make Cortana offer help in a way that feels so unintrusive that it banishes all memory of Clippy. It also needs to persuade those who have disabled Cortana to give the tool another chance. Don’t be surprised, then, if Redstone re-enables Cortana on all PCs.
• Redstone is due to arrive later this year and will be the biggest Windows 10 update yet
• It will reportedly change how Cortana works, making the tool ‘float’ throughout the OS
• Its name comes from a block in the Microsoft owned game Minecraft