Windows 10's First Big Update Has Arrived

Microsoft has rolled out a rather expansive update for Windows 10, finally bridging together the Xbox One and home PC experience with the new dashboard update, as well as increasing the boot-up performance by more than 30% over that of Windows 7. The latest update will also arrive on mobile phones soon.

The news was made known over on the Windows blog, where they announced that the newest update for Windows 10 is available right now on tablets, PCs and the Xbox One.

The Internet Explorer is no more and Microsoft Edge replaces it. They've fitted it with supposedly better performance and improved speeds, along with better synching and search compatibility based on your profile data. Oh yeah, and keep in mind that there's a lot of personal data monitoring so be careful what you watch on the Microsoft Edge. If privacy concern is no problem for you then go right ahead and use it at your own leisure.

Cortana is another big update for this rendition of Windows 10, offering users the ability to now keep track of events and schedule reminders for things like going to the movies or heading out to town – simply based on notes jotted down with a name, address or phone number. That's creepily impressive if I must say so myself. The page also notes that Cortana has been updated and customized to work more effortlessly in regions such as Australia, Japan, Canada and India. They've fitted the utility to match the cultural experience of the designated region.

Interestingly enough, they don't touch on any of the Xbox One crossover features or even bring up the new dashboard update and how that integrates into the Windows 10 experience... especially considering that backwards compatibility for the system just launched and it would seem like that would be a very important feature to tout while talking up the ability to stream Xbox One apps and games to a Windows 10 PC. Technically, this makes the PC viable for playing old Xbox 360 games through the Xbox One. But nope, nary a mention of that, even though the update for the Xbox One just went live back on November 12th.

Anyway, the rest of the update page covers the new enterprise and IT software updates for businesses and operational purposes. Things like the Windows store and Windows update for business highlight the operating system's functionality for luring in the productivity crowd.

One of the things I think is absolutely fascinating is that there is no mention whatsoever of the gaming applications or DirectX 12 functionality or any kind of optimization for the latest batch of titles that are selling huge this past November, especially considering that Bethesda shipped about 12 million units of Fallout 4 and in just a day's time more than 1.2 million copies were moved for PC alone.

It's just an interesting thing that the update ignores the gaming sphere, even in the face of Valve officially having launched the Linux-based SteamOS across their variable Steam Machines. It's a little like a boxer stepping into the ring with a kickboxer across from them and the boxer just ignores him to do his own thing.

Anyway, you can check out the full update over on the Windows website to see all of the new features for Windows 10.