Windows 10 is losing the following features in the October 2018 Update

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As Windows 10 continues to evolve, certain bits of functionality are ditched as a natural part of that process, and Microsoft has just highlighted the features which are being removed with the incoming October 2018 Update (and also the elements which are no longer being actively developed, generally because they’ve been incorporated elsewhere).

So what’s on the chopping block? Probably the most high-profile feature is the Snipping Tool, although technically it’s not being removed as such, but rather incorporated into Microsoft’s new Snip & Sketch app.

Snip & Sketch will let you pull off exactly the same screenshot capture tricks as the previous tool, with added functionality including the ability to delay the ‘snip’ from being taken as we saw in a recent Windows 10 preview build. So fret not, ardent snippers, you won’t be missing anything.

The Hologram app has got the boot, mainly because it’s been replaced with the Mixed Reality Viewer. Microsoft observes that you can still view 3D art in virtual reality with the latter (and of course you can knock up said art in the Paint 3D app).

Phone Companion

Microsoft notes that when you install the next big update, you’ll find that the Phone Companion app is no longer on your system. Again, you won’t be losing any of the features, because they have simply been incorporated into the Phone page under Settings.

There are a number of other minor features which have been ditched because their functionality is replicated elsewhere, as Microsoft details in its full list of what’s going on (as spotted by Thurrott.com).

So, for example, the OneSync service has been dropped – which syncs data across the Calendar, Mail and People apps – mainly because Microsoft has introduced a sync engine to the Outlook application which does the same job.

Windows 10 version 1809, which is the other name for the October 2018 Update, should arrive, as the name suggests, in October. As ever, though, the rollout will doubtless be spread over several months, so you may well be waiting until later in the year before you get all the new goodies from the update.

Those include a generous lick of paint for the interface (with a dark mode for File Explorer, too), a raft of improvements for gamers, a new Your Phone app and much more.

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