Windows 10 Creators Update, Pictured

Game DVR

If streaming isn’t your thing, you can use the Game DVR introduced with the Anniversary Update to capture footage that can be edited and published later on. Microsoft offers various settings here, ranging from audio levels to whether you want to let Game DVR record in the background and at what frame rate or quality level you want to record. (With the corresponding warning that high settings might impact your game’s performance, of course.)

This feature can also come in handy if you invoke the Game Bar and convince it to record video from a specific app instead of a game.

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Broadcast Example

The Creators Update makes broadcasting games easy. All you have to do is click on the broadcast option in the Game Bar, wait for the service to load, and then double-check your settings as shown in the screen at left. (Shown here: the Risk of Rain indie platformer.) Broadcasts can also be started by hitting Windows+Alt+B in a game. You’ll still have to wait for the service to load, which in our experience took a few seconds each time, but at least you’ll skip a step in the process.

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DVR Example

Here’s the Game DVR in action. We couldn’t get the Game Bar to show up when the game was running in fullscreen, which is why you can see our desktop instead of basking in the dreary glory of Hopoo Games’ pixel art. Microsoft knows this is an issue with some games, and it offers a few workarounds if you want to record in fullscreen: Press Windows+Alt+R to start or stop recording, or hit Windows+G and wait for the screen to flash twice, which indicates that the game has been recognized. Either should do the trick.

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Game Screenshot

You can also use the Game Bar to take screenshots. This works better than Windows 10’s Snipping Tool, which offers a variety of composition options and other features, because it automatically captures nothing but the game itself. Snipping Tool can be used to take window-specific screenshots, but it defaults to a rectangular selection -- by the time you switch to the windowed mode, the moment you were trying to capture will probably have passed.

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Game Mode

One of the Creators Update’s flagship features is the new performance-enhancing Game Mode, which devotes more CPU cores and GPU resources to whatever game you’re playing. This will let the game use more of your hardware’s capabilities instead of sharing them with other apps. All you have to do to enable Game Mode is open the Game Bar by pressing Windows+G, click the settings icon, and check the “Use Game Mode for this game” box right at the top of the list.

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Paint 3D Welcome

The other big addition to the Creators Update is Paint 3D. Just like the name implies, it’s a souped-up version of the venerable Paint app that lets you create 3D models. This is a useful addition for people who want something a little more visually welcoming than competitors like Blender, and if you don’t want to fuss around with the 3D features, it also handles 2D art. Pictured is the Welcome screen where Microsoft helps ease you into using the next generation of Paint.

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Paint 3D Tutorial

As with Edge and its collapsible tabs, Microsoft figured you probably wouldn’t dig through a bunch of tutorials before playing around with Paint 3D’s features. Doing so causes small animated tutorials (again, not pictured here) to pop up with quick summaries of how a feature works. These tutorials are easily dismissed if you’ve already grokked a particular feature, and also like Edge, they don’t bother explaining simple things like the pencil or other mainstay Paint features.

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Search

Cortana is still an integral part of Windows 10 in the Creators Update. We chose to disable it via Windows 10 Pro’s group policy settings in our main account, so here we have a basic search tool that lets you quickly launch apps or find files without having to worry about giving Cortana access to your personal information.

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Search Settings

Here we have the settings that dictate how search (and Cortana) work. You can access them by clicking the gear icon in the bottom-right corner. It’s interesting that Search shows the SafeSearch settings--which help you keep the results child-friendly--even though Search only searches your PC. There’s also an option to clear your device’s history or learn more about Cortana and privacy.

You can also customize the searches themselves by clicking Filters in the top-right corner of your search results, and if you get more than one hit, you can find results in your apps, documents, or settings by clicking their shortcuts in the search results’ top bar.

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Action Center

Finally, there’s the Action Center. This is where you’ll find notifications from apps like Skype or Mail or quickly access specific settings. It's interesting to note that Windows 10 still doesn’t seem to check your hardware to see if settings like Tablet Mode should be shown on a desktop PC without a touchscreen monitor, like our setup. You also have more shortcuts to settings for connections, Night Light, and more, just in case the Start menu and right-click Start menu weren’t enough.

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