What is Timeline Feature on Windows 10? How Does It Work?

Windows 10 is an impressive operating system in itself. In fact, the launch of the operating system was as a service rather than traditional periodic service pack rollouts. The OS has been receiving regular updates making it stay in tune with the changing needs of the users and entrepreneurs alike. With that backdrop, Microsoft recently announced the latest update to the version 1803, April 2018 release. One of its feature is an excellent new timeline feature on Windows 10. How does the timeline feature work? We will attempt getting to know how.

What is Timeline Feature on Windows 10?

Well, Timeline is a feature that forms part of the Taskbar menu on your Windows 10 interface. As the name itself should be indicative, the Timeline is a feature that would list out the activities you have performed under the account. It would be helpful in syncing your account across multiple devices, mobiles, and PCs.

Isn’t that wonderful enough? The feature comes with the latest v 1803 update for Windows 10. It can even sync your account across mobile devices if you sign in to the apps with your Microsoft account.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNdirfTlU4E

How Would You access Timeline feature?

Accessing the Timeline feature should be much comfortable. It forms part of the Task View option that was available before with the Windows 10 Creators Update. You can access it through the icon which you can find just beside the Cortana search icon.

In case you are not able to find it right away, it could be because you may have hidden it. If you have done so, you can enable it by right-clicking on your taskbar and then selecting Show Task View. The Timeline should appear just below your currently open windows. The timeline will let you know the activities you have performed throughout the last few days. As of now, only a few third-party apps are supported. The developers of these applications have to add support through the Microsoft Graph API.

How does Timeline Feature work?

The Timeline feature gives you access to your work history, up to 30 days into the past. The feature can be quite useful if you tend to work on multiple devices. Since the modern trends have made it possible to work with various hardware on the go, the Timeline feature should be best suited to make use of your Microsoft account to sign in to your programs on all your devices. This should help you begin working on one of your devices and continue on the other without affecting the work you have been into.

Simply put, you can synchronize it across all your devices by signing in to the Microsoft account across your devices and programs. The list of activities that would be included into the Timeline can be summed up as the files you have opened up in File Explorer, and the list will consist of any data including documents, excel sheets, videos, images or PDF files.

If you want to resume activity, you need to click on it, and voila, you are good to go! The activities are grouped through the days for a more natural organization. You may click on the See All Activities if you want to have access to all the events. You can remove the entries from the Timeline if you do not want them to show up. Just right-click on the activity and click on either Remove or Clear All from (Date).

Synch Your Activities Across Devices

Well, we mentioned it before, right? The Timeline feature can sync with your devices seamlessly. But, yes – it would not sync to the cloud by default. You would need to enable the function to be able to find it working (See screenshot above). Just activate the sync feature, and you should see the Timeline across all your devices as long as you have signed in to the same Microsoft account across all your devices.

The exchange would be dependent on how many devices you have enabled the feature turned on. For instance, you can allow it on your desktop, while leaving it disabled on your laptop. In such a scenario, you should find the activities from your desktop on your computer, but the actions on your laptop would not show up on your desktop.

Here is how you would enable Timeline Syncing option.

• Scroll to the bottom of your Timeline
• You should see a Turn On button under your Timeline.
• Click on it.

Another option that you can use to enable the synchronization on the Timeline feature would be through the following steps –

• Head to Settings ->Privacy.

• Locate Activity History 

• Check the box that says Let Windows sync my activities from this PC to the cloud

Does the Timeline Feature have any limitations?

Well, yes – for the time being – the Timeline feature would work with Microsoft apps seamlessly. The feature is currently not available widely for the non-Microsoft apps.

If you are using any other browser like Firefox or Google Chrome, the feature may not be able to track the activities as accurately as it would do with the Microsoft Edge or Internet Explorer. The function may or may not work with other applications like PDF Readers.

However, we would expect the functionality would be made available quite soon. The application developers have been working on making the compatibility available. The Timeline will be a useful feature if the third party tools and applications make the feature possible. The developers have been working on adding support for the Microsoft Graph API. We expect the changeover to come up soon and that would, in fact, usher in a new beginning to the Timeline feature.

The Concluding Thoughts

That is how the Timeline feature would work on Windows 10 and we expect future developments for you to play with. Given the fact that most of our time is spent on screens in the modern way of doing business, carrying forward your work across multiple devices and platforms should make it an excellent option.

Have you received the latest update? If yes, do share your thoughts about the new Timeline feature added and its usefulness. Your feedback may be helpful in gathering better info on the function and the functionality.

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