Microsoft’s Windows 10 November 2019 Update is intentionally low-key, primarily designed to optimize Windows rather than a bunch on a boat of new features. If nothing else, Microsoft is likely clearing the way for a bigger surge expected from the Windows 10 20H1 feature update expected to ship around March 2020.

Microsoft recently said that the November 2019 Update (also known as 19H2 or version 1909) is essentially complete, and has been released on Windows 10 Insider release Preview ring. Here are some of the features you can expect to see in THE 19h2 update, based on our time with Windows Insider previews that were released just before launch. Well return to our review as soon as the final release goes live.

File Explorer integrates with Windows search

In the early days of Windows 10, files stored on OneDrive were considered separate from files stored on your computer. Later, Microsoft allowed you to synchronize files between your computer and OneDrivefirst with the actual files and then as files on demand placeholders that wont take up extra space on your local drive. Search has historically bridged the gap between the cloud and the computer; even on older versions of Windows, search for that COMPUTER collectively searches for files stored in your onedrive cloud as well as on your computer.

Mark Hahman / IDGFile Explorer now adds some suggested file names when you start searching in the Windows 10 November 2019 Update.

Windows seems to prioritize recent searches to populate the list, which is useful.And you can argue that search performance has increased as a result because instant search results are really instant. Unfortunately, only certain results are cached and Windows still had to perform a full search of my computer (and OneDrive) on a file it doesn’t have handywhich takes as excruciatingly long as usual. This can improve over time. Currently, however, the new File Explorer search experience is useful in certain scenarios.

Permission activated third party digital assistants on the lock screen

One of the oddities accompanying the November 2019 update is the relative lack of documentation or explanations surrounding some features. Example: a Change to allow third-party digital assistants to activate voice over the lock screen is all Microsoft has to say on the matter.

The latest news on the voice compatibility initiative, which includes Spotify, Orange, Amazon, Microsoft and others, suggests a future in which multiple digital assistants can live on your lock screen, which can be customized (Settings

Mark Hahman / IDG unfortunately, Amazon’s Alexa Wake-up from the lock screen didn’t seem to work. Using the Alexa app in Windows 10 November 2019 Update worked well though, as expected.

At least not yet. Using Alexa to Wake up the word doesn’t work on my test computer, and asking Cortana to let Alexa (cortana, running Alexa) prompt Cortana to tell me to unlock my computer first. (Cortana, running Alexa is the current way to open Alexa in Windows.)

Downloading the alexa app and enabling hands-free Alexa capabilities allowed me to access Alexa when my Windows computer was awake and active, but Alexas Wake word still refused to work from the lock screen. Unfortunately, a few lock screen Wake words look like a future feature that just isn’t enabled yet.

Quickly create events from the departure calendar

Clicking on the date/time in the Windows taskbar opens the agenda of your meeting days and events. Typically, you can add new appointments by clicking on the small sign that opens the Calendar app. Now, in the Windows 10 November 2019 Update, it opens a small flyout menu that allows you to add an appointment right then and there.

Mark Hahman / IDGCant bother to open Windows 10 Calendar app? In 19H2, you will not have.

The main feature of? Of course not. Convenience? Sure. Usually, CP call it a hidden feature of the OS, but in this case its one of the key features of Microsoft lists for Windows 10 November 2019 Update.

Improved notification management tools

Notifications, of course, slide from the lower right corner in Windows 10, and live in the action Center, a small speech bubble icon in the lower right corner. By default, the November 2019 update now organizes notifications by latest, not by sender name. (This option can be changed, of course, in the settings

Mark Hahman / IDGWindows 10s Notifications adds some extra shortcuts within 19H2. To open this small options window, click on the tiny gear icon that appears when you hover your mouse cursor over the map.

The Windows 10 November 2019 update also makes one small adjustment to the hotek cards themselves. On each, a small gear setting appears when you hover over it (or it should; the behavior was a bit inconsistent in our beta build). This setting offers two options: a toggle to turn off all notifications for a specific app (such as Mail or Skype), and a link to open the app’s individual setting itself.

Finally, each individual app settings page is slightly different, the graphics clearly outlining what it means to include notification banners as well As action Center notification maps. Heres what the new Skype notification looks like, below. The differences between the new look and the old app settings are minor.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Hardware changes, under the hood

The Windows 10 November 2019 update makes some interesting changes to your computer behind the scenes, most of which are not fully known.

With one, Microsoft promised that the 19H2 provides overall battery life and energy efficiency improvements for PCs with certain processors, without saying how much battery life, and for which processors. (We asked.)

Second, the Windows 10 November 2019 Update also recycles processors favored by cores. Modern multi-core processors from Intel or AMD include cores that are known to outperform others. Intel brought this concept mainstream with the 2016s Broadwell-E microprocessor, the Core i7-6900K, and its Turbo Boost Max 3.0 technology. The latest RYD ryzen processors also tag their high-performance cores. The Windows 10 November 2019 update makes it an implementation of a rotation policy that distributes work more fairly among these favored cores.

This probably means less heat load on any one core, although weve been told its going to require the silicon vendor to know which cores are favored, and for the BIOS to be aware of it too. Even after talking to sources in the silicon industry, it’s not entirely clear how this will be shaken out.

Third, PC manufacturers can now adjust Windows ink latency based on the hardware configurations of their devices, rather than what Windows thinks it should be. We couldn’t verify it. However, it literally feels like a faster improvement that you can experience yourself.

Finally, Microsoft has added debugging capabilities for new Intel processors. This only applies to PC manufacturers, Microsoft says.

Windows 10 s adds managed Windows applications

Windows 10 in S mode hasn’t wandered far from its roots in the Surface Go and other managed tablets just another place we’ve seen it in cheaper laptops. However, Microsoft has not completely abandoned its operating system for those who cannot be trusted to download authorized applications. Admins can now use Microsoft InTune to download traditional Win32 applications (yay!) on their Windows 10 PCs in S Mode. As a consumer, you can never see the benefits of this directly. But you can work for a company that does.

Other thing

Microsoft literally lists the entire feature set of Windows 10 November 2019 Update on an insider blog as it’s onea away from mammoth releases of old. So There’s a few dribs and drabs that it includes that can’t quite satisfy the bar features listed above. Here they are:

• A key-rolling/key-rotation feature enables secure rolling of recovery passwords on  managed mobile Azure Active Directory devices on a request from Microsoft Intune or MDM tools. This feature will help prevent accidental recovery password disclosure as part of manual BitLocker drive unlock by users, Microsoft says.
• The the Windows 10 November 2019 Update adds Windows Defender Credential Guard for ARM64 devices for additional protection against credential theft for enterprises deploying ARM64 devices.
• Narrator, Windows 10s assistive technologies, now understands the Function keys and whether Function Lock is enabled or not.

Given the small and subtle changes that seem to define the Windows 10 November 2019 Update, were assigning it the same rating as the Windows 10 May 2019 Update, which was itself a minor release. Remember, the end goal for Windows 10 November 2019 Update is to polish off as many bugs as possible before Windows 10 20H1 lands early next yearand not (gulp!) add any new ones. Heres hoping that mission is accomplished.