Windows 10 Settings menu: The Update & security tab

Where's Windows Update? It's in the Settings menu...and only in the Settings menu.



If you're looking for Windows Update, look no further -- it's located in the new Windows 10 Settings menu. In an obvious effort to minimize the Control Panel (or perhaps do away with it altogether) in Windows 10, Microsoft has removed Windows Update from the Control Panel and placed it in the new Settings menu.

You can find Windows Update in the Update & security tab of the Settings menu (Start > Settings > Update & security), along with sections for Windows Defender, backup, recovery, Windows activation, and developer options.

Windows Update

In the Windows Update section, you'll find (almost) everything you need to update Windows 10. At the top of the screen, you'll see a status message that tells you whether your computer is up to date, and when it last checked for updates. If you want to manually check for updates, hit Check for updates.

For more update options, click Advanced options. Here, you can choose how updates are installed (you can now schedule your update restarts for a specific time) and view your update history. For more information about what a specific update does, click the link below it on the Update history screen. If you'd like to be at the head of the pack, you can also set up your PC to get Insider Preview builds -- do this, and you'll get access to prerelease builds of Windows before they're ready to face the public.

Windows Defender

Windows Defender also has a place in the Update & security tab (though it hasn't been banished from the Control Panel like Windows Update has). In this section, you can turn on different Windows Defender options, including real-time protection, cloud-based protection, and automatic sample submission. You can also add exclusions, or files and programs that will be excluded from any security scans, by clicking Add an exclusion.

Backup

In the Backup section you can set your backup settings: Add an external drive for backup, or click More options to see Advanced settings (this will take you to the File History window in the Control Panel). If you created a backup using Windows 7's Backup and Restore tool, you can recover your backup by clicking Go to Backup and Restore (Windows 7), which will also take you to the Control Panel.

Recovery

The Recovery section offers three options to help you fix your computer. Reset this PC, which will let you reinstall Windows without removing your files; Go back to an earlier build, which will let you go back to an earlier build of Windows (this will let you uninstall updates -- you can only go back to a previous version of Windows within the first month of upgrading); and Advanced startup, which restarts your PC so you can restore Windows from a system image, USB drive or disc.

Activation

You can now activate Windows 10 using a Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 product key, which means you can do a clean installation of Windows 10 and still receive the free upgrade promised to older Windows users. To activate your copy of Windows 10, go to the Activation section and click Change product key, or click Go to Store if you'd like to purchase a different edition of Windows.

For developers

The For developers section is designed for developers -- people making apps and programs for Windows 10. That doesn't mean you won't use it, however. If you want to sideload apps, for example, you'll need to go into this section to turn that feature on.


Source by: http://www.cnet.com