What Microsoft takes away from Windows 10 in the Anniversary Update

THE WINDOWS 10 ANNIVERSARY UPDATE is full of great new features like a more powerful Cortana, deeper integration with mobile devices, and new inking features designed to make the stylus cool again.

- Ian Paul

But as with any new version of Windows, the Anniversary Update also removes a few features and functionality that some of you might miss.

Amid all the excitement over what’s coming to AU, here’s a look at what Microsoft sent to the Recycle Bin.

The impersonal login page

A small, but nice, cosmetic change—now, when you click or swipe away the lock screen background picture, you don’t end up on a login screen with a plain colored background or the default Windows background. Instead, you get the same picture as your lock screen by default.

The new animation for switching between the lock screen and login page is quite nice too.

Wi-Fi Sense

Microsoft’s experiment with seamless Wi-Fi login sharing is going away. Wi-Fi Sense (go.pcworld.com/w10wifisense) was originally a feature on Windows phones, and it came to PCs with Windows 10 in 2015. Now, Microsoft says it is removing the feature from both phones and PCs beginning with the Anniversary Update, because so few people used it.

While a nice idea in theory, Wi-Fi Sense was never welcomed by users and critics largely because it required Microsoft to store your Wi-Fi login credentials on its servers. Some of those fears were misplaced, but the general idea of the service was never well received. While the Wi-Fi login sharing went away, Wi-Fi Sense’s secondary

feature, which alerts you when an open Wi-Fi network is nearby, remains.

Kid’s Corner