Windows 10 Anniversary Update - What you need to know!

[Aspex]

Hi Furtopians! I saw that a thread was formed about a year ago about Windows 10. Well, seeing as how the free upgrade to 10 ends in four days or so as of the posting of this thread, and considering that I've been running public beta builds of 10 for over a year now, I thought I'd make a little thread explaining what you'll be able to expect from the Anniversary Update, and maybe this write-up may even persuade a couple of users to jump on the Windows 10 bandwagon! It's certainly not for everybody, but there are a few new features worth getting excited about, so without further ado...

What is the Anniversary Update?
The Windows 10 Anniversary Update is the first big update to Windows 10, following the first public release on July 29th and a smaller incremental update released in mid-November. It'll be available from August 2nd, 2016 onward for all Windows 10 users for free from Windows Update under the Settings application.

What can be expected from this update?

To summarize from Windows Central's review of the Anniversary Update, here's a condensed list of the headline features introduced in the AU:

- A new Start Menu / Screen experience with greater usability improvements to the "All Apps" list
- Better Action Center and more robust notifications
- Notifications synced from your Android phone / Windows phone to your PC
- Dark mode option under Personalization (affects system apps and apps downloaded from the Windows Store)
- Browser extensions for Microsoft Edge
- Greater stability and ease of use for Microsoft Edge
- Vastly improved Windows Store
- Cortana improvements
- You can invoke Cortana and control music from the lock screen
- A ton of new features for users that use styluses with their PCs (think 2-in-1s and Surfaces)
- Stability improvements, bug fixes, the works!

With all this in mind, should I update?
For Win10 users, certainly. It's a blast to use and a great improvement over the initial release of 10.
For Windows 7 / 8 / 8.1 users, it ultimately depends on if
1: you feel that there are compelling features offered with 10 that would make the upgrade experience worthwhile
2: if the computer hardware and / or software you own won't present any glaring incompatibility issues with 10.

Doing research about these two things would be highly advisable and worth your while, as well as doing a full backup of your data as a precautionary method to take before making the switch. Although the Windows 10 AU is (in my opinion) more stable than the 10 initial release, software is inherently imperfect. Better safe than sorry, after all.

However, if you have no reason to switch over and am happy with your current OS setup, that's fine as well! Upgrading because you feel the update is mandatory isn't very considerable, and educating yourself beforehand about features and compatibility is recommended.

If you have any questions, I'm always happy to help, and good luck with all your future computer-related endeavors, everybody. Aspex out.

[Chipper Blu-wolf]

Found this out, and its a bummer.  To install Edge extensions with the Anniversary update, you have to have a Microsoft account to add the extensions.  Even though it says "free" it won't simply let you add the extension unless you tell Microsoft who you are.  I really wanted to try it and like Edge, but I can't stand all the big brother stuff that's been thrown in some of these programs.

Outside of that, the update has been working flawlessly for me, partially because the first thing I do is go into settings and turn all the tracking crap and apps off, including Cortana which I don't need to find things on my own computer.   I can't take advantage of any of the stylus/touchscreen things given this laptop is at least five years old, but its a trucker that I wouldn't replace until its dead beyond repair.