Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16237 for PC

Last week Microsoft released Build 16237 to the Fast Ring Insiders & announced another Bug Bash!

running smooth so far just a few performance issue with some game vendors in the store, guess they will be fixed soon. enjoy upgrading & get ready to bash some bugs starting July 14th!

Today we are excited to release Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16237 for PC to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring!

Upcoming Bug Bash

We’re really excited to do our 2nd (and final) Bug Bash for the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update! The Bug Bash will start at 12am (Pacific Time) on Friday July 14th and will run a full week ending at 11:59 pm (Pacific Time) on Sunday July 23rd. As usual, we will be publishing new quests and will be doing some Mixer webcasts. So be sure to open Feedback Hub and complete as many quests as you can! More details to come early next week!

What’s New in Build 16237 For PC

Microsoft Edge Improvements:

Read aloud with word and line highlighting for all websites: With the read out loud feature for web, users will be able to read aloud any webpage with word and line highlighting.

PDF read aloud:  With the read out loud feature for PDF, users will be able to read aloud any PDF document with word and line highlighting.

Other improvements to address your feedback including:

  • If you click Share in Microsoft Edge, the Share UI will now match the Microsoft Edge theme if it is different from the rest of the system. Share UI will also now launch under the Share button, rather than in the center of Microsoft Edge.
  • When you add a favorite, you will get a delightful animation now that indicates where users can find their most important websites in the future.
  • We fixed an issue where copying double byte characters (for example Japanese or Chinese) out of Microsoft Edge and pasting into another app wouldn’t show the characters correctly in the second app.
  • We fixed a Microsoft Edge issue from the previous flight where opening links in a new tab might cause a new window to open with the link instead.
  • We fixed an issue from recent flights where the Print dialog in Microsoft Edge would show a blank preview page and lead to printing a blank page.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the Microsoft Edge context menu not showing up on pen barrel button tap.
  • We fixed an issue when returning to Edge after a crash. Your tabs will be automatically restored for you.

Windows Shell Improvements:

No more logging out to fix blurry desktop apps: Hey, do you hate having to log out and back in to Windows to fix blurry desktop apps after docking, undocking, or remoting? We do too! In this flight, you only have to relaunch these apps in order to have them render crisply. If you have a high DPI display (a 4K display or other high dots-per-inch (DPI) display, such as Surface displays) and change the display scaling value in any way (this can happen when you dock/undock, remote from a device with a high DPI display, or otherwise change the display scaling setting) most desktop apps become blurry. This is due to 1) the apps don’t respond to a DPI change notification, because they haven’t been updated and 2) Windows keeps the display scaling/DPI data that it reports to apps constant until you log out and back in.

In this flight we’ve changed the way that Windows provides DPI-related information to these applications such that each time one of these applications starts, they’ll get updated data from Windows. This means that for these applications, you simply re-launch them in order for them to render correctly if they’re blurry. While this isn’t what we all want: having these applications render crisply all the time, we feel that it’s a lot less painful to relaunch apps instead of having to close out of all apps and going through a log-out/log-in cycles.

Some things to note: this won’t work for all desktop apps (and doesn’t apply to UWP apps). Also, this only helps apps that become blurry after a change to the display scale factor of the main/primary display. This change, unfortunately, doesn’t improve apps that are blurry on secondary displays when in “extend” display mode. Please give this change a try and let us know if you hit any bugs.

Notification and Action Center improvements:

• We’ve adjusted our notification buttons to now span across the bottom of the notification, rather than being right-justified.

  • We’ve adjusted our notification buttons to now span across the bottom of the notification, rather than being right-justified.
  • We just made it easier for you to take action on your notifications by auto-expanding the first notification in each notification group in the Action Center. Now you can quickly triage your emails, snooze your reminders, reply to your texts, etc. without the need to expand every single one of them.
  • In response to feedback about the X to “dismiss” notifications being confusing, we’ve adjusted it to now be an arrow to make it more clear that the notification is actually being pushed to the Action Center to be reviewed later.
  • We fixed an issue from recent flights where if you received 20 notifications from a specific app, then received more (without ever clearing them from the Action Center), ShellExperienceHost would start crashing repeatedly in the background.
  • We fixed a recent issue where tapping on the chevron of an expanded notification in the Action Center wouldn’t collapse the notification.
  • We fixed an issue from recent flights where opening the Action Center might not clear the badge on the Action Center icon, leading one to later believe there were new notifications when there weren’t any.
  • We fixed an issue where Notifications and Actions Settings might have unexpectedly had a number of unnamed apps listed at the top in recent flights.
  • We fixed an issue where Windows Defender notifications might include unparsed parameters (showing a % sign).

My People improvements:

  • Notification badges for people pinned to the taskbar will now be consistent with the color of your theme if you’ve opted into showing color in Start, Action Center, and other places on the system.
  • When you receive emoji from people pinned to the taskbar, we now refer to this as a “pop”. You’ll see this terminology reflected under Settings > Personalization > Taskbar.

Input Improvements:

Emoji Panel turns it up a notch:

  • Type to search with the new Emoji Panel now supports emoji 5.0! We also added a bunch more keywords along the way.

Type to search with the new Emoji Panel now supports emoji 5.0! We also added a bunch more keywords along the way.

  • Have you ever wondered “What the heck is this emoji supposed to be”? Wonder no more! If you hover your mouse over any of the emoji in the Emoji Panel, you’ll now see a handy showing you the exact Unicode character name. Bonus: we’ve added tooltips to the categories so they’re no longer a mystery.
  • We fixed an issue for our dark theme lovers where the X to close out the Emoji Panel was black on black.

Improved touch keyboard experience:

  • We fixed an issue where the touch keyboard was passing the wrong window size information when shapewriting with the one-handed keyboard, leading to accuracy issues. Please try it again in today’s build and let us know if it seems improved.
  • As you type with the touch keyboard, you will now hear a sound with each key press – much as you did with the previous version of the keyboard before we introduced our new one.
  • We fixed some issues in learning your typing style, so you should find text predictions improved now the more you type and correct using the touch keyboard.
  • Since we now will relaunch the keyboard where you left it, we’ve decided to remove the left and right docked modes from the one-handed keyboard. As a refresher, if you want to move the keyboard, simply drag the candidate bar.
  • We improved the reliability of the Japanese one-handed 10-key Kana touch keyboard.
  • We fixed an issue from recent flights where the touch keyboard and handwriting panel would unexpectedly appear sometimes.
  • We fixed an issue where the text candidates would appear using unexpectedly small font.
  • We fixed an issue where only the one-handed keyboard was available on PCs with small screens.

Handwriting panel improvements:

  • We fixed an issue where if the text in the handwriting panel shifted while you were inking, it could result in an unintentional ink stroke across the panel.
  • We fixed an issue where a word might be inserted twice if you dismissed the panel by changing focus to somewhere else on the screen.

PC Gaming Improvements:

  • We have updated the Game Mode icon on the Game bar.

• We have updated the Game Mode icon on the Game bar.

Task Manager Improvements:

With Build 16226, we added GPU support to the Task Manager. We’ve made some improvements to the Performance tab, and in today’s build you’ll find:

  • GPU performance updates: We’ve made a few small changes in this build to the GPU performance tracker in Task Manager. We’ve updated the UI layout, and added more details like DirectX version and the physical location of your GPU. Only hardware GPUs show up in the list, and the software-only basic display adapter is hidden. More improvements coming soon!

We’ve made a few small changes in this build to the GPU performance tracker in Task Manager.

Hyper-V Improvements

You will see a new “virtual machine gallery” under quick create. There isn’t anything in the gallery yet and we’ll have more details on this in the future. In the meantime, choosing “Local installation source” will allow you to pick an image from your computer.

You will see a new “virtual machine gallery” under quick create. There isn’t anything in the gallery yet and we’ll have more details on this in the future.

If you’re wondering where the options for VM Name and networking went, they’re in the “More options” section which introduces another new feature in Hyper-V. Hyper-V on Windows 10 provides a default network so your virtual machines share networking with your computer using NAT.

If you’re wondering where the options for VM Name and networking went, they’re in the “More options” section which introduces another new feature in Hyper-V.

 Changes, improvements, and fixes for PC

  • We fixed an issue from the last flight where doing a PC reset via Settings > Update & security > Recovery and choosing “Remove everything” might put your device into a reboot loop. It is now safe to use this option again.
  • We fixed the issue causing some inbox apps to be displayed with a name that looked like “ms-resource:” and listed at the bottom of Start.
  • We fixed an issue from recent flights resulting in the Photos, Groove Music, and certain other app’s live tiles not working.
  • We fixed a high hitting crash impacting Start and Cortana in recent flights.
  • We fixed a recent issue where you’d find two Connect apps in Start – one as expected, with a blue app icon, one unexpected with a light grey app icon and non-functional.
  • We’ve updated Start so that if you press and hold on an app in the all apps list, the context menu will now appear after a moment, rather than first having to lift your finger.
  • We’ve added a new option to Cortana to enable or disable showing your cloud content in the search results.
  • We fixed an issue where Cortana search might drop the first typed character if Microsoft Edge was the foreground app.
  • We fixed an issue from recent flights where Alt+<number> wasn’t working in Win32 apps to input special characters.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the up/down keys potentially hanging input when used after typing something into certain search boxes that offered dropdown suggestions.
  • We fixed an issue where the Network & Internet Status Settings page might say a network was public even though it had been set to be private using the Control Panel.
  • We fixed an issue where the “More”/“Less” text wasn’t localized in the custom color picker in Color Settings.
  • We fixed an issue where switching away and back to Windows Spotlight in Lock Screen Settings resulted in an infinite spinner in the preview image.
  • In order to fulfill our promise to always ship with quality, we have made the decision to disable Chinese (Simplified) dictation. It will be back once we have had some time to smooth out the experience. Voice input for English (United States) will still be available.
  • We fixed an issue from the last few flights where Task Manager was frequently hanging on launch for some Insiders.
  • We fixed an issue from the last flight resulting in Storage Spaces unexpectedly erroneously saying there was no disk space available.
  • For Insiders flighting using the Pro edition on a Surface Laptop, we’ve addressed a recent issue where Win32 apps (for example PowerShell and Command prompt) were blocked by Device Guard after upgrading.
  • We fixed an issue some people were experiencing resulting in content copied from Screen Sketch and pasted elsewhere appearing to be just a black box rather than the expected sketch.
  • We fixed the issue causing Xbox Live in-game experiences such as gamer profiles, achievement details, and other dialogs to fail to load.
  • We’ve updated the Win32 MessageBox to now be natively per-monitor DPI aware! That means it should no longer be blurry when used in mixed DPI environments, or when changing DPI. Curious to try it? One place in particular MessageBox is used is in Notepad, in the error dialog that pops up if you search for a word that’s not found in the text.

Known issues for PC

  • Thank you to everyone who tested and submitted feedback on the Cortana Vision features –including the Camera Roll Insights and Cortana Lasso – which we introduced in Build 16215. These features will no longer be available in Insider Preview builds going forward. The cross device Map Handoff feature has also been removed from Insider Preview builds. You will no longer see directions shared with your mobile device after searching for a location on your PC.
  • We’re continuing to investigate reports that the battery status on certain laptops isn’t updating while the device is unplugged. If you think you are seeing this, please send in feedback via Feedback Hub and use the capture feature when logging your feedback so we can get your logs.
  • Depending on the implementation of the 3rd party firewall product, it might result in Windows Defender Security Center showing an ‘Unexpected’ state. We’re investigating options for addressing this.  Until that time, if you are using a 3rd party firewall product, and see this state in Windows Defender Security Center, please reference the UI of your 3rd party provider to understand your protection status.
  • In Recovery Settings if you choose “Reset This PC” > “Keep My files” the operation will fail at 1% and will revert with no changes to the system. “Remove My files” option will work as expected.
  • Apps that call into the firewall, such as Microsoft Edge and other apps that use networking, may become unresponsive until you reboot.
  • Trying to use the dictation hotkey (WIN + H) in UWP apps won’t work – you’ll see the UI come up and immediately dismiss. If you’d still like to use dictation, the microphone in the touch keyboard will work. You can right-click the taskbar for an option to show the touch keyboard button if it’s not already visible.
  • We’re investigating your reports that the Copy Link option displayed in Microsoft Edge when you right-click a hyperlink isn’t working in recent builds.

Source: Windows Blogs

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16226 for PC

Microsoft has released another Insider Fast Ring Build, and it’s a massive on…

Make sure you plan the upgrade when you have some time this one takes a while… but again well worth the wait lot’s of new cool stuff to test & report on:

(heads up it you have .net 3.5 installed you might want to remove it before you try the upgrade)

 

What’s New in Build 16226 For PC

New features in Microsoft Edge

Giving you more control over closing tabs: Building on our work in Build 16199, we’ve updated Microsoft Edge to ensure the X in the tab band is always available to close a tab, even when a JavaScript (i.e. alert, prompt, etc.) dialog is showing within Microsoft Edge. Additionally, closing the Edge window always remains an available option. You can also access many browser capabilities (i.e. favorites bar, settings, etc.) while a dialog is showing.

Making it easier to move from another browser: Users can now migrate Cookies and Settings from Chrome to Microsoft Edge, which will make it easier for users to make the move to Microsoft Edge as their primary browser.

More EPUB improvements in Microsoft Edge

Copy and Ask Cortana: Now, when you select your text, you can Copy and Ask Cortana in addition to adding notes, highlighting and underlining. Cortana can help you do a little research while you’re reading an EPUB book!

Now, when you select your text, you can Copy and Ask Cortana in addition to adding notes, highlighting and underlining.

Ink Notes: Got ink? Add a note and write or draw on it with your pen.

Got ink? Add a note and write or draw on it with your pen.

To see your note, just hover over the note button—no need to open it.

To see your note, just hover over the note button—no need to open it.

Books roamed across devices: Your books from the Windows Store are available on your Windows 10 devices, and your reading progress, bookmarks, and notes are kept in sync.

Improved Favorites experience in Microsoft Edge:

New experience when saving new favorites: You can now view your favorites as a directory tree when you save new favorites, and collapse or expand folders from within the “Add to favorites” dialog. Just click the “Save in” folder list to get started!

You can now view your favorites as a directory tree when you save new favorites, and collapse or expand folders from within the “Add to favorites” dialog.


Edit URL for Favorites:
You can now edit the URL of any favorite in the Favorites menu or the Favorites Bar. You can use this to update the location of a site that has moved, or to create Bookmarklets in the favorites bar.

You can now edit the URL of any favorite in the Favorites menu or the Favorites Bar.

Favorite manageability for Enterprise: IT admins can now configure favorites via group policy and mobile device management, including the ability to define and lock pre-configured favorites in addition to the user’s favorites.

Emoji Updates

Emoji 5.0! We have added support for the latest Unicode updates – including new snacks, actions, dinosaurs, and even fantasy characters like genies, fairies and zombies!

They’re all accessible via both the touch keyboard and the Emoji Panel. Bonus: Along the way, we also updated our emoji pickers to now make it possible to access the profession emoji and gender diverse options for some of our people actions (for example, you can now select male or female face palm).

Finally, we’ve tweaked some of our original emoji designs based on your feedback and to improve consistency with how the emoji is displayed on other platforms (while maintaining our Windows style).

New emoji include:

New emoji included in this build!

Examples of updated emoji – before:

Examples of updated emoji – before.

And after:

Examples of updated emoji – after.

Search for emoji in Emoji Panel: We’ve updated the hardware keyboard’s new Emoji Panel to now provide a search feature! After opening the panel via the Win + period (.) or semicolon (;) hotkeys, keep typing! The words you type will be used to filter the emoji displayed. If you close the panel by clicking “x” button or pressing Esc, the words will remain. We’re still working on enriching our emoji keywords – have any suggestions? Log feedback! Note: The Emoji Panel is currently only available when the en-us keyboard is active.

Search for emoji in Emoji Panel.

Dark theme for Emoji Panel: Do you love dark theme? Because we do ????. If you have dark theme enabled (via Settings > Personalization > Colors), you’ll now see the Emoji Panel background display using dark colors instead of light.

OneDrive Files On-Demand

Last week, we released OneDrive Files On-Demand to Windows Insiders running Build 16215 and higher. This is essentially like OneDrive placeholders – but better. This was a highly requested feature from Insiders so be sure to check it out!

Additionally, we wanted to make sure that our customers are in control of all file downloads from the cloud. When they use OneDrive Files On-Demand (or another cloud provider), and an app (like a photo editor) tries to download files that the customer has stored only in the cloud, we’ll show a message displaying: what’s being downloaded, which app is requesting the download, and options to dismiss the message, cancel the download, or block the app from downloading. (We also added a way to unblock apps in Settings > Privacy > App-requested downloads, in case you change your mind.)

 App-requested downloads with OneDrive Files On-Demand.

Touch Keyboard Improvements

Shape writing for more languages: In addition to English, Shape writing is now available on the new touch keyboard for the following languages: Catalan (Catalan), Croatian (Croatia), Czech (Czech), Danish (Denmark), Dutch (Netherlands), English (India), English (United States), English (United Kingdom), Finnish (Finland), French (Canada), French (France), French (Switzerland), German (Germany), Greek (Greece), Hebrew(Israel), Hungarian (Hungary), Indonesian (Indonesia), Italian (Italy), Norwegian, Persian (Iran), Polish (Poland), Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian (Romania), Russian (Russia), Spanish (Mexico), Spanish (Spain), Swedish (Sweden), Turkish (Turkey), Vietnamese (Vietnam).

If you speak any of these languages, please take a moment to try it out and log feedback. If you have anything you can specifically repro consistently, be sure to mention it in the problem report.

Note: For this and the below work to work, the language resources will need to be downloaded. If you upgrade with the language, it should happen naturally, but if you add the language after getting the build, you may need to go to Optional Features and manually download them. If language resources for that language have not been downloaded, then you will see the swipe pattern, but no text will be input into whatever field you’re typing in. In addition, you will not see any text predictions.

 Shape writing for more languages.

Text prediction for more languages: We also support text prediction upon your typing on the languages above and more! Please try out your mother tongue with our keyboard!

Touch keyboard for East Asian languages: Now the new touch keyboard supports some of East Asian languages such as Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese and Korean!

One-handed curve-flick touch keyboard for Japanese: We’re excited to announce that curve-flick input is coming to the PC! We’ve had this for a while on Windows 10 Mobile, and we know how much you like it, so with today’s build you’ll now be able to use it with the Japanese one-handed keyboard on PC too ^_^. For those who are unfamiliar with it, curve-flick input is an advanced method for quickly inputting Japanese Kana. If you’ve ever used flick input with your phone, please try it out today on your PC and share feedback! (and, if you’ve never tried it on your phone, share your feedback too! We love to hear your thoughts).

 One-handed curve-flick touch keyboard for Japanese.

Moving with ease: We’ve made some adjustments based on your feedback. First: you no longer need to hold the move icon to move the touch keyboard. We’ve removed that, and now you can just grab anywhere on the candidate pane that doesn’t have predictions, and place the keyboard where you want. Second: when using the one-handed keyboard, you’ll find that the left-most option is now “undocked”. If you use this option, then whenever you relaunch the touch keyboard it will appear back in the location it’d been in before being dismissed.

Shifting up a gear: We’ve heard your feedback, and we’re very excited to let you know that with this build of Windows, you can now use the shift key to cycle between capitalization states – just like on W10M!

Updated settings flyout: We’ve updated the design of our settings flyout so you can now easily access Language Settings, Keyboard Settings, or help if needed.

 We’ve updated the design of our settings flyout so you can now easily access Language Settings, Keyboard Settings, or help if needed.

Other UI and reliability improvements including:

  • We fixed an issue where the X to close would turn white on white if you hovered a mouse over it.
  • We fixed an issue where the touch keyboard would stop launching after you had used the Emoji Panel.
  • We’ve adjusted the emoji section so that it now scrolls horizontally.
  • We’ve added more padding to the emoji section when using the one-handed keyboard.
  • We’ve added a language key to the one-handed keyboard for easier language switching.
  • The emoji section will now stay open after you input an emoji, so you can enter all the emoji you want at once.
  • We’ve adjusted the size of our wide keyboard layout to be a bit bigger.

Refining handwriting and pen interactions in Windows 10

Handwriting panel improvements:

  • You can now erase words in the handwriting panel with the back of your pen.
  • We’ve updated the processed text in the handwriting panel to now be drawn using Segoe UI.
  • We fixed an issue where the font would sometimes be an unexpected size when selecting text and seeing it appear in the handwriting panel.
  • As a result of your feedback, we’ve updated the English mode button in the Chinese handwriting panel to now use “中“ and “英” as a label, instead of “全部”.

Pen scrolling now works in Win32 apps: Building on what we lit up with 16215, you can now use your pen to scroll in File Explorer and other win32 apps.

Windows Sonic spatial sound on PC

Windows Sonic, available in the Windows 10 Creators Update, is now even easier to enable with this update. Plug in a pair of headphones, right-click the sound icon in the notification area, and select Spatial sound to choose your preferred format. You can also configure your 5.1, 7.1, or Dolby Atmos for home theater from this menu if it’s your currently selected default endpoint. You can learn more about Windows Sonic here.

Gaming Improvements

New help options: We have added a new “Xbox Networking” section under Settings > Gaming. Here, we’ll help you attempt to identify and resolve issues preventing you from using voice chatting and playing multiplayer games with other Xbox Live users.

Xbox Networking settings page.

Track your GPU performance: For the Task Manager fans out there, we’re happy to share that we’ve heard your feedback and we’ve updated Task Manager to now include GPU info. Our engineering team used the feedback you gave us that is part of this Feedback Collection https://aka.ms/olx5pn to prioritize and to design the feature – thank you! The Performance tab shows GPU utilization information for each separate GPU component (such as 3D and Video encode/decode), as well as graphics memory usage stats. The Details tab shows you GPU utilization info for each process. Please note that this feature is still under construction and you will find issues and bugs, as always please send us feedback in Feedback Hub under Desktop Environment > Task manager.

Track your GPU performance in Task Manager.

[ADDED 6/22] Grouped processes in Task Manager: With Build 16215, we announced that Runtime Broker was going per app. Between this and some of the feedback for our apps, we’ve heard that you’d like to have all of each app’s processes grouped in a single collection for easy management. So we did just that! Check it out in Build 16226 by opening a bunch of Microsoft Edge tabs and windows, and let us know how it’s working for you! We’ve also added logic to show browser tab names where available, so you can easily know what you’re looking at.

Settings Improvements

Storage Sense update: Head to Settings > System > Storage > Storage Sense and you’ll find:

  • Delete your previous versions of Windows straight from Storage Sense: With all the work we’ve been doing to enhance Storage Sense features for freeing up space, we felt it just made sense to bring in windows.old clean up too.
  • A new look: Since we’ve added a few new features, we’ve tweaked the design a bit to make everything fit together a bit neater.

Storage Sense updates.

New Remote Desktop Settings Page: As part of our ongoing effort to converge Settings and Control Panel, you can now enable Remote Desktop and configure related settings from Settings > System > Remote Desktop!  We’ve improved this page from its counterpart in Control Panel to help you more easily establish a remote connection to your PC from a Remote Desktop client application. On the new Remote Desktop settings page, you can find associated settings like sleep (“Keep my PC awake for connections when it is plugged in”) and PC discoverability to help you know if your PC is remotely accessible. We also surface your PC name on this page, which you will need to connect from the RD client applications.

Improving your update experience: If an update has failed, when available, to help you better understand what went wrong we will now use a plain text string to describe the error that was encountered. This text, and the error code if visible, will now be selectable so you can easily copy and paste it elsewhere.

Shell Improvements

Reveal: The new Reveal Highlight  behavior is an interaction visualization that helps guide users. Reveal is now enabled by default on ListView and other XAML collection controls in experiences that target the Fall Creators Update.

The new Reveal Highlight behavior is an interaction visualization that helps guide users.

Note: This gif is from our UWP Style Guide, and showcases both the use of Acrylic material, and the use of Reveal. With this update, we are only enabling Reveal by default.

Updated File Explorer context menu: You can now Share a file in File Explorer via the right-click context menu! Right-click on a file in File Explorer or on the Desktop to bring up the context menu, then share away. NOTE: “Share with” in the context menu has been changed to “Give access to”.

Updated File Explorer context menu.

My People Improvements:

  • We’ve added text to the overflow area in the People flyout to make it more clear the people listed there are pinned.
  • We’ve updated the “Switch apps” button in the People flyout to now use the a hamburger icon, to make it more visually distinct from the back button.
  • If you right-click the taskbar, you’ll now find an option to easily turn on or off People.
  • We fixed an issue from the last flight where the People flyout would crash if you tapped “Find and pin contacts”.

Calculator cashes in with a Currency Converter feature

Since the launch of Windows 10, one of the top customer feedback requests we get is to include a Currency Converter function in Calculator.  Wait no longer!  As of desktop version 10.1706.1602.0 (included with the Fall Creators Update, available for update via store as we speak), you’ll find “Currency” as the top item under the “Converters” menu.  It does most everything you’d expect from a Currency Converter, all expressed within the fresh and shiny Fluent Design System we rolled out last month.  One aspect of the feature that we think is interesting is an offline mode…so if you’re roaming internationally and want to see how much that train ticket or souvenir is going to cost without rolling up extra data charges, we’ve got you covered.  As ever, we value and await your feedback on this new feature, so send us your thoughts via Feedback Hub or Store Review!

Currency Converter function in now available in Calculator.

Ease of Access Improvements:

Narrator gains auto-captioning: Narrator can now use artificial intelligence to generate descriptions for images that lack alternative text! The service also includes the ability to extract text from images using optical character recognition. Want to try it out? Turn on Narrator, set focus to the image below, then press Capslock + Shift + D to hear its description. You will need to be connected to the internet for it to work.

Meow.

Improved bitmap scaling for Magnifier: Text will now appear smoother when magnified using Magnifier. To enable or disable this, go to Settings > Ease of Access > Magnifier > “Enable bitmap smoothing”.

Improvements for IT Pros

Windows 10 and SMB1: As part of a multi-year security plan, we are removing the SMB1 networking protocol from Windows by default. This build has this change, however the change only affects clean installations of Windows, not upgrades. We are making this change to reduce the attack surface of the OS. Here are some more details to take note of:

  • All Home and Professional editions now have the SMB1 server component uninstalled by default. The SMB1 client remains installed. This means you can connect to devices from Windows 10 using SMB1, but nothing can connect to Windows 10 using SMB1. We still recommend you uninstall SMB1 if you are not using it. In a later feature update of Windows 10, we may uninstall SMB1 client if we detect that you are not using it.
  • All Enterprise and Education editions have SMB1 totally uninstalled by default.
  • The removal of SMB1 means the removal of the legacy Computer Browser service. The Computer Browser depends exclusively on SMB1 and cannot function without it.

For more information on why SMB1 is being removed, see: https://aka.ms/stopusingsmb1

For more information on software and devices that require SMB1, see https://aka.ms/stillneedssmb1

Hyper-V Improvements: Share your VMs with ease with the new VM Sharing feature! On today’s build you’ll find a new icon in Virtual Machine Connection that will compress your VM into a “.vmcz” file. Double click this file on your destination machine to start importing the VM – easy as that!

: Share your VMs with ease with the new VM Sharing feature!

 

Japanese Input Method Editor (IME) Improvements:

Enhanced learning for predictive input: The IME now understands when you use predictive candidates followed by backspaces, and will adjust the candidates accordingly so you don’t have to repeat candidate selection and backspace each time you frequently want to use only part of a particular predictive candidate.

The IME now understands when you use predictive candidates followed by backspaces.

English predictive candidates with spelling correction: With the Anniversary Update, we added a feature to show English words along with Japanese words in Japanese IME’s predictive candidates. We’ve been improving it over time, and with this release we’re now enable spelling corrections for English candidates as well, so that even if you make a typo we’ll still suggest the appropriate English words. For example “appointment” and “appointments” are shown if you type “apointmen”.

English predictive candidates with spelling correction.

Search from Japanese IME Candidate List: We added the ability to execute search from the predictive candidate window. Specifically, text candidates you’re are not familiar with can now be easily searched from the IME UI. To search for a definition, click on the search icon shown next to the candidate, or highlight the candidate and press the shortcut key (Ctrl + B). Search results will open in browser.

Search from Japanese IME Candidate List.

Also when the comment window is displayed during conversion, you can search about the word by clicking the candidate in the comment window.

[ADDED] Mixed Reality Improvements

  • The Mixed Reality software download issue has been fixed. The workaround that has been provided for the last flight can be removed. You could directly upgrade to Build 16226 and get the Mixed Reality software.
  • 360 Video issue with video quality has also been fixed.
  • New Teleportation Model also introduced in this flight, where we transitioned to a much easier teleportation and navigation model only using the left joystick.
  • Speech improvements where we have improved the speech interaction experience through out Mixed Reality platform.
  • Headset Reliability Improvement where we are going to continuously improve on this in future flights.
  • We also fixed issues when trying to get out of limited mode.
  • We fixed the issue where the Mixed Reality Portal does not shut down cleanly.
  • We fixed the issue where Cortana now opens up apps correctly within the Mixed Reality environment.
  • We fixed the issue where there is multiple gaze cursor in exclusive mode apps.
  • We also fixed the issue where the Boundary is set smaller than the actual.

More information for Mixed Reality developers can be found here.

Changes, improvements, and fixes for PC

  • If you were impacted by the issue causing your upgrade to get stuck or hung at around 33% trying to update to Build 16215, we fixed the issue and you should be able to upgrade to this build (Build 16226) without getting stuck at 33%.
  • We fixed the issue causing PCs to bugcheck (GSOD) with inaccessible boot device on install, and the Windows Update error 0x80070643 after rollback.
  • We fixed an issue preventing PDFs from opening in Microsoft Edge on some devices with enterprise configurations.
  • We fixed the issue causing some PDFs and sites to open in a cropped view (zoomed in) in Microsoft Edge, causing part of the content to be inaccessible to the user.
  • We fixed an issue from the previous flight where accented characters couldn’t be input properly into Win32 apps using the hardware keyboard.
  • We fixed a Hyper-V issue resulting in some Insiders not being able to connect to VMs in the last flight.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in Start not working for a small percentage of Insiders on the last flight.
  • We’ve adjusted the application of Fluent Design in Start and Action Center to now be a touch more transparent and let more of the underlying color through. Along the way we also updated the Action Center to use the newer conscientious XAML scrollbar design.
  • We fixed an issue where notifications in the Action Center lost their outline if acrylic fell back to having no transparency, for example on battery saver. We also fixed an issue where the Action Center background might become 100% transparent.
  • We fixed an issue from the previous flight wherein you couldn’t expand notifications displayed in the Action Center.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in some inbox apps unexpectedly appearing to be missing after upgrading to 16215 (although Store said they were installed).
  • Snipping tool is now natively per-monitor DPI aware! That means it should no longer be blurry when used in mixed DPI environments, or when changing DPI.
  • We’ve gone through all our image resource files and removed unneeded XMP metadata.
  • We fixed an issue where some of the older control panel dialogs were unexpectedly showing grey sections instead of white.
  • We fixed an issue from recent flights where selecting “Restart” in the power options list with a pending update had the same effect as “Restart and Update”.
  • When you right-click the network icon in the system tray, “Open Network and Sharing Center” will now open Network & Internet Settings.
  • We fixed an issue where the Start Fresh page was included in Microsoft Edge’s recovery store, leading to potentially multiple Start Fresh pages being visible in each window after Microsoft Edge was reopened.
  • We fixed an issue where the red heart emoji was displayed in superscript.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in ink lag and short ink strokes not being detected in recent flights.
  • We fixed an issue where there was an unexpected Microsoft Text Input Application visible in Start after using the touch keyboard.
  • We fixed an issue from the last flight where Chinese IMEs would hang when typing into Cortana. We also fixed an issue that generally could make the Chinese IMEs hang when typing on the last flight.
  • We fixed an issue for some input methods in the last flight resulting in certain apps crashing if you switched to that input method while the app had focus.
  • We fixed an issue where Cortana’s search box could end up in the wrong place if you set focus to it then brought up the Emoji Panel.
  • We’ve updated the casing of the Settings category “Update & security” to now be “Update & Security” based on your feedback. We also fixed an issue from the last flight where it might hang when you tried to open this category.
  • We fixed an issue where the OS Build Info link on Windows Update Settings didn’t do anything when clicked.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the top border of UWP apps sometimes being an unexpected color.
  • We fixed an issue from 16215 where our mini-surveys (we call SIUFs) weren’t popping after the computer had been locked and unlocked.
  • We fixed an issue from 16215 where any external monitor connected to a DisplayLink dock wasn’t working and you’d just see a static logon screen.
  • We fixed an issue from 16215 due to a driver issue where Wi-Fi wasn’t working on certain devices like the Surface Pro 1 and Surface Pro 2 and some USB devices.
  • We fixed an issue from 16215 where printing wasn’t working due to having multiple copies of each printer after upgrading.

Known issues for PC

  • If you have the .NET 3.5 Framework installed, updating to this build may fail and roll back to the previous build. As a workaround, uninstall .NET 3.5 before trying to update to this build and then reinstall .NET 3.5 after you update to this build. For more info, see this forum post.
  • Auto-complete in URL bar of Microsoft Edge may fail on some devices, searching for a partial string instead of the autocompleted text picture. This issue will be fixed in an upcoming flight.
  • Some UWP apps such as Twitter will crash on launch.
  • Word 2016 will crash if you try to ink on it.
  • You may notice some of your inbox apps are now displaying a name that looks like “ms-resource:” and are listed at the bottom of Start. We’re investigating. In the meantime, the app should still launch normally, it’s only the name resource that’s impacted.
  • We’re investigating your reports that the battery status on certain laptops isn’t updating while the device is unplugged.
  • ADDED: If you pinned any websites to your taskbar, those pinned websites won’t work. You will have to in-pin and re-pin your websites to the taskbar.
  • ADDED 6/22: If you have certain languages installed, ctfmon.exe will do into a crash loop and typing on the Start menu and UWP apps will become impossible. Currently, the list of impacted languages we’re aware of is: Kiswahili (Kenya), Basque (Spain), Armenian, Estonian, Romansh (Switzerland), Scottish Gaelic, Serbian (Latin), Bulgarian, Serbian (Cyrillic), Irish, Latvian, Macedonian, Zulu South, Norwegian (Norsk), Hausa (Latin), Albanian, Afrikaans, Georgian, Uzbek (Latin), Slovenian, Bosnian (Latin), Konkani (India), Malay (Brunei), Xhosa (South Africa), Bangla (Bangladesh), Kinyarwanda (Rwanda), Australian English, Galician (Spain), Azerbaijani (Latin), Kazakh, and Lithuanian. The workaround is to uninstall the impacted language via Settings > Time & Language > Region & Language. From the list of languages, remove the ones from the list, if it’s the only one you have installed please install a language close to your language that’s not in the list.
  • ADDED 6/22: In some cases, Action Center appears completely transparent making it hard to see notifications.
  • ADDED 6/22: When attempting to install this build and you reboot to kick off the process, your machine may appear to complete a normal reboot but not begin the actual install of the build. Running the Windows Update troubleshooter via Settings > Update & security > Troubleshoot may alleviate this issue.

source: Windows Blogs

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16215 for PC + Build 15222 for Mobile

Thursday Microsoft released the #TacoHat Thursday build – Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16215 for PC – to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring! And Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview Build 15222 to Insiders in the Fast ring.

Lots of new stuff, make sure you check there out: Pen scrolling, F11 in Edge, Redesigned Action Center

 

Our goal is to do a Windows Insider webcast on our Mixer channel every month. This month’s webcast will take place next Wednesday June 14th from 10:30am – 12:00pm (5:30pm- 7:00pm UTC). Be sure to tune in!

What’s New in Build 16215 For PC

Start & Action Center bring elements of Fluent Design

This build introduces new UI for Start and Action Center that includes elements of our new Fluent Design System which was announced at Build 2017.

Start improvements include:

  • Acrylic: If you have transparency enabled for Start, you’ll notice it’s now been updated to use the new acrylic design.
  • Vertical resize: No more glitches at the bottom of the frame.
  • Horizontal resize: The frame now starts resizing horizontally immediately (like vertical resize), as opposed to only “snapping” to certain widths.
  • Diagonal resize: The frame can be resized diagonally!
  • Resize grips: It’s now easier to “grip” the edge of the frame to start resizing.
  • Tablet mode transition: Smoother transition into tablet mode.

A new look for Action Center: Action Center has been redesigned based on your feedback to provide much clearer information separation and hierarchy. And the new design for Action Center also includes elements of our Fluent Design System such as acrylic! (and in case you were wondering, we’ve also added acrylic to our notification toasts!). As a reminder, you can customize the visible quick actions by going to Settings > System > Notifications & actions.

A new look for Action Center

Note: we’re investigating a bug where notifications in the Action Center lose their outline if acrylic falls back to having no transparency. This will be fixed in a later flight.

Microsoft Edge Improvements

Pin your favorite websites to your taskbar: Pinned sites are back! We heard your feedback, and are in this build you can now pin a website to the taskbar from Microsoft Edge! We’ll use the site’s icon to give you quick access to your favorite sites right from the taskbar. Simply select “Pin this page to the taskbar” from the settings menu in Microsoft Edge.

Pin websites to your taskbar with Microsoft Edge!

Full screen mode (F11) in Microsoft Edge: This build introduces a new Full Screen experience in Microsoft Edge. Simply press F11 or choose the new Full Screen icon in the Settings menu to take your websites full-screen. You can exit Full Screen view by pressing F11 again, or by clicking the Restore icon in the top-right corner.

Full screen mode (F11) in Microsoft Edge

Annotate Books in Microsoft Edge: We’ve added the ability to annotate EPUB Books by highlighting in four colors, underlining, and adding comments. To get started, select some text, and choose an option from the menu.

Annotate Books in Microsoft Edge.

To add notes as you read, select text, tap or click the Add a note button and add your note.

Add notes to your annotations in books

To edit or delete your note, click the Edit your note button.

And you can edit those notes

Microsoft Edge PDF improvements: We’ve added more highlight colors and the option to Ask Cortana in PDFs in Microsoft Edge.

Other Microsoft Edge Improvements, including:

  • Microsoft Edge’s splash page (seen when newly launched) so that the color transitions more smoothly to the Start and New Tab pages.
  • You will now be able to close the Microsoft Edge app directly using the close button, even when a JavaScript dialog is showing.
  • We’ve added an option to “Add tabs to favorites” from the right-click context menu on tabs. Using it will create a Favorites folder with all the sites open in tabs in the current window.
  • New tabs will now animate more smoothly onto the tab bar when opened and closed.
  • We’ve improved session restore behavior so that when a multi-window Microsoft Edge session is restored by clicking on a link (for example, from an email), the window in focus at the end of restoration is the one containing the new link.

Cortana Improvements

Taking Cortana reminders to the next level through vision intelligence: Most of us have experienced taking a picture of upcoming event poster or bookmarking an event site for future reference, only to forget about it later. With this build, we’re rolling out two new features starting with the en-us market to help you never again miss an event you’re interested in!

Cortana camera roll insights: With your permission, Cortana will now prompt you to create a reminder when she notices event posters in your camera roll! To try it out, make sure you’re signed into Cortana with your MSA or work account, and then give Cortana permission to access your camera roll via Settings > Cortana > Permissions & history > “Manage the information Cortana can access from this device”. The next time you take a picture of a flier for an upcoming event, Cortana will reach out asking if you want to create a reminder for that time.

Note: Cortana will only provide insights when your device is plugged into a power source and on an un-metered network.

Cortana will now prompt you to create a reminder when she notices event posters in your camera roll

Cortana Lasso: Are you a pen user? If so, Cortana can now help keep track of future events on your screen! Use the new lasso tool to circle the relevant information and Cortana will recognize the time, and offer suggested follow-ups through a context menu. Keeping track of upcoming events has never been easier! To try it out, go to Settings > Device > Pen & Windows Ink > Press and hold, and select Cortana Lasso in the dropdown picker. Find a website with upcoming event info, or an event poster someone shared in social media – once you have the event on your screen, just press and hold the pen back button, circle the time information, and watch Cortana do her magic. That easy!

Note: For this to work, your pen will need to support Press and Hold – for example the pen that came with the Surface Pro 4, Surface Book, or Surface Studio.

Use the new lasso tool to circle the relevant information and Cortana will recognize the time, and offer suggested follow-ups through a context menu.

Evolving the handwriting experience in Windows 10

Using your feedback to evolve the handwriting experience: We’ve been hard at work incorporating your feedback, and with today’s build we’re introducing a new XAML-based handwriting panel – with more gestures, easier editing, emoji, and more!

New features include:

Write as much as you want in the panel with the new conversion & overflow model! As you write, you’ll now see your previous words convert to typed text within the handwriting panel. When you fill the handwriting panel and lift your pen off the screen, the text will shift so you have room to continue writing. Press the commit button to insert all the text and clear the slate.

• Write as much as you want in the panel with the new conversion & overflow model!
Select text to edit it: See something you want to change? If you select text while the handwriting panel is open, that text will now appear within the panel so you can easily make alterations.

Make corrections within the handwriting panel by overwriting converted text: Was something misrecognized? Instead of using the suggested text alternate, you now have the option of just inking the correct letters right on top of the converted text!

• Make corrections within the handwriting panel by overwriting converted text.

Make corrections using ink gestures: Once your written words have been converted to type, or if you’ve selected existing text, you can now easily make simple edits from within the handwriting panel using our four new gestures: strikethrough, scratch, join, and split. Try it out!

• Make corrections using ink gestures.

Easier access to emoji and symbols: We’ve added two new buttons to the handwriting panel, so you can easily input emoji or symbols without needing to switch to the touch keyboard Simply tap the button, pick the character you want, and you’re set to go!

Reducing the chance of palm rejection: We’ve added a new setting in Pen & Windows Ink Settings so finger inking needs to be explicitly enabled – this will help avoid inadvertent ink being drawn on the handwriting panel as you’re writing with your pen.

Floating by default: While you still have the option to choose, we’ve made the decision for the handwriting panel to now by default appear next to where you’re writing. To change modes, tap the new keyboard settings menu button in the top left corner of the keyboard.

Improved handwriting recognition for English (United States): We’ve made some changes to our US English handwriting recognition engine to improve its accuracy. Would love for Insiders to try it out and share feedback on how it feels now.

English mode for Simplified Chinese handwriting: To further improve the recognition accuracy of mixed input (when Chinese and English characters are inked together), we’ve added an English mode button when handwriting in Simplified Chinese. Just press the button, ink the desired English words, and the inking done in English mode will be recognized using the English (United States) handwriting recognition engine. After your inking in English is finished, you can press the English mode button again to go back to default mode.

• English mode for Simplified Chinese handwriting.

We rely on your feedback to let us know how this new experience is doing, and will be using your feedback to determine readiness. Please try writing some things and log feedback about the experience here. If your PC has pen support, then the handwriting engine for each language should download automatically when you add it to your language list. If it doesn’t, you can go to Optional Features and choose to download it. We’re currently investigating your reports that there’s been some lag when inputting ink in recent builds.

Find My Pen: Don’t know where you put your pen? The pen doesn’t have a GPS, so we can’t help you there, but what we *can* do is tell you where you were when you last inked on your computer. Which is what we’ve done! Head over to Settings > Update & Security > “Find My Device” to see what it’s all about.

We can now tell you where you were when you last inked on your computer.

Pen interaction improvements:

Scrolling with pen. In the effort to create a more intuitive pen interaction on Windows, we are emphasizing natural and direct manipulation of content with pen. You don’t have to “hunt and peck” for scrollbars or frequently switch between pen and touch when navigating; now you can scroll content directly and fluently as you would with your finger. Want to see it working?

Selection with pen. We also revised selection with pen by giving it more control over the selection process. Not only are we showing selection grippers whenever text is selected via pen, but also are allowing for a consistent and fast selection of content – text, objects, or ink—by dragging the pen while the barrel button is pressed.

Note: scrolling with pen is currently only supported for UWP apps, however we’re working on adding it for Win32 as well (like File Explorer). Selection with pen isn’t yet up and running in Microsoft Edge, but it will be coming in a later flight. This will also impact selecting text with pen in epubs and PDFs in order to try the new Microsoft Edge features shown above. For now, please use another input method if you’d like to see how it works.

Hardware keyboard Improvements

Entering emoji on your hardware keyboard just got easier: We’ve heard your feedback, and today we’re happy to announce the new Emoji Panel! Press Win + period (.) or Win + semicolon (;) while focus is in a text box and the Emoji Panel will pop up for you to quickly scroll through and pick the emoji you want.

The new Emoji Panel!

In the “People” emoji category, you can change the skin tone of the emoji by clicking the button on the top-right:

In the "People" emoji category, you can change the skin tone of the emoji.

In addition to using your mouse to select an emoji, you can also navigate through the panel by using the following keys:

  • Arrow keys – Navigate among emoji
  • Tab / Shift + Tab – Switch emoji category
  • Enter – Select an emoji
  • Esc – Close the panel​

Currently this emoji experience is only available when English (United States) is the active language of your keyboard. As a reminder, if you need to switch between the languages in your language list, you can use the Win + Space hotkey.

Converging our touch keyboard experience

We have a totally new touch keyboard on Desktop! If you’ve been jealous of better keyboard features on your phone, then you’ll be happy to hear with today’s build we’re bringing those familiar phone keyboard experiences to your PC with our new XAML-based touch keyboard!

This includes many popular requests we’ve heard from you such as:

Enhanced Text Prediction: We’ve made a bunch of improvements to our text prediction engine to make it more intelligent. For example, you now don’t need to type anything other than “Text ” to complete the frequently used message, “Text me when you get a chance” using the suggested words. If you’re using a UWP app, you can also now enjoy Emoji suggestions!Try it out! Type “birthday ”, “coffee ”, or “dog ” and see what happens! Prediction is currently only working with the English US keyboard, however we’re working on enabling more languages

Enhanced Text Prediction.

Improved emoji experience: If you switch to the touch keyboard’s emoji view, you’ll find can now smoothly scroll through the entire contents of each emoji category, rather than page by page. You’ll also notice that any additional available emoji candidates based on your most recent word are displayed at the top in the candidate area

Improved emoji experience.

One-handed touch keyboard: Following extensive research on tablet postures, we’re adding a new keyboard layout to provide the most comfort when holding the device in your hands! It looks similar to a phone keyboard – smaller and more narrow. You can freely put this smaller touch keyboard wherever you want (although we recommend docked to the side of your screen ) and use it with one hand. To switch between languages, press and hold on the &123 key. Note: This keyboard takes the place of the split keyboard layout

One-handed touch keyboard.

Shape writing with the one-handed touch keyboard: One of the most powerful phone keyboard features for fast and easy text input involves swiping over the keys without releasing your finger on the screen. We call it shape writing. Today we proudly announce the first shape writing keyboard on PC! Because it’s works just like your familiar phone-style one-handed keyboard, you don’t need to do anything to learn it again. Just use it as you would use your phone’s touch keyboard. Bonus: it also works with pen! Shape writing is currently only supported for the English US keyboard, however we’re working on enabling more languages.

Shape writing with the one-handed touch keyboard.

A new touch keyboard settings menu: Along with all our other improvements, we’ve updated the way to switch into Handwriting panel and other keyboard layouts. You can find our keyboard settings menu icon at the top left corner of the touch keyboard. It’s a one-stop settings panel for all the layouts (Default, One-handed, Handwriting, Full) and modes (Docked, Floating), as well as a shortcut for jumping to language settings.

As we light up these new keyboard experiences, it’s very important that we receive your feedback to help make improvements and ensure we ship a polished experience to Windows users. If you have a touch or pen capable device, please take a moment to try it out in any languages that you speak and give feedback in as much detail as possible. Our readiness decision will be based on what you tell us. (PS – don’t forget you can move the keyboard around when it’s undocked by dragging the move icon in the top right corner!)

Please note the touch keyboards for Chinese, Japanese and Korean languages are not working with this build – we will fix this as soon as possible in an upcoming flight.

Dictation on the Desktop: Our keen-eyed Insiders may have noticed a microphone button in the touch keyboard pictures above – that’s because you can now use dictation to input English or Chinese text on desktop! Simply tap the microphone button in the top left corner of the touch keyboard or handwriting panel, or press the new dictation hotkey Win + H to start dictating. Currently only available for English (United States) and Chinese (Simplified) input methods.

Besides dictating text, you can also use voice commands to do basic editing or to input punctuations. Below are some examples of English dictation voice commands:

  • Say “press backspace” to inject a backspace character
  • Say “clear selection” to unselect the text that has been selected
  • Say “press delete” to inject a delete keystroke
  • Say “delete that” to delete the most recent speech recognition results, or the currently selected text
  • Say “delete last three words” to delete the last three words
  • Say “stop dictating” to terminate the dictation session
  • Say “end spelling” to terminate spelling mode
  • Say “go after <word or phrase>” to move the cursor to the first character after the specified word or phrase
  • Say “go to the end of paragraph” to move the cursor to the end of the paragraph
  • Say “move back to the previous word” to move the cursor to the left side of the previous word
  • Say “go to start of <word or phrase>” to move the cursor to the first character before the specified word or phrase
  • Say “go to the start of paragraph” to move the insertion point to the start of paragraph
  • Say “go down to next sentence” to move the cursor forward to next sentence
  • Say “go to the end of the sentence” to move the insertion point to the end of the sentence
  • Say “move to the start of the word” to move the insertion point to the start of the word
  • Say “go to the left” to inject a left arrow into input
  • Say “move right” to inject a right arrow into input
  • Say “select <word or phrase>” to select the specific word or phrase
  • Say “select that” to select the most recent speech recognition result
  • Say “select next three words” to select the next three words
  • Say “start spelling” to switch to spelling mode
  • Say “comma” (or “period”, “question mark” etc.) to input the punctuation “,” (or “.”, “?”, etc.)

Shell Improvements

Enhancing your Share experience: We want sharing to be easy and natural. With the last build we added people-first sharing, and with this build we’re bringing another new Share feature to your desktop:

Copy Link: Don’t see the app you’re looking for in the Share UI? If you’re sharing a link – like a website in Microsoft Edge, or an app from Store – we’ve added a new option in the Share UI to copy that link to your clipboard, so you easily can paste it into your app of choice.

We’ve added a new option in the Share UI to copy that link to your clipboard.

New local media folder detection for UWPs: Photos, Groove Music and Movies & TV all have one thing in common: exploring your local content based on the folders you provide. We’ve heard your feedback that sometimes local media is missing as a result of folders not being included, so with this build we’re adding new logic to address this. After a storage scan, we will now detect relevant media folders you might want to include in your collection when looking at the files via UWP apps, and suggest them to you when you go to add new folders. Want to try it out now? Add a new folder with 30+ pictures, songs, or videos to your desktop. Go to Storage Settings and press the refresh button to trigger a scan. The next time you go to add a folder to your favorite UWP (such as Groove Music), you’ll see this new experience:

New local media folder detection for UWPs.

Note: If no new media is detected, you will see the file picker dialog.

My People Improvements:

  • We fixed an issue where the icons of contacts pinned to the taskbar would appear cut off when using small taskbar icons.
  • We’ve updated our logic so that if you have the My People flyout open, you can now drop a file onto any of the contacts pinned in the overflow area to initiate a share with them.
  • We’re updated the sound made when you receive an emoji from one of the contacts pinned to the People bar in the taskbar.
  • We improved My People reliability and fixed an issue where hit testing would become offset after adding or removing items from the systray.

Night light improvements including:

  • We fixed an issue where mirroring a display and then disconnecting from it would break night light on that screen.
  • We fixed an issue where when night light had been manually enabled, and the device entered then exited S3 sleep, night could then become disabled.
  • As a result of your feedback, we’ve updated our logic to now use a quick transition into night flight if applicable after rebooting or manually enabling night light.

Settings Improvements:

New Video Playback Settings: Head to Settings > Personalization > Video Playback and you’ll now find some additional controls for media enthusiasts. If you have an HDR monitor, we’d love to hear your feedback on how video streaming feels when these new options are enabled. We’ve also added some battery settings for you to decide whether you’d prefer to optimize video streaming for battery usage or video quality.

Note: You’ll noticed a “Unsupported video type or invalid file path” error at the top of the page. This is a known issue we’re looking into, it shouldn’t otherwise impact the usage of these settings.

A new HDR and Advanced Color Settings Page: If you have at least one connected display that supports HDR, you’ll now see some additional information! Go to Settings > System > Display > “HDR and advanced color settings” to find more details about the HDR settings of the currently selected display.

Per-App Defaults Settings Page: In the past, when using Settings you had to start with your file type or protocol if you wanted to make a change to the default app. That’s changing with this build, and you can now start with your app, and then see the available options for what it can handle. To see this new option, go to Settings > Apps > Default apps > “Set defaults by App”. Choose an app and click ‘Manage’ to see all the file types and protocol associations for which the app is the default. This page takes the place of the one that had been available in Control Panel, as part of our ongoing effort to converge the settings experience.

Per-App Defaults Settings Page.

Updated Network connection properties page: We’ve heard your feedback that setting a network profile to public or private isn’t discoverable, so we’ve updated the Network connection properties page to make it easier and prominent. Instead of the previous toggle under “Make this PC discoverable”, you’ll now find two radio buttons to select whether the profile should be public or private.

Updated Network connection properties page.

A new context menu for Wi-Fi networks in the View Available Networks flyout: To get you where you need to go faster, we’ve added a new context menu full of quick actions when you right-click one of the listed Wi-Fi networks. Options include Connect, Disconnect, View Properties, or Forget Network.

Windows Update improvements:

View your active Windows Update policies: If there are any applied group policies for Windows Update, a page will now appear in Windows Update Settings so you can look through them.

Understanding your updates: We now list out the individual update status and progress in Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update. So if there are multiple updates pending (for example, a new build, a driver update, and a definition update for Windows Defender), you can see and track each different status, which wasn’t as obvious with the single progress bar used in prior builds.

Other improvements in Settings include:

  • You can now add other AAD work/school users from Settings.
  • We’ve heard your feedback, and have adjusted the order of the Settings categories so that the new Cortana category is now more central, and the Windows Update category is now once again the final one in the list.
  • When moving or uninstalling an app from the Apps & Features Settings page, you’ll now see a progress bar.
  • We fixed an issue where pinned secondary tiles would appear as groups in that app’s Notification & Actions Settings.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in garbled characters when viewing the new tips in Settings on non-English languages

Gaming Improvements

Game bar improvements:

  • Based on your feedback, the Game bar (Win + G) now has a button to enable or disable Game Mode for the current game. Its icon will be updated soon in a future flight.
  • The Game bar (Win + G) now allows you to take screenshots of games running in HDR. Sharing those screenshots to Xbox Live using the Xbox app will come in a future update of the app. Note: broadcasting does not support HDR. Screenshots will be taken in the resolution of the game window, which enables the 4K screenshots that are now supported. Game Clips and broadcasts will be transcoded to 1080p if the resolution is higher than that.
  • Screenshots of games running in HDR should now correctly save a copy in PNG that is tone mapped to SDR.
  • Bitrate changes during game broadcasting to Mixer should now be smoother and more seamless.
  • When broadcasting to Mixer, you can now specify the language that you are speaking during the broadcast.
  • The resources made available to games running in Game Mode have been tweaked on popular machine configs, including 6 and 8 core CPU machines, resulting in improved game performance for games running in Game Mode.

If you missed our announcement introducing Mixer and all the goodness along with it, check it out here!

Developer Improvements

Per app Runtime Broker: If you open Task Manager, you will notice UWPs now use per-application instanced Runtime Broker processes, rather than all sharing a single session-wide Runtime Broker. This will help improve resource attribution, resource management, and fault tolerance.

Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) no longer requires Developer Mode! Previously, you had to enable Developer Mode (Settings -> Update & Security -> For Developers) in order to run Bash & Linux tools on Windows. This restriction has been lifted; you can now run Bash on Windows without developer mode being enabled! More information here

Hyper-V gets virtual battery support: You can now see your machine’s battery state in your VMs! To try this feature, create a new VM using the “New-VM” cmdlet, and add the “-Prerelease” flag. This will give you a pre-release VM that will have this feature enabled.

Other improvements including:

  • Registry Editor is now per-monitor DPI aware! That means it should no longer be blurry when used in mixed DPI environments, or when changing DPI.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in VIM being broken for Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) users in result flights.
  • We fixed an issue where the choice command was failing when run in a Command Prompt script.

Ease of Access Improvements:

Narrator Improvements:

  • Scan Mode on By Default: The largest change that you will experience is that Scan Mode is now on by default. This means that:
    • Up and Down Arrows to get through everything: You can simply use the up and down arrow keys to get through all of the content of your application.
    • Press Space to Interact: To interact with simple controls (such as buttons, checkboxes, toggle buttons etc. you can press the space bar).
    • Editbox Switching: If you navigate to an edit field using the up and down arrows, Narrator will automatically turn off Scan Mode so that you can type into the edit field. When you are ready to exit the edit field you can use the up and down arrows to exit the edit field and Narrator will turn scan mode back on.
    • Turn off Scan Mode with Caps + Space: If you want to turn off scan mode, and want to get back to the old way of doing things, press Caps + Space. It will be turned off for that app and you will hear “Off”.
    • Remembering the state of scan mode by application: If you explicitly turn off scan mode, by pressing Caps + Space in an application, this choice will be saved in an exceptions list so that when you reopen the application Scan Mode is off. To remove this application from the exceptions list you can press Caps + Space again
    • Left and Right Arrow to move by character: Left and right arrows will move you by character
  • Since Scan Mode is now on by default, we’ve removed the popup dialog when first launching Narrator explaining how to start scan mode.
  • Narrator Input learning: This will allow you to learn the keys on your device. Narrator will tell you the key that you have pressed, and the Narrator command associated with it. This mode can be turned on and off with Caps + 1.
  • New and improved hotkeys:
    • To read from where you currently are through the rest of the application you can press Caps + R for Read.
    • To jump to the beginning of an application you can now press Caps + Home and to jump to the end of an application you can press Caps + End.
    • The read window command, Caps + W also had some improvements in this release. Caps + W will now read both the controls in the window and the text.
  • Narrator Getting Started User Guide: There is now a button in the main Narrator UI to the Narrator User Guide located here, where you can find more information about scan mode and all of the Scan Mode commands.

Braille improvements: Narrator users can type and read using different braille translations, choose a blinking cursor representation, and choose the duration of “flash messages”. You can also now perform braille input for app shortcuts and modifier keys, which enables you to use your braille display for common tasks such as:

  • Pressing the Tab key
  • Pressing the Escape key
  • Pressing the Windows key
  • Pressing sequences like Win + U to open Ease of Access Settings
  • Pressing sequences like Alt + F to open the file menu
  • Pressing sequences like Ctrl + S to save
  • Pressing sequences like Ctrl + Alt + N
  • Using first letter navigation in lists
  • And more!

For the app shortcuts, there are also new commands to perform that input. Here’s a list of example commands (Braille dots = Keyboard input):

  • Space + dot4 + dot5 = Tab key (Tab key)
  • Space + dot1 + dot2 = Shift + Tab key (Set skipping of blank braille windows on/off)
  • Space + dot2 + dot3 + dot4 + dot5 = Alt + Tab key (Set track screen cursor on/off)
  • Space + dot2 + dot4 + dot5 + dot6 = Windows key (Set sliding braille windows on/off)
  • Space + dot1 + dot2 + dot3 + dot5 = Windows + Tab key (Set autorepeat on/off)
  • Space + Routing Key 1 – 12 = F1 – F12 keys
  • Dot7 = Backspace key
  • Dot8 = Enter key
  • Space + dot2 + dot6 = Escape key
  • Space + dot3 = Cursor left key
  • Space + dot6 = Cursor right key
  • Space + dot1 = Cursor up key
  • Space + dot4 = Cursor down key
  • Space + dot2 + dot3 = Page up key
  • Space + dot5 + dot6 = Page down key
  • Space + dot2 = Home key
  • Space + dot5 = End key
  • Space + dot3 + dot5 = Insert key
  • Space + dot2 + dot5 + dot6 = Delete key

Inject and hold one or more modifier keys followed by another letter or key:

  • Space + dot8 + dot1 = Hold Windows key
  • Space + dot8 + dot2 = Hold Alt key
  • Space + dot8 + dot3 = Hold Ctrl key
  • Space + dot8 + dot4 = Hold Shift key
  • Space + dot8 + dot5 = Hold AltGr key
  • Space + dot8 + dot6 = Hold Caps Lock key
  • Space + dot8 + dot7 = Un-hold all modifiers

Introducing Color filters: Windows 10 now includes color filters at the system level, including filters designed to make it easier for people with color blindness to differentiate between colors like red and green and to make it easier for people with light sensitivity to create and consume content. You can find these new filtering options under Settings > Ease of Access > Color and High Contrast” (previously called High Contrast Settings).

Windows 10 now includes color filters at the system level, including filters designed to make it easier for people with color blindness to differentiate between colors.

Magnifier UI improvements: We’ve updated the Magnifier zoom in and out buttons to have a more modern style.

Note: You’ll notice a new “Enable bitmap smoothing” option in Magnifier Settings. This feature isn’t functioning yet, but we’ll let you know when it is.

Font Improvements

Please welcome UD Digital Kyokasho-tai to our Windows font family in Japan! We’ve been listening carefully to your feedback, and starting with Build 16215, we have a new inbox font when you install Windows 10 in Japanese. This font maintains the feel of handwriting – the shapes of tear drops and sweeps – by carefully controlling the weight of the strokes, while also leveraging designs that address concerns for those with low vision or dyslexia. Our research shows that the font increases readability of textbook content. Please try typing a few phrases using this font and let us know what you think!

Please welcome UD Digital Kyokasho-tai to our Windows font family in Japan!

 Japanese Input Method Editor (IME) Improvements:

More contextual predictive candidates: Predictive candidates are now more contextual than with the Creators Update so you can smoothly input your desired text

More contextual predictive candidates.

The predictive candidate window is now suppressed in search boxes: The IME predictive candidate window will be hidden when you are typing in search boxes such as Bing search or the Microsoft Edge address bar, where suggestions are already shown from the app or service.

• The predictive candidate window is now suppressed in search boxes.

Improved reliability and several bug fixes: Please try out the experience in this build and let us know if it’s improved for you. Includes fixing an issue where the IME Pad and the Japanese IME User Dictionary Tool weren’t launching when focus was set to input fields in Microsoft Edge.

Traditional Chinese Input Method Editor (IME) Improvements:

  • Improved Bopomofo IME learning: We’ve modified the Bopomofo IME to make it learn which candidates were selected and adjust the suggested candidates based on the ones you pick more frequently.
  • Improved IME mode handling:
    • We’ve modified the behavior of input mode for the Bopomofo IME to now respect your preferred default mode in settings when switching to this IME from other traditional Chinese IMEs.
    • When the Bopomofo IME is turned off (either intentionally or accidentally), it is now possible to toggle the IME back on by pressing shift key, or clicking on the mode icon in the language bar.
  • We’ve addressed the issue where the Traditional Chinese ChangJie and Quick IMEs would enter into full width for alphanumeric characters, despite preferred default mode being configured to “Chinese”.
  • Improved reliability and bug fixes including:
    • We fixed an issue from recent flights where moving focus away from the Microsoft Edge window while the Bopomofo IME was the active input method would result in the window becoming unresponsive.

Changes, improvements, and fixes for PC

  • Language Packs via Settings > Time & language > Region & language are available again starting with this build.
  • The issue causing updating to the latest builds to get stuck at 12% should be fixed. If you still hit this, please send us feedback in Feedback Hub so the team can investigate.
  • We fixed the issue causing you to be unable to type in your password to log in to any UWP apps such as Netflix, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Messenger apps.
  • We fixed the issue causing Outlook 2016 to hang on launch due to an issue where the spam filter gets stuck reading the Outlook Data File and the UI waits indefinitely for it to return.
  • We fixed an issue from the previous flight where Microsoft Edge would crash when enabling or disabling extensions.
  • We’ve removed the power option to “update and shutdown” for now as it wasn’t working.
  • You may see Recovery Drive tool show up under “Recently added” on Start after updating to this build. We have made a change that makes the tool, previously only accessible via Control Panel, to now be available in the Windows Administrative Tools folder in Start.
  • We fixed an issue where an unexpected Wireless Display Media Viewer app with a blank icon was visible in Start after upgrading on certain devices.
  • We’ve made some improvements to our facial recognition, along with a new toast you’ll see prompting you to further train Windows Hello if having issues signing in when a large amount of backlighting detected.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in Windows Hello Face failing to work on the previous flight for a large number of non-English languages.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in games such as Civilization VI, Galactic Civilizations III, and Expeditions: Viking failing to launch on recent builds.
  • We fixed an issue where inbox UWP app icons were overscaled in Cortana search results.
  • We’ve heard your feedback, and have adjusted the text in our prompt to initiate cross device notifications from saying “Trust this PC?” to now say “You got a message on your phone. Want to see phone messages on this PC too?”.
  • We fixed the issue causing some people to hit Error 0x8000ffff while trying to launch an isolated Edge session in Windows Defender Application Guard.

Known issues for PC

  • Features that are delivered on-demand from Windows Update such as Developer Mode, .NET 3.5, and Speech Packs will not be available for this build. If you are a developer and require Developer Mode – please ensure it is enabled BEFORE taking this build. 
  • On some PCs with enterprise configurations, you may not be able to open PDFs in Microsoft Edge on this build. As a workaround, you can download PDFs and open them with a third party reader or the Reader app from the Windows Store.
  • Microsoft Edge may load web pages at the wrong scale factor (highly zoomed in) on some devices with high density displays. As a workaround. switching to another tab and back should resolve this problem.
  • Some PDFs may open in a cropped view (zoomed in) in Microsoft Edge, and part of the content may be inaccessible to the user. Additionally, input to these PDFs may be offset to the wrong location on screen. As a workaround, you can download PDFs and open them with a third party reader or the Reader app from the Windows Store.
  • After upgrading, inbox apps that are the same version on the downlevel OS and uplevel OS will disappear from Start. If you are impacted by this, please go to Settings > Apps > Apps & Features, select the impacted app, tap “advanced options”, click reset, and that should fix it.
  • We’ve made a fix to address your feedback that PDFs aren’t opening in Microsoft Edge. This will resolve the issue for most Insiders, however we’re still investigating one issue specific to those with Windows Information Protection (EDP) enabled. We’re working to address this as soon as possible in an upcoming flight.
  • New Windows Mixed Reality developers need to install build 16193 or the Windows 10 Creators Update (Build 14939), plug in the Windows Mixed Reality headset and set up Mixed Reality, then upgrade to the latest FAST build for the best development experience. If you update to Build 16215 without setting up Mixed Reality, you will not be able to download Mixed Reality software.
  • You will end up with multiple copies of each printer after upgrading. Only the copy with the highest number will work.
  • Wi-Fi will get turned off on certain devices like the Surface Pro 1 and Surface Pro 2 and some USB devices and won’t work due to a driver issue. To get Wi-Fi working again, you will have to roll-back to the previous build.
  • If you’re using a Chinese IME and try to type in Cortana, it will hang Cortana and not work.
  • Some UWP apps such as Twitter will crash on launch.
  • After updating to this build, Microsoft Text Input Application might appear on your All apps list and when you try to open it, it opens as a blank window.
  • The mini surveys we call SIUFs from Feedback Hub will not work on this build but please send us feedback as you normally would for this build!
  • ADDED 6/9: Any external monitor connected to a DisplayLink dock will not work. You will likely just see a static logon screen. Your local display should continue to work as normal.
  • ADDED 6/9: Some Insiders have reported having their installation of this build getting stuck or hung at around 33%. If this happens to you, you will need to restart your PC and have it rollback to Build 16199 and wait for the next build with a fix.

Changes, improvements, and fixes for Mobile

  • This build also includes all the improvements from KB4016871 and KB4020102.
  • The copyright date is correctly showing 2017 now under Settings > System > About.
  • We fixed an issue where WhatsApp would not launch after updating to the latest Mobile builds.
  • We fixed an issue with using the Japanese 12 Key soft keyboard where the “right arrow” key did not input a space
  • We fixed an issue with the Bulgarian keyboard localization for the HP Lap Dock in Continuum.
  • We have further improved the reliability of notifications for apps with a paired Bluetooth device, such as Fitbit.
  • Improved the Time & Language settings page UX for Speech and Keyboard language downloads. Previously, the status would show “Downloading” for speech and “Installing” for keyboard. Unless, the user tapped on the language or navigated to the Update & Security settings page, there was no indication that a restart is required to complete the installation. Now when the update reaches the reboot pending state, a “Restart Required” is displayed under the language.
  • We fixed several enterprise device management issues.
  • We fixed an issue where notifications and Cortana’s cross-devices settings on your device were not being mirrored to your PC.

Known issues for Mobile

  • In some cases, the WeChat app may crash on launch.

Source: Windows Blog

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16184 for PC + Build 15208 for Mobile

Last week Microsoft released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16184 for PC to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring. and Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview Build 15208 to Insiders in the Fast ring.

This Build is running smoothly & the new stuff is awesome 🙂 certainly worth a look:

some devices are having problems with the update stopping on a x80070003 error, currently looking into a fix, looks like if you have this you’ll have to use dism with the retorehealth option to fix the current build 1st.

What’s New in Build 16184 For PC

My People: Technology is all about making it easier for you to connect with your most important people. Whether you want to share a photo, make plans for dinner, or get an answer from a friend or coworker – My People is here to take it to the next level and bring the people you care about most to the center of your experience.

You can now:

  • Pin your people to the taskbar – we’ll suggest some to start with, or you can pick your own! (Note: you are currently limited to having 3 people pinned to your taskbar currently.)
  • View multiple communication apps together and filtered to each person on your taskbar.
  • Choose the app you want to use to chat and we’ll remember for next time.

By now, you are wondering ‘but how do I host this party in my taskbar?’. To start with, go to the Store app and make sure you have all the latest updates for the Skype, Mail, and People apps. Then click on the People icon in the taskbar to activate the first run experience and get setup.

Note: Contact syncing is enabled by default following system settings in versions 11.13+ of Skype If you have an older version of Skype you will need to manually enable contact syncing via the Skype app settings.

Have feedback you want to share with the team? We want to hear it! You can send us feedback by tapping the ellipsis in the People flyout and selecting “Send feedback”, or by opening the Feedback Hub and sharing your thoughts in the Desktop Environment > My People section. We have some more work on its way for this that will soon be lighting up for Insiders, including our improved Share story for People, so stay tuned!

New experience for Gmail accounts in Windows 10 Mail & Calendar apps: Last week, we announced we’re introducing a new experience for Gmail accounts in the Windows 10 Mail and Calendar apps that brings our latest features such as Focused Inbox and richer experiences for travel reservations and package deliveries that were previously only available to those with an Outlook.com or Office 365 email address. Windows Insiders will be the first to try out the new experience as the roll-out gradually happens over the next few weeks. You”ll know the new experience is available for your account when you are prompted to update your Gmail account settings.

Changes, improvements, and fixes for PC

  • We fixed an issue where night light could get stuck in a disabled state.
  • We’ve updated Start to use the improved XAML scrollbar style announced during Creators Update development.
  • We fixed an issue from recent flights where dragging an app from Start’s All apps list into the tile grid would result in Start crashing.
  • We fixed an issue for those using Windows in Japanese, where on first login after an upgrade certain apps would unexpectedly appear at the bottom of the Start’s All apps list for an hour or until being launched, instead of the normal sorted position.
  • Since the preview picture in Start Settings only previewed background and theming changes, which are already available to be previewed on their corresponding Settings pages, we’ve made the decision to remove it.
  • We’ve improved the loading performance of the Notification Settings page.
  • Some audio drivers have an ‘encoding Audio Processing Object’ feature; this is commonly known as ‘Dolby Digital Live’ or ‘DTS Connect’. This takes the output of the Windows audio engine mix, encodes it (as Dolby Digital, DTS, or some other format) and sends it out over a S/PDIF optical link for decoding by an external audio receiver. An issue was introduced which resulted in this feature no longer working, which is now fixed.
  • We fixed an issue from recent flights resulting in Photos crashing if you opened a picture from the Collection page and then pressed the back button in the title back.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in Counter Strike Global Offensive hanging or freezing during game play on the latest builds (16176+).
  • We fixed the issue where pressing F12 to open the Developer Tools in Microsoft Edge while F12 is open and focused may not return focus to the tab F12 is opened against, and vice-versa.

Known issues for PC

  • ADDED: PC Reset via Settings > Update & security > Recovery will not work on this build.
  • Some Insiders have reported seeing this error ‘Some updates were cancelled’. We’ll keep trying in case new updates become available. in Windows Update. See this forum post for more details.
  • Double-clicking on the Windows Defender icon in the notification area does not open Windows Defender. Right-clicking on the icon and choosing open will open Windows Defender.
  • Surface 3 devices fail to update to new builds if a SD memory card is inserted. The updated drivers for the Surface 3 that fix this issue have not yet been published to Windows Update.
  • exe will crash and restart if you tap any of the apps listed in the Windows Ink Workspace’s Recent Apps section.
  • Insiders who use Simplified Chinese IMEs or the Traditional Chinese Changjie or Quick IME to input text will find that the candidate window doesn’t appear when typing into certain apps. If you press space, the first candidate will be finalized. Using the number keys will not finalize any other candidate. If the candidate you need is not the first one, for now you will have to enter your text into an app where the candidate window appears, such as Notepad, and copy it into the desired text field.
  • Navigating to Settings > Update & security > Windows Update may crash Settings app. You can simply re-open the Settings app again and it should work again.
  • The “Save” dialog appears to be broken in several desktop (Win32) apps. The team is investigating. This will break things such as Chinese IME, etc.
  • Localized apps on localized x64 Windows 10 Insider Preview builds will not work.
  • We’ve heard some reports that the Action Center isn’t opening as reliably in recent builds, and are investigating.

Changes, improvements, and fixes for Mobile

  • We’ve fixed the issue where some Insiders were unable to open both the Connect UX page and/or the “Add Bluetooth or other devices” setting on the Bluetooth Settings page.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in an unexpected extra ~20 sec being added to the phone shutdown process due to a deadlock if you tried to shut down soon after switching from one network to another.

Known issues for Mobile

  • A small percentage of devices may experience text message backup loss related to backup and recovery of the messaging database.
  • The copyright date is incorrect under Settings > System > About. It shows as 2016 when it should be 2017. Thanks to the Windows Insiders that reported this!
  • Insiders may experience random shutdowns on some devices.
  • In some cases, the WeChat app may crash on launch.

Source: Windows Blog

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16179 for PC + Build 15205 for Mobile

2 days ago Microsoft released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16179 for PC to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring. this build immediately show an even fast response to any interaction, feels like a band new pc! Also Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview Build 15205 was released to Insiders in the Fast ring.

What’s New in Build 16179 For PC

Revert VM: Continuing our theme of simplifying Hyper-V for developers on Windows 10 (see What’s New), we’re introducing automatic checkpoints so that you’ll always be able to undo a mistake in your virtual machine – you can now always revert to the last time you started a virtual machine.

Introducing Power Throttling*: You may remember some of the power experiments we did back in January with Build 15002. Power Throttling was one of those experiments, and showed to have up to 11% savings in CPU power consumption for some of the most strenuous use cases. So, we’re turning this on for everyone starting with last week’s build. Check out our complete blog post on this for more details!

*Power throttling is a temporary working name for this feature and may change before the release of the next Windows 10 update.

Changes, improvements, and fixes for PC

  • We fixed the issue causing apps that use the Desktop Bridge (‘Centennial’) from the Store such as Slack and Evernote will cause your PC to bugcheck (GSOD) when launched with a “kmode exception not handled” in ntfs.sys error.
  • We fixed an issue where adding Hindi to your language list and downloading the on-demand language resources would result in Microsoft Edge crashing on launch and file search returning no results via Cortana or Windows Explorer.
  • We fixed an issue where desktop icons would sometimes move around unexpectedly when “Auto arrange icons” was set to On and “Align icons to grid” was set to Off.
  • The existing Group Policy to disable the lock screen is now available for those on the Pro edition of Windows 10. Appreciate all who shared feedback on the subject. Note, the Group Policy text has not yet been updated to incorporate this change, that will happen with a later flight.
  • We fixed a rendering issue from previous flights where specific multi-monitor and projection configurations could fail depending on the hardware used. This could have impacted all Surface (Surface Book, Surface Pro, etc.) devices as well as other devices using similar chipsets. Another symptom may have been to see screen flickering and potentially being logged out when any screen mode change occurred.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the location icon being continually on in the taskbar after the first time the Action Center was opened if the night light quick action was visible.

Known issues for PC

  • Some Insiders have reported seeing this error “Some updates were cancelled. We’ll keep trying in case new updates become available” in Windows Update. See this forum post for more details.
  • Double-clicking on the Windows Defender icon in the notification area does not open Windows Defender. Right-clicking on the icon and choosing open will open Windows Defender.
  • Surface 3 devices fail to update to new builds if a SD memory card is inserted. The updated drivers for the Surface 3 that fix this issue have not yet been published to Windows Update.
  • Pressing F12 to open the Developer Tools in Microsoft Edge while F12 is open and focused may not return focus to the tab F12 is opened against, and vice-versa.
  • exe will crash and restart if you tap any of the apps listed in the Windows Ink Workspace’s Recent Apps section.
  • Insiders who use Simplified Chinese IMEs or the Traditional Chinese Changjie or Quick IME to input text will find that the candidate window doesn’t appear when typing into certain apps. If you press space, the first candidate will be finalized. Using the number keys will not finalize any other candidate. If the candidate you need is not the first one, for now you will have to enter your text into an app where the candidate window appears, such as Notepad, and copy it into the desired text field.
  • Navigating to Settings > Update & security > Windows Update may crash Settings app. You can simply re-open the Settings app again and it should work again.
  • The “Save” dialog appears to be broken in several desktop (Win32) apps. The team is investigating.
  • ADDED 4/20: Counter Strike Global Offensive will hang or freeze during game play on the latest builds (16176+).

Changes, improvements, and fixes for Mobile

  • We fixed the targeting issue that caused some variants of the Alcatel IDOL 4S to not receive Build 15204 last week. All variants of the Alcatel IDOL 4S should receive Build 15205.
  • FYI: We fixed the issue where supported Windows 10 Mobile devices were showing the update to the Windows 10 Anniversary Update as “not yet available” in the Upgrade Advisor app.
  • We fixed an issue where Continuum would stop working when HP Elite X3 case is closed.
  • We fixed an issue where Continuum would hang or render incorrectly after disconnecting on devices like the Lumia 950.
  • We fixed an issue with Microsoft Edge where you might get into a bad state after opening a new Microsoft Edge windows and screen off with the JIT process suspended.
  • We fixed an issue with where the device screen might stay black when disconnecting from a Continuum dock after screen has timed out normally.
  • We fixed an issue with backup and restore which impacts users with slower network connection.
  • We fixed an issue around Microsoft Edge reliability.

Known issues for Mobile

  • A small percentage of devices may experience text message backup loss related to backup and recovery of the messaging database.
  • For Insiders who have upgraded from a prior 150xx build to this build, the “Add Bluetooth or other devices” Settings page and the Connect UX page may fail to open.
  • The copyright date is incorrect under Settings > System > About. It shows as 2016 when it should be 2017. Thanks to the Windows Insiders that reported this!
  • Insiders may experience random shutdowns on some devices.

Source: Windows Blog

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16176 for PC + Build 15204 for Mobile

Microsoft released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16176 for PC to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring. We’re continuing work to refine OneCore with some code refactoring so that teams can start checking in new code. So, you still won’t see any noticeable changes or new features in new builds just yet.

We are also releasing Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview Build 15204 to Insiders in the Fast ring. As we release new builds from our Development Branch for PC, we will also be doing the same for Windows 10 Mobile just like we have been in the past. However, Windows Insiders will likely notice some minor differences. The biggest difference being that the build number and branch won’t match the builds we will be releasing for PC. This is a result of more work we’re doing to converge code into OneCore – the heart of Windows across PC, tablet, phone, IoT, HoloLens, Xbox and more as we continue to develop new improvements for Windows 10 Mobile and our enterprise customers.Starting with the Windows 10 Creators Update, these are the Windows 10 Mobile devices we will officially support in the Windows Insider Program going forward:

  • HP Elite x3
  • Microsoft Lumia 550
  • Microsoft Lumia 640/640XL
  • Microsoft Lumia 650
  • Microsoft Lumia 950/950 XL
  • Alcatel IDOL 4S
  • Alcatel OneTouch Fierce XL
  • SoftBank 503LV
  • VAIO Phone Biz
  • MouseComputer MADOSMA Q601
  • Trinity NuAns NEO

UPDATE: We’re seeing that some small percentage ~0.1% of eligible Mobile devices, including variants of the Alcatel IDOL 4S, are not being offered Build 15204. We’re working on updating the targeting to include them for the next flight.

Devices not on this list will not officially receive the Windows 10 Creators Update nor will they receive any future builds from our Development Branch that we release as part of the Windows Insider Program. However, Windows Insiders who have devices not on this list can still keep these devices on the Windows 10 Creators Update at their own risk knowing that it’s unsupported.

We recognize that many Insiders will be disappointed to see their device is no longer supported. We looked at feedback from our Windows Insiders and realized that we were not providing the best possible experience for our customers on many older devices. That helped us determine which devices we support for the Windows 10 Creators Update. We are continually listening to your feedback to provide the best experience for ALL of our customers.

For developers – you will need to set the minimum platform version in Visual Studio to be the Windows 10 Creators Update.

What’s New in Build 16176 For PC

Windows Subsystem for Linux Gains Serial Device Support: Windows COM ports can now be accessed directly from a WSL process!

Windows COM ports can now be accessed directly from a WSL process

More information can be found on the WSL Blog.  Additional features and fixes are posted on the WSL Release Notes page – keep the feedback coming!

Changes, improvements, and fixes for PC

  • You can now hold down the power button on your device for 7 seconds to trigger a bugcheck. This will only work on newer devices that don’t uses legacy ACPI power buttons.
  • Narrator will work again on this build.
  • We fixed the issue causing some apps and games to crash due to a misconfiguration of advertising ID that happened in a prior build.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the Start menu and Action Center having a noticeable framerate drop in their animations on certain devices if transparency was enabled and there were open UWP apps.
  • We fixed an issue from the previous build where the Action Center could get into a state where dismissing one notification unexpectedly dismissed multiple.
  • We fixed an issue where the Clock and Calendar flyout was unexpectedly missing the agenda integration for some Insiders.
  • We fixed an issue from the previous build (Build 16170) resulting in Surface Books unexpectedly doing a disk check after waking from sleep due to it bugchecking during sleep.
  • We fixed an issue from the previous build resulting in Win32 app text sometimes not rendering, for example in File Explorer, until logging out and back in.
  • We fixed an issue where the Extensions Process was suspended inappropriately during Connected Standby, resulting in Microsoft Edge becoming unresponsive on wake if any extensions had been installed.

Known issues for PC

  • Apps that use the Desktop Bridge (“Centennial”) from the Store such as Slack and Evernote will cause your PC to bugcheck (GSOD) when launched with a “kmode exception not handled” in ntfs.sys error.
  • Some Insiders have reported seeing this error Some updates were cancelled. We’ll keep trying in case new updates become available in Windows Update. See this forum post for more details.
  • Double-clicking on the Windows Defender icon in the notification area does not open Windows Defender. Right-clicking on the icon and choosing open will open Windows Defender.
  • Surface 3 devices fail to update to new builds if a SD memory card is inserted. The updated drivers for the Surface 3 that fix this issue have not yet been published to Windows Update.
  • Pressing F12 to open the Developer Tools in Microsoft Edge while F12 is open and focused may not return focus to the tab F12 is opened against, and vice-versa.
  • exe will crash and restart if you tap any of the apps listed in the Windows Ink Workspace’s Recent Apps section.

Changes, improvements, and fixes for Mobile

  • We have added a new privacy page to the Windows 10 Mobile OOBE experience that allows you to quickly and effectively make common privacy changes while setting up the device. You can read more about our Windows 10 privacy journey here.
  • We fixed the issue where the keyboard would sometimes not appear when a text input field is selected in Microsoft Edge.

Known issues for Mobile

  • FYI: If you receive error 800b0109 while attempting to download this build, navigate to Settings > Update & security > Windows Insider Program and check for a restart message – please restart your device from there and then check for updates again and should be able to download the build as expected. 
  • For Insiders who have upgraded from a prior 150xx build to this build, the “Add Bluetooth or other devices” Settings page and the Connect UX page may fail to open.
  • Some users are reporting that pages are constantly reloading or refreshing, especially while they are in the middle of scrolling them in Microsoft Edge. We’re investigating.
  • There is an issue with Microsoft Edge where you might get into a bad state after opening a new Microsoft Edge windows and screen off with the JIT process suspended.
  • Continuum will stop working when HP Elite X3 case is closed.
  • Continuum hangs or renders incorrectly after disconnecting on devices like the Lumia 950.
  • The device screen might stay black when disconnecting from a Continuum dock after screen has timed out normally.

Source: Windows Blog

Today Creators Update is rolling out

If you’re not on an insider build, today’s the day Creators Update is rolling out, be on the lookout for lots of cool new features!

Below is a list of some of the new and updated content that discusses Information Technology (IT) pro features in Windows 10, version 1703 (also known as the Creators Update).

For more general info about Windows 10 features, see Features available only on Windows 10. For info about previous versions of Windows 10, see What’s New in Windows 10. Also see this blog post: What’s new for IT pros in the Windows 10 Creators Update.

Note

Windows 10, version 1703 contains all fixes included in previous cumulative updates to Windows 10, version 1607. For info about each version, see Windows 10 release information. For a list of removed features, see Features that are removed or deprecated in Windows 10 Creators Update.

Configuration

Windows Configuration Designer

Previously known as Windows Imaging and Configuration Designer (ICD), the tool for creating provisioning packages is renamed Windows Configuration Designer. The new Windows Configuration Designer is available in Windows Store as an app. To run Windows Configuration Designer on earlier versions of Windows, you can still install Windows Configuration Designer from the Windows Assessment and Deployment Kit (ADK).

Windows Configuration Designer in Windows 10, version 1703, includes several new wizards to make it easier to create provisioning packages.

wizards for desktop, mobile, kiosk, Surface Hub

Both the desktop and kiosk wizards include an option to remove pre-installed software, based on the new CleanPC configuration service provider (CSP).

remove pre-installed software option

Learn more about Windows Configuration Designer.

Azure Active Directory join in bulk

Using the new wizards in Windows Configuration Designer, you can create provisioning packages to enroll devices in Azure Active Directory. Azure AD join in bulk is available in the desktop, mobile, kiosk, and Surface Hub wizards.

get bulk token action in wizard

Windows Spotlight

The following new Group Policy and mobile device management (MDM) settings are added to help you configure Windows Spotlight user experiences:

  • Turn off the Windows Spotlight on Action Center
  • Do not use diagnostic data for tailored experiences
  • Turn off the Windows Welcome Experience

Learn more about Windows Spotlight.

Start and taskbar layout

Enterprises have been able to apply customized Start and taskbar layouts to devices running Windows 10 Enterprise and Education. In Windows 10, version 1703, customized Start and taskbar layout can also be applied to Windows 10 Pro.

Previously, the customized taskbar could only be deployed using Group Policy or provisioning packages. Windows 10, version 1703, adds support for customized taskbars to MDM.

Additional MDM policy settings are available for Start and taskbar layout. New MDM policy settings include:

Cortana at work

Cortana is Microsoft’s personal digital assistant, who helps busy people get things done, even while at work. Cortana has powerful configuration options, specifically optimized for your business. By signing in with an Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) account, your employees can give Cortana access to their enterprise/work identity, while getting all the functionality Cortana provides to them outside of work.

Using Azure AD also means that you can remove an employee’s profile (for example, when an employee leaves your organization) while respecting Windows Information Protection (WIP) policies and ignoring enterprise content, such as emails, calendar items, and people lists that are marked as enterprise data.

For more info about Cortana at work, see (../configure/cortana-at-work-overview.md)

Deployment

MBR2GPT.EXE

MBR2GPT.EXE is a new command-line tool available in Windows 10 version 1703 and later versions. MBR2GPT converts a disk from Master Boot Record (MBR) to GUID Partition Table (GPT) partition style without modifying or deleting data on the disk. The tool is designed to be run from a Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) command prompt, but can also be run from the full Windows 10 operating system (OS).

The GPT partition format is newer and enables the use of larger and more disk partitions. It also provides added data reliability, supports additional partition types, and enables faster boot and shutdown speeds. If you convert the system disk on a computer from MBR to GPT, you must also configure the computer to boot in UEFI mode, so make sure that your device supports UEFI before attempting to convert the system disk.

Additional security features of Windows 10 that are enabled when you boot in UEFI mode include: Secure Boot, Early Launch Anti-malware (ELAM) driver, Windows Trusted Boot, Measured Boot, Device Guard, Credential Guard, and BitLocker Network Unlock.

For details, see MBR2GPT.EXE.

Security

Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection

New features in Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) for Windows 10, version 1703 include:

  • Detection
    Enhancements to the detection capabilities include:

    • Use the threat intelligence API to create custom alerts – Understand threat intelligence concepts, enable the threat intel application, and create custom threat intelligence alerts for your organization.
    • Improvements on OS memory and kernel sensors to enable detection of attackers who are using in-memory and kernel-level attacks
    • Upgraded detections of ransomware and other advanced attacks
    • Historical detection capability ensures new detection rules apply to up to six months of stored data to detect previous attacks that might not have been noticed
  • Investigation
    Enterprise customers can now take advantage of the entire Windows security stack with Windows Defender Antivirus detections and Device Guard blocks being surfaced in the Windows Defender ATP portal. Other capabilities have been added to help you gain a holistic view on investigations.

    Other investigation enhancements include:

    • Investigate a user account – Identify user accounts with the most active alerts and investigate cases of potential compromised credentials.
    • Alert process tree – Aggregates multiple detections and related events into a single view to reduce case resolution time.
    • Pull alerts using REST API – Use REST API to pull alerts from Windows Defender ATP.
  • Response
    When detecting an attack, security response teams can now take immediate action to contain a breach:

  • Other features
    • Check sensor health state – Check an endpoint’s ability to provide sensor data and communicate with the Windows Defender ATP service and fix known issues.

You can read more about ransomware mitigations and detection capability in Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection in the blog: Averting ransomware epidemics in corporate networks with Windows Defender ATP.

Windows Defender Antivirus

Windows Defender is now called Windows Defender Antivirus, and we’ve increased the breadth of the documentation library for enterprise security admins.

The new library includes information on:

Some of the highlights of the new library include:

New features for Windows Defender AV in Windows 10, version 1703 include:

In Windows 10, version 1607, we invested heavily in helping to protect against ransomware, and we continue that investment in version 1703 with updated beahvior monitoring and always-on real-time protection.

You can read more about ransomware mitigations and detection capability in Windows Defender AV in the Ransomware Protection in Windows 10 Anniversary Update whitepaper (PDF) and at the Microsoft Malware Protection Center blog.

Device Guard and Credential Guard

Additional security qualifications for Device Guard and Credential Guard help protect vulnerabilities in UEFI runtime. For more information, see Device Guard Requirements and Credential Guard Security Considerations.

Group Policy Security Options

The security setting Interactive logon: Display user information when the session is locked has been updated to work in conjunction with the Privacy setting in Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options.

A new security policy setting Interactive logon: Don’t display username at sign-in has been introduced in Windows 10 version 1703. This security policy setting determines whether the username is displayed during sign in. It works in conjunction with the Privacy setting in Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options. The setting only affects the Other user tile.

Windows Hello for Business

You can now reset a forgotten PIN without deleting company managed data or apps on devices managed by Microsoft Intune.

For Windows Phone devices, an administrator is able to initiate a remote PIN reset through the Intune portal.

For Windows desktops, users are able to reset a forgotten PIN through Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options.

For more details, check out What if I forget my PIN?.

Update

Windows Update for Business

The pause feature has been changed, and now requires a start date to set up. Users are now able to pause through Settings > Update & security > Windows Update > Advanced options in case a policy has not been configured. We have also increased the pause limit on quality updates to 35 days. You can find more information on pause in Pause Feature Updates and Pause Quality Updates.

Windows Update for Business managed devices are now able to defer feature update installation by up to 365 days (it used to be 180 days). In settings, users are able to select their branch readiness level and update deferral periods. See Configure devices for Current Branch (CB) or Current Branch for Business (CBB), Configure when devices receive Feature Updates and Configure when devices receive Quality Updates for details.

Windows Insider for Business

We recently added the option to download Windows 10 Insider Preview builds using your corporate credentials in Azure Active Directory (AAD). By enrolling devices in AAD, you increase the visibility of feedback submitted by users in your organization – especially on features that support your specific business needs. For details, see Windows Insider Program for Business.

Optimize update delivery

With changes delivered in Windows 10, version 1703, Express updates are now fully supported with System Center Configuration Manager, starting with version 1702 of Configuration Manager, as well as with other third-party updating and management products that implement this new functionality. This is in addition to current Express support on Windows Update, Windows Update for Business and WSUS.

Note

The above changes can be made available to Windows 10, version 1607, by installing the April 2017 cumulative update.

Delivery Optimization policies now enable you to configure additional restrictions to have more control in various scenarios.

Added policies include:

To check out all the details, see Configure Delivery Optimization for Windows 10 updates

Uninstalled in-box apps no longer automatically reinstall

When upgrading to Windows 10, version 1703, in-box apps that were uninstalled by the user won’t automatically reinstall as part of the feature update installation process. (Apps de-provisioned by IT administrators will still be reinstalled.)

Management

New MDM capabilities

Windows 10, version 1703 adds many new configuration service providers (CSPs) that provide new capabilities for managing Windows 10 devices using MDM or provisioning packages. Among other things, these CSPs enable you to configure a few hundred of the most useful Group Policy settings via MDM – see Policy CSP – ADMX-backed policies.

Some of the other new CSPs are:

  • The DynamicManagement CSP allows you to manage devices differently depending on location, network, or time. For example, managed devices can have cameras disabled when at a work location, the cellular service can be disabled when outside the country to avoid roaming charges, or the wireless network can be disabled when the device is not within the corporate building or campus. Once configured, these settings will be enforced even if the device can’t reach the management server when the location or network changes. The Dynamic Management CSP enables configuration of policies that change how the device is managed in addition to setting the conditions on which the change occurs.
  • The CleanPC CSP allows removal of user-installed and pre-installed applications, with the option to persist user data.
  • The BitLocker CSP is used to manage encryption of PCs and devices. For example, you can require storage card encryption on mobile devices, or require encryption for operating system drives.
  • The NetworkProxy CSP is used to configure a proxy server for Ethernet and Wi-Fi connections.
  • The Office CSP enables a Microsoft Office client to be installed on a device via the Office Deployment Tool. For more information, see Configuration options for the Office Deployment Tool.
  • The EnterpriseAppVManagement CSP is used to manage virtual applications in Windows 10 PCs (Enterprise and Education editions) and enables App-V sequenced apps to be streamed to PCs even when managed by MDM.

IT pros can use the new MDM Migration Analysis Tool (MMAT) to determine which Group Policy settings have been configured for a user or computer and cross-reference those settings against a built-in list of supported MDM policies. MMAT can generate both XML and HTML reports indicating the level of support for each Group Policy setting and MDM equivalents.

Learn more about new MDM capabilities.

Mobile application management support for Windows 10

The Windows version of mobile application management (MAM) is a lightweight solution for managing company data access and security on personal devices. MAM support is built into Windows on top of Windows Information Protection (WIP), starting in Windows 10, version 1703.

For more info, see Implement server-side support for mobile application management on Windows.

MDM diagnostics

In Windows 10, version 1703, we continue our work to improve the diagnostic experience for modern management. By introducing auto-logging for mobile devices, Windows will automatically collect logs when encountering an error in MDM, eliminating the need to have always-on logging for memory-constrained devices. Additionally, we are introducing Microsoft Message Analyzer as an additional tool to help Support personnel quickly reduce issues to their root cause, while saving time and cost.

Application Virtualization for Windows (App-V)

Previous versions of the Microsoft Application Virtualization Sequencer (App-V Sequencer) have required you to manually create your sequencing environment. Windows 10, version 1703 introduces two new PowerShell cmdlets, New-AppVSequencerVM and Connect-AppvSequencerVM, which automatically create your sequencing environment for you, including provisioning your virtual machine. Additionally, the App-V Sequencer has been updated to let you sequence or update multiple apps at the same time, while automatically capturing and storing your customizations as an App-V project template (.appvt) file, and letting you use PowerShell or Group Policy settings to automatically cleanup your unpublished packages after a device restart.

For more info, see the following topics:

Windows diagnostic data

Learn more about the diagnostic data that’s collected at the Basic level and some examples of the types of data that is collected at the Full level.

Windows 10 Mobile enhancements

Lockdown Designer

The Lockdown Designer app helps you configure and create a lockdown XML file to apply to devices running Windows 10 Mobile, and includes a remote simulation to help you determine the layout for tiles on the Start screen. Using Lockdown Designer is easier than manually creating a lockdown XML file.

Lockdown Designer app in Store

Learn more about the Lockdown Designer app.

Other enhancements

Windows 10 Mobile, version 1703 also includes the following enhancements:

  • SD card encryption
  • Remote PIN resets for Azure Active Directory accounts
  • SMS text message archiving
  • WiFi Direct management
  • OTC update tool
  • Continuum display management
    • Individually turn off the monitor or phone screen when not in use
    • Individually adjust screen time-out settings
  • Continuum docking solutions
    • Set Ethernet port properties
    • Set proxy properties for the Ethernet port

The following new features aren’t part of Windows 10, but help you make the most of it.

Upgrade Readiness

Upgrade Readiness helps you ensure that applications and drivers are ready for a Windows 10 upgrade. The solution provides up-to-date application and driver inventory, information about known issues, troubleshooting guidance, and per-device readiness and tracking details. The Upgrade Readiness tool moved from public preview to general availability on March 2, 2017.

The development of Upgrade Readiness has been heavily influenced by input from the community the development of new features is ongoing. To begin using Upgrade Readiness, add it to an existing Operation Management Suite (OMS) workspace or sign up for a new OMS workspace with the Upgrade Readiness solution enabled.

For more information about Upgrade Readiness, see the following topics:

Update Compliance

Update Compliance helps you to keep Windows 10 devices in your organization secure and up-to-date.

Update Compliance is a solution built using OMS Log Analytics that provides information about installation status of monthly quality and feature updates. Details are provided about the deployment progress of existing updates and the status of future updates. Information is also provided about devices that might need attention to resolve issues.

For more information about Update Compliance, see Monitor Windows Updates with Update Compliance.

Source. TechNet

 

BE-Com.eu is hosting E-Communications & Collaboration Day 20017 on May 3rd

BE-Com.eu the Belgian Communication & Collaboration User Group is hosting a full day of sessions on

Skype for Business and Office 365

hope to see you there!

 

 

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 15061 for PC

Builds keep rolling out feels like Christmas is early this year! Nice to have all my VPN’s back in Network Connections

Other changes, improvements, and fixes for PC

  • We fixed an issue resulting in some unexpected visual distortion when watching certain mp4 videos in Movies and TV on recent flights.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in OOBE crashing when you tapped the birthday date field when creating a new account and email address.
  • We fixed a recent issue resulting in certain VPN connections being unexpecting missing from Network Connections.
  • We fixed an issue where in recent flights, some Direct3D 9 games might periodically fail to launch. To work around this, it was necessary that your default display resolution be the recommended setting for your system. You can now return your display configuration to your preferred settings.

Known issues for PC

  • You will be unable to download new (additional) language packs on this build. Currently installed language packs will not be impacted.
  • If your PC fails to install this build on reboot with the error 8024a112, reboot manually again. If your PC appears to hang during the reboot, power your PC off and back on and the install will proceed.
  • Some Insiders have reported seeing this error “Some updates were cancelled. We’ll keep trying in case new updates become available” in Windows Update. If you encounter it, please try deleting the following registry key:
1
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update\RequestedAppCategories\8b24b027-1dee-babb-9a95-3517dfb9c552

See this forum post for more details.

  • Some apps and games may crash due to a misconfiguration of advertising ID that happened in a prior build. Specifically, this issue affects new user accounts that were created on Build 15031. The misconfiguration can continue to persist after upgrading to later builds. The ACL on the registry key incorrectly denies access to the user and you can delete the following registry key to get out of this state:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AdvertisingInfo
  • There is a bug where if you need to restart your PC due to a pending update like with the latest Surface firmware updates, the restart reminder dialog doesn’t pop up. You should check Settings > Update & security > Windows Update to see if a restart is required.
  • [GAMING] Certain hardware configurations may cause the broadcast live review window in the Game bar to flash Green while you are Broadcasting. This does not affect the quality of your broadcast and is only visible to the Broadcaster.

Source: Windows Blog

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 15060 for PC

Yes we’re on a roll another Fast Ring Build released 15060, a surprise, the watermark is back!

Other changes, improvements, and fixes for PC
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the Settings icon appearing plating in the taskbar. This issue also resulted in another issue now fixed, where if Settings had been pinned to Start, the tile would become greyed out after the first time it was clicked. Thank you all for your feedback on this.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in 3rd party IMEs not showing up in Settings after being installed.
  • We fixed an issue in Microsoft Edge where quickly typing and deleting characters into a website’s search box while using the MS Pinyin IME might result in the IME becoming stuck and the website showing ‘Not responding’.
  • Surface Pro 3 and Surface 3 devices should no longer fail to update to new builds if a SD memory card is inserted if you have the latest Surface drivers and firmware installed.
  • We fixed an issue where taskhost.exe might crash after pressing Tab while quickly typing in UWP app sign in fields, resulting in not being able to type for a few seconds.
  • We fixed an issue for Insiders where, after a crash, Microsoft Edge might fail to launch again for a few minutes because previous instances were still suspended in the background.
  • We fixed the issues occurring when exploring pages using the F12 Developer Tools in Microsoft Edge with cross-origin iframes (e.g. the DOM explorer shows only the iframe DOM, the Console frame selector doesn’t list the iframes, etc.).
Known issues for PC
  • You will be unable to download new (additional) language packs on this build. Currently installed language packs will not be impacted.
  • If your PC fails to install this build on reboot with the error 8024a112, reboot manually again. If your PC appears to hang during the reboot, power your PC off and back on and the install will proceed.
  • Some Insiders have reported seeing this error “Some updates were cancelled. We’ll keep trying in case new updates become available” in Windows Update. If you encounter it, please try deleting the following registry key:
    1
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update\RequestedAppCategories\8b24b027-1dee-babb-9a95-3517dfb9c552

    See this forum post for more details.

  • Some apps and games may crash due to a misconfiguration of advertising ID that happened in a prior build. Specifically, this issue affects new user accounts that were created on Build 15031. The misconfiguration can continue to persist after upgrading to later builds. The ACL on the registry key incorrectly denies access to the user and you can delete the following registry key to get out of this state:HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\AdvertisingInfo
  • There is a bug where if you need to restart your PC due to a pending update like with the latest Surface firmware updates, the restart reminder dialog doesn’t pop up. You should check Settings > Update & security > Windows Update to see if a restart is required.
  • [GAMING] Certain hardware configurations may cause the broadcast live review window in the Game bar to flash Green while you are Broadcasting. This does not affect the quality of your broadcast and is only visible to the Broadcaster.

Source: Windows Blog