Yesterday’s Windows 10 April 2018 Update allowed Microsoft to sneak in an April release. The upgrade has been delayed all month and it was through it would get an official announcement in May. Instead, Microsoft got clever by launching it for manual downloads only. The wider automatic updates will begin next week. While it usually flies under the radar, new builds see features removed from Windows 10 as well as new ones added. This time Microsoft has trimmed several tools that are worthy of discussion. Groove Music Pass, the subscription service Microsoft shuttered last year is having its app removed. The regular Groove app remains, but is now nothing more than a music player. Microsoft says that app is getting an update to reflect the changes: “The Groove app is being updated to reflect this change. You can still use Groove Music to play the music on your PC or to stream music from OneDrive. You can use Spotify or other music services to stream music on Windows 10, or to buy music to own,” Microsoft notes.
Depreciated Features
In recent Windows releases, Microsoft has been migrating the Control Panel over to the Settings app. That movement means the People, Conversations and Language parts of the Control Panel have now been removed from the platform. HomeGroup is another feature heading into the sunset. The file sharing tool for passing content between printers and other PCs on the same network has been replaced by integrated features in Windows 10. Microsoft says it is no longer developing Software Restriction Policies in Group Policy. The company is instead using other newer abilities, such as Windows Defender Application Control or AppLocker.
