Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14951 for Mobile and PC

Microsoft release build 14951 to the Fast Ring insiders, here’s what’s new

A new bug bash week is coming up 8th to 13th of November

What’s new in Build 14951

Refining the customization experience for precision touchpad (PC): Since last week, we’ve continued working in this space, and have another set of improvements headed your way. To start with, we’ve hooked up our keyboard shortcut picker, so now if you choose that option on the Advanced gestures page, you’ll be presented a recorder so you can capture your favorite key combo –  perhaps WIN + Alt + D or WIN + F to start with? Secondly, we’ve added a Change audio and volume option to the set of basic swipe gestures you can pick from. Finally, we’ve updated the reset button to now has a progress circle and display a check mark when it is finished. We’ve also heard your feedback from the last flight, and fixed a few issues including that the reset button wasn’t clearing the settings listed on the advanced gestures page, that the 4-fingure gesture graphic was visible on devices that only supported 3-contact points, and that some of the advanced gestures options weren’t working as expected. If you have any more feedback for us, please let us know!

Windows Ink Improvements (PC): Starting with this build, pen dropdowns in Windows Ink Workspace will let you change both color and width without having to open it twice. After you make all the adjustments to your favorite pen, start drawing right away and we will dismiss the dropdown for you.

 

image: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/10/protactor.png

protactorWe are also introducing Stencils. Windows Ink protractor tool combines functions of both protractor and compass into one – now you can draw an arc or a complete circle of an arbitrary size with little effort. A familiar two-finger pinch gesture resizes the protractor to the desired size and a degree readout follows your pen, mouse, or finger as you draw along the side of the protractor displaying arc degrees. In this preview build, ruler also got a small update – its degree readout shows a numerical value of the angle, making drawing angles even easier.

[ADDED] Inking in Photos: With version 16.1017.10000.0 of the Photos app just released for Insiders in the Fast ring, you can now harness the power of Windows Ink with your photos! Not only that, but when you save the ink, it replays what you drew, so you can share it as a still image or a video. Add funny comments or accessorize your friends – the sky’s the limit! To start inking, pick one of your favorite photos, and then tap the Draw option. You’ll now enter the familiar Windows Ink toolbar experience, where you can select a pen, pencil, and one new addition: a calligraphy pen! Once you finish inking, press the save button and the ink will dry, thus becoming part of the photo. This version of the Photos app also comes with an updated the cropping experience, and we’ve added a whole slew of new filters. Have fun, and we’d love to see what you end up inking – share your pictures with us @windowsinsider!

image: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/10/WP_20161001_19_50_04_Pro_Ink_LI.jpg

Draw on photos with updated Photos app!Simplified, more familiar camera interface (PC & Mobile): The Camera app received a big update this week for Insiders. We’ve redesigned the Camera interface for ease and accessibility. Check out some of our new features:

  • Enjoy taking photos, videos, and panoramas with our higher-contrast capture buttons.
  • Set a photo timer right from the camera dashboard with our new toggle control.
  • Get to Settings faster! Now, launch into Settings directly from the camera UI.
  • Access your camera roll with one hand from its new spot on the screen.
  • Zoom more easily with the new zoom slider.
  • Make sure you nailed the shot, with a more noticeable capture animation.
  • Change between front- and rear-facing cameras with a more prominent button control.
  • On PC, use the spacebar as a shortcut to take pictures.

image: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/10/camera-app-update.png

camera-app-updateYou can now experience the magic of living images on your Surface, now enabled on Surface Book, Surface Pro 4, Surface Pro 3, and Surface 3! With living images, extend your still captures with a snippet of video. These are created automatically whenever your shots feature motion—just navigate to Settings and turn on Capture living images.

And this release features a variety of performance improvements to enhance your experience. We’ve added faster shot-to-shot support, improved feedback for saving large videos to SD cards, and improved camera startup time, among other improvements.

image: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/10/camera-app-update2.png

camera-app-update2Simplifying your developer experience (PC): We’ve done some underlying work, and now you’ll no longer have to reboot your PC after turning on Developer Mode! This means that you can start using Device Portal and Device Discovery as soon as the Windows Developer Mode package has finished installing, rather than having to reboot first.

Narrator improvements: This build includes a number of improvements to Narrator including multiple fixes to continuous reading when used in tables and on web pages, a fix for the Caps Lock + W reading experience so dialogs and other elements are read correctly again, and a fix so that reading hint text does not interrupt the reading of information by Narrator but comes after the main information is read. And Narrator now properly indicates when it is exiting.

Windows Subsystem for Linux: Today we are happy to announce two large updates to WSL!

  • Official Ubuntu 16.04 support. Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial) is installed for all new Bash on Ubuntu on Windows instances starting in build 14951.  This replaces Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty).  Existing user instances will not be upgraded automatically.  Users on the Windows Insider program can upgrade manually from 14.04 to 16.04 using the do-release-upgrade command.
  • Windows / WSL interoperability. Users can now launch Windows binaries directly from a WSL command prompt.  This is the number one request from our users on the WSL User Voice page.  Some examples include:
1
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$ export PATH=$PATH:/mnt/c/Windows/System32
$ notepad.exe
$ ipconfig.exe | grep IPv4 | cut -d: -f2
$ ls -la | findstr.exe foo.txt
$ cmd.exe /c dir

More information can be found on the WSL Blog and the WSL MSDN page. Other changes and more information can be found on the WSL Release Notes page.

Other improvements and fixes for Mobile

  • Following feedback discussing French punctuation rules, we’ve updated our French keyboards (with the exception of French (Canada), for which these rules don’t apply) to now add a space both before and after when using two-part punctuation marks, such as the semi-colon, the colon, the question mark and the exclamation mark.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the Camera shutter sounds entry missing from the Sounds Settings page via Settings > Personalization > Sounds.

Other improvements and fixes for PC

  • We fixed the issue causing PCs that are capable of Connected Standby such as the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 to sometimes bugcheck (bluescreen) while in Connected Standby.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in Forza Horizon 3, Gears of War (and some 3rd party games) failing to install from the Store with the error code 0x80073cf9 when the system’s app install location was set to drive with native 4k Sectors (or 4k sector sized drive).
  • We fixed an issue resulting in larger Store games such as ReCore, Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3, Killer Instinct and Rise of the Tomb Raider possibly failing to launch.
  • We fixed an issue where the console window (which hosts Command Prompt, PowerShell, and other command-line utilities) might not snap correctly to the inside edges between two monitors with different DPI scaling.
  • We fixed an issue where all agenda items in the taskbar’s Clock and Calendar flyout were using the primary calendar’s color, rather than matching their respective calendar’s colors as selected in the Outlook Calendar app.
  • We fixed issue where the Add PIN button in Settings > Accounts > Sign-in Options was sometimes unexpectedly greyed out for domain-joined devices.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in Groove crashing if you tried to reorder the songs in a very large playlist.
  • We’ve updated our migration logic to now include custom scan code mappings. That means that going forward from this build, if you’ve used Registry Editor to remap certain keys (for example, Caps Lock key to null), that change will persist across upgrades.
  • We fixed an issue Insiders may have experienced resulting in Adobe Photoshop Express crashing after clicking on the ‘correct’ button when trying to edit a cropped image.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in .csv or .xlsx files downloaded from Microsoft Edge sometimes unexpectedly appearing to be locked for editing by “another user” when SmartScreen was enabled.
  • We fixed an issue where enabling the RemoteFX adaptor for a Virtual Machine would result in it failing to power on with the error ‘Unspecified error’ (0x80004005).

Known issues for Mobile

  • Signing into apps such as Feedback Hub, Groove, MSN News, etc. with your Microsoft Account if you sign out or get signed out of these apps will not work. If this happens to you and you cannot sign in to Feedback Hub, you can send us feedback via the forums.
  • When rebooting a phone on this build and Build 14946 from last week, the device appears to get “stuck” on the blue Windows logo screen during the boot cycle. We have identified 2 bugs causing this issue and working to check in fixes soon. However, being “stuck” is only temporary. Depending on which device you have, your phone may be in this stuck state for 20-30 minutes, but it will eventually progress to the Lock screen. There is no permanent impact from these 2 bugs, just an unexpectedly long boot time. Please don’t reset your device! It’ll take longer to reset the device than it will to wait for the boot cycle to complete.
  • Excel Mobile will freeze after adding sheets and eventually crashes.
  • Insiders who have configured a data limit on their phone may get into a state where they receive frequent notifications about having exceeded this limit. To resolve the issue, please go into Settings > Device & Network > Data Usage and remove and recreate your data limit settings.
  • UPDATE: We are investigating reports of devices getting stuck at 0% while downloading this build. For more information – head over to this forum post.

Known issues for PC

  • Signing into apps such as Feedback Hub, Groove, MSN News, etc. with your Microsoft Account if you sign out or get signed out of these apps will not work. If this happens to you and you cannot sign in to Feedback Hub, you can send us feedback via the forums.
  • You may experience a crash while using the protractor in Sketchpad – we’re working on a fix.
  • If you have a 3rd party antivirus product installed on your PC – your PC might not be able to complete the update to this build and roll-back to the previous build.

Upcoming Bugbash

Just a heads-up that we are planning to kick off our next bugbash starting on Tuesday, November 8th and finishing at the end of the day on Sunday, November 13th. I’ll have more details in the coming weeks. Looking forward to seeing a lot of participation from Insiders!
Read more at Windows Blogs

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14946 for PC and Mobile

Microsoft released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14946 for PC and Mobile to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring, here’s what you need to know

What’s new in Build 14946

Customizing your precision touchpad experience (PC): Last week, we announced that we’d been working on refining your touchpad experience. This week, we’re taking that one step further. When you go into Settings > Devices > Touchpad, you will now find a section called “Other gestures”. In this section, you now have basic customization options for your three and four finger gestures. For taps, you can select between Cortana, Action Center, play/pause or middle mouse button, and for left/right swipes, you can select between switching apps or switching virtual desktops. Try it out and let us know what you think!

image: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/10/touchpad-1.png

Updated Touchpad settings.However, we know that some of our Insiders prefer even more control over their experience, so for those Insiders (and power users) we have added a new Advanced Gestures Configuration page. The page can be accessed via a link at the bottom of Touchpad settings page.

image: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/10/touchpad-2-advanced.png

Advanced Gesture Configuration settings pageThe Advanced Gestures Configuration page has more configuration options, including hooking gestures up for next/previous song, creating/deleting virtual desktops, or snapping windows. In addition to these new options, we’ve also updated the Touchpad settings to include reference diagrams to remind you of what to expect when you swipe with three or four fingers in a particular direction.

Known issues to look out for with your touchpad: since the last flight, we’ve fixed the issue resulting in touchpad scrolling being too sensitive in Windows 10 apps – appreciate everyone who shared their feedback on the subject. There’s one other known issue we’re looking into right now that click and drag with your precision touchpad might get misrecognized as right-click in this build. You’ll also notice that there’s a “custom keyboard shortcut” option in settings – that hasn’t lit up yet, but we’ll let you know when it does. Keep the feedback coming!

Separate screen time-out settings when using Continuum for Phone (Mobile): Today, we are happy to announce the availability of a top user request for Continuum for Phone. With this update, you will now be able to turn off whichever screen you are not using with Continuum – saving battery and preventing screen burn-in. If you are working on a Word document, your phone screen will sleep without any impact on your Continuum session. If you make a call, hang-up, or press the phone power button, you can keep right on working in Word with Continuum. And, if you prefer longer or shorter timeout values, you can change them independently for the phone and connected screen, using the settings found under Settings > Personalization > Lock screen. Have fun, and keep sending us great feedback on Continuum!

Updated Wi-Fi Settings page (PC and Mobile): We continue to make Settings more similar across Windows devices. We have added a new setting to the Wi-Fi settings page. When you go to Settings > Network & Internet > Wi-Fi on your PC, then turn Wi-Fi off, you can now select a time under “Turn Wi-Fi back on” to have it turn on automatically after the amount of time you choose. It’s set to Manually by default in this build.

image: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/10/wi-fi-turn-back-on.png

Turn Wi-Fi back onWe are also continuing to move functionality from the Wi-Fi (legacy) screen to the new Wi-Fi settings screen on Mobile. After you turn off Wi-Fi, choose a time under Turn Wi-Fi back on to have it turn on automatically after the amount of time you choose. Based on what we heard from customers in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, we changed the default setting from “In 1 hour” to Manually in this build.

Option to prevent autocorrection (Mobile): On your phone, if you see that an autocorrection is going to happen (i.e. the first candidate is bolded) and it’s not what you intended, you will now see what you originally typed as the second candidate. Tapping on that candidate will prevent the autocorrection, and the system will learn your vocabulary and get smarter over time.

Option to remove a word from user dictionary (Mobile): We learn from your typing on the phone and build up a local user dictionary that adapts the keyboard prediction, autocorrection and shape writing experiences to your language style. Sometimes you may type a misspelled word and send it as is, sometimes you may tap on a red squiggled word and then tap the “+” sign by accident. Both save the unwanted word into your user dictionary, and it may appear when you type something similar in the future. Now you have a way to manually remove bad entries: tap on the word you don’t like in the text box, and you will see a candidate that is the word with a “-“ sign before it. Tapping on that candidate will remove the word completely from your user dictionary and no longer suggest it.

[ADDED] Expanding our to text prediction to more languages: This has been an exciting build for keyboard improvements, and we’re excited to announce one more – with this build, we’ve updated the following keyboards to now support text prediction: Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, Slovene (also called Slovenian), Bulgarian, Albanian, Macedonian, Afrikaans, Galician, Basque, Swahili, Bangla in Bangladesh, Georgian, Azerbaijani (also called Azeri) (in Latin script), Kazakh, Armenian, Hausa (in Latin script) and Uzbek (in Latin script). If you speak any of these languages, we’d love for you to try it out and let us know how it feels (specific examples really help, if you have any). We’ll be watching the feedback closely and plan to update this work based on what we hear from you.

Important note about a change to automatic backups of your phone (Mobile): We have changed the frequency of scheduled backups for Mobile to once a week. Initiating a backup manually by clicking the “Back up now” button remains unchanged and works as expected. You can do this via Settings > Update & security > Backup and clicking the “More options” link at the bottom. As always, it’s good to do a backup of your device before updating to a new build.

 Other improvements and fixes for PC

  • Optional components such as Hyper-V and Bash should remain installed after updating to this build.
  • We have fixed the issue where signing into games that use Xbox Live would not work. You should be able to sign-in to Xbox Live in games in this build.
  • We fixed the issue causing Microsoft Edge to sometimes crash on launch, or when you type in address bar or try to open a new tab. You no longer need to run the PowerShell script.
  • We fixed the issue causing touch scrolling to be too sensitive in Windows 10 apps, such as Microsoft Edge.
  • We fixed an issue where Explorer.exe would hang when attempting to open considerably large .MOV files.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in the network icon occasionally getting into a state where a red X would display in the taskbar despite an active internet connection, until the device had been restarted.
  • We fixed an issue where if the device’s brightness was automatically adjusted after being woken from sleep, the brightness level shown in the Action Center’s Brightness Quick Action might not reflect the current brightness of the device.
  • We fixed an issue leading to Narrator not tracking focus on the Start Menu All apps list or tiles.
  • We fixed an issue potentially resulting in the “Open with…” dialog displaying with two entries for Calculator after tapping the Calculator key on a keyboard or running the Calculator app.

Other improvements and fixes for Mobile

  • We fixed the issue causing you to get into a state where text messages will fail to send.
  • When your phone is connected to your PC, long lists of captured photos will now load significantly faster in File Explorer.
  • We’ve updated Narrator’s reading order for Windows 10 apps which display an app bar on the bottom of the app, for example OneDrive, so now the contents of the page will be read before the contents of the app bar
  • We fixed an issue resulting in video thumbnails sometimes not being shown in WhatsApp – videos received from this build onwards will display a thumbnail.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in Camera app video recordings having a slight crackle to their audio in recent builds.

Known issues for PC

  • If you have 3rd party antivirus products such as Bitdefender, Kaspersky Antivirus, F-Secure Antivirus and Malwarebytes installed on your PC – your PC might not be able to complete the update to this build and roll-back to the previous build.
  • Larger Windows Store games such as ReCore, Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3, Killer Instinct and Rise of the Tomb Raider may fail to launch.
  • [ADDED] PCs that are capable of Connected Standby such as the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 may bugcheck (bluescreen) while in Connected Standby.

Known issues for Mobile

  • If your phone has additional speech packs installed – this build will fail to install on your phone with an 0x80188319 error. This is why we polled Insiders about language pack usage this week. Based on the response, we decided to push forward and send the latest bits. This issue will be fixed in the next build we release. NOTE: Removing speech packs will not correct the issue. Your device will continue to try and download and install the update and fail. It is recommended you move to the Slow ring until this issue is fixed. UPDATE – this issue has been mitigated.

Getting misconfigured PCs up to date

Some Windows Insiders who have pre-release builds on their PCs are not targeted correctly for receiving updates because they have not opted into receiving Insider Preview builds by having selected a valid ring or are in some other misconfigured state. To re-target these PCs, we are making a server-side change that will put these PCs in the Slow ring so that they can receive updates. Specifically:

  • Going forward, any build from our Development Branch installed on a PC will be put into the Slow ring. This includes if you installed a Development Branch build from an ISO or later reset the device.
  • For PCs on the Windows 10 Anniversary Update that were previously opted in to receiving builds but see a “Fix me” button on the Windows Insider Program settings page because they no longer have a registered Microsoft account attached will be put in the Release Preview ring.

If you would like to adjust these settings or suspend getting Development branch build updates temporarily (7 days), you can do so by going to Settings > Update & security > Windows Insider Program. To move to the Fast ring, a Windows Insider registered Microsoft Account must be attached to the PC. For enterprises running Insider Preview builds, you can manage this via these Group Policies documented here.
Read more at Windows Blogs

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14942 for PC

Last week Microsoft Released Windows 10 Insider Build 14942 to the fast ring

What’s new in Build 14942

Hide app list on Start: We are releasing a new feature that enables you to collapse the app list in the Start menu. This has been a top feedback request from Windows Insiders. You can try it out by going to Settings > Personalization > Start and turning on “Hide app list in Start menu”.

image: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/10/hide-app-list.png

Hide app list on StartPhotos app update: With the latest Photos app update on your PC, the Photos app on your PC is now more beautiful and easier to navigate!

image: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/10/photos-app-update.png

New UI in Photos app update

  • Photos now has a horizontal navigation bar that makes it easier to view memories by Albums and Folders.
  • Let your photo collection shine! We’ve got a new, light viewing mode for your pics. You can always go back to the dark theme in settings.
  • When viewing photos in full screen, we’ve added new animations in and out of the Collection view, making it easier to keep track of where you are browsing.
  • See individual photos more quickly with your mouse—and now we support full screen.

Plus, the Photos app is now available on your Xbox One! Show off a slideshow of all your OneDrive photos in your living room. Simply make sure you are signed in with your Microsoft account to see all your OneDrive photos on the big screen.

Refining your precision touchpad experience: Based on the feedback we have received, we have made some adjustments to our gesture and click detection on precision touchpads. This includes enhancing detection and disambiguation of left and right clicks, making two finger taps and clicks a bit easier, reducing false positives in our two-finger tap detection and improving our pinch to zoom detection. We have also made algorithm changes in an effort to reduce inadvertent zooming when panning. If you have a precision touchpad on your device, please take the opportunity try out with this build and let us know how it feels with these changes.

Improving the PC upgrade experience: Starting with build 14926, we announced that if you uninstall one of the preinstalled apps on Windows, that state will now be preserved after upgrade. With today’s build, we’re happy to let you know that we’ve taken that work a step further: after upgrading from 14942, if an IT-Pro has de-provisioned an app from your OS image (and you haven’t reinstalled it yourself), that provisioning status will now be preserved after upgrade, and the app will not reinstall. We appreciate everyone who shared feedback with us about this – if you have any other feedback about your upgrade experience, please don’t hesitate to log it – we’re listening!

New Windows Update icon: We have introduced a new Windows Update icon to match the rest of the new iconography in Windows 10. After installing this build, you will see the new icon when Windows Update notifications appear and via Action Center. You can also manage notifications from Windows Update via Settings > System > Notifications.

image: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/10/new_WindowsUpdate_icon_black.png

new_windowsupdate_icon_blackService hosts are split into separate processes on PCs with 3.5 GB+ of RAM: If your PC has 3.5+ GB of memory, you may notice an increased number of processes in Task Manager. While this change may look concerning at first glance, many will be excited to find out the motivation behind this change. As the number of preinstalled services grew, they began to get grouped into processes known as service hosts (svchost.exe’s) with Windows 2000. Note that the recommended RAM for PC’s for this release was 256 MB, while the minimum RAM was 64MB. Because of the dramatic increase in available memory over the years, the memory-saving advantage of service hosts has diminished. Accordingly, ungrouping services on memory-rich (3.5+ GB of RAM) PCs running Windows now offers us the opportunity to do the following:

  1. Increase reliability: When one service in a service host fails, all services in the service host fail. In other words, the service host process is terminated resulting in termination of all running services within that process. Individual service failure actions are then run. As you may have noticed in Task Manager before, service hosts can contain a lot of services:image: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/10/services_1.pngservices_1
  2. Increase transparency: Task Manager will now give you a better view into what is going on behind the scenes. You can now see how much CPU, Memory, Disk & Network individual services are consuming.
    image: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/10/services_2.pngservices_2
    To see the name of the service, click on the left-most arrow such that the Display name drops down. Alternatively, right-click on the header and select ‘Command Line’ to add the Command Line column. Service names will be listed in the format ‘svchost.exe -k <svchost name> -s <service name>.’
  3. Reduce servicing costs: Following reports of instability, service engineers, IT admins, and Microsoft engineers can rapidly pinpoint issues to the exact service and fix it.
  4. Increase security: Process isolation and individual permission sets for services will increase security.

Note that critical system services (services whose recovery require system restarts), as well as a couple of select service hosts, will remain grouped.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Xbox sign-ins may fail, as well, as a result of service host separation. To fix this issue:

  1. Run the following from an admin Command Prompt (or edit the registry accordingly):REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\XblAuthManager /v SvcHostSplitDisable /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
  2. Reboot the system, so that XblAuthManager now shares a service host process with Windows Update and Background Intelligent Transfer Service.

Expanding the Active Hours default range: We’ve heard the feedback that you like the control Active Hours provides over when your PC restarts for updates, however feel that that the default 12 hour range on PC is too limited. We want to accommodate various enterprise environments and schedules including those where employees have double shifts, so starting with Build 14942, we’ve changed this range for PCs on Pro, Enterprise, or Education editions to 18 hours. This means Insiders using these editions can now set active hours up to 18 hours from the selected start time (same as Mobile). We’ve added text to the active hours dialog so users always know what the default range is when choosing their times. We’ve also added the ability for the default range to be configured via new group and MDM policies (configurable up to 18 hours). New text will be displayed on the active hours dialog to indicate when the default range is configured via the policy. PCs using Home edition will continue to have a default range of 12 hours.

image: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/10/active-hours-change.png

Expanded Active HoursForm field navigation in Narrator: We are excited to announce that this build introduces form field navigation to Narrator. 

In Scan Mode, you can now use the following commands to jump to form fields:

  • F and Shift + F: Jump to next/previous form field
  • C and Shift + C: Jump to next/previous combo box
  • E and Shift + E: Jump to next/previous edit box
  • X and Shift + X: Jump to next/previous check box
  • R and Shift + R: Jump to next/previous radio button
  • B and Shift + B: Jump to next/previous button

Basically, the letter moves forward and Shift + letter moves in reverse.

Form Fields have been added to Narrator’s Search and Select feature which is available at any time by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Enter. Search and Select allows you to list items such as buttons, links, headings and other elements available in an app, webpage or document.

A new view is now available for form fields. The active view can be changed by pressing Caps Lock and using the up and down arrows to navigate the list of views on the keyboard, or single finger up/down flicks with touch.

[ADDED] Knowing where you are in the registry: For our power users, we have added something special in this build – Registry Editor (regedit) now has an address bar! This enables you to easily see your current registry key path, and copy it if needed. You can also paste or type in paths, and pressing enter will take you to that location. You can use Alt + D to set focus to the address bar.

image: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/10/new_regedit_addressbar.png

Address bar in Regedit

Other improvements and fixes for PC

  • We’ve updated Narrator’s reading order for Windows 10 apps which display an app bar on the bottom of the app, for example OneDrive, so now the contents of the page will be read before the contents of the app bar.
  • We fixed an issue where running sfc /scannow in an elevated command prompt would fail at 20% with the error “could not perform the requested operation.”
  • We fixed an issue resulting in certain areas of Windows 10 app notifications not doing anything when clicked, rather than opening the corresponding app.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in Personalization > Background Settings page crashing or showing a blank context menu when right clicking one of the recent images .
  • Fixed an issue resulting in Windows Defender’s Antimalware Service Executable sometimes using an unexpectedly large amount of CPU.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the Devices and Printers page in Control Panel loading slowly for users with certain audio devices.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in a small set of users seeing the NTFS partition of their external hard drive incorrectly showing up as RAW format.
  • Going forward from Build 14942, custom printer names will be preserved across upgrades. We’ve also addressed an issue where the printer queue name wasn’t preserved across upgrade for some printers.
  • Improved framerates when Game Bar is enabled for full screen games.

Known issues for PC

  • UPDATE: If you are having issues signing into games that use Xbox Live – see note above.
  • Check http://www.technine.be/2016/10/10/fix-for-edge-not-working-on-windows-insider-build-14942/ for a fix if Edge is not starting
  • Insiders doing web development may find themselves their local intranet server unreachable, as service host separation will leave the IIS World Wide Web Publishing Service (W3Svc) unable to start successfully. To fix this issue:
  1. Run the following from an admin cmd line (or edit the registry accordingly):
    1. REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W3SVC /v SvcHostSplitDisable /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
    2. REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WAS /v SvcHostSplitDisable /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
  2. Reboot the system, so that the W3Svc and WAS services share a service host process.

Read more at Windows Blog

Fix for Edge not working on Windows Insider Build 14942

 microsoft_edge_by_dtafalonso-d8rp9di
If you installed the new Windows 10 insider Build 14942 and Edge closes after a few seconds, here’s a quick fix
– Open Regedit
– goto HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\Local Settings\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AppContainer\Storage\microsoft.microsoftedge_8wekyb3d8bbwe\Children
– Delete all the sub-keys under “Children”
Ejoy Edge again 🙂

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14936 for PC and Mobile

windows-10-logo

Last week Microsoft Released Build 14936 to the Fast Insiders, here’s what’s new:

New Extensions in Microsoft Edge

We’re working with partners on adding new extensions and want our Insiders to try them out first! We have another new release which we need your help testing and giving feedback on before we publish to the general public: Turn Off the Lights is a lightweight and useful add-in designed for a more comfortable video experience. We also need some more help testing our other preview extensions: Tampermonkey is a popular userscript manager that lets users customize the content of pages across the web. Microsoft Personal Shopping Assistant is your smart shopping cart across the web, which collects your browsed products and lets you get price alerts for saved products and compare products between sellers. You can install this at the links above and try them out on any Anniversary Update build – send feedback to the Feedback Hub or @MSEdgeDev on Twitter.

Authentication changes affecting connectivity to NAS devices and home file servers

After updating to the latest Insider Preview builds, you may have noticed that shared devices on your home network have disappeared from your home network folder. You may have also noticed your mapped network drives are not available. If you change your network to “private” or “enterprise”, it should start working again. For more information on this behavior change, see this Microsoft Security Bulletin.

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) Updates

WSL will install Ubuntu version 16.04 (Xenial) instead of Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty) in an upcoming release. This change will apply to Insiders installing new instances (lxrun.exe /install or first run of bash.exe). Existing instances with Trusty will not be upgraded automatically. Users can upgrade their Trusty image to Xenial using the do-release-upgrade command. Full WSL release notes can be found here.

Other improvements and fixes for PC

  • We fixed the issue causing Narrator to continually speak the progress of a song e.g. update with the current time of the progress bar every second if you navigate to the progress bar while a song is playing in Groove Music.
  • We fixed the issue where using the tab key to navigate the Settings app wouldn’t work.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in Explorer.exe frequently crashing for some Insiders, particularly for those with multiple network switches.

Known issues for PC

  • Optional components may not work after upgrading to this build. To get it working again, go to “Turn Windows features on or off”, scroll down and check the right optional component and click ok.  After a reboot, the optional component will be enabled again.
  • Tencent apps and games will cause your PC to bugcheck (bluescreen).
  • Running sfc /scannow in an elevated command prompt will fail at 20% with the error “could not perform the requested operation.”

Other improvements and fixes for Mobile

  • We fixed the issue causing the pin pad to not be visible to unlock the phone even after rebooting the phone.
  • We fixed the issue where some phones lose the ability to use their SIM cards.
  • We fixed the mobile hotspot issue where it works the first time but subsequent attempts to use the feature won’t work until the phone is rebooted.
  • We fixed an issue causing some devices such as the Lumia 650 from failing to install a new build with Error 0x80188308.
  • We fixed the issue causing some build updates to fail with an 800703ed error code.
  • We fixed the issue where Action Center no longer closes if you swipe up on the empty space (area of Action Center that doesn’t show any notifications).
  • We fixed an issue where notifications were unexpectedly showing the app logo within the notification when viewed in Action Center.
  • We fixed an issue for devices that shipped with Windows Phone 8.1, such as the Lumia 930 and 1520, where if you plugged in a headset during an ongoing call, the audio would not be routed to the headset.

Known issues for Mobile

  • If you have your default storage set to a SD card for apps, installation of apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and WeChat will fail with an error. As a workaround, set your default location to your device’s onboard storage.

Another very important reminder about build expiration

We want to continue to remind Windows Insiders about the upcoming expiration of old Insider Preview builds. Since September 15th, PCs running really old Insider Preview builds started to see build expiration notifications once a day. Starting on October 1st, these PCs will start rebooting every 3 hours and then on October 15th – these PCs will stop booting all together. If your PC is running one of these old Insider Preview builds, please make sure you update to the latest build available via Settings > Update & security > Windows Update. Build 14926 and newer has an updated expiration date of May 1st, 2017. If your PC is running the Windows 10 Anniversary Update (Build 14393) in the Slow and Release Preview rings today – this does not apply to you and you will not be notified of your build expiring.

image: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/09/new-expiration.png

New expiration date
Read more at MS Windows Blog

Free ebook: Microsoft Azure Essentials: Fundamentals of Azure, Second Edition

We’re happy to announce the availability of our newest free ebook, Microsoft Azure Essentials: Fundamentals of Azure, Second Edition (ISBN 9781509302963), by Michael Collier and Robin Shahan.

Introduction

Microsoft Azure is Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, providing a wide variety of services you can use without purchasing and provisioning your own hardware. Azure enables the rapid development of solutions and provides the resources to accomplish tasks that may not be feasible in an on-premises environment. Azure’s compute, storage, network, and application services allow you to focus on building great solutions without the need to worry about how the physical infrastructure is assembled.

This book covers the fundamentals of Azure you need to start developing solutions right away. It concentrates on the features of the Azure platform that you are most likely to need to know rather than on every feature and service available on the platform. This book also provides several walkthroughs you can follow to learn how to create VMs and virtual networks, websites and storage accounts, and so on. In many cases, real-world tips are included to help you get the most out of your Azure experience.

In addition to its coverage of core Azure services, the book discusses common tools useful in creating and managing Azure-based solutions. The book wraps up by providing details on a few common business scenarios where Azure can provide compelling and valuable solutions, as well as a chapter providing overviews of some of the commonly used services not covered in the book.

Who should read this book

This book focuses on providing essential information about the key services of Azure for developers and IT professionals who are new to cloud computing. Detailed, step-by-step demonstrations are included to help the reader understand how to get started with each of the key services. This material is useful not only for those who have no prior experience with Azure, but also for those who need a refresher and those who may be familiar with one area but not others. Each chapter is standalone; there is no requirement that you perform the hands-on demonstrations from previous chapters to understand any particular chapter.

Source: MS Press Blog

Free ebook: Introducing Windows Server 2016

introwin2016

 

 

Fast Ring: Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14931 for PC

windows-10-logo

Yesterday Microsoft released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14931 for PC to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring.

An important reminder about build expiration

We wanted to include a reminder about build expiration. Since September 15th, PCs running really old Insider Preview builds started to see build expiration notifications once a day. Then on October 1st, these PCs will start rebooting every 3 hours and then on October 15th – these PCs will stop booting all together. If your PC is running one of these old Insider Preview builds, please make sure you update to Build 14926 or newer via Settings > Update & security > Windows Update. Build 14926 and newer has an updated expiration date of May 1st, 2017. If your PC is running the Windows 10 Anniversary Update (Build 14393) in the Slow and Release Preview rings today – this does not apply to you and you will not be notified of your build expiring.

image: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/09/new-expiration.png

New expiration date

Some items of note

This build doesn’t have any notable new features but we do have some app updates we think Windows Insiders should be aware of!

Feedback Hub Update: Feedback Hub has been updated to version 1.1608.2441.0. This update contains some highly requested features from Windows Insiders including dark mode, showing the original feedback author in the feedback details, and a settings page for Feedback Hub. To enable dark mode, just go into settings in Feedback Hub.

Maps App Update: The Maps app was updated to version 5.1609.2580.0+ last week. You can now you can check the traffic to your Home or Work locations at any time by tapping the Traffic icon in the app bar. You will see traffic conditions to Home and Work and your most recently viewed traffic cameras so that you can stay on top of the road conditions along your route. Additionally, the Maps app now follows your system setting for theme preference for light or dark mode. And you can choose to change the map theme too!

image: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/09/maps-app-dark-mode.png

Dark mode in Maps appSend SMS with Skype Preview: You can now try out sending and receiving SMS and MMS messages directly from a Windows 10 PC when Skype on their Windows 10 Mobile phone is set as the default messaging app. Give it a try and let us know what you think. For more details, see this blog post from the Skype Team.

image: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/09/Untitled-2-grouped.png

Skype SMS relayNative support for USB Audio 2.0: We now have native support for USB Audio 2.0 devices with an inbox class driver! This is an early version of the driver that does not have all features enabled, for e.g.: only playback (render) is supported with this version. Recording (capture) support is scheduled to arrive in later iterations. We encourage you to play with the driver and let us know what you think (using the Feedback app). If you already have third party drivers for your USB Audio 2.0 device installed, follow instructions in this blog post to switch to using the inbox class driver.

Other improvements and fixes for PC

  • We fixed the issue causing people to experience a black screen when signing out and switching to another user account and unable to log in to that account.
  • We fixed the issue causing the built-in Windows 10 apps such as Calculator, Alarms & Clock, and Voice Recorder to not work after updating to a new build.

Known issues for PC

  • While using Narrator and Groove Music, if you navigate to the progress bar while a song is playing then Narrator will continually speak the progress of the song e.g. update with the current time of the progress bar every second. The result is you will be unable to listen to the song or hear any other control you navigate to.
  • Oracle VM VirtualBox will crash on launch after upgrading to this build.
  • Optional components may not work after upgrading to this build. To get it working again, go to “Turn Windows features on or off”, scroll down and check the right optional component and click ok.  After a reboot, the optional component will be enabled again.
  • For keyboard users, using tab to navigate the Settings app will not work in this build. The arrow keys should work as a temporary workaround.
  • Tencent apps and games will cause your PC to bugcheck (bluescreen).

A note about Mobile

We are continuing to investigate two issues that came up with last week’s flight of Build 14926 for Mobile. After upgrading to Build 14926, some Insiders reported that the pin pad is no longer visible to unlock their phone even after rebooting the phone and some phones lost the ability to use their SIM card. In both cases, a hard reset of resolves the issue. Based on the feedback we received from Insiders, we have decided not to release a new Mobile build this week until we get fixes for these two issues.

Read more at Windows Blog

Update on WSUS 3.0 SP2 End of Life

wsus_w_logo1

Wsus 3.2 on Server 2008 R2’s end of life has been extended until 2020, keep in mind though if you are (or are planning) servicing Windows 10 you should plan moving to Wsus 4 asap, Wsus 3.2 can’t service Windows 10 upgrades (feature updates) and will not get this feature.

 

As you may have seen, there has been an update to the extended support lifecycle for WSUS 3.0 SP2 (WSUS 3.2).  We received feedback that ending this product’s life in July 2017 would cause a significant disruption for those Windows Server 2008/R2 deployments that planned to rely upon it until January 2020.  As such, the end of life for this product is now January 2020.

For those that currently rely on WSUS 3.2, please use this extension as an opportunity to plan a smooth transition to WSUS 4.0 (Windows Server 2012 or 2012 R2) or even our newest offering (Windows Server 2016) that will be available later this year.  Especially for larger businesses, migrating a WSUS hierarchy is nontrivial, and may take much of the extra time that has been granted for this operation.  We’ve assembled a collection of resources that will help inform your migration efforts; should you have any trouble with the process, feel free to reach out on our TechNet forum for assistance.

Finally, it bears repeating: if you plan to deploy Windows 10 your environment, yet are still using WSUS 3.2, then we strongly recommend considering a migration sooner rather than later.  WSUS 3.2 cannot today and will not in the future be able to fully support Windows 10 servicing (specifically feature updates), and in order to experience the true vision for Windows as a service, you’ll need to use WSUS 4.0 or later.

Source: Wsus Product Team Blog

Fast Ring: Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14926 for PC and Mobile

What’s new in Build 14926

Snooze in Microsoft Edge: We know you all love when we get creative with you, so we have added an experimental “Snooze” action on a tab in Microsoft Edge which provides you with a way to set a Cortana reminder on the website you are viewing. People often keep tabs open in their browser indefinitely as a “to do” list, and do not close those tabs until the action associated with that website is complete. This feature lets you put a site into a Cortana reminder that will show up as a notification and in Action Center, allowing you to quickly open that site in Microsoft Edge when you’re ready to get back to it.

Updated Wi-Fi settings page (Mobile): As part of our experience of unifying the settings experience across devices – we have updated the Wi-Fi settings page via Settings > Network & wireless > Wi-Fi on Mobile to match how it works on PC. The new Wi-Fi settings page isn’t complete yet as we continue to port over functionality. If need, you can fallback to using the Wi-Fi (legacy) settings page to access any missing functionality. In addition, we added the capability for you to connect to WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) networks on your phone.

image: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/09/wi-fi-settings-576×1024.png

Wi-Fi settings pages in Settings appimage: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/09/wi-fi-settings-new-576×1024.png

New Wi-Fi settings pageImproving your PC upgrade experience: One of the ongoing feedback items we’ve heard is how the apps that come preinstalled with Windows will reinstall after each upgrade – particularly noticeable for our Insiders that receive multiple flights per month. We’ve heard your feedback, and starting with Build 14926, when your PC updates it will check for apps that have been uninstalled, and it will preserve that state once the update has completed. This means if you uninstall any of the apps included in Windows 10 such as the Mail app or Maps app, they will not get reinstalled after you update to a newer build going forward.

Making pin login easier: Ever tried to enter your pin, only to discover the numbers you’ve been typing are nowhere to be seen because Num Lock was off? We’re happy to announce that that will no longer happen! With this build, regardless of your Num Lock state, numbers will be input if you’re typing into the pin password field. Let us know what you think!

[ADDED] New Extensions in Microsoft Edge: We’re working with partners on adding new extensions before and want our Insiders to try them out first! We have two new releases which we need your help testing and giving feedback on before we publish them to the general public. TamperMonkey is a popular userscript manager that lets users customize the content of pages across the web. Microsoft Personal Shopping Assistant is your smart shopping cart across the web, which collects your browsed products and lets you get price alerts for saved products and compare products between sellers. You can install these at the links above and try them out on any Development Branch build – send feedback to the Feedback Hub or @MSEdgeDev on Twitter.

[ADDED] Export favorites from Microsoft Edge: We have added the ability for you to export your favorites from Microsoft Edge to an HTML file. Just click the “More” icon at the top right (the three dots), choose “Settings”, then “View favorites settings” and you will see the new option.

Other improvements and fixes for PC

  • We fixed the issue causing Adobe Acrobat Reader to crash when you try to launch it.
  • We fixed the issue causing the Settings app to crash when navigating to Settings > Personalization.
  • We fixed an issue where Windows icons and text are not rendered correctly on some devices with Intel Atom (Clovertrail) processors.
  • We’ve improved scaling for full screen games where the aspect ratio doesn’t match the native display resolution, for example, when playing Counter Strike: Global Offensive using a 4:3 stretched resolution.
  • We fixed the issue where some people would experience a bugcheck (bluescreen) after plugging/unplugging certain types of Kindles such as the Paperwhite and Voyage.
  • This build improves the performance on websites with changes to large numbers of HTML Elements containing text by improving spellchecker efficiency. This results in substantially improved performance on websites like TweetDeck.
  • We have addressed the largest cause of reliability issues in Microsoft Edge running on Insider Preview builds. This should improve reliability on major websites such as Facebook and Outlook.com.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in certain links (for example, Facebook) displaying a default favicon in the Microsoft Edge Tab, rather than the logo intended by the website.
  • We fixed an issue where the Wi-Fi icon in the taskbar might show full bars when connected to a Wi-Fi network with low signal.
  • We have fixed the issue which prevented the wireless network adapter in Surface Pro 1 and Surface Pro 2 devices from working. This also fixes the issue with the Xbox Wireless Adapter for Windows not working. and other wireless network adapters from third-parties such as D-Link.
  • We fixed an issue where File Explorer’s “Open Command window here” context menu option was opening set to the C:\Windows\System32 path, rather than the desired directory.
  • We fixed an issue potentially resulting in the taskbar no longer auto-hiding when a full screen window has focus (for example, when watching videos, gaming, or when using Remote Desktop). Note: If there’s an app that is asking for attention, it’s by design that the taskbar won’t hide (so you can see that there’s something trying to notify you).

Other improvements and fixes for Mobile

  • We fixed a scaling issue on devices such as the Lumia 635, 636, or 638 where the bottom of certain apps, like Messaging and Maps, would get cut off and rendered off screen.
  • We heard you and we have addressed the largest cause of reliability issues in Microsoft Edge running on Insider Preview builds. This should improve reliability on major websites such as Facebook and Outlook.com.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the sound of key presses and lock/unlock being barely audible when the phone was using a moderate volume.
  • We fixed an issue where, if Quiet Hours had been turned on, banner notifications might not start appearing again until Action Center was opened or an interactive notification popped up and was dismissed.
  • We fixed an issue where Cortana would crash when trying to open Reminders page.
  • We have improved the reliability of VPN Settings page via Settings > Network & wireless > VPN.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the thumbnail for portrait videos displaying with an incorrect aspect ratio in the Photos app when panning through the Camera Roll.

 Known issues for PC (UPDATED)

  • While using Narrator and Groove Music, if you navigate to the progress bar while a song is playing then Narrator will continually speak the progress of the song e.g. update with the current time of the progress bar every second. The result is you will be unable to listen to the song or hear any other control you navigate to.
  • You may experience a black screen when signing out and switching to another user account and will be unable to log in to that account. A reboot of your PC should allow you to log in to that account.
  • Oracle VM VirtualBox will crash on launch after upgrading to this build.
  • Optional components may not work after upgrading to this build. To get it working again, go to “Turn Windows features on or off”, scroll down and check the right optional component and click ok.  After a reboot, the optional component will be enabled again.
  • UPDATED: After updating to this build, built-in Windows 10 apps such as Calculator, Alarms & Clock, and Voice Recorder may not work. To get these apps working again, go to the Store and re-download/install them.
  • For keyboard users, using tab to navigate the Settings app will not work in this build. The arrow keys should work as a temporary workaround.

 Known issues for Mobile (UPDATED)

  • Some devices such as the Lumia 650 will fail to install this build with Error 0x80188308. We are currently investigating this issue.
  • Action Center no longer closes if you swipe up on the empty space (area of Action Center that doesn’t show any notifications).
  • Using your phone as a mobile hotspot will work the first time but subsequent attempts to use the feature will result in the inability to enable the hotspot until the phone is rebooted.
  • ADDED: We are investigating small set of isolated reports that after upgrading to Build 14926, the pin pad is no longer visible to unlock the phone even after rebooting the phone. If you have hit this issue, you can follow the steps here for resetting an unresponsive phone (hard reset) which gets your phone back into a working state on Build 14926.
  • ADDED: We are also investigating reports that after upgrading to Build 14926, some phones lose the ability to use their SIM card. A hard reset also fixes this issue as well. See this forum post for more information.

Read more at Windows Blogs