New features in Windows 10 20H2 you need to know

The Windows 10 October 2020 Update, also known as Windows 10 20H2, will be released soon. This update focuses on fixing bugs and improving Windows 10 performance, but the biggest change seems to be the removal of Windows 10. Control Panel.

This article is updated with the latest changes to Windows 10 Insider build 19042.541, released by Microsoft on September 22, 2020 on the Preview channel.

Not much is new and that’s big news!

Windows 10’s October 2020 Update (version 22H2) offers some notable changes – the System in Control Panel disappears and there are some other very interesting small changes.

This update should be pretty stable as Microsoft has put all its effort into changing the look and fixing old bugs. This is good news for Windows 10 users.

Microsoft spoke: “Windows 10 version 20H2 will provide a range of features to improve performance and enhance quality”.

This update will be installed quickly, just like 19H2. If you are running May 2020 update (20H1)then installing this update will be as fast as installing a regular monthly update, with no long downloads, nor long reboots.

Microsoft removed the System Control Panel

In this Windows session, the “System” page in the Control Panel has been removed. When you try to open it, you’ll be taken to the About page in the new Settings app.

This is not as big of a deal as you might imagine. All information found in the System Control Panel will be displayed in Settings. There is a “Copy” button to quickly copy system information and some buttons to open advanced system settings such as BitLocker and Device Manager settings.

This is just the first step in Microsoft’s Control Panel removal process. However, the Control Panel isn’t going away anytime soon. Because it has too many useful options and Microsoft is moving them to Settings very slowly.

Microsoft Edge is built in

Microsoft boasts that this is the first version of Windows 10 to feature the latest Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser.

This is not important news. Anyway, Windows Update may have installed the new Microsfot Edge on your system. The new Edge has also been available on the internet since January 15, 2020. However, with this release, the new Edge has officially replaced the old Edge.

Access Samsung Phone Android Apps on Windows 10 20H2

Microsoft is expanding its “Your Phone” app with more features designed for select Samsung devices. If you have one of these phones, you can access your phone’s Android apps directly on your Windows 10 PC. You’ll launch these apps, view, and interact with them on the Windows 10 desktop. .

Microsoft may release this feature soon for 20H1 and other versions of Windows 10. Currently, the feature is only available in Insider versions 20H2 and later versions of Windows 10.

Going forward, Microsoft says it will go even further:

By the end of this year, Samsung Galaxy Note20 users will experience the power and convenience of running multiple apps side-by-side, and we’ll continue to work with Samsung to bring this feature to other devices. Applications will launch in separate windows allowing you to interact with multiple applications at the same time.

Microsoft’s website offers more information about this “app” feature and includes a full list of supported devices that can use this feature.

The Start Menu has removed the color of the tiles and unified the color according to the light or dark theme of Windows 10. Previously, the Start Menu used the color of your choice. But with the switch to using the theme color has made the application icons in the Start Menu more beautiful.

However, you can still change the cell color to match your theme — just go to Settings > Personalization > Color and enable “Start, taskbar, and action center”.

Alt+Tab shows Edge tab by default

Windows 10 will default to showing browser tabs with Alt + Tab – if you use Edge. Instead of just showing an Edge thumbnail, you’ll see several different tabs in Alt + Tab. So if you’re using multiple websites at once, you can quickly find and switch between them by pressing Alt+Tab.

If you don’t like this, just go to Settings > System > Multitasking and choose between the available options: toggle the last 5 or 3 tabs, or show only open apps.

Perhaps, other browsers like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox can integrate with Alt + Tab switcher in the future and show browser tabs. After all, the new Edge also shares the Chromium open source codebase with Google Chrome.

Improvements to sites pinned in taskbar

Microsoft is also making taskbar pinned sites work better. When you pin a website to the taskbar using Microsoft Edge, you can click or hover over the taskbar icon to see all your browser tabs.

So if you pin Gmail to your taskbar in Edge and you have Gmail tabs open in some browsers, you can click the Gmail icon to find them — even if they’re mixed up in browser windows. another Edge browser.

Turn off Focus Assist

If you’ve used Windows 10’s Focus Assist feature — which automatically hides notifications when you’re playing games and using full-screen apps, among tasks — you’ve likely noticed that this feature is annoying.

In the spirit of not bothering you with notifications, Focus Assist pops up to show you a message that hey, it won’t show you any! And, when you’re done with your “focus” activity, Focus Assist pops up a summary of all the notifications it didn’t show you. A little annoying and troublesome, right?

So, Microsoft is turning off all these Focus Assist notifications by default, but you can still turn them back on in Settings.

Automatically switch to Tablet mode by default

When you remove the keyboard on a 2-in-1, a message appears asking if you want to enable tablet mode. Windows will now automatically switch to the new tablet experience added in the May 2020 Update without notice or prompts.

You can also prevent Windows 10 from automatically switching to tablet mode — by going to Settings > System > Tablet.

Small changes

Here are some minor changes in this update:

• Notification improvements: Windows 10 notifications now include an app icon so you can easily see which apps have notifications, and an “x” button so you can dismiss them quickly.
• Edit taskbar icon: In a small change, Windows 10 will adjust the default taskbar icon layout depending on how you use your PC. If you linked your Android phone during setup, you’ll see a Your Phone icon on the taskbar. If you have an Xbox Live account and are using a gaming PC, you’ll see an Xbox icon on the taskbar. You can still add or remove any icons you like.
• Modern Device Management (MDM) improvements: For IT professionals managing multiple devices, Microsoft is expanding its Modern Device Management policy with a new “Local Users and Groups” setting that matches the options available for managed devices. through Group Policy.

As usual, Microsoft is also fixing many performance and stability issues.

As of September 2020, Microsoft has completed adding features to the update. Hopefully Microsoft will release the stable update to everyone in October 2020 — or possibly early November 2020.