Microsoft’s Windows 10 May 2019 Update is still in beta. However, the update will roll out officially very soon. The update is the first major Windows 10 update of this year. Though the update doesn’t contain any major visual changes, there are some amazing new features and improvements coming along with the update.

The four-year-old operating system is about to receive some nifty improvements to keep the user experience fresh and better. Along with the last update, Microsoft rolled out the dark theme. In this update, we will see a new light theme as well for the bright background fans. Also, Cortana and Search will now be separate apps from now onwards. There are many more things coming with the Windows 10 May 2019 Update. We have listed down some of the major changes below.

Windows 10 May 2019 Update: Major Changes

1. New Light Theme

For some time now, Dark theme has been the norm. Google rolled out system-wide dark theme with the Android 9 Pie, Apple released a dark theme with MacOS Mojave and so did Microsoft. With their November 2018 update, Microsoft rolled out the dark theme for the users. However, user reactions were not too good.

Microsoft is now pushing a lighter theme for the other set of fans. The lighter theme will probably be the first visual change that you might notice in the Windows 10 May 2019 Update. Along with this theme, the overall contrast of the desktop and other Microsoft apps will go high up. You will see lighter and brighter colors in the action center, start menu and taskbar. Moreover, OneDrive and File Explorer icons will also match up with the theme.

2. Less Cluttered Start Menu

The new update also enhances the start menu. If you’re installing the update freshly on a new computer then starting from this update you will now get a single column of pinned apps in the start. Microsoft will also add less bloatware starting from this update. Less preinstalled apps also mean that there will be fewer tiles on the start.

Furthermore, you will now be able to uninstall more system apps than you could do previously. Obviously, that is going to save you some storage if your drive is full. You will now be able to remove a complete group of tiles at once. Earlier one had to remove live tiles one by one. However, if you want to change the look of start and want to make it look the way you want, you can now do it faster. Anyways, Candy Crush Saga stills come preinstalled so don’t hype up.

3. Cortana and Search Now Work Separately

Another major change which everyone is going to notice in Windows 10 May 2019 Update is the separation of Cortana and Search. Earlier both used to work together from the taskbar. However, now Microsoft has decided to separate both. From this update onwards, the search box will only search for files, apps, etc. Whereas the Cortana icon will turn on Microsoft’s digital personal assistant.

Other than that, there will be changes in the search experience as well. Searching for a file will now show results from other folders and drives as well rather than from the default folders. There will be a new interface for Search as well. So it is expected that searching for something is going to be an easier and faster experience.

4. Reserved Storage for Windows Update

Well, there’s bad news for people with limited storage. Microsoft has decided to reserve 7 GB of storage for Windows Updates from your HDD or SSD. Whether or not you want, Windows will now be using an additional 7 GB of storage. Due to this reason, Microsoft has also changed the system requirements of Windows 10. Earlier minimum 20 GB of free storage was necessary, now the requirement is 32 GB.

The size can also differ by the system to system depending on the availability of storage space. But this cannot be undone.  One good thing though when the amount of storage will not be used for Windows updates temporary files and caches will be stored here temporarily. Well, now you see not everything is good with Windows 10 May 2019 Update.

Users will now be able to pause an update for 35 days if they want. This will allow everyone to read, check and know about the update beforehand. Windows updates are notorious for bringing bugs along with them so this might help users a bit. Previously, this was only available to Windows 10 Enterprise and Pro users but now it is rolling out to everyone.

5. Secure Sandbox for Fishy Apps

There’s a piece of good news for Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise users. Finally, Windows Sandbox is coming to them with Windows 10 May 2019 Update. It is basically an integrated, isolated desktop environment for running untrusted and fishy apps. So in case, there’s something fishy with an app you can run it in the sandbox. It will be running on a virtual machine. So even it if tries to damage your machine there won’t be any changes to your actual machine. Once you close the sandbox all software in the sandbox with all its files will be permanently deleted. This is going to be certainly a great addition for developers and business users.

6. Green Screen of Death in Some Games

Like most other Windows update the Windows 10 May 2019 Update also contains some bugs as well. In this update, some games are crashing due to their anti-cheat DRM software with a ‘green screen of deaths’. The green screen of death or GSOD is actually the same as infamous BSOD or Blue Screen of Death. It’s just that this crashes contains green background, so GSOD.

Though not all games are facing these issues still this is concerning for many. If you open a game affected with this issue your system will freeze with the GSOD error message. Many developers have already fixed this problem and many are working on it. But many haven’t yet fixed this yet. So if you play or stream a lot of games then you might not want to update right now.

Other Changes

Once again just like every major Windows update the Windows 10 May 2019 update also brings many small but useful changes. So here we are going to mention some of these.

• There’s a new microphone icon in the system tray when your microphone is in use.
• The Windows 10 April 2019 Update also brings a slider for changing the brightness in the action center.
• There are changes in the settings app as well. It’s simpler than previous and now shows your Microsoft account details along with your picture at the top.
• If you own an Android phone, now you’ll be able to mirror the screen to your PC. This feature is probably not coming to iOS users thanks to Apple’s strict policies.
• There are also 12 new emojis coming with this update. You can just press the Windows + (.) [period] button to use emojis.
• The game bar is going to get a lot better with Windows 10 May 2019 Update. The game bar will now transform into a full overlay menu from just a bar. It will have Spotify integration, a performance widget, Xbox widget with friend list and chat options a lot more.
• You will be now able to manually configure the IP settings of an ethernet connection through the Settings app.

Other than all these changes there are a lot more small changes with the Windows 10 May 2019 Update. The update will be rolling out in the coming weeks.