If you’re using the OneDrive desktop client on your Windows 10 PC, you might have noticed that it sometimes takes a toll on the battery life of your machine. Well, senior OneDrive PM Stephen Rose yesterday highlighted some new features for the client, and battery life happens to be the main focus.
There are actually three core improvements coming soon: battery life improvements, the ability to send feedback, and a new updated activity center. Microsoft says that these are all designed to “help users feel more in control, empowered to provide feedback, and better educated about what’s happening with their files.”
We will begin with the battery improvements, coming in July 2018. With this change, when you switch your device into battery saver mode, OneDrive will pause syncing. You’ll see a toast notification about this, and OneDrive will auto-resume when you exit battery saver mode. Importantly, you can still “sync anyway” if you feel the need.
Next up, with Send Feedback, you’ll be able to easily send your thoughts and opinions on the OneDrive client to Microsoft. Starting in July 2018, you can find this option by going to Send Feedback” in OneDrive desktop client. You also can suggest a new idea by clicking on “I have a suggestion,” which will then link you to the UserVoice. This won’t impact user policies, as if “report problem” is disabled, send feedback will also be turned off by default.
Finally, with the updated Activity center, you’ll more easily see the status of your files. Just like the other two features, this will be coming in late July and will improve your ease of use and understanding of OneDrive. Microsoft says they’ve “modernized” the Activity Center as part of this process, but the changes are not explained beyond that.
Since there are only 10 days left in July, it is likely that these changes will all roll out by the end of the month. It is nice to see Microsoft making these improvements, and with the feedback now being integrated into the desktop client, you should keep sending your thoughts and opinions on the OneDrive experience to the company. Are you looking forward to these changes? Let us know in the comments below.
