14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Timeline is one of the features that Microsoft announced earlier this year and which were supposed to land in the Fall Creators Update, but due to development struggles, the software giant needed a bit more time to get it ready.
And now it looks like we’re very close to receiving Windows Timeline as part of the Windows Insider program in the Fast ring, with the company confirming at the Windows Developer Day that it’s ready to roll out an early version of the feature for testing.
It goes without saying that Windows Timeline is now expected to become available to all users in the production ring with the release of Windows 10 Redstone 4 in the spring, though as we’ve all learned already, it all depends on how development, testing, and bug fixing advances in the meantime.
Coming in Windows 10 Redstone 4
With Windows Timeline, Windows 10 users can create snapshots of their app activity at a certain moment and then go back in time to restore the device to the saved state. This feature uses the power of cloud and works across devices where the same Microsoft account is configured with Windows 10, so it makes switching from one PC to another a smooth transition that quickly brings up the documents and files users were working on at a certain moment.
A demo that Microsoft’s Joe Belfiore showed earlier this year, and which you can watch below starting at 15:30, shows that Windows Timeline uses cards to display the saved snapshots of each PC, making it quite easy to choose where to go back in time.
Windows 10 Redstone 4 is projected to launch sometime in the spring, with development expected to be completed in March, as per Microsoft’s strategy to release two different OS releases every year. The Timeline feature should go live by the end of the year in an insider build, while development and refinements would be accelerated in early 2018.
