First big Windows 10 Patch to be released early November

Martin Brinkmann
Oct 22, 2015
Updated • Jul 5, 2017
Windows, Windows 10
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28

Microsoft released several new Windows Insider builds since the final release of its new Windows 10 operating system a couple of months ago.

The company released patches for Windows 10 RTM as well but those were largely security or stability related and not feature updates.

Sources close to Microsoft indicate that this will change in early November when Microsoft plans to release the Windows 10 Fall Update to the release version of the operating system.

The new update, previously known as Threshold R2 introduces improvements to existing features as well as new features to the operating system.

The update has no prerequisites and can be installed on any Windows 10 RTM version right away as it is cumulative in nature. In addition, it is installed via Windows Update under the name "Windows 10 November 2015".

Since it is delivered via Windows Update, it is installed right away unlike Windows Insider builds which are more like full installations of Windows.

Important changes in the Windows 10 November 2015 update

  1. Start tiles support jumplists.
  2. Desktop tiles can have their own color and you may show three or four medium tiles per group now.
  3. Additional Cortana features: inked notes, track movies and ticketed events, missed phone calls, energy saving, syncing of messaging and calling history.
  4. Microsoft Edge upgrades: improved HTML5 and CSS3 support, and ECMAScript 6 and 7 support, tab previews, Favorites and Reading List synchronization, F12 tools can be docked to the window, search engine setting in its own pane.
  5. Locate your device with GPS and Location tracking.
  6. Disallow apps to: access call history, access and send emails.
  7. New Default apps: Skype Video, Messaging, Phone, Sway.
  8. All built-in applications are updated to more recent versions.
  9. Improved memory management
  10. Reworked Environmental Variables window.
  11. Windows 10 can be activated with a Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 key during or after installation.

Important fixes

  1. Apps can be installed to other drives.
  2. Option to define where offline maps are stored.
  3. The color set under Personalization now affects titlebars as well.
  4. Improved -- more consistent -- look of context menus and drop downs.
  5. Improved dark and light theming.
  6. Cortana support for local accounts.
  7. Start supports up to 2048 tiles after the update instead of just 512 (which caused display issues').
  8. Two windows snapped side by side can now be resized (horizontally)
  9. The Control Panel's Theme Settings have been reverted back to the Windows 8.1 state giving you more options.

Closing Words

If you are running a Windows 10 Insider build you are benefiting from most of these changes already. Some add features and improvements to Windows that Microsoft did not have time for before release, while others improve how you work with the operating system.

It is a marginal update more than a massive feature update but still something that most users will welcome with open arms.

One feature that won't be part of the Fall update is extension support in Microsoft Edge. This won't come before 2016 which means that we still don't know how well it will work out after all.

Now You: What's your take on the feature additions? Anything you are excited about?

Summary
Article Name
First big Windows 10 Patch to be released early November
Description
Microsoft plans to release the first feature update of Windows 10 in November 2015, the so called November Update for Windows 10.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Pete said on November 14, 2015 at 1:04 pm
    Reply

    Nothing yet on my end – even have Microsoft tech involved and still nothing – it is still only Sat 11/14/2015 at 8:05pm – obviously that is very close to Thurs right – anyone disagree besides me?????

  2. scylla said on November 14, 2015 at 12:05 pm
    Reply

    I’ve got:

    Updates are available.
    – Upgrade to Windows 10 Pro, version 1511, 10586.

    It’s now preparing to install. But this is after it rebooted without installing a few minutes ago, so I’m rather on tenterhooks. Am stuck on 32% now.

    Also, I don’t understand why is says “upgrade to…” when I’ve already got Win10Pro.

    1. scylla said on November 14, 2015 at 12:23 pm
      Reply

      Cumulative update, Flash and Microsoft Malicious Wotsit Removal Tool all updated. It didn’t feel like a massive update tho.

  3. chesscanoe said on November 14, 2015 at 6:19 am
    Reply

    I checked Windows Update yet again at 22:25 EST 2015-11-14 and was presented with the big update for Windows 10 Home. From the start of the download through restart completion took 60 minutes. The initial download took 20 minutes, mostly at 20 Mbps. I checked again for updates and the latest Flash update was installed. I’m impressed with the process – lots of smart stuff was done to make this upgrade better than flawless.

    1. Pete said on November 14, 2015 at 10:23 am
      Reply

      Well the troublesome remains so here – that is a constant that cannot be beaten! It is Sat late afternoon, 11/14/2015 at 5:25pm and still no fancy Windows 10 upgrade to note of .. I have 2 machines, one running Home on Windows 10 and the other one running Pro on Windows 10 and NO uprade to Threshold 2 or Fall Update as I’ve seen written in the Internet. Hell there isn’t even a way to download the thing manually! WTF over .. Build 10240 will be the only build for me – anything else is just a farse and then some . . Running bare . ..

  4. chesscanoe said on November 14, 2015 at 2:49 am
    Reply

    Windows 10 Home finally detects and installs Windows Defender updates using Windows Update, but still does not find the new major Windows Update (at least for me) . I suppose that’s progress….

    1. Pete said on November 14, 2015 at 4:12 am
      Reply

      For me no matter how I even use Windows Defender, there is NOTHING from Microsoft about this massive upgrade to Windows 10. Whether it comes next week or Christmas, it is NOT due here anytime soon and now it is Sat, 11/14/2015 at 11:10am. Everyone can put that in their peace-pipe and smoke it! :(

  5. Pete said on November 13, 2015 at 8:13 am
    Reply

    The massive Thurs Windows 10 Update for 11/22/15 is NOT available! Checking for updates reveal there are NO updates available .. it is Fri afternoon here at 15:15pm. You struck out again Microsoft .. something you are generally used to doing! :(

    1. chesscanoe said on November 13, 2015 at 12:16 pm
      Reply

      Ditto for me – check for updates shows none, but if I then use Windows Defender to see if it has any updates, it does. I seems Windows Update is effectively disabled.

      1. Pete said on November 14, 2015 at 1:26 am
        Reply

        Checking for Windows 10 update for the massive Thurs 11/12/15 update that has hit the Internet wave in the past few days still remains NULL as of today. There are NO Updates. . NONE! It is now Sat, 11/14/2015 at 08:25am . . and NO updates! WTF over!!!

    2. Pete said on November 13, 2015 at 8:29 am
      Reply

      numerical key pad not working correctly .. date for the Massive Thurs Update of Windows 10 is for Nov 12th, not 22nd. It is now Fri, Nov 13th at 13:30pm and still no updates available. Maybe this is a next week ordeal and mis-stating the 22nd mab become reality! Sad regardless!!!

  6. Don said on October 23, 2015 at 10:36 pm
    Reply

    I thought Win10 would be an incremental improvement over Win8, so upgrading was a no-brainer for me. That’s mostly been my experience after upgrading. There were several issues at the start; but I’ve fixed, replaced, worked-around, or learned to live with them.

    I’m expecting frequent incremental improvements from Microsoft from now on. I’m just now more vigilant backing up important files.

    1. Corky said on October 24, 2015 at 9:48 am
      Reply

      For me that’s a big part of the problem i have with Windows 10, all those issues, fixes, replacements, and workarounds that come with every version of Windows are things that may need doing all over again every time Microsoft pushes a feature update onto what used to be my personal computer.

      It’s like trying to build a house when without strong foundations, the ground could shift at any moment and leave all your hard work in ruine.

  7. Joe Mezzanini said on October 23, 2015 at 8:44 pm
    Reply

    I am loving Win10 and looking forward to the patch

  8. Jon said on October 23, 2015 at 7:30 pm
    Reply

    You know that you can disallow advertizing in Windows 10, no?

  9. kalmly said on October 23, 2015 at 2:51 pm
    Reply

    I just read, on How-To Geek, that the update includes advertisements added to your task bar. How cool is that?

    1. Ann said on October 23, 2015 at 6:35 pm
      Reply

      That was what I was waiting for and preventing me from trying W10.
      OS delivered advertising :(
      NO THANKS!

    2. Martin Brinkmann said on October 23, 2015 at 3:44 pm
      Reply

      Are you sure it is taskbar and not Start Menu?

  10. Bobby Phoenix said on October 22, 2015 at 8:48 pm
    Reply

    Nice release coming. I upgraded three machines to 10 from 7. All three work flawlessly. I couldn’t be happier with 10, but I think the added colors to the titlebars will make me a bit happier (if that’s possible).

    1. Alan said on October 23, 2015 at 3:20 am
      Reply

      I agree with Bobby, I’ve upgraded two PC’s to Window 10 and I couldn’t be happier. The OS has run perfectly, existing software, no problems. No complaints here. One laptop is old and boots up twice as fast with Windows 10 as it did with Windows 7. All is good.

  11. hirobo2 said on October 22, 2015 at 6:36 pm
    Reply

    I really couldn’t care less about Windows 10. I did try Windows 8.0 consumer preview, which led me to purchase two licenses for it when it was launched.

    Didn’t even bother to touch Win10 TP. That was the amount of hype W10 had going for me!

  12. Andrew said on October 22, 2015 at 3:06 pm
    Reply

    How did you make that taskbar transparent? Or are you on an Insider build?

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on October 22, 2015 at 3:39 pm
      Reply

      The screenshot was taken from an Insider build. IIRC it is powered by Classic Shell though.

  13. Dukislav said on October 22, 2015 at 2:20 pm
    Reply

    I reinstalled win 7 and waiting, i think i’m gonna skip 8, 8.1, 10, trash(hold)…

  14. TekWarfare said on October 22, 2015 at 1:59 pm
    Reply

    I’ve tried Windows 10 twice and there are still too many things that are wrong with it for me to upgrade. The left side of the start menu really needs to be customizatable to the point where I can pin my apps there, not just what it deems most used. Self pinned tiles look awful and WinTiler is a terrible solution since I have to see it’s splash screen. This sort of functionality should be built into Windows really. Taskbar button icons are too small and again only fixed by third-party tools. CCleaner takes far too long to load in Windows 10 for some unknown reason. Everything just feels slow. It’s nice to see that they finally copied the virtual dekstop feature Linux has had for years though. Oh, and well done to the geniuses that decided Window borders will be white so I can always struggle to move a window because I’ve accidentally pressed the ribbon area instead of the titlebar in explorer for example.

    Extension support for Edge will probably be next year, and as it stands edge is such a basic browser that it’s useless. They should have released Windows 10 maybe next year when it’s actually finished.

    1. hirobo2 said on October 22, 2015 at 6:29 pm
      Reply

      They didn’t copy anything from Linux, at least not for Windows 10.

      Virtual desktops have been available since XP. There is a little known FREE utility called “desktops” from Microsoft itself that allows you to have virtual desktops on XP/Vista/7/8.x! Just like VirtualPC was incorporated into Windows 8.1 as hyperV, rather than something you had to download separately, what they did in Windows 10 for virtual desktops was similar.

      (I’m surprised ppl keep mentioning virtual desktops as something exclusive to Linux since before Windows 10, but “desktops” have been available on Windows for almost as long…)

      1. Sais said on October 26, 2015 at 8:09 am
        Reply

        They had ‘PowerToys’ for WindowsXP, which included a ‘Virtual Desktop Manager’. The ‘Desktops’, however, came in 2008.

      2. Corky said on October 23, 2015 at 9:39 am
        Reply

        Yea because everyone knew about the “desktops” program didn’t they, also not sure why you think it was available since XP (2001) as the “desktops” program wasn’t published until 2012 when Windows 8 came out.

        Even without having to download a separate program such as “desktops” (or any other third-party solution) trying to use VirtualPC as a virtual desktop, something it wasn’t exactly intended for, is a royal PITA, it’s only available on Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate editions, only works with hardware that supports hyperV, and again has to be downloaded separately, you may as well just download something like VMWare, or better yet a third-party program that’s specifically written to add virtual desktops.

        The reason people say Microsoft copied it from Linux is because they did, but that’s nothing new as Linux copied it from the Amiga 1000, it happens all the time and IMHO that’s a good thing (even though copyright lawyers tell us it’s wrong for good ideas to benefit everyone)

        The only reason Microsoft took so long to implement virtual desktops into one of their operating systems is because they thought it would confuse people.

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