Windows 10 May 2019 Update Feature Focus: Light Themes And Sandboxes
by Brett Howse on May 24, 2019 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Operating Systems
- Software
- Windows
- Microsoft
- Windows 10
High DPI Updates
Windows at its core is a legacy operating system trying to live in a modern world, and at times it shows its age. One area where Windows can quickly show its foundations is when running older applications on modern hardware with a high-resolution display. For a refresher, check out our article on why this is a problem, and how the company was trying to address it.
Windows 10 has made some major strides with High DPI, and many applications have been updated to support Windows per-monitor DPI awareness, but the legacy of Windows, and the lack of a requirement to code for DPI awareness even on a new application, means that many applications will never play nicely. To help combat this, Microsoft introduced a new scaling mechanism that would recognize if applications were not rendering correctly, and step in to address the scaling. It doesn’t work for every application, but the success has been good enough that with Windows 10 1903, this option is now on by default. This feature was first added with the Windows 10 Creators Update in 2017, so clearly there’s enough data now that they feel comfortable enabling this by default. If you’d like a refresher on the enhanced DPI scaling, we looked at it when it first launched.
My personal experience with the enhanced scaling is that it does work well, and this seems like a smart change to address applications that will likely never become DPI aware on their own. In 2019, when high-resolution is no longer a rare feature, this is really something that has become necessary. It should also reduce the number of times you see the pop-up letting you know its intervened, which, while useful, was likely something a lot of users didn’t really understand.
In addition, Task Manager now offers a new column you can select in the Details tab which will show you the DPI awareness of every running process, letting you know if they don’t support DPI scaling, or if they only support System level, per-monitor, or the latest per-monitor v2 specs.
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willis936 - Friday, May 24, 2019 - link
That sandbox is really exciting. It opens up a lot of room for creative applications. Remember that linus tech tips project where one huge machine ran like 5 gaming VMs? I’m sure the sandbox is more stable and performant than virtualbox.TheWereCat - Friday, May 24, 2019 - link
The sandbox is quite limited vs CM. You can also run only one instance of itprophet001 - Friday, May 24, 2019 - link
Wow this sandbox looks really sweet.SkyDiver - Friday, May 24, 2019 - link
The UI is ugly - flat and boring. I'm glad that I didn't update to it until now.Dragonstongue - Friday, May 24, 2019 - link
THANK YOU FOR COVERAGE ^.^was wanting/needing this to be THE update (prior to this years hot new CPU-GPU stuff) to "set it right" sounds like it just might be that "the new Windows 7 Ultimate"
Windows 10 likely is NOW ready for 99% of people (including me) just in time for Ryzen 2 and Navi 2019
YAY....why the hell did they not just do Windows 7 and update its "core" to make into Win 10, instead of #%^#%^# metro, live tiles and all that crpa most people HATE
NOW yay......Thanks MSFT, does this mean you are ACTUALLY paying attention to Win 10 going forward,, not rush launch patch crap?
as well, ability to NOT force update is such awesome, to "act" like is a new novel feature is crap, at least now they "wised up" and made for ALL users regardless of version can disable/turn off a good chunk of the "crap" to make it
LITE
stupid....but thank you....about damn time...3 year+ later?
LOL......
here you go....
Wardrop - Friday, May 24, 2019 - link
I swear half the emails in my spam folder were written by you.Agent Smith - Saturday, May 25, 2019 - link
I thought a child who’d just discovered CAPS-LOCK had just entered the room.GlossGhost - Saturday, May 25, 2019 - link
God bless.mobutu - Friday, May 24, 2019 - link
"Arguably the biggest feature that most people will see is the new Light Theme.""giving some control back to users on how updates get pushed out. Windows 10 Home now supports up to seven days of delay for an update."
really? a theme and seven days max. delay for updates?
these are some of the major points for this update?
lol
Alexvrb - Friday, May 24, 2019 - link
It's not seven days max, it's seven days at a time. I don't recall what the total is, but it's decent for Home. If you really have an issue installing updates, get Pro and you can delay them longer, or take control yourself. Realistically this change will be good enough for 99% of normal users, without risking the never-updater scenarios we saw constantly with malware-infected Win7 and older installs. It's a compromise to make sure people are semi-current without rushing updates. My time spent as tech support for friends and relatives has been cut down to almost zero since they've all got Win10 now.