Windows 10 Preview Update contains Direct3D 12 and Action Center

The yesterday released update to Windows 10 Preview contains D3D12.dll and a new notification center. In the update Microsoft has also added a battery saver feature, and data sense, a feature to monitor data usage over Wifi and mobile networks.

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(image credit PCworld)

The inclusion of D3D12.dll, discovered by Twitter user @h0x0d means that the Preview Update ships with the codebase for Direct3D 12, the graphics API at the heart of Microsoft's graphics technology DirectX. Direct3D 12 should enable richer scenes, more objects, and full utilization of modern GPU hardware. The API will become available on phones, tablets, PC and the Xbox One. Microsoft claims Direct3D 12 will bring 50% better CPU utilization and Multi-thread scaling.

Microsoft first announced Direct3D 12 would become available in the holiday season of 2015 but recently mentioned it would be shipped with the final version of Windows 10. Possibly Windows 10 Technical Preview users can try out the performance of games on Direct3D 12 sooner than that.

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The update to Windows 10 Technical Preview also introduces a feature coming from Windows Phone called Action Center. In Action Center are all notifications from apps collected which allows you to get an overview of all notifications at once. In this Preview version the Action Center appears as an icon in the bottom right in the taskbar, near the time and date.  That's different from Windows Phone which shows the Action Center when you swipe down from the top of the screen similar to iOS and Android. With Action Center Microsoft adds functionality which Apple also added to OSX.

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Besides the Action Center the Technical Preview Update also adds other small new features like dragging an app from one screen to another by pressing Windows-Shift-Arrow and an animation is added when switching between desktops. Besides that, Microsoft has also added a battery saver feature, and data sense, a feature to monitor data usage over Wifi and mobile networks.

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