Microsoft released it’s big update on August 2nd – called the Anniversary Update to Windows 10. Everyone who now has Windows 10 will get this big update. How do you know if you’ve gotten it yet?
You would probably know because the update acts like a major update – the upgrade process (for my laptop and desktop), took about the same time as upgrading to Windows 10. But if you have the automatic updates on and your computer updates itself overnight, you may not notice.
The quick and dirty way to determine if you have the Windows 10 Anniversary Update is to click on your Windows button (Start Button). If you see the ‘All Apps’ line hear the bottom of the list, you know you are still on the old Win 10.
That’s how I determined it without going to my update history.
How To Get Windows 10 Anniversary Update Now
If you don’t have it yet and want it now, you can force the update. Simply go to your Windows button and type in ‘Updates’. You’ll see a little gear that says, ‘Check for Updates’, click it and then click on the ‘Check for Updates’ button and that should initiate the download.
Below are the screens I saw when doing my update…
Clicking the ‘Downloading’ button gives you details of what is going on. Depending on how you have your updates configured, you may need to tell your system to install the update now. I had my desktop computer configured to wait until 11 PM to do my update, but I went ahead and said to ‘Restart Now’, which started the install process.
It took about 45 minutes or so on my laptop and I didn’t check the time on my desktop. When you’re starting your system up after the update, it will go through the ‘We’re setting up your computer, please don’t turn off your machine’, routine. That takes 5 minutes or so.
I use Microsoft Office and I wondered if my recent file history would be gone as well as my recent internet history, but everything was there, just as I had left it.
Features of Windows 10 Anniversary Update
So what is so great about the Windows 10 Anniversary Update – besides the improved (up to you if you think so), start menu?
Here’s a look at the Start Menu after the update. It is nice to have all the apps linked up in alpha order. It means one less click to get to all your apps.
You can check out the many new features of the Windows 10 Update over at The SuperSite for Windows. Richard Hay writes extensively on Windows 10 there.
Now you can go and initiate your own Win 10 anniversary update.