Windows 10 April 2018 Update

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes.

Another big update for Windows 10 is scheduled to start rolling out to all Windows 10 computers on May 8. Microsoft is calling this one the Windows 10 April 2018 Update.

As with all Windows 10 updates, there’s no way to avoid it, and the only way to control when the update lands on your computer is to manually check for updates using Windows Update. Doing that any time after April 30 should show the April update and let you install it.

What’s new in the April 2018 update

Timeline is a new feature that allows you to see what you were doing on your computer on a specific date.

Nearby Sharing provides a new mechanism for quickly and easily sharing documents with nearby users. It uses Bluetooth and WiFi, depending on what’s available.

Focus Assist allows for easier control over Windows features that are potentially distracting, such as sounds, visual notifications and other alerts.

Improvements to Edge include several we’ve seen in other browsers for a while: tab audio muting, form autofill, clutter-free printing, full-screen reading mode, grammar tools, colour/theme improvements, and better compatibility with mobile platforms.

Windows Ink gets a few enhancements with this update, as do Windows Mixed Reality, Windows Hello, Microsoft Photos, Mixed Reality Viewer, Paint 3D, Cortana, Dictation, My People, and the Game Bar.

The once-discarded, then revived Start menu sees some improvement in the way pinning works.

HDR video support in Windows HD Color is expanded, as is support for the Touch Keyboard and Handwriting.

The April 2018 update also includes changes to:

  • Windows accessibility features
  • Windows Store
  • Security

Update 2018May07: Microsoft continues to have quality issues with Windows 10 updates. The April 2018 Update was postponed earlier in April when a serious Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) problem was discovered. Now, Google Chrome users are reporting problems using the browser after installing the Windows 10 April 2018 update. Microsoft is working on a fix that should become available with other Patch Tuesday updates on May 8.

About jrivett

Jeff Rivett has worked with and written about computers since the early 1980s. His first computer was an Apple II+, built by his father and heavily customized. Jeff's writing appeared in Computist Magazine in the 1980s, and he created and sold a game utility (Ultimaker 2, reviewed in the December 1983 Washington Apple Pi Journal) to international markets during the same period. Proceeds from writing, software sales, and contract programming gigs paid his way through university, earning him a Bachelor of Science (Computer Science) degree at UWO. Jeff went on to work as a programmer, sysadmin, and manager in various industries. There's more on the About page, and on the Jeff Rivett Consulting site.

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