Nov 07

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

Oct 31

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

Oct 17

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>

Oct 17

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20236

Hi all, Last Wednesday Microsoft released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20236 to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel.

All smooth upgrades here, very fast download speeds, one device was ready to install after 12 minutes.

Friday an extra update 20236.1005 was released to test the update pipeline some reports here where the update took long on installing 100% before it showed the restart now option. https://aka.ms/AAa0ihm

What’s new in Build 20236

Change Refresh Rate of your display

You can now go to Settings > System > Display > Advanced display settings and change the refresh rate of your selected display. A higher refresh rate allows for smoother motion. The presented refresh rates can vary with the supported hardware on your device.

Showing the new refresh rate dropdown in Advanced Display Settings.

Other updates for Insiders

Improving your search experience

We’re rolling out a change to display some of your recent searches when you open Windows Search Box, to make them easy to get back to. This change is rolling out server-side to everyone on version 1809 and higher:

  • The recent list shows the last four items that you’ve searched for and opened from Windows Search Box, which can include apps, files, settings, and direct-nav URLs (for example, like “bing.com”).
  • You can remove individual items in this list by clicking the “x” that shows when you hover your mouse over the items.
  • You can disable the Recent feature by turning off the Windows setting “Search history on this device” under Settings > Search > Permissions and History.
  • If you’ve not used Windows Search Box before and have 0 recent items, the recent list will be hidden.

If you don’t use Windows Search Box often and have fewer than 2 items in the recent list, an educational string will display in the area to let you know what types of items will appear in the list.

Showing Search, with Top Apps, Quick Searches, and now, newly a Recent section.

This change is rolling out server-side to everyone on version 1903 and higher.

Updates for developers

The Windows SDK is now flighting continuously with the Dev Channel. Whenever a new OS build is flighted to the Dev Channel, the corresponding SDK will also be flighted. You can always install the latest Insider SDK from aka.ms/InsiderSDK. SDK flights will be archived in Flight Hub along with OS flights.

Changes and Improvements

  • To improve accessibility of PDFs for Narrator and other screen reader users, in the cases where Unicode is not provided by the printing application, we’re updating our Microsoft Print to PDF option to make an attempt to convert the provided font glyphs to Unicode.

Fixes

  • We’ve fixed an issue where after taking recent builds some Insiders received an unexpected Compatibility Assistant notification that “Microsoft Office is no longer available”.
  • We’ve fixed an issue where some Office applications were crashing or missing after updating to a new build.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in the same app update installing repeatedly on the previous build.
  • We’ve fixed an issue where some devices are experiencing a DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION bugcheck
  • We fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders experiencing an UNHANDLED_EXCEPTION in dxgkrnl.sys bugcheck in the last few builds.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in a 0x800F0247 error when installing driver updates.
  • \We fixed an issue that could result in sihost.exe crashing when trying to share an app via the Share option when right clicking a tile in Start.
  • We fixed an issue where if “Animate controls and elements inside windows” was turned off in Performance Options, dragging a tile to another tile group in Start would result in the dragged tile no longer responding to mouse click.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in Narrator sometimes reading out an incorrect number of nodes in File Explorer’s navigation pane (for example, saying 1 of 2 items, instead of 1 of 4 items).
  • \We fixed an issue that could result in the icon next to “Scan with Microsoft Defender” (when right clicking a file in File Explorer) being very small or large.
  • We fixed an issue where the icon next to “Scan with Microsoft Defender” when right clicking a file wasn’t updating to reflect high contrast when high contrast was enabled.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in File Explorer crashing when renaming a file.
  • We fixed an issue from recent builds resulting in clicking on items in Timeline not launching the corresponding app.
  • We fixed an issue from recent builds impacting certain apps with search boxes, where the search box would disappear when scrolling the app even if it was supposed to stay visible.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in intermittent connectivity loss when connecting to a PC via remote desktop connection, as a result of the connected PC attempting to sleep.
  • We fixed an issue where when using the windns.h API to discover services on the local network, the TTL value of the discovered service wasn’t used – instead using the default value of 120 seconds.
  • ]We fixed an issue where the “Listen to this device” checkbox state in microphone properties wasn’t persisted on upgrade and would revert to default.
  • We fixed an issue where adjusting volume also muted/unmuted when “App volume and device preferences” was open.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in the Network & Internet Settings Status page sometimes unexpectedly not showing all current connections.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in your cursor disappearing when typing into Command Prompt with a Chinese IME active.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in the touch keyboard sometimes not making any sounds while typing even though the setting to have sound while typing was enabled.
  • We fixed an issue where the French AZERTY touch keyboard layout was French keyboard is missing number hint labels on the A/Z keys, and the Select All/Undo labels were at the top instead of bottom.
  • We fixed an issue where the child keys on the Japanese 12-key touch keyboard layout weren’t following the updated key design.
  • We fixed an issue where Narrator was unexpectedly saying “Expressive Input Panel” when you touched a text candidate in the touch keyboard.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in the touch keyboard getting stuck in a suspended state after waking a PC from sleep, leading to it not invoking automatically when setting focus to a text field.
  • We fixed an issue with the updated touch keyboard design where when using Arabic the clipboard icon would appear on the wrong side of the copied text in the candidate bar.
  • We fixed an issue with the Thai touch keyboard layout, where the shift-state characters were placed in inconsistent locations on the keys.
  • We fixed an issue where when using the updated Emoji Panel design, Narrator wasn’t reading the category names in the Most Recently Used section.
  • We fixed an issue with the Emoji Panel when using Narrator, where after inserting an emoji, Narrator would then stay silent on navigating further to other emoji.
  • We fixed an issue where it wasn’t possible to use the arrow keys to navigate through the gif section of the Emoji Panel.
  • We fixed some contrast issues in the updated Emoji Panel and touch keyboard expressive input area when using high contrast.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in the Voice Typing settings menu drawing off screen.
  • We fixed a regression that was breaking NVIDIA CUDA vGPU acceleration in the Windows Subsystem for Linux. Please see this GitHub thread for full details.

Known issues

  • We’re working on an issue where new applications will fail to install with a Windows Installer service error on x86 systems. Windows x64 isn’t affected.
  • We’re working on an issue where when attempting to perform a Reset this PC using the Keep My Files option will fail with the error, “There was a problem resetting your PC. No changes were made”.
  • 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 experiencing a KMODE_EXCEPTION bugcheck when using certain virtualization technologies.
  • We are working on a fix for an issue where selecting an IME candidate or hardware keyboard text prediction candidate may insert the candidate adjacent to the one selected.
  • 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.
  • We’re investigating reports from some Insiders that they’re experiencing APC_INDEX_MISMATCH bugchecks.
  • [ADDED] We’re investigating GPU Compute scenarios, such as using CUDA and DirectML, not working inside of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).
  • [ADDED 10/16] 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.

source: Windows Blogs

Oct 10

Event: IT Privacy Debate – November 24th

Want to know more on how privacy and IT can work hand in hand? How GDPR “the right to be forgotten” works in an IT environment ? Are you responsible for the data of your customer? How often is you privacy breached? Does it matter? Do you have something to hide?

Wil je weten hoe privacy en IT kan samenwerken? Hoe het GDPR “recht op vergeten” werkt in een IT omgeving? En ben je als (externe) IT’er verantwoordelijk voor de data van je klant? Maar ook hoe vaak wordt er eigenlijk inbreuk op je privacy gemaakt? En maakt het wel uit? – heb je iets te verbergen?

Do you want answers to these questions? Register now for the IT Privacy Debate that will happen November 24th 2020 as an online event. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear from 2 top-experts on the matter and join the extended debate, where your questions will be answered.

Wil je de antwoorden weten op deze vragen? Schrijf je dan nu direct in voor het IT Privacy Debat die online doorgaat op dinsdag 24 November 2020. Mis zeker de kans niet om twee top-experten in deze materie te horen en een neem deel aan het uitgebreid debat op het einde, waarin jullie vragen worden beantwoord.

The 1st expert session is by Matthias Dobbelaere-Welvaert – Belgium’s most known Privacy Activist. With his ‘stop the fingerprint’ actions against adding biometric data he even brings this case to court.

De eerste expert die we aan het woord laten is niemand minder dan Matthias Dobbelaere-Welvaert – belgisch voornaamste privacy activist. Met zijn ‘Stop de vingerafdruk’ acties tegen het toevoegen van biometrische gegevens brengt hij deze zaak zelfs voor tot op het Grondwettelijk Hof. Met een nieuw boek op komst – legt hij even haarfijn uit waar het misloopt met jouw privacy.

For the 2nd expert session we signed up Peter Geelen – a well-known user community member but foremost an expert in Identity Management, Privacy, Data Protection and Cyber Security. He will talk about all you want to know on privacy & data protection in an SMB environment. On all you are allowed to do with data up to often made mistakes and real cases handled by the GBA

Als tweede expert sessie hebben we Peter Geelen gestrikt – een oudgediende in de user community maar vooreerst een expert in Identity Management, Privacy, Data Protection en CyberSecurity. Hij zal het hebben over alles wat je wil weten over privacy & data protection binnen een KMO omgeving. Over wat je met data mag doen tot veelgemaakte fouten en echte cases die behandeld zijn geweest door de GBA.

To organize the debate smoothly you can already post your questions here: Online Form

Om het debat in goede banen te leiden kan je alvast hier je vragen stellen die we kunnen meenemen in het debat: Online Formulier

Agenda:

• 18h30: Introductions

• 18h35: Session 1 | Matthias Dobbelaere-Welvaert

• 19h30: Break

• 19h45: Session 2 | Peter Geelen

• 20h45: Break

• 21h00: Moderated debate with the experts

When: November 24th 2020 | Location: Microsoft Teams Event

Technine is part of the Belgian ICT Communities

Oct 10

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20231

Hi all, last Wednesday Microsoft released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20231 to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel.

Smooth upgrades here, new OOBE customization options look neat

Few issues reported on OneDrive missing / crashing, Teams acting strange on a few calls where the active call windows goes invisible

Enjoy upgrading!

Make sure you check out the new quests in Feedback Hub!

What’s new in Build 20231

Improving relevancy of initial device setup

Based on feedback, we’re exploring adding a page to Windows setup (OOBE) to help better understand how you plan to use your device and aid in customizing your device given your intended usage.

Displaying a page in OOBE prompting you to customize your device by saying if you plan to use it for things like gaming or business.

This is the initial wave of work for this feature, and Insiders may notice different options presented in OOBE depending on what they select, however at this time Insiders will not notice any other configuration differences after exiting OOBE. We look forward to sharing future improvements in this space.

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. NOTE: You will see this feature if you choose to reset your PC and when you do a clean install of Windows. You can find the ISO for Build 20231 here on our download page later today.

Better Management Options for App Default File Associations

Enterprise customers can now modify file associations on a per-user or per-device basis. This change will apply to existing users as well as users with new deployments. This means that IT admins can set which apps will automatically open various file types or links. For example, this makes it easy to set Microsoft Edge as your organization’s default browser, or always open PDFs in your organization’s preferred app. Leveraging this group policy for the default browser and common file types means that your organization’s end users will not have to decide on these defaults themselves.

Deployment/Testing Steps:

  1. Generate Default Application Associations XML file by following this page.
  2. Manually modify the XML by adding 2 new properties:
  3. Add Version=”1“ to the DefaultAssociations tag.
  4. Add Suggested=”True” to any Association tag.
  5. Enable the group policy to set the default file associations by following this doc.
  6. Reboot or log in as the user.

Please note: If your device does not have this feature enabled, the policy will fall back to the default logic and will not respect the “Version” and “Suggested” fields of the policy.

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.

Updates for developers

The Windows SDK is now flighting continuously with the Dev Channel. Whenever a new OS build is flighted to the Dev Channel, the corresponding SDK will also be flighted. You can always install the latest Insider SDK from aka.ms/InsiderSDK. SDK flights will be archived in Flight Hub along with OS flights.

Changes and Improvements

Fixes

  • We fixed the vEthernet adapter disconnecting inside of the Windows Subsystem for Linux. Please see this GitHub thread for full details.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in your ALT + Tab order changing unexpectedly and leading you to switch to the wrong window.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in Action Center and notification buttons not being visible after switching between High Contrast Black and High Contrast White.
  • We fixed an issue where the “Show audio alerts visually” option under Settings > Ease of Access> Audio wasn’t functioning for incoming notifications.
  • We fixed an issue where if the PC was locked using with Narrator running, dismissing the lock screen wouldn’t announce the signed in username on the login screen.
  • We fixed an issue when using Narrator and logging in with Windows Hello, Narrator wouldn’t announce the error message if your face wasn’t recognized.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in audio and microphone glitches over Bluetooth for certain devices. As a reminder, when encountering issues in this space, please take a moment to capture a repro trace, as it helps the teams investigate. More details about capturing traces available here.
  • We fixed an issue impacting Task View reliability.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the Windows Hello setup camera preview in OOBE displaying in the wrong position if you rotated your device into portrait mode during setup.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in Settings hanging on launch for some Insiders.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in systemsettingsbroker.exe crashing for some Insiders.
  • We fixed an issue where the HideRecentJumplists MDM Policy wasn’t taking effect.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in duplicate cloud provider entries appearing in the File Explorer navigation pane.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in PDF previews no longer displaying in File Explorer.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the touch keyboard unexpectedly dismissing after setting focus to the search box in File Explorer.
  • We fixed an issue where when typing with the Chinese Pinyin IME, if your text included an apostrophe, then after finalizing your composition by pressing Shift the result would display a garbled character.

Known issues

  • If you were one of the Insiders repeatedly entering a temp profile with the previous flight, please refer to the following forum post to get your profile back into a good state. If you were not impacted, this issue will not impact you in today’s flight.
  • We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
  • We’re working on a fix to enable live preview for pinned site tabs.
  • 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 some Office applications crashing or missing after updating to a new build.
  • We’re working on a fix for an issue causing some devices experiencing a KMODE_EXCEPTION bugcheck when using certain virtualization technologies.
  • We’re working on a fix where some devices are experiencing a DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION bugcheck.
  • We’re working on a fix for an issue where after taking this build some users receive a Compatibility Assistant notification that “Microsoft Office is no longer available”. Despite the notification, Office should still be there and working fine.
  • We are working on a fix for an issue where selecting an IME candidate or hardware keyboard text prediction candidate may insert the candidate adjacent to the one selected.
  • 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.

source: Windows Blogs

Oct 03

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20226

Hello all, last Wednesday Microsoft released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20226 to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel.

Another smooth & fast update, speech to text seems to have been fixed for some, but still issues
Feedback hub item: https://aka.ms/AA9uq7i
Search results in start menu still get a square overlapped if you have the option ‘show suggestions as I type’ on for the hardware keyboard
Feedback Hub item: https://aka.ms/AA9ua7p

What’s new in Build 20226

Storage health monitoring to protect user data

Attempting to recover data after drive failure is both frustrating and expensive. This feature is designed to detect hardware abnormalities for NVMe SSDs and notify users with enough time to act. It is strongly recommended that users immediately back up their data after receiving a notification.

Image of toast notification sent to users when NVMe SSD abnormalities are detected.

Clicking on the notification or navigating to the drive properties page in Storage Settings (Settings -> System -> Storage -> Manage disks and volumes -> Properties) will provide additional details.

NVMe SSD properties page in Storage Settings, emphasis on the Drive health section, showing a drive health warning.

Other updates for Insiders

New Your Phone settings experience for seamless device management within the app

The Your Phone team is excited to rollout a new user experience for managing your linked devices with the app.  We are happy to announce with this new settings page, you can now link a new device, remove an old device, and switch between active devices all easily within the app. We’ve also made visual improvements to displaying your device list.  Now each device is identifiable on its own device card with your personally sync’d wallpaper.

Image of the Your Phone app displaying the new my devices section of settings.

This new user experience will be gradually rolling out to Insiders, so it may take some time to show up in the Your Phone app.  Give this feature a try and continue to provide feedback within the Your Phone app under Settings > Help & Feedback > Send Feedback.

Updates for developers

The Windows SDK is now flighting continuously with the Dev Channel. Whenever a new OS build is flighted to the Dev Channel, the corresponding SDK will also be flighted. You can always install the latest Insider SDK from aka.ms/InsiderSDK. SDK flights will be archived in Flight Hub along with OS flights.

Changes and Improvements

  • We’re starting to roll out a change that will turn off theme syncing. As part of that, you will no longer see “Theme” as an option in Sync your settings, and changes made to your background will not sync across device. If you have been using theme synchronization, when setting up a new PC or account there will be a one-time download of the last saved synchronized desktop background to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\WallpaperBackup if you need to access it.
  • Thanks for your patience – after making some reliability improvements, we’re re-enabling the ability for Notepad windows to persist update and restarts (if “Restart apps” is enabled in Sign-in Settings).
  • When you have a PWA installed from Microsoft Edge, Task Manager will now correctly display it under Applications instead of Background Processes in the Processes tab, and will show the app icon associated with the PWA.
  • We’re updating File Explorer so that if you right-click on a zipped OneDrive file that was set to online-only, you’ll now see an Extract All option, same as if the file was available locally on the PC.
  • We’re updating the new DNS options in Settings to make a static DNS entry required when entering a static IP, and to make gateway not a required field.
  • We’re updating the N’Ko keyboard layout so that pressing Shift + 6 will now insert ߾ (U+07FE ) and pressing Shift + 7 will now insert ߿ (U+07FF).

Fixes

  • We’ve resolved an issue resulting in Settings crashing for some Insiders when opening Manage Disks and Volumes.
  • We fixed an issue affecting Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 distros where users can receive the error: “The remote procedure call failed” on startup. See this GitHub issue for more details.
  • We fixed an issue where activating Speech Recognition under Ease of Access in Settings was unexpectedly requiring admin permissions.
  • We fixed an issue where after turning off “Drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop”, and opening Task View, the drop shadows would unexpectedly reappear.
  • We fixed an issue where pressing F7 in the File Explorer search box would bring up a dialog asking to enable caret browsing.
  • We fixed an issue where Focus Assist was considering Screensaver to be a full screen app and suppressing notifications when it was running.
  • We fixed an issue impacting explorer.exe reliability for some Insiders in the last few flights.
  • We fixed an issue where some of the apps in the Windows Accessories folder in Start’s all apps list would unexpectedly display the name Windows Accessories when pinned to the Start menu in recent builds.
  • We fixed an issue impacting taskbar performance and reliability on 2-in-1 convertible devices.
  • We fixed a few issues impacting Action Center reliability.
  • We fixed a couple of issues impacting Settings reliability.
  • We fixed an issue where the Settings icon was unexpectedly small when pinned to the Start menu and using the small tile size.
  • We fixed an issue in Touchpad Settings where the header for the Taps section was unexpectedly missing in the last few flights.
  • We fixed an issue with Meet Now resulting in the flyout crashing if you pressed the Esc key while it was open.
  • We fixed an issue that if Meet Now was opened before opening a jumplist from the taskbar, then ShellExperienceHost would crash.
  • We’ve made some fixes to improve accessibility of the Meet Now flyout, including updating the tab order, marking the image so it’s not read out by Narrator, adjusting the contrast of the buttons, making the arrow keys navigate between the buttons, and fixing an issue where focus wasn’t returning to the previous location in the taskbar after pressing the Esc key.
  • We fixed an issue from the last few flights resulting in some apps failing to install, citing a lack of internet connectivity, when IPV6 was enabled.
  • We fixed an issue with the new DNS options in Network Settings where switching back from a custom DNS to automatic would result in a loss of connectivity.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in not being able to insert the full-width question mark when typing with the Pinyin IME in recent builds.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in the Japanese IME crashing on initialization.
  • We fixed two issues with the Bopomofo IME impacting Shift and Ctrl key usage in apps when the IME was active.
  • We fixed an issue with the Turkish one-handed touch keyboard layout, where it was missing keys for ü and ö.
  • We fixed an issue when using the Japanese touch keyboard layout that could result in the spacebar UI appearing stuck in a pressed state.

Known issues

  • We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
  • We’re working on a fix to enable live preview for pinned site tabs.
  • 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 some Office applications crashing or missing after updating to a new build.
  • We’re working on a fix for an issue causing some devices experiencing a KMODE_EXCEPTION bugcheck when using certain virtualization technologies.
  • We’re working on a fix where some devices are experiencing a DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION bugcheck.
  • We’re investigating a bug where the vEthernet adapter in Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 distros becomes disconnected after a period of use. For full details please follow this GitHub thread.
  • We’re working on a fix for an issue where after taking this build some users receive a Compatibility Assistant notification that “Microsoft Office is no longer available”. Despite the notification, Office should still be there and working fine.

Thank you to the Windows Insider community for six years together

We’re excited to spend yet another year with our amazing community of Windows Insiders! In honor of our 6th anniversary, we’re taking a look back at your contributions and key moments from the last year in a special video and article.

Read our article and get our special anniversary wallpaper now.

source: Windows Blogs

Oct 03

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19042.546 (20H2)

Hi all, With 20H2 release around the corner, on September 30th Microsoft released 20H2 Build 19042.546 (KB4577063) to the Beta and Release Preview Channels for those Insiders who are on 20H2 (Windows 10 October 2020 Update). This update includes all of the fixes included as part of 20H2 Build 19042.541 plus these additional fixes:

  • We fixed an issue that prevents a device from entering Modern Standby.
  • We fixed a reliability issue in Microsoft Edge that occurs when you open multiple windows or tabs.

source: Windows Blogs

Sep 26

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20221

Hi All, Last Wednesday Microsoft released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20221 to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel.

Mostly smooth updates here, one device took more then 5 hours but runs fine now…

After the update, you might get a notification to help improve speech to text & notice when you select the button to to settings dismissed the message instead of opening up settings, I’ve already feedbacked that one: https://aka.ms/AA9qbe0

What’s new in Build 20221

Introducing Meet Now in the Windows 10 Taskbar

Earlier this year we introduced Meet Now in Skype. Meet Now makes it easy to connect with anyone in as little as two clicks for free and each call can last up to 24 hours. Today, we’re excited to share that we are extending this capability in Windows 10 by bringing Meet Now right to the taskbar. You can now easily set up a video call and reach friends and family in an instant by clicking on the Meet Now icon in the notification area (system tray) of the taskbar in Windows 10. No sign ups or downloads needed.

Create a meeting:

Create a meeting with Meet Now.

Join a meeting:

Join a meeting in Meet Now.

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.

Other updates for Insiders

Your Phone Notifications gets a new pinning feature

We are excited to announce that the Your Phone app has a new pinning feature integrated with the notifications feed. With notifications pinning, you can easily pin to save important notifications that will stick to the top of your feed so they are readily accessible and distinguished from the rest of your notifications.  To try out this feature, find a notification you want to pin and click the ellipses in the overflow menu. There you will see the option “Pin notification”.

Since the notification will now stick to the top of your feed, you no longer have to worry about losing the notification and can easily access the thread and use all your favorite functionality, like in-line reply.  When you no longer need that notification thread, you can simply unpin it by clicking the unpin icon.

Your Phone app on Notifications feature with Notifications menu pinning expanded.

This is a gradual rollout, so it may take a few days for notifications pinning to show up within the Your Phone app. Give this feature a try and continue to provide us with your valuable feedback within the Your Phone app under Settings >  Help & Feedback >  Send Feedback.

Changes and Improvements

  • As some Insiders may have noticed, we’re adding a notification to let you know when an app registers to run at startup (Settings > Apps > Startup Apps).
  • With most of the launches of the People app coming directly from within the Mail and Calendar apps in Windows 10, the People app no longer appears as a standalone app in Start. It remains as an inbox app and can be launched to manage your contacts from the button in the Mail and Calendar apps.

Fixes

  • We fixed an issue where the new Manage Disks and Volumes section in Settings wasn’t blocking the ability to change the drive letter of the system volume.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in Start menu, and Action Center being totally transparent when certain apps were open in the background.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in a crash when opening the Power menu in Start while running Magnifier at a high zoom level.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in a virtual desktop thumbnail in Task View showing an empty desktop even after moving an app over to that desktop.
  • We fixed an issue when typing with an IME into text fields in certain apps that could result in input no longer being accepted.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in the Chinese Pinyin IME candidate pane getting stuck on the first letter when typing into certain games.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in Windows Update getting stuck at “Downloading – 0%” for a long time.
  • We fixed seeing generic errors when using wsl --install in the Windows Subsystem for Linux.
  • We fixed a bug where the Linux kernel would not be installed when using wsl --install in the Windows Subsystem for Linux.

Known issues

  • We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
  • We’re working on a fix to enable live preview for pinned site tabs.
  • 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 of some Office applications crashing or missing after updating to a new build.
  • We’re working on a fix for an issue resulting in Settings crashing for some Insiders when opening Manage Disks and Volumes.
  • We’re investigating reports of some devices experiencing a KMODE_EXCEPTION bugcheck when using certain virtualization technologies.
  • We are investigating an issue affecting Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 distros where users can receive the error: “The remote procedure call failed” on startup.
  • We’re investigating a bug where the vEthernet adapter in Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 distros becomes disconnected after a period of use. For full details please follow this GitHub thread.
  • ADDED 9/24: We’re investigating reports where after taking this build some users receive a Compatibility Assistant notification that “Microsoft Office is no longer available”. Despite the notification, Office should still be there and working fine.

soucre: Windows Blogs

Sep 21

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20215

Hi All, Last Wednesday Microsoft released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20215 to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel.

At last Dark mode for search in start, so nice! even though it’s posted here as a feature of this build, it did show up for me earlier on the release-day still on 20211

Voice Typing still has some issues on some devices where the wrong interface show up failing to find a mic.

Other updates for Insiders

Windows 10 search now supports dark theme

For Insiders who have their system theme set to dark, we are introducing dark theme search results for the Windows 10 search experience on the taskbar. This server-side change is rolling out to all Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel. This change will make the transition between Start and search results easier on the eyes now that both support dark theme. Let us know what you think!

Showing Windows Search in dark theme.

Fixes

  • We fixed an issue that could result in the Windows Security app hanging.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in the Windows Security app crashing when navigating to the Exclusions page when there were a large number of exclusions.
  • We fixed an issue where using a restore point that had been created prior to a Microsoft Edge update to do a system restore could result in Microsoft Edge not launching after the restore was finished.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the text cursor unexpectedly moving to the beginning of a text field when typing with the Korean IME in certain apps.
  • We fixed an issue impacting Voice Typing reliability.
  • We’ve fixed an issue where on a small subset of devices the Start menu did not reflect when an update was pending restart and scheduled restarts are cancelled.

Known issues

  • We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
  • We’re working on a fix to enable live preview for pinned site tabs.
  • 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 of some Office applications crashing or missing after updating to a new build.
  • We’re working on a fix for an issue resulting in Settings crashing for some Insiders when opening Manage Disks and Volumes.
  • We’re investigating reports of some devices experiencing a KMODE_EXCEPTION bugcheck when using certain virtualization technologies.
  • We’re working on a fix for the Linux kernel not being installed when using the wsl --install command in the Windows Subsystem for Linux. For an immediate workaround run wsl --update to get the latest kernel version.
  • We are investigating an issue affecting Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 distros where users can receive the error: “The remote procedure call failed” on startup.
  • We’re investigating a bug where the vEthernet adapter in Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 distros becomes disconnected after a period of use. For full details please follow this Github thread.
  • We’re working on a fix for seeing generic errors when using wsl --install in the Windows Subsystem for Linux.

source: Windows Blogs