WINDOWS 10 version 2004, MAY 2020 UPDATE: NEW FEATURES AND CHANGES

Windows 10 version 2004, May 2020 Update, is the ninth major refresh releasing on May 27, 2020, with new features and enhancements to improve performance, security, and productivity.

 You upgrade by clicking the Check for updates button in the Windows Update settings, and then click the Download and install button. Alternatively, you can also install the new update using the Media Creation Tool to do a clean or in-place upgrade. In addition, you can use the Update Assistant or you can even download the ISO file to create a USB bootable media that you can use to upgrade.

Quick note: This guide will get updated and republished with features and improvements as they become available through the Windows Insider Program. However, depending on when you’re reading this guide, some features and changes may still be missing. If this is the case, you can check this section with the latest updates.

Desktop features and changes on Windows 10 version 2004

As part of the desktop changes, Windows 10 version 2004 brings new features to the Lock screen, Start menu, Windows Search, virtual desktops, Cortana, File Explorer, Task Manager, and Action center.

Lock screen 

As part of the Lock screen improvements, Windows 10 version 2004 now includes support to authenticate into your account using your PIN while in Safe mode. In the past, you were still required to use a password while in Safe mode, even though PIN authentication was configured.

Also, starting with this new version, Windows 10 introduces a new Windows key + Ctrl + Shift + L keyboard shortcut to help you investigate problems with the login screen. You can try this feature by using the shortcut while your device is locked, reproduce the issue, and invoke the shortcut again to produce a reference number that you can share when reporting the problem.

Start menu

Beginning with the May 2020 Update, when opening the Start menu, you’ll notice a new list called “Start typing to search” with quick access to search for online results, apps, and documents, which should make it clear that users can simply start typing to search without the need to actually open the Search experience from the taskbar.

Windows Search improvements

The spell checker technology for Windows Search now intelligently understands and corrects small typos for search queries, such as “powerpoint” and “excel;” which previously would return no results.

In addition, the search experience is also receiving an update to show related results when searching settings that don’t match the query. For example, if you type “free space” the best match will include “Turn on storage sense” with a “Related: free up” label to help understand the result.

Starting with this new version, Windows Search ships with a new algorithm that detects high disk usage and activity to minimize the usage of system resources while indexing. This means that to minimize performance issues, the indexer will stop or throttled when gaming mode, power savings mode, or low power mode is enabled. Or when the device is waking up after being in low power mode or in a logon state or goes from AC to DC power, or CPU usage goes above 80 percent, disk usage goes above 70 percent, the battery charge is less 50 percent, or the display state goes to screen off.

In addition, there are some specific improvements for developers to prevent searches of certain repositories and project folders to improve disk usage.

In this new version, to improve system performance while compiling and syncing large code bases in the default indexed location, Windows 10 is updating the indexing behavior to exclude common developer folders, such as .git, .hg, .svn, .Nuget, and more by default.

Virtual desktops

If you use virtual desktops to separate your different tasks, you can now click the header of the desktop thumbnail to specify a custom name.

Also, you can also right-click the thumbnail of the desired desktop in Task View, and select the Rename option to rename the virtual desktop.

Cortana

Windows 10 now ships with a new Cortana app that updates through the Microsoft Store and provides a new chat-based interface with the ability to type or speak to the assistant.

The app now supports the light and dark theme available on Windows 10, and the new experience offers less intrusive screen for “Hey Cortana” queries that can stay in the flow while you work. Also, the assistant has been updated with new speech and language models, significantly improved performance, and you can now drag and resize Cortana like any other regular app.

File Explorer

Although HomeGroup is no longer a feature on Windows 10, the option was still available in the File Explorer context menu. However, starting with Windows 10 version 2004, when right-clicking a folder, you’ll no longer see the HomeGroup entry within the “Give access to” submenu.

s for changes in File Explorer, Windows 10 version 2004, updates the context menu logic, so when you right-click on a .HEIC image file, you’ll now have the option to “Print” or “Set as Desktop Background,” as you can with other image file types.

Task Manager

In this update, you’ll even find an updated Task Manager “Performance” tab, which now shows the drive type (for example, SSD), which should come in handy on devices with multiple hard drives.

The “Performance” tab in Task Manager now adds support to monitor temperature on dedicated graphics cards.

Also, Microsoft has updated the “Details” tab of Task Manager, and now when you right-click a process, a Provide Feedback will now be listed after End Task and End Process Tree (rather than between).

Action center and Notifications

Windows 10 May 2020 Update also includes new refinements for the notification settings. For example, now notification toasts include an inline option to turn off notifications for that app or open the app’s notification settings.

Settings features and changes on Windows 10 version 2004

In addition to the new features and changes around the desktop, Windows 10 version 2004 is also adding improvements to the Settings experience, including a updated header in the homepage, which instead of showing status and connected services, after a feature update, it’ll display a “Get even more out of Windows” message with an option to set up OneDrive, link your phone, enable Timeline, and more.

Sounds

Starting with version 2004, the App Volume and devices preferences in the Settings app is getting interface tweaks to make the experience a little more usable.

Notifications & actions

In the Notifications & actions page, Windows 10 is adding an option to disable the post upgrade setup page under the “Notifications” section.

Storage

The Storage page isn’t getting significant improvements, but now under the “More storage” settings section, you’ll find a new option to access the backup settings page.

Mouse

In this new version, the Mouse page has been updated to include an option to change the cursor speed without the need to use Control Panel.

Optional Features

In addition, the Windows 10 May 2020 Update is adding changes to make the Optional Features settings more usable, including the ability to select and install multiple optional features at the same time.

You can now search through lists of optional features and sort them by Name, Size, and Install date. Also, it’s possible to see the install date for each optional feature in your “Installed features” list. Microsoft also added feature dependencies to the description of each optional feature in the list of features available for install.

You can now view the status of your latest installs, uninstalls, and cancels right on the main page in the “Latest actions” section, and it’s now possible to add optional features and view your history via pop-up dialogues.

Sign-in options

The Sign-in options page now separates the ability to restart apps automatically on reboot from the “Use my sign-in info to automatically finish setting up my device” option under “Sign-in options” in accounts settings. This change means that moving forward, you’ll now be able to control whether registered apps can launch automatically after a restart using the new Restart apps setting.

Status

The Status page is getting an update with a new view of active connections and quick access to change settings. (If you have multiple connections, only the one connected to the internet will be shown in the “Status” diagram at the top of the page.)

In addition, you can now see how much data is being used by a network right from the “Status” page. If it looks like you’re using a lot of data, you can access the “Data Usage page” to create a limit for that network, which will warn you if you get close or go over your limit. You can also see how much data each app is using on that network.

Furthermore, the Show available networks option now appears as a button with icon and description, and you can no longer access the Control Panel’s Networking and Sharing Center from this page.

Data usage

Starting with version 2004, Windows 10 is removing the Data usage tab from the main “Network & Internet” listing. However, the settings are not gone, they’re still accessible on a per-connection basis in the “Status” page.

Language

Starting with this new version, the Language settings page is getting revamped to make it easier to understand your current settings.

In the page, you’ll now see an overview section that lets you quickly know which languages are configured as default for their “Windows display,” “Apps & websites,” “Regional format,” “Keyboard,” and “Speech.”

In addition, each icon is actionable, which means that if something doesn’t look correct, you can click the settings to change it.

Narrator

Alongside the many tweaks and improvements, the Narrator page is also getting updated with new settings to change how to capitalize the text is read. The new options include, “Don’t announce,” “Increase pitch,” and “Say cap.” Under the “Change what your hear when reading and interacting” section.

In addition, at the bottom of the page, there’s a new “Get image descriptions, page titles, and popular links” section that allows to decide whether to get information about images and links using the Narrator + Ctrl + D keyboard shortcut, or the Page summary using the Narrator + S shortcut on web pages.

Text cursor

Beginning with Windows 10 version 2004, the Narrator page now includes a new Text cursor indicator that will help you see and find the text cursor wherever you are at any time. (Select from a range of sizes for the text cursor indicator and make it a color easy for you to see.)

You can enable the new feature, in the new Text cursor page, in the “Ease of Access” settings, and turning on the text cursor indicator.

Magnifier 

The Magnifier page no longer includes the “Collapse Magnifier window to a floating transparent magnifying” option.

The page includes a new “Keep the mouse pointer” menu to keep the text cursor in the center of the screen making it easier and smoother to type.

In addition, there’s a new “Reading” section to adjust the Magnifier Reading Modifier key behavior. Options include “Control + Alt,” “Caps Lock,” “Insert,” and “Caps Lock or Insert.”

As part of the Magnifier interface changes, the experience includes three new ways to start reading, including “Play,” “Selected text,” and “Read from here.” Also, this new version includes dark theme support and text new sizing options.

Permissions & History

In the Permissions & History page, the “History” section has been improved with better descriptions and easier access to view and delete search history in the cloud, and the “More details” page has been removed.

Diagnostics & feedback

The Diagnostics & feedback page doesn’t include new settings, but starting with Windows 10 version 2004, the page no longer includes “Recommended troubleshooting” settings.

Windows Update

In the Windows Update settings, in the Advanced options page, the “Choose when updates are installed” settings are no longer available. According to Microsoft, since feature updates are now optional, you don’t have to defer updates using this option.

The option was previously available only for Windows 10 Pro, Education, and Enterprise, and it allowed devices to defer new versions up to 365 days using Windows Update.

If you want to configure the feature, it’s still possible to using the Group Policy Editor.

Delivery Optimization

After installing the first semi-annual update of 2020, you’ll also notice that the Delivery Optimization settings page now includes new settings to throttle the bandwidth using absolute values. You can set this separately for foreground downloads or background downloads.

Backup

The Backup settings also receives some minor tweaks to include a reference to backup your files on the Desktop, Documents, and Pictures to the cloud using OneDrive.

Troubleshoot

In the Troubleshoot page, you will no longer find a list of troubleshooters that you can use to fix Windows 10.

Recovery

In the Recovery page, the “Reset this PC” feature has been updated with a new “Cloud Download” option that allows you to download a fresh copy of Windows 10 directly from the Microsoft servers, instead of using the image locally available on your device.

The “Cloud Download” option will reinstall the same build, version, and edition that is currently installed on your device. Also, when selecting the new option, it’ll remove all the apps already installed on your computer. Furthermore, if the “Remove everything” option is selected, user data will also be deleted.

If you prefer not to re-download the files from the cloud, you can still select the “Local reinstall” option, which will create a recovery build to reinstall Windows 10 using the files on your machine.