For the Windows 10 Anniversary update, Microsoft will make its digital assistant Cortana smarter and more integral to the operating system as it is one of the features the company focused on in putting the update together.
In the Windows 10 Anniversary update, Cortana, when enabled, can be accessed straight from the lock screen now. She will be able to feed weather updates and play music via Pandora or Groove Music.
The Redmond-based giant is also making Cortana more connected by simply having the digital assistant as somewhat a replacement to the search function in the Windows 10 Anniversary update.
How it works is that the searches made by users will be filtered through Bing, with the usage data sent to Microsoft every so often. As this may sound disturbing to some, they can always opt to limit what Cortana can do.
Thankfully, in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, users can prevent Cortana from gathering information about basically everything from what they type to what Cortana can hear via user's speech and handwriting patterns and data usage.
These options can be toggled on and off from Cortana's Settings. From there, users can also wipe out all the collected information it managed to collect and prevent her from gathering more in the future.
As for the rest of the functions of Cortana courtesy of the Windows 10 Anniversary update, it can now make syncing devices easier and more efficient, to the extent that text messages sent to a smartphone can be accessed on the update.
On a handset, Cortana can also help users navigate through destinations in a computer and save photos with reminders, which will be a hit and a great help to many.
In an example given by Techno Buffalo, users who have been browsing a certain retailer website and screen grabs an item they would want to buy will get a reminder from Cortana in the form of the same screenshot when they physically go to the shop itself.
The Windows 10 Anniversary update also improved Microsoft Edge and Windows Ink, which Techno Buffalo detailed after having used them see first-hand.
While the Windows 10 Anniversary update is definitive update for the software so far when it comes out Aug. 2, Microsoft will not waste time and push out Insider builds for Redstone 2 on the same month, which is way ahead of the second upgrade's purported 2017 rollout.
