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New Windows for the Fall Season

Q. I see there’s yet anoth­er Win­dows 10 update out now. I get noti­fi­ca­tions about patch­es all the time, so how do I know when this notice is for a sys­tem upgrade? Can I tell if it already installed itself?

A. Microsoft began rolling out its Win­dows 10 Fall Cre­ators Update last Tues­day using the Win­dows Update util­i­ty on com­pat­i­ble com­put­ers and devices. When you are check­ing the avail­able updates, look for the one labeled “Fea­ture update to Win­dows 10, ver­sion 1709” in the list of secu­ri­ty patch­es and oth­er list­ed soft­ware fix­es in Win­dows Update.

You can man­u­al­ly check to see if the soft­ware is ready for you. Just click or tap the Start but­ton on the Win­dows 10 desk­top, and select Set­tings; as a key­board short­cut to the Set­tings box, you can also press the Win­dows and I keys. In the Set­tings win­dow, select the Update & Secu­ri­ty icon, and on the next screen choose Win­dows Update on the left side of the win­dow. Next, click or tap the “Check for updates” but­ton on the right side of the win­dow. You should see a list of avail­able updates for your com­put­er or tablet.

To see if the update has been installed already — espe­cial­ly if oth­er peo­ple use the com­put­er and may have tak­en care of it — open the Win­dows 10 Set­tings box and choose Sys­tem and then About. Look to see if “Win­dows 10, ver­sion 1709” is list­ed there.

Microsoft has a list of new fea­tures includ­ed with the Win­dows 10 Fall Cre­ators Update on its site. A blog post on the com­pa­ny site also has a 30-minute video tour and a high­light­ed list of changes to the sys­tem, like the abil­i­ty to anno­tate PDF files and e‑books in Microsoft Edge, use new voice com­mands with Cor­tana and pro­tect your PC against ran­somware.