Windows 10's Timeline feature helps answer the question: what was I performing? This handy, optional feature can track what documents and Websites you've been working away at over the past weeks and months, organizing them in to a collection of documents you can quickly open to get your hands on where you left off.

Timeline belongs to the Windows 10 Spring Creators Update, generally known as Redstone 4. You already know where it's found, regardless of whether you've never used it: Down in the taskbar, next to the Cortana search box, there's a small icon called Task View for the Fall Creators Update. A slightly different icon identifies Timeline within your latest version.

An element of the reason Timeline was added within Task View was because few users were using Task View. Task View hasn't gone away; if you happen to open Timeline, you'll still be aware of the gigantic icons representing the windows basically currently have open against your screen. But beneath these, you'll likely notice a new subheading: Earlier Today, which marks the starting of your Timeline.

Tips on how to enable and disable Timeline

Windows assumes that you Timeline excited. If you don't, or you'd like to manage how Microsoft uses details, visit the Settings menu at Settings > Privacy > Activity History. There, you'll have two options to check or uncheck: Let Windows collect my activities with this PC, and Let Windows sync my activities created by PC in the cloud.

Your very first checkbox is simple enough: Whenever it isn't checked, Windows will essentially disable Timeline. Checking initial box, though, collects your activities from only this PC. Even if you check the first additionally the second, your activities, and Timeline, will sync across devices. If you ever sign in with your account on another PC, you'll have the ability to pick up where you left off regardless which PC make use of.
How to use Timeline

If you've ever checked your browser history, you'll have a good idea of how Timeline works. But instead of just tracking which websites you visit, Timeline tracks a good many applications have, and the documents you opened and edited. Timeline will likely collect those documents you used at a given time into what Microsoft calls Activities. The belief is that is so popular represents lots of the documents you were working on at each of these time: a low cost spreadsheet, say, together with a few supplementary webpages possibly a report authored within Word.

The drawback with Timeline, unfortunately, is that's its unquestionably Microsoft-centric. Much of the productivity apps within Windows are owned by Microsoft, including Office. Although i saw one specific occasion where Microsoft tracked my browsing within Chrome or another browser. Otherwise, Activities cover the standard Office apps (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and many more) as well as Edge. If you decide you opened a PDF, one example is, you'd better do hope you opened it within Edge.

Timeline struggles since the can't actually open the document it records, perhaps a photo within Photos that apparently hadn't yet been saved to OneDrive. In this case, you'll see an obscure URL or string of characters, instead of the actual photo or object inn question. Theoretically, Timeline could go back weeks, months, or some times years-but we'll only be eager to confirm that simply because the months ignore.

If you run on multiple projects without delay, Timeline is actually a valuable tool, to help you to go back and forth between the two. In this, it's just like Task View, where various desktops of apps can be slid back and forth and exchanged a lot more workspace. Inform it offering tranquillity to the worker who can't quite get everything accomplished before a business trip or illness, and has to recreate the work they do environment.

But Timeline could signify improvement, too: better, intelligent archiving of third-party apps and documents; one-click the chance to open the range of documents inside of an activity, perhaps even organizing them using Snap. Microsoft originally designed Timeline in harmony with the new tabbed Spaces UI, in reality.

Timeline doesn't touch base, shake you by means of collar, and demand which you it. Like other areas of Windows, it hides shyly for your taskbar, waiting for you to have notice and introduce yourself. But expect areas Timeline to show up in unexpected places: anytime you switch to another PC, check out a website on Edge along with your phone, and many more. Microsoft sees Timeline as a fundamental route to boost your productivity, and also keep you nestled within its app ecosystem. It's worth a tryout to learn whether it works for you.