Fast Ring: Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14328 for PC and Mobile

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Lots of new cool stuff in this release!

Here’s what’s new in Build 14328 for PC

Windows Ink

We announced Windows Ink at Build 2016 a few weeks ago as an all-new experience coming with the Windows 10 Anniversary Update later this summer. Starting with today’s build – you can try out the new Windows Ink experience for yourself. Windows Ink puts the power of Windows in the tip of your pen, enabling you to write on your device as you do on paper, creating sticky notes, drawing on a whiteboard, and easily sharing your analog thoughts in the digital world. Windows Ink is also integrated into apps like Maps, Microsoft Edge, and Office.

Windows Ink

If you have a device with an active pen like the Surface Pro 4 or Surface Book – Windows Ink Workspace is enabled by default and accessible via the pen button in the notification area of your taskbar. You won’t see this button if your device does not have an active pen paired with it. However, for those of you who don’t have a device with an active pen but want to try out Windows Ink Workspace, you can right-click on the taskbar and choose “Show Windows Ink Workspace button”.

Sketchpad in Windows Ink Workspace

Give Windows Ink a try and let us know what you think about this exciting new experience coming for free this summer to all Windows 10 customers. For more information on Windows Ink, you can read this blog post from Li-Chen Miller. And if you’re a developer you can read this blog post on how to build apps powered by Windows Ink.

Updated Start Experience

We have made improvements to the Start experience in Windows 10 which we think improves efficiency and discoverability of finding all of your apps as well as being more consistent across PC, Tablet, and Mobile.

Updated Start

We have merged the most used apps list and the All apps list into a single view and elevated it to the top level of the UI to reduce clicking and scrolling. You can now access all your apps with one click on the Start menu. We have also moved important functionality such as Power, Settings, and File Explorer so that they are always visible in the left rail in the Start menu, and updated the Recently added section so that it will now show 3 entries instead of just 1, and can be expanded to see the entire list of new apps.

Finally, with this new design, any additional folders you have chosen to appear on Start (via Settings > Personalization > Start such as Documents or Pictures) will now be immediately available on Start and you will no longer need to open the hamburger button to access them.

Tablet mode improvements

In tablet mode, we added features that would take advantage of the space on screen and make tablet mode feel more immersive.

Full-screen All Apps list in Start: For Start on tablets, we have brought back the full-screen All Apps list. This was a top request from Windows Insiders. The grid-like implementation of the full-screen All Apps list aims to provide efficiency while taking advantage of the additional real estate on the Start screen on a tablet. Specifically, we looked at striking a balance between density and “scan-ability” (how easy it is to scan the list to find the app you want). We have also made it easier to toggle between your pinned tiles and All Apps list on the Start screen by providing these options in the left rail which is consistent with the UI used throughout Windows.

Full-screen All Apps list in Start

Auto-hide taskbar in tablet mode: You can now choose to only auto-hide the taskbar in tablet mode. By hiding the taskbar, apps can take full advantage of the screen for an immersive and distraction-free experience. The setting can be found in Settings, under System > Tablet Mode. When the taskbar is hidden, swiping up from the bottom edge of the screen will make it appear. Doing so again will make it disappear.

Cortana & Search Improvements

Cortana on your Lock screen: You can now have Cortana on your Lock screen where you can ask her questions like “Remind me to take out the trash when I get home” or “When is the next Mariners game?” and get an immersive Cortana experience without having to unlock your device. You can also try asking Cortana “How is the traffic on my way home?” or “What is my schedule for tomorrow like?” For sensitive tasks or those that launch applications, Cortana will prompt you to unlock your device.

Cortana on the Lock screen

Cortana listening on the Lock screen

To enable Cortana on your Lock screen – go to Cortana’s settings and under “Lock screen options” turn on “Let me use Cortana even when my device is locked” and also make sure you have “Hey Cortana” enabled as well.

More ways to create Cortana Reminders: We are making it easier and quicker to set a reminder in Cortana with 2 new exciting ways to create reminders. You can now create a Photo Reminder by taking a picture of something you want to be reminded about, like that beer you just tried and want to pick up next time you’re at the store. You can also now set reminders on content from UWP apps that utilize the share contract in Windows, like Microsoft Edge and the News app, so you don’t forget to read that article your friend sent you. You can share an article from the News app to Cortana and have her remind you to read it at a later time. This even works with photos from your collection in the Photos app! Give it a try.

Cortana Cross-Device Features: With the goal of keeping you in perfect sync across all the devices where you use Cortana, we introduced new cross-device features for Cortana with the last PC build, but these features were not working correctly with Build 14295 on Mobile. With today’s new Mobile build, these features should now be working correctly. Cortana will now inform you of low battery power on your mobile devices such as your Windows phone. Additionally, you can ask Cortana to find and ring your phone, and you will be able to share maps across all your devices.

Making Cortana easier to use: Starting with this build, you will be able to get started using Cortana right away without any set up or sign-in. The goal here is to make it really easy for people who are new to Cortana to try Cortana out. Without setting up or signing in to Cortana, you can ask Cortana simple questions about the world like “How tall is the Eiffel Tower?”, conduct a web search, have her tell you a joke or search documents on your device. As you find Cortana more useful and want her to do more for you, she’ll ask you to sign-in and ask for only the details needed to help you out. The best experience for Cortana will still be a signed in experience with complete personalization, but we’re excited to give even more people the opportunity to get to know Cortana. This update will be available to everyone when we release the Windows 10 Anniversary Edition this summer.

Deeper file search, including OneDrive results: You can now quickly search your files whether they are on your PC or your personal OneDrive in the cloud. You can search for documents, photos, music as well as videos stored on OneDrive. Just search for something you need to find and click one of the search filters (e.g. documents, photos, music, or videos) and it will show you content from your OneDrive.

Improvements to Action Center & Notifications

Evolving the entry point for Action Center: The Action Center icon has moved to the far corner of the taskbar so it is more distinct from other icons – making it easier to interact with it. There is a badge that now displays the number of notifications you have missed, and we are making it easier for you to know what app your notifications are from by adding a subtle animation to the icon (showing the sender app’s logo) whenever you receive notifications that do not show a toast.

Updated entry point for Action Center

Visual changes to Action Center: Individual app notifications in Action Center no longer show the app icon repeated for each notification and will only be seen in the header that groups together all the notifications specific for that app. This change allows for more space in Action Center to show more content.

Visual changes to Action Center

Cortana notifications in Action Center: We have also added new insights from Cortana to ensure you are not missing anything important, such as a meeting conflict or anything she needs to remind you about.

Cortana notifications in Action Center

Customize your Quick Actions in Action Center: You can add, remove and re-arrange the Quick Actions that show up in Action Center. To customize your Quick Actions, just go to the Settings > System > Notifications & actions. In this settings page, you will see a replica of your Quick Actions as it appears in Action Center, and with a simple press and hold you can move the Quick Actions to the place where you want them to be. Then to add or remove a Quick Action, there is a link below the grid that will allow you to turn on or off the available Quick Actions. The last preview build for Mobile introduced this for your Windows 10 phones, and now we’re bringing it to PC too.

Wi-Fi Quick Action changes: The Wi-Fi Quick Action directly takes you to the “View Available Network” flyout instead of turning ON/OFF your Wi-Fi. We received a lot of feedback on this from Windows Insiders and customers who were confused by the Wi-Fi Quick Action.

Updates to the Taskbar

Taskbar clock now integrates your calendar: Your calendar events are now just one click away – you can easily check your daily schedule directly in the taskbar clock flyout, after connecting your accounts in the Calendar app. If you click on an event in the flyout, it will redirect you to that event’s details in the Calendar app. You can also add a new event by clicking the “+” button.

calendar-flyout

Taskbar clock on all monitors: We heard a lot of requests for this from our gaming community. We’re happy to announce that for the first time since the taskbar was created, if you have multiple monitors and your taskbar set to show on all displays, the clock will now be visible on each Taskbar.

Taskbar Badging for UWP apps: You will now see badges appearing on UWP apps on the taskbar in addition to their Live Tiles and in Action Center. These badges are lightweight notifications that are contextual and specific to individual apps. For example, the Mail apps badge shows you the number of unseen emails (not unread). The Alarms & Clock app’s badge will show you that you have an active alarm. The Weather app’s badge lets you know when there is a weather alert in the area.

Taskbar badging

Taskbar settings now in Settings app: We have now moved the taskbar settings into the Settings app. Just go to Settings > System > Taskbar or right-click on the taskbar to go directly to this page in the Settings app. As an added bonus, these settings are now discoverable by searching with Cortana.

Manage multiple playback devices from the Taskbar: The volume flyout has been updated to allow you to switch between multiple audio output devices. Just click the arrow next to current audio output in use to expand and see other output devices available.

Manage multiple playback devices from the Taskbar

Updates to the Settings app

Icons for individual settings pages: All pages in the Settings app now have individual icons associated with them. These individual icons will also be shown when you pin a settings page to Start. And we have also added a dropdown flyout with page suggestions that will appear as you type into the Settings search box. These changes are designed to make it easier to find the settings you are looking for.

Updated Pen settings page:The Pen settings page under Settings > Devices > Pen has been updated to include the ability to adjust your pen shortcuts (e.g. click one to open OneNote), a new option to ignore touch input when using the pen, and Windows Ink Workspace settings. The touch keyboard and handwriting panel settings have been split up and you can choose to ignore touch input when using the pen.

Improved app management: We have added the ability to reset an app if it gets into a bad state under Settings > Apps and features. This is useful if an app gets into a bad state and you want to delete its data and start over.  Just choose “Advanced options” for a specific app under Settings > Apps and features and you will see the reset button. Note that not all apps currently support reset however. You will also be able manage app add-ons and downloadable content here too if the app supports this capability as discussed at Build 2016. While there are currently no apps that support add-ons or downloadable content in the Store, please stay tuned for availability of apps that do once they are released.

Improved app management

Windows Insider Program settings page: We have moved the Windows Insider Program settings to its own settings page. This is where you can go to join the Windows Insider Program (or stop receiving Insider Preview builds) and adjust which ring you are in. On Mobile – for Build 14327 and higher, the Windows Insider app is no longer required. To get to this new page, go to Settings > Update & security > Windows Insider Program.

Windows Insider Program settings page

Switching desktops with the touchpad

Virtual desktop users can now switch quickly between desktops using their touchpads. To do this, swipe four fingers left or right on your touchpad. Try switching desktops with a quick-flick. And if you want to refer to two adjacent desktops you can keep your fingers down and drag back and forth. You will need a precision touchpad that supports four or more fingers, such as the precision touchpads found on Surface Book or Surface Pro 4 Type Cover. While you’re at it try these other touchpad gestures supported in Windows 10.

Lock screen Improvements

Email addresses are hidden on the Lock screen: Your privacy is important to us and we received feedback that people did not want their email addresses displayed on the Lock screen. Email addresses are now hidden by default. If you would like your email address to show in the Lock screen, you can change this setting by going to Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options > Privacy.

Media controls show on top of the Lock screen: Media controls will now appear embedded at the bottom right corner of the Lock screen, along with a picture of the album art from the song currently playing.

Media controls on Lock screen

Updated Credential & UAC Dialog UI

When you are prompted to enter your credentials or elevate a program, you will notice the dialog now has a fresh and modern UI to align with the design language in use across Windows 10. And now when prompted to enter credentials, you can choose to sign-in with Windows Hello, a PIN, certificates or a simple password.

New credential prompt UI New UAC UI

Updated Skype UWP Preview app

With the updated version of the Skype UWP Preview app, you can now create and send group messages, as well as make group audio and video calls. For more information on this update to the Skype UWP Preview app, see this blog post here.

Updated File Explorer icon

Windows Insiders love finding new icons. This one is pretty noticeable so we wanted to call it out. We’ve updated the File Explorer icon to align with the monochrome design language used for the icons across Windows 10. However, you will notice a little bit of color still present in the icon. The design team was a bit hesitant to completely let go of the yellow because it has become such a familiar part of the File Explorer branding.

new-file-explorer-icon

They explored a variety of different ways to keep the yellow and still match the cleanliness of the black and white Windows app icons. The new icon you see in this build is where the design team landed that is closer to monochrome, but still has the familiar shape that users recognize, and has a nod to the yellow that you see all throughout File Explorer. Let us know what you think.

File Explorer Unpinned from the Taskbar

We hear feedback from Windows Insiders about how important the space on the taskbar is for them, and we made a major change in Windows 10 early last year based on their feedback when we added an option to hide the search box. We’re continuing to look at things we can do to make this the best use of space possible, including what gets pinned by default. In this build we are unpinning File Explorer by default to see whether Insiders prefer it pinned, or would rather have the space for their own use and launch File Explorer when they need it from Start. You can also re-pin it to your taskbar by opening Start, right-clicking on File Explorer in the left rail, choosing “More” and then “Pin to taskbar”. Tell us what you think about this via the Feedback Hub. This study is similar to the one we did a year ago where Insiders helped determine what windows were represented on the taskbar in virtual desktops.

Japanese IME Improvements

Prediction capability enhancements on Japanese IME: You can expand prediction candidate window by hitting Tab key at the bottom of the candidate window to find various formats of date expressions. Conversion result is also shown in prediction candidate window when your text is relatively long.

Prediction capability enhancements on Japanese IME

Improved typing history management in Japanese IME: You can now choose to store your typing history to a temporary repository and have it cleared automatically to avoid an inadvertent exposure to other people through the IME candidate window, without losing the important typing history you had accumulated over time. Just enable the mode from the context menu available on IME mode indicator. When you have finished typing, disable the mode from the same menu to have the temporary repository cleared. This functionality is automatically enabled during InPrivate browsing with Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer.

Improved typing history management in Japanese IME

Improved Cloud suggestions in Japanese IME: The IME UI has been improved to indicate the availability of Cloud suggestions! You will be notified in the candidate window when Cloud suggestions are available to use and can enjoy the rich vocabularies empowered by Bing. The flyout navigates users to the Settings, allowing them to switch to use Cloud suggestions more seamlessly as you type text.

Improved Cloud suggestions in Japanese IME

Here’s what’s fixed for PC

  • We fixed the issue causing the Visual Studio emulator for Windows 10 Mobile and Hololens to fail with “An authentication error has occurred. The Local Security Authority cannot be contacted”. Developers should be able to use the emulator on this build.
  • We fixed the issue causing the Xbox One Controller to lag and become hard to use when connected to your PC.
  • We fixed an issue where the two factor authentication dialog wasn’t formatted correctly after an error is received.
  • When you open a second app in tablet mode, it will appear side-by-side with the first app (split-screen). When you close one of these apps, it should become full screen.
  • We fixed an issue where default column widths for Task Manager were too narrow on high DPI devices.
  • We fixed an issue where restarting your PC might become stuck on “Restarting…” screen rather than prompting “Are you sure you want to Restart?” when unsaved work is present.
  • We’ve updated the Shutdown Windows dialog to use a modern icon.
  • We fixed an issue where you couldn’t see the Chinese Input Method Editor candidate list while in full screen mode for games, as well as resolved an issue where using it in the Settings search box would cause Settings to crash
  • We fixed an issue that might result in a notification that cannot be dismissed.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in overlapped icons and clipped text in File Explorer when display is using a very large font size.
  • We fixed an issue causing Quicken to not launch. However, you will need to uninstall and reinstall Quicken to get out of a bad state.

Known issues for PC

  • After upgrading to this build, there may be some cases in which when your PC enters Connected Standby, it may have a bluescreen (bugcheck). For more information on how to mitigate this issue if this happens to you – see this forum post.
  • We are continuing to make changes to our extension datastore schema in Microsoft Edge. As a result, after updating to this build any extensions installed in Microsoft Edge will be removed. You can reinstall these extensions to get them back.
  • Feedback Hub is not localized and the UI will be in English (U.S.) only, even with language packs installed.
  • Feedback Hub takes about 20-30 minutes after updating to this build to download and hydrate itself. If Feedback Hub is not fully hydrated, if you receive a mini-survey notification it will take you nowhere in the app, search in Feedback Hub won’t show results, and if you click to go to Feedback Hub from another app or setting, Feedback will not open.
  • The Desktop App Converter Preview (Project Centennial) will fail to run on the Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14328. If you are a developer utilizing the converter tool to convert your desktop app to UWP, we suggest skipping Build 14328 until we can fix this issue.
  • All Tencent online games no longer work in current builds from the Development Branch.
  • The updated UAC UI (mentioned above) breaks the ALT + Y keyboard shortcut to choose “yes”.
  • If you are in an app and click on a link with a URL longer than 260 characters, it will bring up the “Open with…” dialog instead of opening with your default browser.
  • We are aware of situations in which Groove Music will crash on launch at the splash screen and working to get a fix out soon. As a workaround, you can use Groove Music online.
  • Playing music in the Groove Music within 2 minutes after logging into your PC will result in 0xc10100ae playback errors. If you wait more than 2 minutes after logging in to play music in Groove Music you will avoid this issue.
  • In Microsoft Edge, some large downloads may appear to get stuck at 99% completion. You can work around this issue by renaming the file in your downloads after closing Microsoft Edge. This workaround skips security checks on the file, so it should be used only with files from a trusted source.
  • If you have BitLocker/Device Encryption enabled and try go back to a previous Insider Preview build via “Go back to an earlier build” under Settings > Update & security > Recovery – the app will crash and you will be unable to rollback. To work around this issue, disable BitLocker/Device Encryption and try again.
  • Settings will crash if you try to pin one of the pages to Start, resulting in page not being pinned
  • You may see square boxes in certain apps when using some of the new emoji – we’re still getting things set up, this will be resolved in a future build.
  • If you upgraded from 14316, you may see stuck apps in the Store. Those apps will also be duplicated in Start’s all apps list (one real, one pending). To resolve this: 1) Start downloading some other app. 2) Pause the download, then go to the downloads and update view. 3) Click the “Resume All” button. Once everything has downloaded, the issue should be resolved.

Source: Windows Blog

 

Resources for IT Pros to build their careers in cloud technology

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Cloud technology is transforming the role of IT. Building new skills and learning about cloud technology is important for career growth.   Microsoft is introducing two new free programs for IT Professionals who want to build and grow their career in the cloud-first world. Join now!

 

 Microsoft IT Pro Cloud Essentials  

A free annual subscription that includes free cloud services, education and support.

Cloud services:

Azure credits, Enterprise Mobility Suite 90-day trial, and Office 365 60-day trial

Education:

Pluralsight 3 month subscription, certification exam voucher, and IT Pro Career Center

Support:

Priority support in the TechNet forums and a phone support incident

Microsoft IT Pro Career Center

A free online resource to help IT Professionals map their cloud career path

Career Mapping:

Discover what industry experts suggest for your cloud role

Cloud Role Courses:

Follow a learning curriculum for your chosen cloud role

Industry Career Trends:

Hear from industry experts about the skills you need to succeed

Personality Traits:

Get insights on your personality traits and how they matchup to cloud roles

Fast Ring: Announcing Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview Build 14327

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Here’s what’s new in Build 14327 for Mobile

Try out the Messaging Everywhere Preview

You can now try out the preview of the “Messaging everywhere” feature in Windows 10 that allows you to send and receive text messages from your phone directly from your Windows 10 PC’s.

Messaging everywhere (Beta) settings on Mobile Messaging everywhere (Beta) settings on PC

To enable this:

  • Make sure you are signed in with your Microsoft Account (MSA).
  • On your phone – make sure “Send texts on all my Windows devices” is turned on.
  • On your PC – make sure you have chosen which phone to send messages through. You do this in the settings of the Messaging app on your PC (screenshot above).

Try it out and less us know what you think via the Feedback Hub.

NOTE: You may have noticed that Skype integration in the Messaging app in this build of Windows 10 Mobile has been removed. This is so Skype can streamline your experience, replacing the integration with the Skype UWP Preview app for mobile in an upcoming build. In the meantime, you can use the existing Skype for Windows Phone app available in the Windows Store.

Cortana in more languages

With this build, we are enabling Cortana for the Spanish (Mexico), Portuguese (Brazil) and French (Canada) languages for Mobile (available previously in PC builds). If you’re running the Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview in these languages – give Cortana a try and let us know what you think. For each new market and language, the Cortana Team works to develop a custom experience that is relevant in each individual market and language. These are early versions that we will continue improve based on your feedback and we look forward to hearing more from you.

Voice input is also now available for these languages. Set focus to a text field and tap the microphone above the keyboard to give it a try.

Here’s what’s fixed for Mobile

  • We fixed the issue causing Language and Speech packs to fail to download.
  • We fixed the issue where in some cases your phone’s screen may not turn on and become unresponsive and Windows Hello stops working if you used the power button to lock/unlock your phone quickly.
  • We fixed the issue where in some cases, users might get in a state where neither space or enter are working on the keyboard.
  • We fixed the issue causing Facebook Messenger and other apps like WeChat, Transfer My Data, and UC Browser from failing to launch from Start or All apps.
  • We fixed an issue where diverse emoji couldn’t be deleted from the text box in an interactive notification.
  • We have updated the autocorrection logic so that if you have a word that’s about to be autocorrected, tapping the word you just typed will now stop the autocorrection from happening.
  • We have updated the Glance screen so it will now reflect Ease of Access text scaling.
  • We fixed an issue where tethering over Bluetooth wouldn’t work if Bluetooth had never been turned on before.
  • We fixed an issue where you couldn’t set a sample image as a lock screen background.

Known issues for Mobile

  • Feedback Hub is not localized and the UI will be in English (U.S.) only even with language packs installed.
  • We’re investigating a crash with the Camera app when going into your camera roll.
  • There is an issue in which you may see duplicate apps under All apps showing as pending despite being installed and usable on your phone. You may also see some apps stuck in the Store. To get out of this state, just start and pause a download in the Store and then choose to “resume all” downloads.
  • You may see square boxes in certain apps when using some of the new emoji – we’re still getting support for the new emoji added throughout the systems, this will be resolved in a future build.
  • There is a bug we’re investigating that prevents some apps such as Tweetium from launching.
  • We’re investigating issues which cause mobile data to stop working but show as connected.
  • Glance on/off setting is not respected after updating to a new build. After updating, you can reset this setting to what you had before.

Enjoy updating!

New Session 27th of April: Secure & Protect

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 When: 27/4/2016

 Schedule:

            18:00 Welcome & Food

            18:30 Part 1: How to manage your Local Administrator Passwords centrally.

             Pause

            19:30 Part 2: How to protect your environment/customer from Crypto-lockers.

20:30 Networking & drinks

Where:

           Cheops Technology NV

           Prins Boudewijnlaan 49

           2650 Edegem – Belgium

Register Here

Fast Ring: Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14316

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A new Build Released to the Fast Ring insiders, lots of cool new stuff to test:

Don’t miss the connect app it’s coooool!

Here’s what’s new in Build 14316

Run native Bash on Ubuntu on Windows: In this build, you can natively run Bash in Windows as announced last week at Build 2016. To do this, you first need to turn on Developer Mode via Settings > Update & security > For developers. Then search for “Windows Features” and choose “Turn Windows features on or off” and enable Windows Subsystem for Linux (Beta). To get Bash installed, open Command Prompt and type “bash”. For more details, see this blog post.

Bash in Windows

Cortana Cross-Device Features: Starting today, we will be releasing new features to Insiders on an ongoing basis that keeps you in perfect sync across all the devices where you use Cortana to stay connected and never miss a beat throughout your day. With today’s build, we are rolling out the below features. If you are an Insider who doesn’t have a Windows phone, these features will also work with Android devices too but you will need Cortana Version 1.5 or higher (Download here for U.S. and download here for China) for them to work.

  • Low Battery Notifications: Cortana will now inform you of low battery power on your mobile devices. For example, if your phone’s battery is low, a notification will pop up on your PC so you can promptly charge it before your next meeting.
  • Find my phone/Ring my phone: We all lose track of our phone from time to time and now you can ask Cortana to find your phone, regardless of device, on your PC using the new find my phone feature. The feature will allow users to locate their phone from their PC through geo-location and by having Cortana ring your phone.
  • Share map directions across devices: To date, people go through a lot of effort to manually connect the dots between devices—emailing links to open on other devices or re-doing a search on the phone to find directions to a location they were just looking at on the PC. Today, we’re breaking down one of those barriers by enabling you to access navigation details across devices through Cortana. Tell Cortana “directions to < place>” on your PC and she’ll send those same directions to your phone.

UPDATE: We are aware of issues in which some of these new features are not working correctly with Build 14295 on mobile. The next mobile build will allow these features to work more completely.

Making Cortana easier to setup on your device: If you are in Cortana supported markets and struggled to get Cortana enabled, this will automatically download the necessary speech language, if needed, and enable Cortana for you.

New and Updated Extensions for Microsoft Edge: A few weeks ago, we announced the availability of extension support for Microsoft Edge with more on the way. Today, we are excited to share with you some new extensions that you can try out – Pin It Button and OneNote Clipper. In addition, we have updated versions of Reddit Enhancement Suite, Mouse Gestures, and Microsoft Translator. To install these new extensions, just click on “More” (…) at the top right in Microsoft Edge and click “Extensions” to open the Extensions pane and click “Get extensions”.

Pin It Button and OneNote Clipper Edge Extensions

Please note: There is change in this build that will break existing extensions installed on your PC in Microsoft Edge if they were previously installed using an older build. You can download the new installation files and re-install the existing extensions using the new installers.

Try out the Skype UWP Preview app: You can try out the Skype UWP Preview app announced a couple of weeks ago on the Skype blog. The Skype UWP Preview app includes a lot of the basic Skype functionality – with more features and functionality to come in the next couple of releases. We are first releasing this for PCs only, but we will be making the Skype UWP app available for Mobile in a future build.

Action Center Improvements: We have added the ability to select which app notifications are more important to you in Action Center. On your device, you can manage the notification settings for individual apps by going to Settings > System > Notifications & actions. Just click or tap on a specific app to adjust its notification settings. You can prioritize its notifications in Action Center to be one of 3 levels: Normal, High, or Priority. Additionally, you can also adjust how many notifications are visible per app. The default is now 3 per app. If an app has more than 3 notifications, just click or tap to expand and see all notifications for that app. This was a top request from Insiders.

Updated Emoji: We wanted to share some cool work from our design team that is showing up in this build. We are updating the entire set of font-based emoji in Windows 10 that aligns with the Microsoft Design Language with a distinct visual style as well as the Unicode standard.

New Microsoft Emoji

These new emoji are designed to be detailed, expressive, and playful. Their larger size takes full advantage of every pixel and the two-pixel outline allows for emoji to appear on any color background without loss of fidelity.

New Microsoft Emoji

Our new emoji also supports skin tone modification across a wide variety of people glyphs.

Personalization Improvements: We’ve added the ability to universally toggle between dark and light modes via Settings > Personalization > Colors.

New Dark Mode

When you switch to dark mode, apps such as Settings, Store, Alarms & Clock, Calculator and other UWP apps that listen and respond to theme changes in the OS will change into dark mode. Some UWP apps that control their own theme settings (separate from Windows) won’t change by toggling this setting.

New Personalization Settings in Windows 10

We’ve also added a new option under Settings > Personalization > Colors to show color only on app title bars in addition to the option to show color on Start, the taskbar, and Action Center.

New PC access experience: Using the new Connect app, you can bring the Continuum experience from your phone (a Continuum-enabled Windows 10 phone is required) to the PC without needing a dock or Miracast adapter. Additionally, it also allows other Miracast-enabled PCs to project to other PCs without needing a dock or Miracast adapter as well. The Connect app will mention the ability to use a USB cable to connect to your PC however this is a bug and the app only supports wireless connections on PCs. This is an early preview of this feature – we have more work coming to make the experience even better.

New Connect app for Windows 10 PCs

Virtual Desktop Improvements: You can now pin a window so it’s available on every desktop. To do this, launch Task View then right-click on the window you want to pin and choose “Show this window on all desktops”. Try pinning Skype or Groove Music so they’re always at your fingertips. And if you have a multi-mon setup, you might enjoy the ability to have your email app on the second monitor no matter which desktop you switch to.

Virtual Desktop Improvements

New Update Progress Experience: When you PC installs today’s new build update – you will see a new progress experience for installing the update. This is part of an effort to align the experience of installing updates from Windows Update.

New Upgrade Experience

Updated Battery Settings and Battery Saving Experience: We have renamed “Battery Saver” settings page to be “Battery” since we believe a single entry point for all battery related settings including Battery Saver simplifies the user experience.

Battery Settings

We also updated the Detailed Battery Use page so you can now manage the per-app background settings inline without going to a second page and added a new background settings option called “Managed by Windows”.

Battery Saver Details

With this option, not only will the app stop running in the background when Battery Saver is enabled, but it will temporarily turn off apps with high battery drain that you haven’t used in a while or pinned to your Start screen till you next launch the application (shown as “Turned off by system” on the Detailed Battery Use page). We also added a prompt asking the user if they’d like to turn on Battery Saver when battery is at 20% – something we had with Windows Phone 8.1 that Insiders wanted to see us re-implement as we merged Battery Sense into the Settings app for both PC and mobile.

Updated Windows Update Settings: You can now set the time in which you are most active on your device by adjusting active hours under Settings > Update & security > Windows Update. Windows Update will avoid automatically installing updates during your active hours on your device.

Commenting in the Feedback Hub: As we announced at Build last week, we have added the ability to comment on feedback inside the Feedback Hub. You have seen responses from our engineering team in the app already, in what we call “sticky comments”. Those comments are now the top items in a comments thread where you can discuss feedback with each other and us. So in addition to up-voting on feedback, you can now comment on feedback too. We hope you will use the discussion feature to share workarounds, discuss suggestions others have made, and share any new info you have about problems you’re seeing. As always, please let us know what you think by going to Apps & Games > Feedback Hub and joining the discussion!

Commenting in Feedback Hub

Messaging Everywhere Preview Coming Soon: We will soon be enabling a preview of the “Messaging everywhere” feature in Windows 10 that allows you to send and receive text messages from your phone directly from your Windows 10 PC’s. You will see options for this feature in the Messaging app on PC however an update is required for the Messaging app for Mobile for this experience to work. More to come on this when the experience is live.

Here’s what’s fixed for PC

  • We fixed the issue where on some PCs with TPM chips, such as the ASUS Zenbook UX31, you may have experienced glitchy audio and jumpy movement when using the trackpad due to the “tpm-maintenance” task running constantly in the background instead of once per boot-up like it should.
  • We fixed the issue where if you use Hyper-V and have a Virtual Switch configured for your network adapter, you might see an error indicator (red-colored “X”) for your network adapter in the notification area of your taskbar.
  • We polished the Wi-Fi flyout UI and fixed an issue where text entry into a Wi-Fi password field was noticeably top-aligned rather than centered.
  • We fixed an issue for where when using multiple monitors and full-screen apps like PowerPoint or Remote Desktop would crash Windows Explorer.
  • We fixed an issue where Cortana wasn’t showing Settings pages in the search results.
  • We have updated the Windows Update notification after updates have been installed so now clicking on the notification will take you straight to your update history.
  • We fixed an issue where desktop (Win32) apps pinned to the Start menu would sometimes move after updating to a new build.
  • We fixed an issue where “Update and Restart” and “Update and Shut Down” wouldn’t start an update.

Known issues

  • The Visual Studio emulator for Windows 10 Mobile and Hololens will fail with “An authentication error has occurred. The Local Security Authority cannot be contacted”. If you are a developer and require the emulator for building apps, we suggesting moving to the Slow ring and skipping this build until we can fix this issue.
  • [ADDED 4/7] We are investigating an issue where UWPs do not appear on the taskbar when minimized. When this happens, the app icons don’t show up on the taskbar and they are also not shown in ALT + Tab or Task View. The only way to maximize these apps is via Task Manager. Additionally, you can try restarting  Explorer.exe from Task Manager to get out of this state.
  • We continue to investigate issues with Narrator and other screen reader apps that make them unable to read selected text in the Feedback Hub, Cortana, and other apps.
  • In Microsoft Edge, some large downloads may appear to get stuck at 99% completion. You can work around this issue by renaming the file in your downloads after closing Microsoft Edge. This workaround skips security checks on the file, so it should be used only with files from a trusted source.
  • In some cases, attempting to turn on Developer Mode on may crash the Settings app. If this happens, the workaround is to use these steps here to enable Developer Mode.
  • Some apps notifications may only show the icon – however the full text of the notification will be visible within Action Center.

Source: Windows Blog

All You Need to Know About Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Virtualization

Ebook_Microsoft_Windows_Server_Virtualization_2016_enThis eBook will discuss Windows Server 2016 Virtualization, also known as Hyper-V 2016. Many Hyper-V components have evolved with each Microsoft release, and knowing this information is key to understanding the increased functionality and usability.

Many of the new features require the basic usage of PowerShell. You’ll find them documented throughout this eBook as examples of features that allow IT Professionals to leverage Hyper-V PowerShell scripts in their own environments.

The goal of this eBook is to provide the necessary tools to successfully test, and eventually manage, a Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V environment.

Get the E-Book Here

 

Watch the Build 2016 keynotes Live Here

Buildlogo

Build 2016 is coming to San Francisco and the Moscone Center this week, March 30-April 1. You can watch the keynotes, live, here.

Expecting loads of new announcements!

Windows 10 Mobile Released for Certain 8.1 Devices

Using the Upgrade Advisor App you can now update the following Phones to Windows 10

Lumia 1520, 930, 640, 640XL, 730, 735, 830, 532, 535, 540, 635 1GB, 636 1GB, 638 1GB, 430, 435

BLU Win HD w510u, BLU Win HD LTE x150q

MCJ Madosma Q501

This list includes a limited set of Windows Phone 8.1 devices and does not include some devices that are currently running Windows 10 Mobile in the Windows 10 Mobile Insider program. As Windows 10 delivers significant new innovations, many older devices are not able to successfully upgrade without an impact on the customer experience. Our goal is to only offer the Windows 10 upgrade to devices that we are confident can continue to deliver a good customer experience.

More information on Windows 10 for phones

Get the Upgrade Advisor

The update:

Step 1 – run update advisor and accept you want to upgrade

Step 2 – go to all settings & check for updates

Step 3 – enjoy all te new stuff in Windows 10 Mobile 🙂

Fast Ring: Announcing Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview Build 14283

Here’s what’s new in Build 14283

Improvements to the Phone app: We know how important it is to stay informed when someone is trying to reach you, whether that’s through notifications, Live tiles on your Start screen, or directly within your communications applications. To help with this, we’ve added missed call and voicemail waiting indicators to the tabs inside the Phone app. Once you navigate to a tab with a missed call or voicemail – the indicator goes away. We’ve got another change coming that will keep the indicator in place until you navigate away from the tab. There is also a bug where you might not see the indicator clear right away – a fix is coming soon for this as well. Let us know what you think!

phone-app-header

Updates to Outlook Mail & Calendar: Yesterday, we released an update to the Outlook Mail & Calendar apps that introduces some new features and improvements. In Outlook Mail, you can turn off the message preview text in the message list (Settings > Reading > Conversation and turning “Show preview text” off). You can also quickly get rid of junk email in your inbox by pressing down on a message to bring up the context menu and choosing ‘Move to Junk’. In Outlook Calendar, you can now let others know “I’ll be late” directly from meeting notifications.

running-late-notif

Coming Soon – the Feedback Hub: When you open Insider Hub on this build, you will see a new welcome dialog for Feedback Hub. Coming in the next mobile and PC build – we are bringing together the Insider Hub and Windows Feedback apps into a single app called the Feedback Hub. The Feedback Hub carries over all of the best things from the previous two apps plus some new things Insiders will enjoy. For example, in addition to upvoting feedback, you will be able to also leave comments on feedback. We have also redesigned the homepage in Feedback Hub to bring together announcements and quests. Stay tuned as we’ll have more to say about the Feedback Hub with the next builds for mobile and PC when the app is ready for Insiders to use.

Here’s what’s fixed

  • We have addressed an issue where the background behind the All apps list would not have an overlay (causing it to appear too bright or too dark, depending on your background) if you went back to All apps list after launching an app.
  • We fixed an issue causing the title of a song in volume control to flicker a few times when you pressed play or changed tracks after a pause.
  • We fixed an issue some users were experiencing with Build 14267 where your device could hang while typing and reboot.
  • We made some more improvements to the Live tile refresh logic. First, if there are pending notifications for several Live tiles, we will now update them in one quick sweep across the Start screen rather than one at a time. Second, if a Live tile has both badge and content updates, they will now appear at the same time. Finally, apps will now launch faster from the Start screen if there are incoming Live tile updates at the same time.
  • We fixed an issue where Live tiles for certain apps (such as the Weather app) would sometimes unexpectedly be cleared of active notifications.
  • We fixed an issue in which the Start screen background would appear to stutter behind the tiles when scrolling up and down the Start screen on some devices such as the Lumia 950.
  • We fixed an issue where the keyboard would sometimes pop up when swiping over to the All apps list.
  • We fixed an issue where icons for certain apps would appear too tiny on Live folders on the Start screen if your phone was set to 350% DPI.
  • We fixed an issue where “More notifications” message in Action Center was not properly formatted.
  • We fixed an issue where for certain languages, pressing “@” button could result the contents of the clipboard being pasted.
  • We fixed an issue where notifications using custom sounds would be silent if the underlying audio file had been deleted. Now, if that file is not present, it will play the default notification sound.
  • Connected to wireless displays should now work by going to Action Center and expanding Quick actions and choosing “Connect”.

Known issues

  • We have updated the Bluetooth AVRCP profile on mobile to version 1.5. Some cars only tell Windows what they support and vice versa during the initial pairing ceremony. In order for this update to take full effect, you need to delete your existing Bluetooth pairing with your car and then re-pair. After doing so, if you notice any issues using media playback controls or missing artist or track info, please file a new feedback item including your car’s make, model, and year.
  • If you have a Microsoft Band 1 or 2 paired to your phone, it will no longer sync after updating to this build due to a system API failure that occurs after the update. If you want to get your Band syncing with your phone again – you can temporarily change the language of your phone as a short term workaround until we release a fix. Additionally, you can also choose to reset your phone to get out of this state – however you may experience this update issue again with the next build until we fix this issue. This issue may also impact Skype video and audio calls.
  • We are investigating an issue where the Gadgets app is not able to detect the Microsoft Display Dock on phones running Windows 10 Mobile Insider Preview builds, and thus cannot update the firmware version. If you have a dock which has already been updated to version 4 then this will not affect you. If you have a dock that has not been updated, then you may experience some minor issues with USB-C stability.
  • Connectivity to older Wi-Fi networks using the WEP encryption security method may be broken. WEP is an insecure method for protecting your Wi-Fi connection but a small percentage of Windows users still use it.  A workaround would be to configure your wireless routers to use WPA or WPA2 or wait for the next Insider flight when this is fixed.

Source: Windows Blog

Insider Fast Ring: Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14279

Here’s what’s new in Build 14279

Cortana in more languages: With this build, we are enabling Cortana for the Spanish (Mexico), Portuguese (Brazil) or French (Canada) languages! If you’re running the Windows 10 Insider Preview in these languages – give Cortana a try and let us know what you think. For each new market and language, the Cortana Team works to develop a custom experience that is relevant in each individual market and language. For instance, in Brazil – Cortana is fond of pasteis which is a common food found in many regions across Brazil. And in Mexico, we added local flavor to reflect the accent and language of the country. But our work is never complete and a big part of our development process is getting feedback from you. These are early versions that we will continue improve based on your feedback and we look forward to hearing more from you.

Cortana remembers things for you: We have all had those moments throughout a busy day where we need to remember something, but don’t have time to stop what we are doing to set a detailed reminder. With Cortana, you can now save useful information like the name of a book you want to read (ex: “remind me to read [insert book name]”), or a to-do item without a due date (ex: “remind me to wash the car”). You have the option to set specific details like location, time, and people at a later time so that Cortana will surface it when its most relevant. You can always view and edit all of these in the same place you see your reminders in Cortana today. In future builds Cortana will be able to retrieve these upon request, just like a real personal assistant would.

Updated logon experience: Previously on PC, there were two separate backgrounds for the Lock screen and then the logon screen. We’re merging the experience so there is just a single background – your Lock screen background. This is similar to the behavior seen on mobile. If you have a custom Lock screen background set, you will see your Lock screen background is now used for both the Lock screen and logon screen. If you’re a Windows Spotlight user – hold tight, you’ll see this change soon in a future build. We’re also working on some additional tweaks here to make the transition between the Lock screen and logging in much smoother.

Performance and Candidate improvements in Japanese IME: We have improved performance of IME especially on typing response. So your typing experience will be smoother than before. We also extended our prediction content and you can select wider variety of candidates from prediction candidate list.

A few other things for you to try

Sway integration with Photos app: Try out the Sway integration in the Photos app by going to one of your albums in the Photos app and clicking on “Tell your story with Sway” button. Then your album immediately becomes an interactive, web-based experience where you can use Sway to add section headers, text narration, captions, and other details to enhance the flow of your narrative and create your own story. For more on the Sway integration with the Photos app in Windows 10 – read this blog post.

March updates for the Xbox app (beta) for Windows 10: A new update to the Xbox app (beta) for Windows 10 will be bringing along some new features including a Gamerscore Leaderboard and an updated ‘Featured’ section. If you’re part of the Xbox One Preview, there are some good updates on the way for you too on the console. Read this blog post from Xbox Wire for all the details. You can download the Xbox app (beta) app for Windows 10 here from the Windows Store.

Here’s what’s fixed for PC

  • We fixed an issue where Microsoft Edge and Cortana were crashing for users with roaming profiles.
  • We fixed an issue where Cortana would continue to show reminders that have been completed.
  • We fixed an issue where items copied/moved to the desktop would not display until the desktop is manually refreshed by right-clicking on the desktop and choosing “Refresh” or pressing F5.
  • We fixed an issue where downloading certain drivers from Windows Update was causing some PCs to bluescreen.

Known issues for PC

  • We’re investigating an issue in which some Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 4, and Surface Book devices experience a freeze or hang and all input such as keyboard/trackpad and touch do not work. The workaround is to hold down the power button to force the device to hard-reboot.
  • We are continuing to track several issues reported by Insiders where some PCs will freeze or bluescreen when resuming from hibernation. Disabling hibernation is a workaround in some cases until this is fixed.
  • If you have Kaspersky Anti-Virus, Internet Security, or the Kaspersky Total Security Suite installed on your PC there is a known driver bug that prevents these programs from working as expected in builds from the Development Branch. We are partnering with Kaspersky to fix this issue for a future release, but at this time there are no known workarounds. While this issue is present, we recommend using Windows Defender or another third party anti-virus product of your choice to remain protected.
  • Turning on the “always show all icons in the notification area” setting disrupts the layout of the notification area (“systray”). Your notification area will look out of alignment.
  • We are seeing reports of crashes with apps such as QQ crashing due to an OS reliability issue we are currently investigating. This bug is also impacting older apps such as Windows Live Mail and Expression Encoder 4.

Source: Windows Blog