Microsoft is planning to release a second Creators Update for Windows 10 later this year, the company announced at its Build 2017 developer conference in Seattle. It will be the second major update to Windows 10 in 2017, which will be a trend going forward. And this one's bringing some significant UI changes to Windows with a new aesthetic called "Fluent Design."
According to TechCrunch, Microsoft is committing to a biannual release cycle for what in the past would have been referred to as Service Packs. With Windows 10 being the last monolithic release of Windows, Microsoft has taken to naming its major updates, the most recent of which was the Creators Update.
Despite using the same nomenclature, the Fall Creators Update will be more than a minor release, though still focused on helping users be more creative. It will introduce several new features as well as attempt to bring Windows experiences to iOS and Android devices, The Verge reports.
Part of that entails a new Timeline feature. It will improve upon the Task View area to provide a list of apps and workspaces that were previously used on other devices. This will be combined with a Pick Up Where You Left Off feature to let users resume sessions and apps when moving from one device to another.
Microsoft also talked about offering on-demand access to OneDrive files. While not a full return to placeholders, the Fall Creators Update will make it easier for users to grab OneDrive documents and files without the need to sync or download folders from the cloud.
The most noticable changes with the fall update will likely come in the form of the new "Fluent Design" UI direction. Fluent Design pushes Windows 10 further away from the Metro UI introduced with Windows 8. We've seen some concept images of Fluent Design in the past under the internal name Project Neon. You can catch a few glimpses of the new design language in the video above.
Microsoft is only offering up a handful of details at the moment, so it is not clear what additional benefits the Fall Creators Update might bring for gamers. With the original Creators Update adding things such as Game Mode and Beam, we're crossing our fingers that PC gaming continues to be a point of emphasis.
Many are expecting the Creators Update to arrive around September, though Microsoft has not committed to a specific release date.
