Windows 10 Preview Build 17083 Brings Settings Changes, Windows Timeline

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Beyond privacy-related updates, the latest preview build for Windows 10, 17083, brings updates to font settings, Windows Timeline, and Ease of Access settings.

Windows Timeline

If you’re not already using Windows 10 preview builds, you won’t have Timeline, as the feature never made it to the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. This feature attempts determine your activities and groups together open apps and browser tabs according to time of day that you used them. The functional principle behind it is that users work on different tasks at different times. Timeline more or less lets you save multiple versions of your desktop to be resumed later. It’s accessed from the Task View on the Taskbar.

Timeline was introduced in an earlier preview build, but it’s getting some usability tweaks in 17083. Whereas previously activities had to be deleted one by one, you can now clear them by hour or day. Also, a new setting “Let Windows sync my activities from this PC to the cloud” prevents automatic syncing of activities across devices.

Updates To Fonts Settings

Microsoft is making fonts a big deal in 17083. Currently, settings for fonts are handled in the old Control Panel at (Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Fonts). This is soon going to migrate into Windows Settings and be part of the Personalization settings. The makeover is going to bring color to the font previews and show them in the context of your current language settings.

More detail is coming to font previews. Beyond scaling the font size, the preview window will also present fonts in all bold and italic styles. This might not sound very useful for regular fonts, but it’ll be a boon for OpenType variable fonts, which will have all their settings presented here.

Lastly, acquiring new fonts is going to become easier because they’ll now be available in the Windows Store. A link in the new font settings will take you there.

Updates To Ease Of Access Settings

Ease of Access is another settings page that will be improved. Two quality of life changes are happening. First, users can now toggle off automatic hiding of scroll bars in UWP apps. Second, the hotkey for enabling screen filters (Windows key + Ctrl + C) like invert and grayscale can now be disabled. Other fixes include bug fixes to Narrator and minor changes to the color filters.

There are many more changes that we haven’t detailed. The full change log is available here.

Leon Chan
31 Comments Comment from the forums
  • MisterZ
    Anyone know when the next version of Windows is coming? I'm using 7 at the moment but don't really care for 10's interface.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    20631629 said:
    Anyone know when the next version of Windows is coming? I'm using 7 at the moment but don't really care for 10's interface.

    There is no real "next version". Just a series of semi-annual updates to "Windows".
    Reply
  • MisterZ
    20631823 said:
    20631629 said:
    Anyone know when the next version of Windows is coming? I'm using 7 at the moment but don't really care for 10's interface.

    There is no real "next version". Just a series of semi-annual updates to "Windows".

    Of course there will be a next version. How will Microsoft make money if they don't give customers something new to spend their cash on? Besides, at some point, the GUI will need to evolve, possibly a new file system, these things require a new version.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    20631852 said:
    20631823 said:
    20631629 said:
    Anyone know when the next version of Windows is coming? I'm using 7 at the moment but don't really care for 10's interface.

    There is no real "next version". Just a series of semi-annual updates to "Windows".

    Of course there will be a next version. How will Microsoft make money if they don't give customers something new to spend their cash on? Besides, at some point, the GUI will need to evolve, possibly a new file system, these things require a new version.

    1. Changing the GUI does not necessarily require a new "number".
    There have already been significant changes in Win 10 since it was released.

    2. People "buy" a new OS with every new PC or laptop they buy or build. The number of people that actually "buy" a new OS to replace an existing one on their system is quite small.
    People changed from Win 7 or 8.1 to 10 because it was a free Upgrade. If they had to shell out the typical $40 for an Upgrade version...most would not.


    3. New version, eventually? With a potential new file system? Yeah, maybe.
    But that is a LONG way off. Or just another evolution of "Windows".
    Reply
  • epobirs
    20631629 said:
    Anyone know when the next version of Windows is coming? I'm using 7 at the moment but don't really care for 10's interface.

    Not for a very long time. Microsoft made it clear when Windows 10 launched they intended it to be a very long term product with major updates along the way. Essentially like OS X, which is quite a different product today from when OS X was first shipped on Mac systems.

    My own take on the Windows 8 debacle is that it should have been a separate product solely for tablets and other mobile devices. For desktops there should have been a major revision of Windows 7, say Windows 7 SE, that incorporated a lot of the under the hood improvements and allowed use of UWP apps without forcing the Win8 UI on desktop users, where it was a hated disaster, just like nearly everyone in the beta group told them it would be.

    Microsoft learned their lesson, somewhat. Windows 10 will be with us for a long time, picking up features in the twice a year updates and thus evolving. If Microsoft wants to try something radically different they'll put it in a separate SKU and not upset the existing base until this new product has proven itself.
    Reply
  • targetdrone
    20631852 said:
    20631823 said:
    20631629 said:
    Anyone know when the next version of Windows is coming? I'm using 7 at the moment but don't really care for 10's interface.

    There is no real "next version". Just a series of semi-annual updates to "Windows".

    Of course there will be a next version. How will Microsoft make money if they don't give customers something new to spend their cash on? Besides, at some point, the GUI will need to evolve, possibly a new file system, these things require a new version.

    Eventually Windows will go with the Office 365 business model i.e pay a yearly fee.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    20632123 said:

    Eventually Windows will go with the Office 365 business model i.e pay a yearly fee.

    Eventually, maybe, probably not.
    But that is not automatically a bad idea.

    Following the Office365 subscription....5 licenses in your house, $100/year.
    As opposed to $150 x 5 at current Office pricing, for fewer Office features.

    Extrapolate to current WIn 10 pricing...maybe $60/year for 5 household systems. As opposed to $90 each for 5 systems.

    I'm not saying *I* would do it...just that's its not automatically a bad idea.
    Reply
  • epobirs
    20632181 said:
    20632123 said:

    Eventually Windows will go with the Office 365 business model i.e pay a yearly fee.

    Eventually, maybe, probably not.
    But that is not automatically a bad idea.

    Following the Office365 subscription....5 licenses in your house, $100/year.
    As opposed to $150 x 5 at current Office pricing, for fewer Office features.

    Extrapolate to current WIn 10 pricing...maybe $60/year for 5 household systems. As opposed to $90 each for 5 systems.

    I'm not saying *I* would do it...just that's its not automatically a bad idea.

    I doubt it. I'd bet there is just as much push within Microsoft to make it free to consumers and only charge for domain capable licenses. Being the base platform, all revenue from everything else is contingent on the adoption of that platform. Especially now with the Store and the hopes they've placed on getting a piece of the action with third party software sales, like Apple, Google, and game consoles makers. There has always been a perception that you devalue a thing if you give it away but the incentive to make the cost as close to invisible as possible to consumers is there. Those of us who build our own PCs and buy OS licenses for them are a small sector by comparison.

    I could see it for small businesses that are big enough for a domain server but not big enough to deal in the more complex licensing regimes Microsoft offers.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    20632263 said:

    I doubt it. I'd bet there is just as much push within Microsoft to make it free to consumers and only charge for domain capable licenses. Being the base platform, all revenue from everything else is contingent on the adoption of that platform. Especially now with the Store and the hopes they've placed on getting a piece of the action with third party software sales, like Apple, Google, and game consoles makers. There has always been a perception that you devalue a thing if you give it away but the incentive to make the cost as close to invisible as possible to consumers is there. Those of us who build our own PCs and buy OS licenses for them are a small sector by comparison.

    I could see it for small businesses that are big enough for a domain server but not big enough to deal in the more complex licensing regimes Microsoft offers.

    Exactly.
    And Windows as a "mandatory subscription" was widely and loudly assumed to be 'the new thing', 2 years ago.

    And businesses already do this with a Volume Licensing agreement. Pay $xxxx per year, for YY systems. And get to stay up to date with whatever new 'version' is out.
    Reply
  • boju
    New version of Windows when 128bit makes sense i suppose
    Reply