Aside from a stark new set of icons, Explorer now has a Quick Access view which shows your most frequently opened folders at the top of the window, with a list of recently accessed files just below, making it easier to quickly pick up where you left off on files that are nested deep in folders. Talking of Files Explorer, that's had a refresh too.

Windows 10 did eventually add the option to search emails through this box, which is a great addition. However, we still find it easier to instigate advanced searches from within Files Explorer (called Windows Explorer in 8.1). You can click the My Stuff button in search results to perform more advanced searches of your own files, which certainly makes it easier to hunt down specific files than with Windows 8.1. We'll talk more about Cortana later, but the search bar lets you enter voice or typed searches for apps or files stored on your PC. Other notable new additions are the Cortana search bar in the bottom left of the Taskbar. Yet, it's undoubtedly an improvement on what went before for non-touchscreen devices.

With four different tile sizes and an awkward drag-and-drop system, it's too easy to end up with an untidy, gap-strewn mish-mash of tiles.Īnd once you've got more than a few live tiles activated, your screen can start to look like a Las Vegas casino, with a wall of rotating, scrolling squares each trying to catch your eye. We still think there's work to be done with the tiled section of the Start menu.

Update windows 8 to windows 10