Ramzi Haidar / AFP via Getty Images
The internet can have fun trying to guess the next natural feature of the California alliteration name or animal for the other major operating systems, but the Windows build naming conventions can be downright difficult to parse. The last officially released version was originally known as 20H1, meaning the first half of 2020. As it got closer to the launch state, it received its official version number: 2004, ie April 2020. However, it did not did. Really launch status for another month, May 27.
Perhaps all of that is indicative of what awaits users when they finally upgrade to Windows 10 2004; this is no Microsoft produces major changes like its Windows 2000 debut about two decades ago. Still, a new version of Windows is a new version of Windows. So we recently launched a new VM with a clean install of Build 2004 to take a look at its new features.
Edge, install size, search and Kaomoji
-
The first and saddest thing we noticed about 2004 is that it still doesn’t come with the new Edgium: Clean installs still provide the legacy version of Edge.
Jim Salter
-
A clean installation of Windows 10 2004 consumes 14.0GiB of hard disk space. This is before any Windows update, let alone app installs.
Jim Salter
-
The web panel of a standard Windows key search result has a new and updated layout. It looks pretty good, if you are searching the Internet from your start menu.
Jim Salter
-
Did you know that Windows provides easy access to emoji? Okay, you’re one of the great kids, but did you know that it provides easy access to kaomoji?
Jim Salter
The first thing we noticed after a new install of Build 2004 was Edge. To be specific, Legacy Edge. You’ll still have to go out of your way to install the new and improved Chromium-based Edge, which we will continue to call “Edgium” until the legacy version finishes disappearing.
When using Windirstat to extract a directory tree map in the new installation of Windows 10 2004, we see that 14GiB is used. It is worth noting that this 14GiB is before either installing any application or, and this is important, pressing Windows Update.
Windows Update will still tend to inflate the operating system fairly quickly, and the SxS directory, in particular, still bloats with legacy versions of code that have been superseded in security updates. Unfortunately, you can’t remove any of that without damaging your operating system. There are methods to reduce the size of the SxS a bit (pronounced side by side), but they are limited and a bit annoying. Even the optimized results become inexorably bigger over time.
Although there is no Edgium, Internet access in 2004 was modernized in an unexpected place: the Start menu. We are not really big fans of searching the Internet directly from a Start menu; we prefer a slightly more logical separation between what is local and what is remote. However, if you like that, you can do things like type “weather” in the Start bar and fetch attractive internet results directly from the menu itself. without ever opening a real browser.
Speaking of search, Microsoft says it noticed how often people deactivated its Search Indexer service, so the company took several steps to try to convince users to reactivate it. Microsoft’s search indexer now recognizes many new signs of high disk activity, or potential high disk activity, that cause your disk activity to slow down or completely pause:
- Game mode is activated
- Power saving mode is activated
- Low power mode is activated (restricted or standby mode connected)
- The device is waking up after being in low power mode or in a login state
- The device goes from AC> DC
- CPU usage exceeds 80 percent
- Disk usage exceeds 70 percent
- The device battery charge is less than 50 percent.
- The display status of the device turns off
Microsoft polls its Windows Insiders quite aggressively by running preview builds, and says the results of the popup dialogs asking Insiders why they had disabled Search Index showed significant improvement after the new cues were implemented.
Beyond the Internet and search, what else is new? Emoji and kaomoji. If you’ve been using the smileyface button on social media sites to access emoji from your Windows PC or laptop, you’re doing it wrong. Any standard graphic text interface in Windows, including Notepad, provides direct access to emoji using the keyboard shortcut [Windows key] + [.].
the [Windows key] + [.] The shortcut for opening an emoji selection panel is quite old news – it’s been on Windows since build 1803. And in build 1903, the emoji panel added kaomoji support. Kaomoji are traditional constructions, generally elaborated in text mode, such as shrug ¯ _ (ツ) _ / ¯. Build 2004 adds significantly to the kaomoji section of the emoji panel, adding classics like ヾ (⌐ ■ _ ■) ノ ♪ and (∩ ^ o ^) ⊃━ ☆ to their repertoire.
Listing image by Jim Salter
