Belgian ICT Communities Week | TechNine

Thanks to the success of last year’s Belgian ICT Communities week we’re joining the event again with sessions on January 19th

Agenda:

  • 20:00: Session1: Thijs Lecomte – Securing your Microsoft365 environment in 10 easy steps!
  • 20h55: Break
  • 21h00: Session2: BWVDUG: Stefan Georgiev – MSIX App attach

When: 19/01/2021

Where: Microsoft Teams Event

>> Register Here <<

Technine is part of the Belgian ICT Communities

Check out the other sessions of Belgian ICT Communities Week:
Belgian ICT Communities | Belgian Communities Calendar

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 21286

Hi All, last Wednesday Microsoft Released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 21286 (RS_PRERELEASE) to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel. This Build is the new build for both devices on 20277 and 21277 devices in the Dev Channel

Upgrades went fast & smooth here, the News & interests feature looks awesome but is only released to a lucky few users in limited zones, no luck here yet 😉

For devices with support for enhanced color profile, something strange seems to be going on when you have this setting active

(Settings / System / Display)

out of the blue greyscales turn a sort of light brown and return to normal is you reset the Graphical drive due to undock/redock or Windows Key + CTRL + Shift + B

Feedback Hub item: https://aka.ms/AAarrg8

What’s new in Build 21286

Introducing news and interests on the taskbar

With news and interests on the Windows taskbar, you get quick access to an integrated feed of dynamic content such as news and weather that updates throughout the day.

News and interests on the Windows taskbar gives you quick access to an integrated feed of dynamic content such as news and weather that updates throughout the day.

You can personalize your feed with relevant content tailored for you. Instead of switching between apps or your PC and phone to stay up to date with the news and interests you care about – seamlessly peek into your feed directly from the taskbar anytime you want throughout your day.

Showing news and interests on the taskbar with the flyout of content just for you.
  • Staying up to date: Quickly glance at your news and interests directly from the taskbar. Get caught up on the latest headlines, weather, sports, and more, then go back to whatever you were doing without disrupting your workflow. You have convenient access to news and interesting content from over 4,500 global brands such as The New York Times, BBC or The Verge, and gorgeous live weather maps. Select an article to open a streamlined reading view with fewer distractions, so you can save time and stay focused.
  • Personalize your feed: You can tell us which content you like seeing or don’t like seeing (select More options … and choose “More stories like this” or “Fewer stories like this”) and over time, more stories about the things you care about will show up in your feed, including ones you might otherwise miss. You can also use emoji to react to stories, too.
  • You’re in control: At Microsoft, we believe privacy starts with putting you in control and giving you the tools and information, you need to make informed choices. Through news and interests, there is quick access to the Microsoft Privacy Dashboard. Through the Microsoft Edge browser, there are built-in controls to limit tracking from advertisers and third parties. And if news and interests doesn’t appeal to you, you can easily turn it off by right-clicking on the taskbar.

As more of us are spending time on our PCs to work, learn, connect, and play, news and interests on the taskbar is a nice companion for those who want to stay connected with information on the latest current events. Over time, we hope to bring your feed of news and interests to other places, such as in Microsoft Edge, so no matter where you are, you’ll be able to stay up to date.

We are beginning to roll out news and interests to Windows Insiders today starting with Build 21286 in the Dev Channel and Insiders will need to reboot after installing Build 21286 to enable this feature. Managing the rollout of features like this allows us to quickly identify issues that may impact performance and reliability. We plan to evolve this experience over time, so please let us know what you think and how we can make it better through Feedback Hub (go to Desktop Environment > News and interests). The team is excited to hear what you think!

IMPORTANT NOTE: This feature is currently only available to Windows Insiders in United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, and India. This feature also requires the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge browser (Stable) to be installed on your PC. We are also testing different variations of this experience so some Insiders may see a different experience than others.

Modernized Storage Spaces Settings

You can now create and manage Storage Spaces from within the Settings app. This includes creating storage pools and storage spaces, adding, and removing disks, and optimizing pools. This new experience provides an accessible, modern experience integrated with other storage features.

Managing Storage Spaces in the Settings up via Settings > System > Storage.

Go to Settings > System > Storage and click the Manage Storage Spaces under “More storage settings” to get started.

This feature is rolling out to a subset of Insiders in the Dev Channel at first, to help us quickly identify issues that may impact performance and reliability. Rest assured they will be gradually rolled out to everyone in the Dev Channel.

Introducing New File System Command Line Tool DiskUsage

As some Insiders have noticed, we’re working on an enhancement to the file system utilities family – called DiskUsage, enabling users to view and query disk space usage via the command line. With DiskUsage, you can now track files and directories which are consuming excessive amount of space on the drive. It scans the specified directory recursively or the entire drive with detailed information on how much each subfolder is using. It also supports extensive filtering and output customization options.

For example: >> diskusage /d:1

This will display the used space under each folder of the current directory.

Get started today by typing diskusage /? in a command line window for more options and usage information.

Running the DiskUsage command in Windows Terminal.

Run commands on start up in the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

We have added an option that allows you to run any specified Linux command on startup of a WSL distribution. You can accomplish this by editing the /etc/wsl.conf file in your distribution and adding an option titled “command” under a section titled “boot”. This command will run whenever your specific WSL distribution starts up. The example below shows using this functionality to create a method to log the time and date for each startup of this WSL distro.

A screenshot of Windows Terminal displaying a user interacting with WSL.

This command will run when a WSL distribution is first started. WSL distributions will remain running for a few minutes even after the last Linux process inside of them is closed. You can view if your WSL distro is running using wsl --list --verbose and you can manually shut down all WSL distributions using wsl --shutdown.

Improving your experience when transitioning between time zones

Based on feedback, we’re making a couple small adjustments for users of “Set time zone automatically” in Date & Time Settings:

  • When your time zone is updated because of a high confidence detected location change, we’ll now send a notification letting you know about it. The notification will include information about the new time zone and clicking it will open the Date & Time Settings.
  • If we detect a low confidence location change and there is a single administrator on the device, we will now send a notification asking if you would like to update your time zone – clicking the OK button in the prompt will make the change.
Displaying examples of the two possible time zone notifications.

Other updates for Insiders

Windows File Recovery – Winter 2020 Update

Since the initial release of Windows File Recovery, the team has received tons of feedback and inquiries about the app. This update includes performance improvements, bug fixes, and the introduction of 2 simplified recovery modes! Regular mode is a fast recovery option for NTFS file systems and extensive mode is a thorough search that applies to most file systems. The update is available to Windows Insiders and will be released to the general public (Windows 10 May 2020 Update and higher) in early 2021. If you don’t have Windows File Recovery installed, you can download it here from the Microsoft Store.

Changes and Improvements

  • Based on feedback, (GitHub issue #1495) we’re adding an option to disable automatic controller-to-virtual-key mapping for UWP apps. If you have a need to do this, add the following registry key, with a DWORD value of Enabled set to 0: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Input\Settings\ControllerProcessor\ControllerToVKMapping.

Fixes

  • We fixed an issue causing some Insiders to see a popup that says “Your PC ran into a problem and will automatically restart” after logging in to Windows with either an Azure Active Directory or Active Directory account on Build 21277.
  • We fixed an issue where no drives appeared under Settings > System > Storage > Manage Disks and Volumes.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in some printers getting stuck on connecting when added from Settings.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in sometimes unexpectedly being signed out of apps and websites after rebooting your PC.
  • We fixed an issue where the Windows Security icon would sometimes be unexpectedly large in the context menu when shift-right-clicking taskbar icons.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in MediaTranscoder hanging when transcoding certain files.
  • We fixed an issue where audio playing from UWP apps wasn’t ducking after pressing the microphone icon to start Cortana listening.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in VPN entries in the network flyout getting stuck at Action Needed until you pressed Cancel and Connect again.
  • We fixed an issue impacting touch targeting when resizing windows using touch.
  • We’ve made some fixes to our emoji keyword search results based on feedback, including adding a new keyword so that typing “lgbtq” will now return the rainbow flag emoji. Please continue sharing feedback with us in the Feedback Hub under Input and Language > Emoji Panel.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in the Read Aloud options in Magnifier being unexpectedly greyed out.
  • We fixed an issue where the “Help make Narrator better” toggle in Narrator Settings was disabled for Insiders.
  • We fixed an issue so that Narrator will now read Excel cell contents when verbosity is set to 2.
  • We fixed an issue where Narrator might not announce whether a combo box was in expanded or collapsed state.
  • We fixed an issue impacting Narrator’s ability to read the names of certain hyperlinks on websites in Microsoft Edge.
  • We fixed an issue impacting Narrator’s ability to read code windows in Visual Studio.
  • We fixed an issue for high contrast users that could result in Settings crashing when going to Ease of Access.

Known issues

  • We’re working on a fix for an issue Insiders have reported where certain games like State of Decay 2, or Assassin’s Creed, may hang or crash when launching.
  • We’re investigating an issue where Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War may not launch starting with this build. If you play these games, you may wish to pause updates until the issue is resolved.
  • You may experience some rendering / graphic issues after resizing certain app windows. If you minimize all your app windows and open them again it should resolve the issue (Press the Windows key plus D twice).
  • We’re investigating an issue where some 32-bit systems may lose network connection after taking this build. If you are running a 32-bit version of Windows, you may wish to pause updates until the issue is resolved.
  • When Xbox Game Bar is launched from Start or via the Windows key + G when using a text editor, the computer may appear unresponsive. If you encounter this, dismiss the Xbox Game Bar with WIN + G and end the GameBar.exe process from Task Manager.
  • Miracast users may experience very low frame rates in this build.
  • We’re investigating reports that started with Build 21277 that explorer.exe / the Windows shell would hang and or crash.
  • We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
  • Aero Shake is disabled in this build. To enable it, you will need to go here in Registry Editor and create a new DWORD entry named DisallowShaking with a value of 0: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
  • Live previews for pinned sites aren’t enabled for all Insiders yet, so you may see a grey window when hovering over the thumbnail in the taskbar. We’re continuing to work on polishing this experience.
  • We’re working on enabling the new taskbar experience for existing pinned sites. In the meantime, you can unpin the site from the taskbar, remove it from the edge://apps page, and then re-pin the site.
  • [News and interests] Sometimes the news and interests flyout may show as offline even when the user is online.
  • [News and interests] Users cannot navigate into the news and interests flyout using keyboard.
  • [News and interests] In some scenarios, the news and interests flyout may appear empty with no content.
  • [News and interests] Sometimes the news and interests flyout cannot be dismissed with touch and pen.
  • [News and interests] News and interests uses more taskbar space on the left than expected.

source: Windows Blogs

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20279

Hi all, yesterday Microsoft released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20279 (FE_RELEASE) to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel. This build is largely the same as Build 20277, but we wanted to test our ability to quickly follow-up a flight with another flight.

Windows Insiders who updated to Build 21277 (RS_PRERELEASE) last week will not be offered this build as they are on a newer build. We are working on getting a new build out to those Insiders soon. We expect to move all Insiders in the Dev Channel back to receiving builds from RS_PRERELEASE sometime after the holidays.

Known issues

  • We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
  • Live previews for pinned sites aren’t enabled for all Insiders yet, so you may see a grey window when hovering over the thumbnail in the taskbar. We’re continuing to work on polishing this experience.
  • We’re working on enabling the new taskbar experience for existing pinned sites. In the meantime, you can unpin the site from the taskbar, remove it from the edge://apps page, and then re-pin the site.
  • We’re working on a fix for an issue resulting in some users seeing error 0x80070426 when using their Microsoft account to sign into various apps. If you encounter it, rebooting your PC may resolve this.
  • We’re working on a fix for an issue where, in recent Dev Channel builds, no drives appear under Settings > System > Storage > Manage Disks and Volumes. As a workaround, you can manage your disks in the classic Disk Management tool.

source: Windows Blogs

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 21277

Hi all, last week the 2nd build released, Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 21277 (RS_PRERELEASE) to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel.

Got my most used production devices running this build, the New Emoji picker is back!

Upgrades went smoothly, few explorer.exe freezes, https://aka.ms/AAammi0

Some strange graphic issues on my Surface Laptop 3, letter seem slightly distorted, then a second later the issue auto resolves… a hard one to capture

As mentioned here, we are giving Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel the option to receive builds from the RS_PRERELEASE branch. These builds will be offered as an optional update through the “seeker” experience in Windows Update. This means Insiders will have to go and choose to install the currently offered RS_PRERELEASE build. Once they do, they will continue to receive RS_PRERELEASE builds going forward. This optional experience for receiving RS_PRERELEASE builds is just temporary – we plan to move all Insiders in the Dev Channel back to receiving builds from RS_PRERELEASE sometime after the holidays. As a reminder, Dev Channel builds are not matched to a specific Windows 10 release.

Also: features like the updated emoji picker, redesigned touch keyboard, voice typing, theme-aware splash screens, and others that were removed temporarily at the end of October will be returning for Insiders who install this RS_PRERELEASE build. However, please note some of these features will continue to be available only to a subset of Insiders and will get enabled for more Insiders over time.

Be sure to check the list of known issues below. The list of fixes and known issues between FE_RELEASE builds and RS_PRERELEASE builds will NOT be the same.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Once an Insider chooses to install a RS_PRERELEASE build, they cannot move back to receiving FE_RELEASE builds as their device will be on a higher build number. Insiders will still have the option to roll back to a previous version for up to 10 days or until you take another build.

What’s new in Build 21277

Introducing x64 emulation in preview for Windows 10 on ARM PCs

Windows Insiders with ARM PCs who install this build can try out x64 emulation by installing x64 apps from the Microsoft Store or from any other location of their choosing. For more details on this experience, please head on over and read this blog post from Hari Pulapaka!

Adding Support for Unicode Emoji 12.1 and 13.0

Starting with this build, Insiders will get their first look at the emoji we’ve designed to support Emoji 12.1 and 13.0! This update brings over 200 new glyphs to Windows – including bubble tea, a smiling face with tear, a ninja, a magic wand, and more:

Showing an array of the new emoji that will be added, including ninja, bubble tea, face wearing a disguise, and smiling face with a tear.

As part of this change, we’re introducing a gender-neutral emoji design, which you can now select alongside the corresponding male or female design in our emoji panel and touch keyboard:

Displaying 3 versions (male, female, and gender-neutral) of various emoji (genie, superhero, person shrugging, etc.).

You’ll also find we’ve made some tweaks to our existing emoji to improve cross-platform consistency:

(OLD)

Some existing emoji and how they’ve been tweaked (face with mask, giraffe, and confused face).

(NEW)

Some existing emoji and how they’ve been tweaked (face with mask, giraffe, and confused face).

To bring up the emoji panel and check out all the changes, press Windows key + Period (.) or Windows key + Semicolon (;).

One final note: we’ve made several improvements to our emoji search terms based on your feedback – if you update to today’s build and still find the expected emoji isn’t being returned when you search for it, please let us know! You can file feedback for this in the Feedback Hub under Input and Language > Emoji panel. Please specify what words you used, and which emoji you expected to appear.

Changes and Improvements

  • We’ve updated the animation when opening or closing a window to make the transition smoother. Do you notice a difference? Let us know!
  • Based on Insider feedback, you can now use the built-in screen snipping experience in Windows (WIN + SHIFT + S) to create a snip of your screen and paste it directly into a folder of your choice in File Explorer to save the screenshot there. Try it out! (This was released to Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel as part of the recent Windows Feature Experience Pack update.)
  • Using the touch keyboard in a portrait posture on a 2-in-1 touch device now supports split keyboard mode. (This was released to Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel as part of the recent Windows Feature Experience Pack update.)
  • It’s now possible to uninstall the Snipping Tool. If you choose to uninstall it, it can be reinstalled via the Optional Features page in Settings.
  • We’ve made some adjustments to improve the scaling logic of the graphs in Task Manager’s Performance tab.
  • We’ve updated Registry Editor so that the Find window, renaming a key, and other places all now support CTRL + Backspace to delete words at a time.
  • When using the Delete key or Dismiss button in Action Center to clear groups of notifications, Narrator will now announce that the notification group has been cleared instead of just moving focus to the next notification group.
  • Based on feedback we’re adjusting a few strings in Offline Maps Settings to improve clarity.
  • To help you find what you’re looking for faster, we’ve updated our folder logic in Start menu’s all apps list so that if a folder only contains a single item we will now display that item in place of the folder.
Showing Visual Studio code in a folder by itself and then (after) not in a folder.

Fixes

  • We fixed an issue resulting in some users seeing error 0x80070426 when using their Microsoft account to sign into various apps.
  • We fixed an issue where limiting a search in File Explorer to a specific folder was unexpectedly returning results from the subfolders.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in a “The directory name is invalid” error appearing when trying to open a file from a saved File Explorer search.
  • We fixed an issue where after doing a search from within File Explorer and clicking the arrow next to a column header to see a list of available filters for the results, it would get stuck on “Computing Filters…” and never actually displays any filters.
  • We fixed an issue where the apostrophe in the tooltips for Power options in Start menu wasn’t displaying correctly.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in Microsoft Edge windows unexpectedly being grouped with File Explorer in the taskbar.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in explorer.exe crashing when switching virtual desktops using a touchpad gesture.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in acrylic unexpectedly not be applied to the login screen if you used the option in Start to switch users.
  • We fixed a deadlock that could result in the Windows Security icon in the notification area continually displaying an alert although the Windows Security app had no alerts.
  • We fixed a typo in Settings > Privacy > Notifications.
  • We fixed an issue impacting the loading performance of Sign-in Settings for some users.
  • We fixed an issue where the ms-settings:signinoptions-launchsecuritykeyenrollment URI wasn’t opening the security key management options in Sign-in Settings.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in your name and profile image being unexpectedly missing from the banner at the top of Settings.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in Windows Update Settings saying battery saver was enabled when it wasn’t.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in you unexpectedly seeing a message when shutting down saying “Closing 1 app and signing out. Task Host is stopping background tasks” related to syncing language settings, even though no apps were open.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in printers with Japanese characters in their names not displaying correctly in Printers & Scanners Settings.
  • We fixed an issue where Background Settings was still displaying a link to “Sync your settings” although this option is no longer supported.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in some apps in Apps & Features Settings to display unexpectedly dimmed.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in no screenshot being copied to your clipboard after pressing WIN + Shift + S.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in a bug check with error IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL when playing games with hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling enabled.
  • We fixed an issue where a slight drag on a modifier key on the touch keyboard (such as CTRL or Shift) while it was being held down could result in the key becoming stuck down.
  • We fixed an issue where the clipboard icon in the touch keyboard (when there was content available to be pasted) was unexpectedly small.
  • We’ve fixed a few issues impacting touch keyboard performance.
  • We fixed an issue impacting touch keyboard reliability in the last few flights.
  • We fixed an issue where when using high contrast, the border of some keys in the touch keyboard were the same as the key color.
  • We fixed an issue where when using high contrast items in the touch keyboard’s language list were unexpectedly using the disabled text color.
  • We fixed an issue impacting touch keyboard usage with Narrator.
  • We fixed an issue where after selecting a clipboard history item from the touch keyboard, it might not be possible to subsequently select text candidates.
  • We fixed an issue where the touch keyboard would crash if you tried to input a character using a child key into a password field.
  • We fixed an issue for touch keyboard users, where, after restarting explorer.exe, it could result in explorer.exe getting stuck in a restart loop.
  • We fixed an issue where the Japanese IME may not display the current furigana in a string after reconversion.
  • We fixed an issue where the kana input mode state in the Japanese IME’s context menu could get out of sync with the actual state.
  • We fixed an issue when using the Japanese IME resulting in an unexpected, continued increase in ctfmon.exe handle usage after every focus switch.
  • We fixed an issue where when typing using the Japanese IME in a browser’s URL bar, after using space to convert your string the up / down arrows to select the browser suggestions wouldn’t work.
  • We’ve made a few fixes to address craftsmanship issues with the new voice typing experience.
  • We fixed an issue where trying to use voice typing with when airplane mode was enabled would result in an expectedly large authentication pop up appearing.
  • We fixed an issue where voice typing could get stuck initializing and never start listening.
  • We fixed an issue where if voice typing was open and you switched languages, it might unexpectedly start listening again.
  • We fixed an issue where the close button on notifications wasn’t working with touch.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the Action Center sometimes unexpectedly showing blank when there were available notifications.
  • We fixed an issue where the margin from a notification to the taskbar wasn’t the same as the margin from a notification to the side of the screen.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in the Focus Assist quick action not responding, and going to Focus Assist Settings, crashing Settings pages.
  • We fixed an issue where if you launched Notepad by running %windir%\notepad.exe, then Notepad’s icon wouldn’t display correctly in the title bar.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in you seeing your display turn on after existing Modern Standby but shortly afterwards bug check saying that it took too long for the display to turn on.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders seeing a bug check recently citing an issue with Memory Management.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders seeing a bug check recently saying System Service Exception.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in sections of Task Manager’s Performance tab not responding to mouse scroll wheel or touchpad pan events.
  • We fixed an issue where the Power Usage and Power Usage Trend columns in Task Manager weren’t showing arrows indicating directionality when sorting by that column.

Known issues

  • We’re working on a fix for an issue resulting in some users seeing a popup that says “Your PC ran into a problem and will restart in 1 min” after logging in to Windows with either an Azure Active Directory or Active Directory account. If you encounter it, please save any data immediately and your system will restart automatically.
  • We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
  • Live previews for pinned sites aren’t enabled for all Insiders yet, so you may see a grey window when hovering over the thumbnail in the taskbar. We’re continuing to work on polishing this experience.
  • We’re working on enabling the new taskbar experience for existing pinned sites. In the meantime, you can unpin the site from the taskbar, remove it from the edge://apps page, and then re-pin the site.
  • We’re working on a fix for an issue where no drives appear under Settings > System > Storage > Manage Disks and Volumes. As a workaround, you can manage your disks in the classic Disk Management tool.

source: Windows Blogs

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20277

Hi all, Last week Microsoft released not 1 but 2 builds to the Windows Insiders Dev Channel, Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20277 (FE_RELEASE) and Build 21277

I’ve split up my DEv Channel devices so I have multiple of both running for testing

Smooth upgrades so far!

Starting today, we are giving Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel the option to receive builds from the RS_PRERELEASE branch. These builds will be offered as an optional update through the “seeker” experience in Windows Update. This means Insiders will have to go and choose to install the currently offered RS_PRERELEASE build. Today, Insiders can choose to install Build 21277. Once they do, they will continue to receive RS_PRERELEASE builds going forward.

Insiders who choose to stay put will continue to automatically get builds from the FE_RELEASE until we move all Insiders in the Dev Channel to receiving RS_PRERELEASE builds sometime after the holidays. We still need Insiders running FE_RELEASE builds and giving us feedback on these builds so its ok if you choose to stay on these builds.

Be sure to check the list of known issues below. The list of fixes and known issues between FE_RELEASE builds and RS_PRERELEASE builds will NOT be the same.

As a reminder, Dev Channel builds are not matched to a specific Windows 10 release.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Once an Insider chooses to install a RS_PRERELEASE build, they cannot move back to receiving FE_RELEASE builds as their device will be on a higher build number. Insiders will still have the option to roll back to a previous version for up to 10 days or until you take another build.

Fixes

  • We fixed an issue that could result in the WinRE volume label being lost after multiple upgrades.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in apps failing to update with error code 0x80073D02.

Known issues

  • We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
  • Live previews for pinned sites aren’t enabled for all Insiders yet, so you may see a grey window when hovering over the thumbnail in the taskbar. We’re continuing to work on polishing this experience.
  • We’re working on enabling the new taskbar experience for existing pinned sites. In the meantime, you can unpin the site from the taskbar, remove it from the edge://apps page, and then re-pin the site.
  • We’re working on a fix for an issue resulting in some users seeing error 0x80070426 when using their Microsoft account to sign into various apps. If you encounter it, rebooting your PC may resolve this.
  • We’re working on a fix for an issue where, in recent Dev Channel builds, no drives appear under Settings > System > Storage > Manage Disks and Volumes. As a workaround, you can manage your disks in the classic Disk Management tool.

source: Windows Blogs

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20270

Hi all, Thursday, after a week with no release, a day later than usual, Microsoft released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20270 (FE_RELEASE) to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel.

Smooth upgrades so far, do check out the file skill for Cortana they rock!

Notifications on the lock screen are partially off monitor: https://aka.ms/AAajsw3

Other updates for Insiders

File Skill in Cortana

You can now use Cortana on your PCs to translate their thoughts into direct actions to open and find files and save time spent navigating to apps/folders to locate and open files.

Enterprise users who sign into Cortana with their corporate credentials (e.g., AAD) can search for files saved on OneDrive For Business and SharePoint along with files saved locally on their PCs (this setting is at Settings > Search > Searching Windows). Users using a Microsoft account (e.g., ending with Outlook.com or Hotmail.com) can use Cortana to find files saved on their PCs. This feature is currently available to our English-speaking users in U.S.

Showing Cortana displaying files in response to a “find recent files” query.

Try and use Cortana to open or search files by:

  • Parts of file names (Example: “Hey Cortana, opening marketing deck.”)
  • Author names (Example: “Hey Cortana, open budget Excel from Anthony”)
  • Find a document you have been editing (Example: “Hey Cortana, find my recent files”)
  • Find a document of a particular type (Example: “Hey Cortana, find my recent pdfs”)

Changes and Improvements

  • The new “Advanced View” checkbox in Optimize Drives is now up and running and checking it will display volumes previously not visible in this window (for example system and recovery partitions).
  • Using the touch keyboard in a portrait posture on a 2-in-1 touch device now supports split keyboard mode. (This was released to Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel as part of the recent Windows Feature Experience Pack update.)

Fixes

  • We fixed an issue resulting in some dialogs, such as Properties, displaying black text on dark backgrounds in recent flights.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in certain apps unexpectedly closing when clicking the Maximize button in recent builds.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in printers with Japanese characters in their names not displaying correctly in Printers & Scanners Settings.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in some delay logging into your PC on devices with a large number of users.

Known issues

  • We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
  • Live previews for pinned sites aren’t enabled for all Insiders yet, so you may see a grey window when hovering over the thumbnail in the taskbar. We’re continuing to work on polishing this experience.
  • We’re working on enabling the new taskbar experience for existing pinned sites. In the meantime, you can unpin the site from the taskbar, remove it from the edge://apps page, and then re-pin the site.
  • We’re working on a fix for an issue resulting in some users seeing error 0x80070426 when using their Microsoft account to sign into various apps. If you encounter it, rebooting your PC may resolve this.
  • We’re working on a fix for an issue where, in recent Dev Channel builds, no drives appear under Settings > System > Storage > Manage Disks and Volumes. As a workaround, you can manage your disks in the classic Disk Management tool.

source: Windows Blogs

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20257

Hi all, last Wednesday Microsoft released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20257 (FE_RELEASE) to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel.

Smooth upgrades here, 2 bits of feedback submitted:

Other updates for Insiders

Announcing Your Phone multi-apps experience – interact with multiple Android mobile apps at the same time on your Windows 10 PC

The Your Phone apps experience continues to evolve. We are happy to announce that the multi-apps experience is now ready for you to try. You can experience the power and convenience of running multiple Android mobile apps side by side on your Windows 10 PC on supported Samsung devices. Apps will launch in separate windows enabling you to interact with multiple apps at the same time even if the Your Phone app is not open. Pin your apps to Favorites, Windows 10 taskbar or Start menu for quick and easy access.  And moreover, you can now search for your previously pinned apps via Windows search from within your Start app list. So, whether you are staying connected with family and friends, keeping up on your social feed or ordering food, you can do it all simultaneously from the comfort of your PC, no need to install apps or sign-in again.

Screen showing phone apps opened side by side as separate apps on a Windows10 PC.

Starting last Thursday, the multi-apps feature has started to rollout on supported Samsung Galaxy phones (Note20 5G, Note20 Ultra 5G, Z Fold2 5G, Z Flip, Z Flip 5G) running Android 10 with Link to Windows (LTW) integration and to Windows Insiders who are configured to be in the Dev, Beta, or Release Preview Channels. Please note that this is a server-side change that takes time to propagate out.

Additional feature requirements and known issues can be found here.

Give this feature a try and provide us with your valuable feedback as we continue to test, learn, and improve the overall user experience. You can provide feedback within the Your Phone app under Settings -> Send Feedback.

Changes and Improvements

  • Based on feedback, we’re updating our Start menu tile theming logic such that the tile background for Win32 apps will no longer adjust based on detected contrast ratio, except in the case of pinned Microsoft Edge PWAs.

Fixes

  • We fixed an issue starting with Build 20236 where installing games from the Store to a secondary non-OS drive would result in the secondary drive becoming inaccessible.
  • We fixed an issue causing some devices to experience a DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION bugcheck in recent builds.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in some apps crashing on launch in the previous flight, including Microsoft Jigsaw and Microsoft Minesweeper.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in File Explorer having a transparent line across the top when maximized on systems with multiple monitors.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in win32 app titles being unexpectedly highlighted in the title bar after enabling and disabling high contrast.
  • We fixed an issue where the windows.old folder is not completely deleted when performing disk cleanup.
  • We fixed an issue where if you reset your PC then and re-connected your MSA, then your MSA picture might never sync down.
  • We fixed an issue impacting Windows Hello Face recognition if the device was trained in a different orientation than the orientation used at unlock time.
  • We fixed an issue where setting up a kiosk (assigned access) account wouldn’t work the first time you tried, only subsequent tries.
  • We fixed a deadlock that could result in unexpected CPU usage. If you continue experiencing other performance issues, please take a moment to file feedback including details about the issue you’re seeing, and a performance trace. More info about collecting a repro trace is available here if needed.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in recently some apps being slower to accept keystrokes into text fields.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in links from apps failing to launch the browser.
  • We fixed an issue from the last couple flights that could result in audio playback unexpectedly stopping.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in not hearing audio after streaming certain content then turning your Bluetooth headset off and back on.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in Movies & TV failing to play some recorded HDR videos with error 0x80004001.

Known issues

  • We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
  • Live previews for pinned sites aren’t enabled for all Insiders yet, so you may see a grey window when hovering over the thumbnail in the taskbar. We’re continuing to work on polishing this experience.
  • We’re working on enabling the new taskbar experience for existing pinned sites. In the meantime, you can unpin the site from the taskbar, remove it from the edge://apps page, and then re-pin the site.
  • We’re investigating reports that some users are seeing error 0x80070426 when using their Microsoft account to sign into various apps. If you encounter it, rebooting your PC may resolve this.
  • We’re investigating an issue where, after taking this build, no drives appear under Settings > System > Storage > Manage Disks and Volumes. As a workaround, you can manage your disks in the classic Disk Management tool.
  • We’re investigating reports that some screens incorrectly have black text on dark backgrounds when dark theme is enabled.

source: Windows Blogs

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20251

Hi All, last Thursday Microsoft released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20251 (FE_RELEASE) to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel.

As it’s supposed to go with the 1st few FE_Release updates lost of fixed no cool new features yet 🙂 hang in there 😉

All smooth upgrades here, just a weird effect during download/install, after completing the download phase, staring the install phase somewhere around 9% installing, some devices just start over with downloading & then successfully complete the upgrade process

Fixes

  • We fixed an issue resulting in the background of some dialogs to unexpectedly appear grey instead of white in the last couple flights.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the taskbar occluding the Power button in the Start menu for some Insiders recently.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders seeing a SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED bug check.
  • We fixed a crash with opengl32.dll.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in the Settings app hanging when checking for updates right after upgrade.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in the Settings app sending a notification that just said “new notification”.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the Search Indexer not being able to retrieve metadata from HEIF and WebP files, so you couldn’t search for those files using metadata like date taken.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the Cast to Device option in Movies & TV (and other media playback apps) not taking any action when clicking on a listed device in recent builds.
  • We fixed an issue in recent builds that could result in the screen you were projecting with Miracast freezing shortly after connecting.
  • [UPDATE] We fixed the issue causing Windows PowerShell to fail to launch for Insiders on ARM PCs such as the Surface Pro X .

Known issues

  • We’re working on a fix for an issue starting with Build 20236 where installing games from the Store to a secondary non-OS drive will result in the secondary drive becoming inaccessible. To prevent this from occurring you must change the default storage for new content to the secondary drive PRIOR to installing the game. This can be done in Settings > Storage > Change where new content is saved.
  • We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
  • Live previews for pinned sites aren’t enabled for all Insiders yet, so you may see a grey window when hovering over the thumbnail in the taskbar. We’re continuing to work on polishing this experience.
  • We’re working on enabling the new taskbar experience for existing pinned sites. In the meantime, you can unpin the site from the taskbar, remove it from the edge://apps page, and then re-pin the site.
  • We’re working on a fix for an issue causing some devices to experience a DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION bugcheck.
  • Windows Insiders on ARM PCs such as the Surface Pro X will notice that Windows PowerShell will fail to launch on this build. As a workaround, please use “Windows PowerShell (x86)” or “Windows PowerShell ISE (x86)” from the Start menu if you need to use PowerShell. Or download the new and modern PowerShell 7 which takes advantage of ARM by running natively. Plus the icon is prettier. FIXED.
  • We’re investigating reports that some users are seeing error 0x80070426 when using their Microsoft account to sign into various apps. If you encounter it, rebooting your PC may resolve this.
  • [ADDED 11/4] We’re investigating an issue where, after taking this build, no drives appear under Settings > System > Storage > Manage Disks and Volumes. As a workaround, you can manage your disks in the classic Disk Management tool.
  • [ADDED 11/5] We’re investigating reports that some screens incorrectly have black text on dark backgrounds when dark theme is enabled.

source: Windows Blogs

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20246

Hi all, last Thusday, a day later than usual, Microsoft released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20246 to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel.

This new Build is called an FE_RELEASE. You will notice that some features like the updated emoji picker, redesigned touch keyboard, voice typing, theme-aware splash screens, and others have been removed temporarily. “We look to bring these features back to Insiders in the future”. As an important reminder – builds from the FE_RELEASE branch are not matched to a specific Windows 10 release.

All smooth & fast upgrades here, reverting back to the old emoji picker feels kind of weird 🕰

Happy Upgrades & a scary Halloween Weekend!✨

Other updates for Insiders

  • Starting soon, the preview experience of the Calendar app will be removed in an upcoming update and return to its classic look and feel. Windows Insiders will see a pop-up notifying them of the changes to the preview experience. No action is needed at this time.  We appreciate all your great ideas and are excited to continue building the best Calendar experience.

Changes and Improvements

  • We added automatic Linux distro installation to the wsl.exe --install command! This means that users who wish to install the Windows Subsystem for Linux quickly can just type in wsl.exe –install into the command line and then will have a fully set up WSL instance ready to go, including their Linux distro of choice.

Fixes

  • We fixed an issue causing some devices experiencing a KMODE_EXCEPTION bugcheck when using certain virtualization technologies.
  • We fixed an issue causing devices running Malwarebytes Web Protection to no longer be able to connect to the network.
  • We fixed an issue causing some devices to receive a DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL bugcheck on tcpip.sys.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in the Pick Time button in the Windows Update dialog not doing anything.
  • We fixed an issue where hovering over a thumbnail in Task View would display an unexpected border around the item.
  • We fixed an issue where chkdsk could appear to be stuck at 100% due to not printing the message saying it was done.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in a crash when disconnecting certain audio devices while playing audio in recent builds.
  • We fixed an issue where the Windows Update page in Settings could fail to load if connected to a Wi-Fi network with no internet connection.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in Settings crashing sometimes when clicking the Update and Security category.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in Storage Settings unexpectedly showing incorrect category sizes (a higher number than what was visible in File Explorer).
  • We fixed an issue that could lead to a crash when managing partition size in Storage Settings.
  • We fixed an issue that stopped GPU compute scenarios such as CUDA and DirectML not working for some users inside of the Windows Subsystem for Linux.

Known issues

  • We’re investigating reports of installing games from the Store to a secondary non-OS drive will result in the secondary drive becoming inaccessible. To prevent this from occurring you must change the default storage for new content to the secondary drive PRIOR to installing the game. This can be done in Settings > Storage > Change where new content is saved.
  • We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
  • Live previews for pinned sites aren’t enabled for all Insiders yet, so you may see a grey window when hovering over the thumbnail in the taskbar. We’re continuing to work on polishing this experience.
  • We’re working on enabling the new taskbar experience for existing pinned sites. In the meantime, you can unpin the site from the taskbar, remove it from the edge://apps page, and then re-pin the site.
  • We’re working on a fix for an issue causing some devices to experience a DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION bugcheck.
  • We’re investigating an issue reported by some Insiders wherein the taskbar is obscuring the Power button in the Start menu. If this is happening on your PC, you may need to use the Windows key plus X menu to shutdown for the time being.
  • Windows Insiders on ARM PCs such as the Surface Pro X will notice that Windows PowerShell will fail to launch on this build. As a workaround, please use “Windows PowerShell (x86)” or “Windows PowerShell ISE (x86)” from the Start menu if you need to use PowerShell. Or download the new and modern PowerShell 7 which takes advantage of ARM by running natively. Plus the icon is prettier.

Celebrating with our 6th anniversary badge

As a thank you for being with us these last six years, last week we released a special anniversary badge to all Windows Insiders. Visit Feedback Hub > Achievements now to check out yours. Thank you so much for helping us improve Windows 10 over that time!

The Windows Insider Program 6th Anniversary badge, which shows a cake and says, thank you for flighting Insider Preview builds and being with us over the last six years.

source: Windows Blogs

Fix issues with modern authentication on Windows 10

Example:

  • Outlook Auth  => Needs Password over & over again or, very fast auth screen pop-up disappears without successful authentication
  • In settings /Accounts /Email & Accounts/Accounts used by other apps/ adding a work or school account does not work
  • In settings / System /Shared experiences the fix button doesn’t work
  • C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy\
    Is empty or corrupted

FIX for AAD accounts:

In an elevated PowerShell run

if (-not (Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin)) { Add-AppxPackage -Register “$env:windir\SystemApps\Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin_cw5n1h2txyewy\Appxmanifest.xml” -DisableDevelopmentMode -ForceApplicationShutdown } Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.AAD.BrokerPlugin

Fix for MSA Accounts:

C:\Windows\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.CloudExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy

Is empty or corrupted

In an elevated PowerShell run

if (-not (Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.CloudExperienceHost)) { Add-AppxPackage -Register “$env:windir\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.CloudExperienceHost_cw5n1h2txyewy\Appxmanifest.xml” -DisableDevelopmentMode -ForceApplicationShutdown } Get-AppxPackage Microsoft.Windows.CloudExperienceHost

source: <https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/troubleshoot/authentication/automatic-authentication-fails>