Windows 10 Anniversary Update

Windows 10 Anniversary Update

This month we look at what is causing some issues for people all over the Costa Blanca who are running Windows 10 but not managing to get up to date with all the Microsoft updates.

We use our computers regularly, and expect things like Antivirus, Malware and Windows updates to simply happen in the background. Our only involvement usually is to get annoyed when we want to close our machines and get the “installing 1 of 10 updates” message, meaning that we can’t be sure that everything will be fine the next time we come to turn on the computer to check our email or get up to date with Facebook. The point is that we rely on the computers to just look after themselves and most of the time this is fine, however back in the summer Microsoft released a large update and its size is causing some people a real problem. This month I show you how you can be sure that you are on the latest update and what to do about it if you’re not.

The Windows 10 Anniversary update (Version 1607 of Windows 10) is a great improvement on what has, arguably, been a pretty good operating system from Microsoft. This update, the second large update of Windows 10 adds functionality to what is already a great operating system. It makes Cortana (the digital assistant) more useful, allowing you to use the “Hey Cortana” function to say things like “Send Richard the PowerPoint I worked on last night” – of course it’s not perfect but it’s worth playing with if you like that sort of stuff.

It’s pretty easy to see whether you already have the Windows 10 Anniversary update. If you do have it, then when you click on the start button you will see three icons in the bottom left (power, settings and file explorer), and these icons will have no text next to them as they did in previous versions. If your computer still has text next to the icons naming them then you are on an old version of Windows 10 and you should look to update – this is where the problems occur. Because of the size of the update it takes a VERY long time to download, especially as many of us here on the Costas don’t have fibre Internet connections.

If you need to update there are two options, you can click on start, settings, update and security and hit the “check for updates” button, you may find that your computer is already trying to download the update, but because perhaps you don’t leave your computer on and connected to the Internet for long enough then it’s not had the time to fully download and install the update. If this is the case then just leave the computer turned on and wait – yes it could take some time. If the update hasn’t started yet, then click “check for updates” and it will start the process.
If you would prefer to download the update directly then you can visit the web page https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12387/windows-10-update-history and hit the “get the anniversary update now” button and this will immediately start the download process – remember, depending on your Internet connection this could take several hours.

It’s a good idea to be up to date with your Microsoft updates as it this ensures that you have the most recent security updates too, so it’s worth spending the time to get this done.