Here's the complete Windows 10 Fall Creators Update changelog

Reading time icon 17 min. read


Readers help support Windows Report. When you make a purchase using links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Tooltip Icon

Read the affiliate disclosure page to find out how can you help Windows Report effortlessly and without spending any money. Read more

Windows 10 Fall Creators Update changelog

Folks, the big day has arrived. Microsoft will roll out the awaited Windows 10 Fall Creators Update today, reportedly starting at 6 PM (PDT). The Redmond giant will push the update in waves.

If you’re wondering what are the exact changes, improvements and new features that this major update brings to the table, you’re in the right place.

One resourceful Reddit user, who goes by the name Jaskys, took the time to list what’s new in Windows 10 version 1709 so that you know what to expect in terms of new features.

What’s new in the Fall Creators Update

1. Start

  • “Turn Live Tile on/off”-option now has an icon
  • Start now uses the new scroll bar style introduced in the Creators Update
  • All items that do not have a submenu in the app context menus now have icons
  • Start no longer uses its own blur, but instead uses acrylic
  • The bottom of the start frame will no longer glitch when resizing vertically
  • Instead of snapping into size, the start frame now resizes immediately when resizing horizontally
  • The start menu can now be resized diagonally
  • The transition between the start menu and start screen is now smoother
  • “Update and shutdown” has been removed due to not working properly
  • When pressing a tile, the context menu will now appear prior to lifting your finger again

2. Cortana & Search

  • Cortana can now be set to open with cards visible instead of the home screen
  • Cortana can now be kept from showing your content from the cloud in search results
  • Web results can now be displayed within Cortana instead of opening the browser
  • You can now lock, sign-out, shutdown and turn off your PC with voice commands

ALSO READ: Download Windows 10 Fall Creators Update KB4043961 to improve security


3. Taskbar & Action center

  • The power-fly-out now shows a slider to change the power mode
  • You can now pin people to the taskbar on the right side in the MyPeople bar
  • You can now access communication-apps on a per-person base from the MyPeople bar
  • MyPeople now shows you the emojis send by your pinned contacts
  • Like apps, people can now have a notification badge
  • Files can be dragged on pinned people to share them through mail
  • The Share-dialog now has people integrated into it
  • Android users with Cortana now get incoming call notifications
  • The Action center no longer uses its own blur, but instead uses acrylic
  • App titles are now centered in the Action center
  • Individual notifications now appear as cards
  • When the MyPeople flyout is open, you can now drop files on pinned contacts in the overflow area to share it
  • The context menu when clicking an available Wi-Fi network in the Networks flyout has been expanded with Connect, Disconnect, View Properties and Forget Network
  • The Action center now uses the XAML scrollbar
  • The sound flyout now allows you to enable Spatial sound directly
  • The overflow area in the People flyout has now text to make it clear that people listed there are pinned
  • Right-clicking the taskbar will now show an option to enable or disable MyPeople
  • Right-clicking “Open Network and Sharing Center” now opens “Network & Internet Settings”
  • Notification buttons now span the full width instead of being aligned to the right
  • The first notification in an app group is now expanded by default
  • The X to “dismiss” a notification has been changed to an arrow
  • Toast notifications can now be dismissed by middle-clicking

4. User Interface

  • The Bluetooth icon now has a lighter color
  • UIs that use ListView and other XAML collection controls will now use Reveal by default
  • The Win32 MessageBox is now natively per-monitor DPI aware
  • Instead of “Welcome”, “Signing in” and “Signing out”, the lock screen will now show “Just a moment”

5. File Explorer

  • The Share-icon in the ribbon has been updated to match its MDL2-counterpart
  • Windows will now detect relevant media folders and ask you to use them after a storage scan
  • Files can now be shared from the context menu
  • “Share with” has been renamed “Give access to” in the context menu
  • A new list of allocation unit sizes has been added when formatting a drive with NTFS
  • Right-clicking a photo will now show an “Edit with Photos” option

6. Microsoft Edge

  • PDF reader now supports forms, saving those forms and printing them
  • Annotations are now supported on PDFs
  • The Table of Contents is now available for PDFs
  • PDFs can now be viewed with 2 pages side-by-side
  • PDFs can now be rotated
  • You can now set PDFs to fit the width of the window
  • You can now set the cover page as a separate page when viewing PDFs with 2 pages side-by-side
  • You can now enable “Continuous scrolling” for PDFs
  • A new Application Guard window can now be opened if the feature is enabled
  • Websites can now be pinned to the taskbar
  • Edge now supports a full screen mode by pressing F11 or opening the ellipses menu
  • You can now highlight, underline and add comments in EPUB books
  • PDFs now support more highlight colors and Ask Cortana
  • Edge’s splash screen is now grey to transition more smoothly into Start
  • Edge can now be closed even if a JavaScript dialog is showing
  • Edge’s address bar is no longer embedded in the New Tabs page
  • Edge’s address bar will now stay white and will have a border when the focus isn’t set to it
  • An option has been added when right clicking a tab to add it to favorites
  • Tabs will now animate more smoothly when opened or closed
  • The default Hub icon is now replaced with a star icon with stripes
  • Improved session restore behavior for multi-window sessions
  • A new option “Show sites I frequently visit in Top Sites” has been added to settings
  • Tab close buttons will now be available even when JavaScript dialogs are open
  • Tabs that are not active will now show a slightly transparent icon
  • Closing the browser and other browser features will now be available even when JavaScript dialogs are open
  • Cookies and Settings can now be migrated from Chrome
  • You can now Copy or Ask Cortana with selected text in an EPUB file
  • EPUB notes can now contain ink
  • Notes in EPUB files can now be shown when hovering over these notes
  • Books, reading progress, bookmarks and notes are now synced between devices
  • Saving a favorite will now allow you to select a location from a directory tree instead of a regular dropdown
  • The URL of favorites can now be edited
  • IT admins can now configure favorites via group policy and mobile device management
  • Edge now uses shadows as part of preparations for its Fluent redesign
  • Edge can now read aloud an webpage and PDF with word and line highlighting
  • The Share UI will now follow the Edge theme instead of the system theme, it will also appear below the share button instead of in the middle of the screen
  • Favorites are now animated when created
  • Edges processes now have a clearer name
  • Edge now uses acrylic material in the tab bar and other controls
  • Text will no longer shift when focus is given to the address bar due to “http://” appearing
  • F3 and Shift + F3 will now allow you to go to the next and previous result when using Find on Page
  • Editable fields in PDFs now have a color

ALSO READ: Black screen on Microsoft Edge: Here’s how to fix this issue


7. F12 Tools

  • In DOM Explorer, merged the Layout tab into the Computed tab
  • Added Ctrl-Shift-I as a supported shortcut to launch the developer tools
  • Inspect event listeners for ancestor elements
  • Group by Event or Element to see a list of events or list of elements, with the most specific element events first
  • Styles tab will now display @keyframes for related animations (read-only currently),
  • Styles tab will now show the @supports statement being met for the given CSS
  • Styles tab will now show css from an @media in its own section
  • Added custom input filter and improved overall filtering experience
  • The command line input is now in-line with the logs view. By pressing- Shift + Enter, developers can now move to multi-line mode and submit- their command with Enter.
  • Optimized logging experience: Duplicate logs are now stacked, sources are now right-aligned, added background colors, added custom CSS styling of logs, content is now wrapped to fit nicely within the console viewport
  • Added support for the Console.table API to visualize data in a tabular layout
  • The Console now leverages features and characteristics of Monaco editor that powers VS Code. This provides syntax colorization and a faster, richer IntelliSense experience in command line input.

8. Edge HTML 16

  • Support for summary and details
  • Support for advanced Event Listeners (“once” and “passive”)
  • Support for CSS object-fit/object-position
  • Support for CSS position: sticky
  • ES2017 Shared Memory and Atomics are now on by default (previously behind – WebDriver now supports launching Microsoft Edge in InPrivate mode with capability “InPrivate”: true
  • Added support for CSS Grid Layout
  • Added support for High Resolution Time Level 3 (need to confirm with PPR)
  • Unprefixed CSS Grid is now enabled by default
  • Edge will no longer rescale websites in portrait mode with a narrow viewport

9. Internet Explorer

  • VBScript is now disabled for Internet Explorer by default
  • Tabs will now be shown on their own bar by default
  • The search box is now enabled by default

ALSO READ: How to fix Internet Explorer 11 res://aaResources.dll/104 error


10. Settings

  • Turning the night light schedule off in now turns of night light immediately
  • Notification settings will now load faster
  • About has been redesigned to show your device’s health status
  • About no longer shows your organization name
  • The manufacturer and the manufacturers website of the device has been added to About
  • Windows can now clean up downloads that haven’t been changed in 30 days
  • The Note quick action has been removed
  • Night light now transitions quicker when rebooting or manually enabled if required
  • “Display” will now show information on a connected HDR screen under “HDR and advanced color settings”
  • Storage Sense now allows you to delete the previous Windows version
  • Storage Sense has a new design
  • “Remote desktop” has been added
  • You can now require computers to connect with Network Level Authentication for Remote Desktop
  • A second “Get tips, tricks and suggestions as you use Windows” has been added to Notifications & Actions
  • About no longer contains links to device encryption settings
  • A new option has been added to explicitly enable finger inking
  • Devices can now be turned off when the screen is off to save battery under USB
  • Phone has been added as a new category under Settings
  • Windows can now be linked with your Android phone or iPhone
  • You can now search and sort your known networks
  • You can now require Windows to show a notification banner when an action is needed when connecting to a hotspot
  • The “Make this PC discoverable” option has been replaced with a radio button
  • Windows can now be required to show a notification banner when an action is required before connecting to an open hotspot
  • You can now manage the People bar in Taskbar settings
  • Settings to enable Shoulder tabs and its sounds have been added
  • Themes no longer support Screen Savers
  • Spotlight will now reset after 7 days in case it gets stuck on one image

11. Apps

  • You can now set the default app for each file format
  • Uninstalling an app will now show a progress bar
  • Microsoft Edge is now listed as an app and can be reset
  • “Video Playback” has been added as a new page
  • You can now let Windows automatically process video to enhance it
  • Windows can now be set to stream video in HDR
  • Windows now allows you to play video at a lower resolution
  • When on battery, you can now lower the resolution, disable HDR and/or disable all other enhancements

ALSO READ: Windows 10 now automatically launches previously opened apps after reboot


12. Accounts

  • Support for adding other AAD work/school users
  • Improved facial recognition and Windows Hello will now show new toasts to learn to recognize your face when issues with logging in happen
  • “Use my sign-in info to automatically finish setting up my device after an update or restart” has been moved to Sign-in options

13. Gaming

  • Broadcasting using game-only audio is now a setting under “Broadcasting”
  • “Audio settings” has been renamed Game DVR in the Game bar
  • Game DVR-settings have been moved to the Game DVR-page in Game bar
  • Xbox Networking has been added as a new page, showing you details about your network
  • Game Mode is now enabled by default for some games
  • “TruePlay” has been added

14. Ease of Access

  • You can now choose a language for output when braille is installed
  • You can now choose a table type when braille is installed
  • You can now change the magnification level of Magnifier from Settings
  • You can now set the zoom level increments for Magnifier
  • You can now change the mode Magnifier is used in
  • Magnifier can now be set to follow the Narrator cursor
  • Magnifier settings now shows a list of all shortcuts available to manage Magnifier
  • Ctrl + Win + N now opens the Narrator Settings
  • “High Contrast Settings” has been renamed “Color and High Contrast”
  • Magnifier can now be set to use bitmap smoothing
  • You can now set a color filter
  • Eye control beta has been added as a new accessibility option

15. Cortana/Search

  • Cortana/Search has been added as a new category to the Settings app
  • An option has been added to allow Cortana access to the Camera roll for reminders

16. Privacy

  • App-requested downloads has been added as a new page

ALSO READ: Microsoft urges Windows 10 users to upgrade their systems & privacy settings


17. Update & Security

  • The category has been renamed from “Update & security” to “Update & Security”
  • A failed update will now show a plain text string that can be selected
  • “Update history” has been renamed “View installed update history”
  • The Windows Insider Program-icon has been replaced with Ninjacat
  • When an update is available, you will now get a notification instead of a modal
  • Windows Update now provides a link to show you what’s new in the latest feature update
  • Option to search for the location where you last interacted with your pen under “Find My Device”
  • Windows Update will now list group policies that have been applied
  • Each individual update now has its own progress and status
  • Links to update settings have been reorganized
  • An option has been added to allow Windows to download updates over a metered connection
  • Delivery Optimization now contains options to limit the upload and download bandwidth
  • Activity monitor now shows you statistics on downloads and uploads of updates for the current month
  • After installing an upgrade, Windows will now automatically prepare your account when allowed even if you reboot or shutdown from another place besides Windows Update
  • “Device Encryption” has been added as a new page

18. Mixed Reality

  • Mixed Reality now supports Motion Controllers over USB
  • Improved connection reliability

ALSO READ: This app tells you if your PC supports Windows Mixed Reality headsets


19. Gaming

  • The Game Bar now has an option to enable Game Mode for a specific game
  • Game Bar now allows you to make screenshots of games running in HDR
  • Screenshots of games running in HDR are now tone mapped to SDR and saved in PNG
  • Bitrate changes during a game broadcast to Mixer are now smoother
  • You can now specify the language you speak in a Mixer broadcast
  • Game Mode will now provide better performance on some popular configurations like 6 and 8 core CPU machines

20. System improvements

  • Windows will now throttle programs if they aren’t being used
  • Upgrading will no longer reset the Rotation lock-setting
  • Each UWP app now has its own Runtime Broker
  • Windows Subsystem for Linux no longer requires Developer Mode
  • Hyper-V can now show your physical machine’s battery level
  • Registry Editor is now per-monitor DPI aware
  • SMB1 is now disabled by default and SMB2.02+ can now be used
  • Windows will now adjust Win32 apps DPI when changed without logging out

21. Mixed Reality Portal

  • Teleportation can now be done with only the left joystick
  • Improved speech interaction
  • Improves the reliability for headsets
  • The Mixed Reality Portal icon has been updated
  • The teleportation experience has been updated to be more intuitive and direct
  • The environment can now load without a black screen during startup
  • When required, Mixed Reality Portal now informs users that a USB 3 headset is required
  • Improved support for ASMedia and other 3rd party USB controllers
  • 4K 360 video streaming now works better

22. Windows Defender Security Center

  • “Exploit mitigations” has been added under App & browser control
  • Disabled drivers no longer set off a flag
  • Screen brightness on 100% while charging no longer sets off a flag
  • Programs can now be set to block loading images with a low-integrity mark
  • Programs can now be set to block exported function that are being resolved by malicious code
  • Images can now be forced to randomize
  • Windows Defender can now track folders with “Controlled folder access” and monitor blacklisted apps
  • The app icon is no longer plated in the taskbar

ALSO READHow to enable Exploit Protection on Windows Defender


23. Other new features and improvements

  • Windows COM ports can now be accessed from the Windows Subsystem for Linux
  • Holding the power button for 7 seconds will now trigger a bugcheck on devices that don’t use legacy ACPI power buttons
  • Hyper-V will now make automatic checkpoints so you can always revert
  • The policy to disable the lock screen is now available for Windows 10 Pro
  • UWPs will now show up individually in the Volume Mixer when they play sound
  • The Share UI now shows an option to copy a link if sharing a link
  • Selection controls are now shown when selecting text, objects or ink with pen
  • Pen selection can now be done with the barrel button
  • When services like OneDrive try to download an online file for offline use in an application, it will trigger a notifications where you can allow this
  • A pen can now be used to scroll in all apps
  • The Task Manager now has a new GPU performance page
  • Processes on the Processes-page in Task Manager are now grouped together
  • The Processes-page in Task Manager now shows a “GPU Engine” column
  • You can now convert Hyper-V machines to “vmcz”-files to share them
  • Virtual machine gallery has been added under Quick create in Hyper-V
  • Passwords can now be reset from the lockscreen
  • Pens can now select and drag objects when the barrel button is used in UWP apps
  • Improved performance for WDAG containers
  • The “Background Moderated” column in Task Manager has been renamed “Power Throttling”
  • The Recovery Drive tool is now available under the Windows Administrative Tools folder
  • The “Trust this PC?”-notification has been replaced with “You got a message on your phone. Want to see phone messages on this PC too?”
  • WinHelp has been removed
  • Support for Emoji 5.0 has been added
  • The SMB1 server component is no longer included by default on Home or Pro
  • SMB1 is no longer installed by default on Enterprise and Education
  • Snipping tool is now natively per-monitor DPI-aware
  • Improved performance for two-finger precision touchpad scrolling

There you go, these are the novelties in the Fall Creators Update. Tell us more about your Windows 10 FCU experience in the comment section below.

More about the topics: Windows 10 Fall Creators Update