Windows 10 Windows 10 Insider Preview

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14901 for PC

Hello Windows Insiders!

THANK YOU for helping us release the Windows 10 Anniversary Update to our customers last week! We couldn’t have done it without you. Now that the Windows 10 Anniversary Update (Build 14393) has been released to our customers, it has replaced the Windows 10 November Update (Build 10586) in the Current Branch. We’re now ready to start releasing new builds from our Development Branch again. Today we are releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14901 for PC to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring.

NOTE: It may take a couple of hours for this build to show up for some Windows Insiders as updated device targeting needs to roll out.

I know a lot of Insiders are wondering about Mobile. Just like we did after the release of the Windows 10 November Update – we are starting off by releasing PC builds from our Development Branch first and then start releasing Mobile builds a few weeks after. Right now, the team is laser-focused on preparing to release the Windows 10 Anniversary Update to Mobile devices and we think we’re almost ready. You can help us out by making sure you are running Build 14393.67 (KB3176931) on your phone and sending in feedback on any issues you run into via the Feedback Hub. Our team is determined to make sure we release a high quality build to our customers and your feedback really makes a difference. I also recommend reading this post regarding supported Mobile devices for the Windows Insider Program going forward.

As the team mentioned in a post in Feedback Hub earlier this week, you won’t see many big noticeable changes or new features just yet in builds we release from our Development Branch. We are focusing on making some structural improvements to OneCore which is the shared “heart” of Windows across PC, tablet, phone, IoT, Hololens and Xbox. We’re doing some code refactoring and other engineering work to make sure OneCore is optimally structured for teams to start checking in new features and improvements in a few months. As a result, these builds may include more bugs and other issues that could be slightly more painful for some people to live with. If this makes you uncomfortable, you can change your ring by going to Settings > Update & security > Windows Insider Program and moving to the Slow or Release Preview rings for more stable builds.

What’s new in Build 14901
Improving Product Education: As part of an effort to explore new ways of educating our customers on features in Windows 10 – we are testing out new notifications within File Explorer. They’re designed to help customers by providing quick, easy information about things they can do or new features they can try to have a better experience with Windows 10. If you want to opt out of these notifications, you can do so by unchecking ‘Show sync provider notifications’ from the Options menu in the File Explorer View tab.



image: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/08/snip_20160808140716-1024x735.png

snip_20160808140716-1024x735.png



Known issues:
  • Support for kernel debugging over 1394 has been removed, but will be available in an upcoming kit release. A work-around will be posted to the Debugging Tools for Windows Blog shortly.
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader crashes when you try to launch it.
I’d also like to thank everyone for all of your help around the research and ideas for the #WINsiders4Good events. The Seattle one was a great success and I will write up a detailed blog (with a video!) once we wrap up Berlin this weekend. The team and I are working on creating a CAT (Create-A-Thon) In A Box so that any of you can host your own event with your local community. I love that our Insider community are people who use the tech they love to help eradicate the problems they don’t love.

That’s all for now. We hope you enjoy the build and have a wonderful weekend.

Keep hustling,
Dona <3

UPDATED AUGUST 11, 2016 3:52 PM


Reference:
Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14901 for PC
 
So many complaints coming in, I guess we (the 5 million insiders testers) have made a mess of it - lol
 
AUGUST 17, 2016 10:02 AM
Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14905 for PC & Mobile
By Dona Sarkar / Software Engineer, Windows and Devices Group

Hello Windows Insiders!

Yesterday, we began rolling out the Windows 10 Anniversary Update for Windows 10 Mobile. Thank you to all of the Windows Insiders who downloaded the Cumulative Updates first and gave us feedback that helped us prepare for this release to our customers. Today we are excited to be releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14905 for PC AND Mobile to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring! This is our first new Mobile build from our Development Branch after launching the Windows 10 Anniversary Update yesterday for Windows 10 phones. We know you all have been excited for Mobile builds to start up again as have we!

Here’s what’s new in Build 14905 for Mobile
  • We are introducing a newly refined sound set in this build, uniting the best of our past and present. We aspire to set a new bar for mobile sound set quality, and are trying to make the soundscape of technology more beautiful and harmonious. This also helps align with new sound design direction of the Windows platform as a whole, so that mobile sounds will family with desktop and tablet and be feel instantly familiar to all Windows users. We will continue to evolve – head to Settings > Personalization > Sounds to see the updated list of available sounds and let us know what you think!
Improvements and fixes for PC
  • We have fixed an issue causing a large blank space to appear between the address bar and web content after the address bar moves back to the top when opening a new tab in Microsoft Edge.
  • We have updated Narrator Scan mode for table navigation to now support CTRL + ALT + HOME to go to the beginning of the table CTRL + ALT + END to go to the end of the table.
  • Microsoft Edge now supports the CTRL + O keyboard shortcut for setting focus to the address bar.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in Sketchpad and Screen Sketch crashing after trying to change the ink color twice in a row when the ruler was visible.
Improvements and fixes for Mobile
  • Missed call notifications are now more actionable, with inline options to call back, text or remind yourself to do something about it later.
  • We fixed an issue where videos played in Windows Phone 8 apps might not pause when an incoming call was received.
  • We fixed an issue where, if “Show my caller ID” is set to “My contacts”, the contact being called might still see a blocked caller ID.
  • We fixed an issue where the Lock screen might fail to update to the new time after a time zone change.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in music not resuming after a call was finished, if Turn-by-Turn directions were being read out from the Maps app when the phone call came in.
Known issues for PC
  • Support for kernel debugging over 1394 has been removed, but will be available in an upcoming kit release. A work-around will be posted to the Debugging Tools for Windows Blog shortly.
  • Adobe Acrobat Reader crashes when you try to launch it.
  • Cortana’s text to speech capabilities is not working in this build. For example, Cortana won’t be able to read text messages out loud for you, tell jokes, sing, or give verbal prompts.
  • When clicking on the power button on the Start menu, it closes the Start menu without opening the flyout with restart/shutdown options appearing. As a workaround – you can right-click on the Start button (or WIN + X) and choose to shutdown via this menu instead.
  • Apps such as Yahoo Mail, Trivia Crack, Google and the Skype Translator Preview app will crash in this build due to a compatibility issue from a recent platform change.
  • The Settings app may crash on certain editions of Windows 10 when navigating to different settings pages due to a missing .dll file. We are working on getting this fixed soon.
Known issues for Mobile
  • If you move apps between a SD card and internal storage (either direction), those apps will get stuck in a pending state. The workaround to get your apps working again is to uninstall the app through Settings > System > Storage (apps cannot be uninstalled from All apps list). Then you can re-install the app from the Store.
  • Cortana’s text to speech capabilities is not working in this build. For example, Cortana won’t be able to read text messages out loud for you, tell jokes, sing, or give verbal prompts.
A few months ago, we set out to design a new T-shirt for the Windows Insiders Program – and what better source for ideas than Windows Insiders themselves! So, we organized a design competition with a few simple rules:

1. Come up with a design that reflected the innovative spirit of the Windows Insider Program

2. Include the Windows logo and a call out to Windows Insiders.

In just a few weeks, we received some absolutely amazing designs from around the world. After a long – and often heated – selection process (including a vote by the Windows Insider community), our judges narrowed it down to five finalists before picking the ultimate winner: a beautiful design concept by E. Bautista from the United States. The final design below (zoom in to see the finer details) will soon be available on the eCompanyStore. We’ll let you know when it’s ready. Thanks to everyone for participating and congratulations to our finalists – and ultimate winner!



WIP_tshirt-design_final2-300x279.png



Thank you for everything you do and your amazing passion for Windows. We love you.

Keep hustling,
Dona <3

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14905 for PC & Mobile
 
The operating system which many thought was going to be Windows 9 is in fact going to be called Windows 10.
The preview is apparently available tomorrow 1st October 2014.
Why the sudden change from windows 9 to windows 10? If the hype is to be believed then Windows 10 is such a change from previous operating systems that it needed an extra digit:

Ref:
Windows 10 unveiled - Microsoft ushers in the next era of Windows by skipping 9 | TechRadar




Ref:
Windows 10 will be available late next year, preview coming tomorrow


Guru3D also ran a big article today on Windows 10:

Ref:
Microsoft skips Windows 9, its now Windows 10

Signing up for Windows 10.

Many users will be wanting to know where they can get their hands on a copy of Windows 10 Preview. Luckily for us Mary Jo Foley has an article which includes the process of signing up:


Read the full article here:
Microsoft's Windows 10: What's new and how to get the preview bits | ZDNet

I wonder what windows pro 10 is going to look like
 
The post you have quoted is close to two years old.

Many thousands of users already have the latest (anniversary Pro) installed.
 
Here's what's new in the latest fast track release build 14296:

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14926 for PC and Mobile
By Dona Sarkar / Software Engineer, Windows and Devices Group

Hello Windows Insiders!

Thanks for being patient with us as we upgraded some of our engineering tools last week. Our build monitoring system is purring again and today we are excited to be releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14926 for PC and Mobile to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring.

An important note about build expiration
Just as we’ve always done with pre-release versions of Windows, Insider Preview builds have expiration dates. Starting tomorrow September 15th, PCs running really old Insider Preview builds will start to see build expiration notifications once a day. Then on October 1st, these PCs will start rebooting every 3 hours and then on October 15th – these PCs will stop booting all together. If your PC is running one of these old Insider Preview builds, please make sure you update to Build 14926 via Settings > Update & security > Windows Update. Build 14926 has an updated expiration date of May 1st, 2017. If your PC is running the Windows 10 Anniversary Update (Build 14393) in the Slow and Release Preview rings today – this does not apply to you and you will not be notified of your build expiring.


new-expiration.png



Introducing Microsoft Rewards
There are now more ways to get rewarded with Microsoft. Microsoft Rewards is a new rewards program that just launched earlier this week. It builds on the foundation of Bing Rewards, but with expanded ways to earn. With Microsoft Rewards, you earn points for searching with Bing, shopping at the Windows and Microsoft stores, and browsing the web with Microsoft Edge. As a Windows Insider, you can continue to earn points even on Insider Preview builds. Then you can redeem your points for Xbox or Windows gift cards and pick from thousands of games, movies, TV shows, music, and apps. Or you can use your points to get Microsoft Store discounts, Skype Credits, Xbox Live Gold memberships, and more, or even donate them to charity. To join, click here!

What’s new in Build 14926
Snooze in Microsoft Edge: We know you all love when we get creative with you, so we have added an experimental “Snooze” action on a tab in Microsoft Edge which provides you with a way to set a Cortana reminder on the website you are viewing. People often keep tabs open in their browser indefinitely as a “to do” list, and do not close those tabs until the action associated with that website is complete. This feature lets you put a site into a Cortana reminder that will show up as a notification and in Action Center, allowing you to quickly open that site in Microsoft Edge when you’re ready to get back to it.

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



wi-fi-settings-576x1024.png



wi-fi-settings-new-576x1024.png



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

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

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

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

Other improvements and fixes for PC
  • We fixed the issue causing Adobe Acrobat Reader to crash when you try to launch it.
  • We fixed the issue causing the Settings app to crash when navigating to Settings > Personalization.
  • We fixed an issue where Windows icons and text are not rendered correctly on some devices with Intel Atom (Clovertrail) processors.
  • We’ve improved scaling for full screen games where the aspect ratio doesn’t match the native display resolution, for example, when playing Counter Strike: Global Offensive using a 4:3 stretched resolution.
  • We fixed the issue where some people would experience a bugcheck (bluescreen) after plugging/unplugging certain types of Kindles such as the Paperwhite and Voyage.
  • This build improves the performance on websites with changes to large numbers of HTML Elements containing text by improving spellchecker efficiency. This results in substantially improved performance on websites like TweetDeck.
  • We have addressed the largest cause of reliability issues in Microsoft Edge running on Insider Preview builds. This should improve reliability on major websites such as Facebook and Outlook.com.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in certain links (for example, Facebook) displaying a default favicon in the Microsoft Edge Tab, rather than the logo intended by the website.
  • We fixed an issue where the Wi-Fi icon in the taskbar might show full bars when connected to a Wi-Fi network with low signal.
  • We have fixed the issue which prevented the wireless network adapter in Surface Pro 1 and Surface Pro 2 devices from working. This also fixes the issue with the Xbox Wireless Adapter for Windows not working. and other wireless network adapters from third-parties such as D-Link.
  • We fixed an issue where File Explorer’s “Open Command window here” context menu option was opening set to the C:\Windows\System32 path, rather than the desired directory.
  • We fixed an issue potentially resulting in the taskbar no longer auto-hiding when a full screen window has focus (for example, when watching videos, gaming, or when using Remote Desktop). Note: If there’s an app that is asking for attention, it’s by design that the taskbar won’t hide (so you can see that there’s something trying to notify you).
Other improvements and fixes for Mobile
  • We fixed a scaling issue on devices such as the Lumia 635, 636, or 638 where the bottom of certain apps, like Messaging and Maps, would get cut off and rendered off screen.
  • We heard you and we have addressed the largest cause of reliability issues in Microsoft Edge running on Insider Preview builds. This should improve reliability on major websites such as Facebook and Outlook.com.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the sound of key presses and lock/unlock being barely audible when the phone was using a moderate volume.
  • We fixed an issue where, if Quiet Hours had been turned on, banner notifications might not start appearing again until Action Center was opened or an interactive notification popped up and was dismissed.
  • We fixed an issue where Cortana would crash when trying to open Reminders page.
  • We have improved the reliability of VPN Settings page via Settings > Network & wireless > VPN.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the thumbnail for portrait videos displaying with an incorrect aspect ratio in the Photos app when panning through the Camera Roll.
Known issues for PC (UPDATED)
  • While using Narrator and Groove Music, if you navigate to the progress bar while a song is playing then Narrator will continually speak the progress of the song e.g. update with the current time of the progress bar every second. The result is you will be unable to listen to the song or hear any other control you navigate to.
  • You may experience a black screen when signing out and switching to another user account and will be unable to log in to that account. A reboot of your PC should allow you to log in to that account.
  • Oracle VM VirtualBox will crash on launch after upgrading to this build.
  • Optional components may not work after upgrading to this build. To get it working again, go to “Turn Windows features on or off”, scroll down and check the right optional component and click ok. After a reboot, the optional component will be enabled again.
  • UPDATED: After updating to this build, built-in Windows 10 apps such as Calculator, Alarms & Clock, and Voice Recorder may not work. To get these apps working again, go to the Store and re-download/install them.
  • For keyboard users, using tab to navigate the Settings app will not work in this build. The arrow keys should work as a temporary workaround.
Known issues for Mobile (UPDATED)
  • Some devices such as the Lumia 650 will fail to install this build with Error 0x80188308. We are currently investigating this issue.
  • Action Center no longer closes if you swipe up on the empty space (area of Action Center that doesn’t show any notifications).
  • Using your phone as a mobile hotspot will work the first time but subsequent attempts to use the feature will result in the inability to enable the hotspot until the phone is rebooted.
  • ADDED: We are investigating small set of isolated reports that after upgrading to Build 14926, the pin pad is no longer visible to unlock the phone even after rebooting the phone. If you have hit this issue, you can follow the steps here for resetting an unresponsive phone (hard reset) which gets your phone back into a working state on Build 14926.
  • ADDED: We are also investigating reports that after upgrading to Build 14926, some phones lose the ability to use their SIM card. A hard reset also fixes this issue as well. See this forum post for more information.
Team Updates
We heard feedback from many of you Windows Insiders that you’d like to organize #WINsiders4Good events in your own city. We are putting together a “Create-A-Thon in a Box” which we will publish to the Windows Insider website and invite our Insiders to “flight” the kits and let us know how they work. We are going to kick this off in October in partnership with the Microsoft retail stores to celebrate the Microsoft-wide GIVE campaign. Stay tuned to this spot for more news on that.



Image-1-1024x768.jpg



Keep hustling,
Dona <3

Reference
Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14926 for PC and Mobile
 
Reading their "Known Issues" for PCs", I guess I am a long way from starting to test the insider downloads
 
I think it's a great idea but my interest has waned somewhat.. I still give feedback though as they do seem to listen at times..
 
Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14931 for PC
By Dona Sarkar / Software Engineer, Windows and Devices Group

Hello Windows Insiders!

Today we are excited to be releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14931 for PC to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring.

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


new-expiration.png



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

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

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


maps-app-dark-mode.png



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


Untitled-2-grouped.png



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

Other improvements and fixes for PC
  • We fixed the issue causing people to experience a black screen when signing out and switching to another user account and unable to log in to that account.
  • We fixed the issue causing the built-in Windows 10 apps such as Calculator, Alarms & Clock, and Voice Recorder to not work after updating to a new build.
Known issues for PC
  • While using Narrator and Groove Music, if you navigate to the progress bar while a song is playing then Narrator will continually speak the progress of the song e.g. update with the current time of the progress bar every second. The result is you will be unable to listen to the song or hear any other control you navigate to.
  • Oracle VM VirtualBox will crash on launch after upgrading to this build.
  • Optional components may not work after upgrading to this build. To get it working again, go to “Turn Windows features on or off”, scroll down and check the right optional component and click ok. After a reboot, the optional component will be enabled again.
  • For keyboard users, using tab to navigate the Settings app will not work in this build. The arrow keys should work as a temporary workaround.
  • Tencent apps and games will cause your PC to bugcheck (bluescreen).
A note about Mobile
We are continuing to investigate two issues that came up with last week’s flight of Build 14926 for Mobile. After upgrading to Build 14926, some Insiders reported that the pin pad is no longer visible to unlock their phone even after rebooting the phone and some phones lost the ability to use their SIM card. In both cases, a hard reset of resolves the issue. Based on the feedback we received from Insiders, we have decided not to release a new Mobile build this week until we get fixes for these two issues.

Team Updates
The Windows Insider Program is looking to deepen our relationship with Africa and we are starting with Nigeria. About four in five Nigerians see entrepreneurship as a goal. As we’ve spoken with tech and business leaders here, we’ve been deeply impressed with their genuine passion for making Nigeria a better place for future generations.

Today, in partnership with Co-Creation Hub (CcHub) of Lagos, we are honored to announce the #WINsiders4Good Fellowship. We are in search of twenty Nigerian entrepreneurs who can’t stop thinking about the idea that will improve the lives of their fellow Nigerians. Over the course of the next six months, from November to April, we want to support and empower these twenty new businesses as they prepare to go to market.


Nigeria.jpg



We have opened up the application process and we want to hear ideas for businesses that will help make Nigeria a better place. If someone is chosen as a #WINsiders4Good Fellow, we will:

  1. Connect them with the global community of Windows Insiders.
  2. Prioritize and collaborate to unblock their technical issues that are preventing them from achieving their goal.
  3. Mentor them with technical, strategic and business guidance for six months.
  4. Provide hardware and software to bring their ideas to life.
We at Microsoft want to empower every person on the planet to achieve their dreams. CcHUB is dedicated to facilitating creative thinking, collaborative problem solving, and encouraging technological innovation for improved social accountability in Nigeria. We have loved being hosted by them this week.



WFGNigeriaKickoff.jpg



We see this partnership and the fellowship program as just the beginning. We are committed to making a deep, lasting investment in Nigeria and greater Africa starting right now. You can follow along with the announcement news here.

You can find out details about the fellowship here: http://winsiderfellows.com

Thank you everyone and keep hustling,
Dona <3

Reference
Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14931 for PC
 
Thanks, Mike. I haven't loaded a Preview build since last July 29th when RTM was released. As you know, we've had our hands full with solving the numerous W10 problems with the AU.:rolleyes: I may take a look at it though if I get time.

Cheers!
BBJ
 
Thanks, Mike. I haven't loaded a Preview build since last July 29th when RTM was released. As you know, we've had our hands full with solving the numerous W10 problems with the AU.:rolleyes: I may take a look at it though if I get time.

Cheers!
BBJ
I'd avoid upgrading to this build. I have been using fast ring builds for awhile and this one is BSODing on upgrade.
 
I was about to test this but I'll wait until Microsoft finish their Beta testing... thanks for the heads up Mike
 
What's new in the latest release:

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14942 for PC
By Dona Sarkar / Software Engineer, Windows and Devices Group



Hello Windows Insiders!

Today we are excited to be releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14942 for PC to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring.

What’s new in Build 14942
Hide app list on Start: We are releasing a new feature that enables you to collapse the app list in the Start menu. This has been a top feedback request from Windows Insiders. You can try it out by going to Settings > Personalization > Start and turning on “Hide app list in Start menu”.


hide-app-list.png



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


photos-app-update.png



  • Photos now has a horizontal navigation bar that makes it easier to view memories by Albums and Folders.
  • Let your photo collection shine! We’ve got a new, light viewing mode for your pics. You can always go back to the dark theme in settings.
  • When viewing photos in full screen, we’ve added new animations in and out of the Collection view, making it easier to keep track of where you are browsing.
  • See individual photos more quickly with your mouse—and now we support full screen.
Plus, the Photos app is now available on your Xbox One! Show off a slideshow of all your OneDrive photos in your living room. Simply make sure you are signed in with your Microsoft account to see all your OneDrive photos on the big screen.

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

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

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


new_WindowsUpdate_icon_black.png



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

  1. Increase reliability: When one service in a service host fails, all services in the service host fail. In other words, the service host process is terminated resulting in termination of all running services within that process. Individual service failure actions are then run. As you may have noticed in Task Manager before, service hosts can contain a lot of services:
    image: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/10/services_1.png

    services_1.png
  2. Increase transparency: Task Manager will now give you a better view into what is going on behind the scenes. You can now see how much CPU, Memory, Disk & Network individual services are consuming.
    image: https://winblogs.azureedge.net/win/2016/10/services_2.png

    services_2.png

    To see the name of the service, click on the left-most arrow such that the Display name drops down. Alternatively, right-click on the header and select ‘Command Line’ to add the Command Line column. Service names will be listed in the format ‘svchost.exe -k <svchost name> -s <service name>.’
  3. Reduce servicing costs: Following reports of instability, service engineers, IT admins, and Microsoft engineers can rapidly pinpoint issues to the exact service and fix it.
  4. Increase security: Process isolation and individual permission sets for services will increase security.
Note that critical system services (services whose recovery require system restarts), as well as a couple of select service hosts, will remain grouped.

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

  1. Run the following from an admin Command Prompt (or edit the registry accordingly):REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\XblAuthManager /v SvcHostSplitDisable /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
  2. Reboot the system, so that XblAuthManager now shares a service host process with Windows Update and Background Intelligent Transfer Service.
Expanding the Active Hours default range: We’ve heard the feedback that you like the control Active Hours provides over when your PC restarts for updates, however feel that that the default 12 hour range on PC is too limited. We want to accommodate various enterprise environments and schedules including those where employees have double shifts, so starting with Build 14942, we’ve changed this range for PCs on Pro, Enterprise, or Education editions to 18 hours. This means Insiders using these editions can now set active hours up to 18 hours from the selected start time (same as Mobile). We’ve added text to the active hours dialog so users always know what the default range is when choosing their times. We’ve also added the ability for the default range to be configured via new group and MDM policies (configurable up to 18 hours). New text will be displayed on the active hours dialog to indicate when the default range is configured via the policy. PCs using Home edition will continue to have a default range of 12 hours.



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

active-hours-change.png



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

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

  • F and Shift + F: Jump to next/previous form field
  • C and Shift + C: Jump to next/previous combo box
  • E and Shift + E: Jump to next/previous edit box
  • X and Shift + X: Jump to next/previous check box
  • R and Shift + R: Jump to next/previous radio button
  • B and Shift + B: Jump to next/previous button
Basically, the letter moves forward and Shift + letter moves in reverse.

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

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

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


new_regedit_addressbar.png



Other improvements and fixes for PC
  • We’ve updated Narrator’s reading order for Windows 10 apps which display an app bar on the bottom of the app, for example OneDrive, so now the contents of the page will be read before the contents of the app bar.
  • We fixed an issue where running sfc /scannow in an elevated command prompt would fail at 20% with the error “could not perform the requested operation.”
  • We fixed an issue resulting in certain areas of Windows 10 app notifications not doing anything when clicked, rather than opening the corresponding app.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in Personalization > Background Settings page crashing or showing a blank context menu when right clicking one of the recent images .
  • Fixed an issue resulting in Windows Defender’s Antimalware Service Executable sometimes using an unexpectedly large amount of CPU.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the Devices and Printers page in Control Panel loading slowly for users with certain audio devices.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in a small set of users seeing the NTFS partition of their external hard drive incorrectly showing up as RAW format.
  • Going forward from Build 14942, custom printer names will be preserved across upgrades. We’ve also addressed an issue where the printer queue name wasn’t preserved across upgrade for some printers.
  • Improved framerates when Game Bar is enabled for full screen games.
Known issues for PC
  • UPDATE: If you are having issues signing into games that use Xbox Live – see note above.
  • Insiders doing web development may find themselves their local intranet server unreachable, as service host separation will leave the IIS World Wide Web Publishing Service (W3Svc) unable to start successfully. To fix this issue:
  1. Run the following from an admin cmd line (or edit the registry accordingly):
    1. REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W3SVC /v SvcHostSplitDisable /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
    2. REG ADD HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WAS /v SvcHostSplitDisable /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
  2. Reboot the system, so that the W3Svc and WAS services share a service host process.
Other items of note
Another very important reminder about build expiration (last reminder)
We want to continue to remind Windows Insiders about the upcoming expiration of old Insider Preview builds. Since October 1st, PCs running really old Insider Preview builds have started to reboot every 3 hours. Starting on October 15th – these PCs will stop booting all together. If your PC is running one of these old Insider Preview builds, please make sure you update to the latest build available via Settings > Update & security > Windows Update. Build 14926 and newer has an updated expiration date of May 1st, 2017. If your PC is running the Windows 10 Anniversary Update (Build 14393) in the Slow and Release Preview rings today – this does not apply to you and you will not be notified of your build expiring.

Team Updates
Once upon a time, you used to draw. Remember? You were 2 or 3 years old and you created the original selfie: a stick figure of you with your family. Maybe some clouds. But one day, someone said, “that’s not very good.” And some of you stopped drawing. Why is that? Imagine if the same thing happened if someone had criticized your reading or math. Would you have stopped? Of course not. Reading and math are important, right? Everyone needs to know these things. But why is creation different? At an early age, many of us seem to be taught that creating is not that important. We have a different belief. We believe that creating IS one of those important things.

We’re here to ask for your help in reigniting the creative side in yourself and others. We need you to doodle again. The world needs it.

Look around: the same social problems that have been around for generations are growing ever more complex. It’s time to use both sides of ourselves, BOTH the creative and the technical skills we all have to solve some of these.

Today, in partnership with the Microsoft retail stores, the Windows Insider Team is honored to announce #WINsiders4Good Give Month. October has always been a very important month for Microsoft. Every employee is encouraged to use their technical and creative selves to solve social problems they are passionate about and this year we want to extend that to our Windows Insiders as well.


GiveMonthKickoff.jpg



During the month of October, if you are not registered, we invite you to join the Windows Insiders program at insider.windows.com and work alongside us for Give month. Each retail store will host a Create-A-Thon, and pull together technical and creative people from the local community along with a non-profit organization to tackle a long-standing problem. The goal of each store’s group is to drive creative solutions for this problem during the course of the month using modern technology.

Each group will present the solution on November 8th in a global live stream across all retail stores. This relationship will deepen and grow over the next many months as our partners start to use your solutions.

For you NYC based Insiders, I really hope to see you at the Microsoft Store (677 5th Ave, New York, NY 10022) on Saturday October 8th at 10 am for the global kickoff of #WINsiders4Good GIVE month where we will use Windows to tackle the lack of affordable after-school care for the NY communities. I’ll be there and I hope you will too!

For those of you who do NOT live near retail stores, we have something for you too! You told us you were inspired by the #WINsiders4Good Create-A-Thons and wanted to host them in your own cities. We heard back from THOUSANDS of you in our last survey. We are VERY excited to announce the first flight of our #WINsiders4Good Create-A-Thon DIY Kit.

Please download the kit and organize CAT events in your own cities. Do get in touch with us and let us know what you’re doing and we will amplify with your fellow Windows Insiders in your city so you can meet, work together and truly be a community of people who use your tech and creativity to solve problems—together. We are actively looking for feedback on our DIY Kit, so please share your experiences.

Have an amazing weekend everyone, I will be looking forward to meeting many of you at the flagship Microsoft Store in NYC on Saturday 10/8.

Thank you everyone and keep hustling,
Dona <3

UPDATED OCTOBER 7, 2016 9:27 PM


Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14942 for PC
 
@nmsuk found that BSODs related to this install are caused by installations of Malwarebytes. Upon uninstalling, I was able to upgrade, but still found numerous problems with networking and even updating certain applications. Watch this build carefully or test it in a virtual machine.

Sent from my SM-T710 using Windows Forums mobile app
 
New build on the Fast ring:


OCTOBER 13, 2016 10:01 AM
Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14946 for PC and Mobile
By Dona Sarkar / Software Engineer, Windows and Devices Group



Hello Windows Insiders!

Today we are excited to be releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14946 for PC and Mobile to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring.

What’s new in Build 14946
Customizing your precision touchpad experience (PC): Last week, we announced that we’d been working on refining your touchpad experience. This week, we’re taking that one step further. When you go into Settings > Devices > Touchpad, you will now find a section called “Other gestures”. In this section, you now have basic customization options for your three and four finger gestures. For taps, you can select between Cortana, Action Center, play/pause or middle mouse button, and for left/right swipes, you can select between switching apps or switching virtual desktops. Try it out and let us know what you think!


touchpad-1.png



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


touchpad-2-advanced.png



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

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

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

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


wi-fi-turn-back-on.png



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

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

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

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

Other improvements and fixes for PC
  • Optional components such as Hyper-V and Bash should remain installed after updating to this build.
  • We have fixed the issue where signing into games that use Xbox Live would not work. You should be able to sign-in to Xbox Live in games in this build.
  • We fixed the issue causing Microsoft Edge to sometimes crash on launch, or when you type in address bar or try to open a new tab. You no longer need to run the PowerShell script.
  • We fixed the issue causing touch scrolling to be too sensitive in Windows 10 apps, such as Microsoft Edge.
  • We fixed an issue where Explorer.exe would hang when attempting to open considerably large .MOV files.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in the network icon occasionally getting into a state where a red X would display in the taskbar despite an active internet connection, until the device had been restarted.
  • We fixed an issue where if the device’s brightness was automatically adjusted after being woken from sleep, the brightness level shown in the Action Center’s Brightness Quick Action might not reflect the current brightness of the device.
  • We fixed an issue leading to Narrator not tracking focus on the Start Menu All apps list or tiles.
  • We fixed an issue potentially resulting in the “Open with…” dialog displaying with two entries for Calculator after tapping the Calculator key on a keyboard or running the Calculator app.
Other improvements and fixes for Mobile
  • We fixed the issue causing you to get into a state where text messages will fail to send.
  • When your phone is connected to your PC, long lists of captured photos will now load significantly faster in File Explorer.
  • We’ve updated Narrator’s reading order for Windows 10 apps which display an app bar on the bottom of the app, for example OneDrive, so now the contents of the page will be read before the contents of the app bar
  • We fixed an issue resulting in video thumbnails sometimes not being shown in WhatsApp – videos received from this build onwards will display a thumbnail.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in Camera app video recordings having a slight crackle to their audio in recent builds.
Known issues for PC
  • If you have 3rd party antivirus products such as Bitdefender, Kaspersky Antivirus, F-Secure Antivirus and Malwarebytes installed on your PC – your PC might not be able to complete the update to this build and roll-back to the previous build.
  • Larger Windows Store games such as ReCore, Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3, Killer Instinct and Rise of the Tomb Raider may fail to launch.
Known issues for Mobile
  • If your phone has additional speech packs installed – this build will fail to install on your phone with an 0x80188319 error. This is why we polled Insiders about language pack usage this week. Based on the response, we decided to push forward and send the latest bits. This issue will be fixed in the next build we release. NOTE: Removing speech packs will not correct the issue. Your device will continue to try and download and install the update and fail. It is recommended you move to the Slow ring until this issue is fixed.
Getting misconfigured PCs up to date
Some Windows Insiders who have pre-release builds on their PCs are not targeted correctly for receiving updates because they have not opted into receiving Insider Preview builds by having selected a valid ring or are in some other misconfigured state. To re-target these PCs, we are making a server-side change that will put these PCs in the Slow ring so that they can receive updates. Specifically:

  • Going forward, any build from our Development Branch installed on a PC will be put into the Slow ring. This includes if you installed a Development Branch build from an ISO or later reset the device.
  • For PCs on the Windows 10 Anniversary Update that were previously opted in to receiving builds but see a “Fix me” button on the Windows Insider Program settings page because they no longer have a registered Microsoft account attached will be put in the Release Preview ring.
If you would like to adjust these settings or suspend getting Development branch build updates temporarily (7 days), you can do so by going to Settings > Update & security > Windows Insider Program. To move to the Fast ring, a Windows Insider registered Microsoft Account must be attached to the PC. For enterprises running Insider Preview builds, you can manage this via these Group Policies documented here.

Team updates
Whew! On top of all the build and update system news, we also made a ton of progress on our #WINsiders4Good work for GIVE month. We had a fantastic launch of GIVE Month at the NYC Flagship Microsoft store last weekend where the Windows Insiders partnered with Educational Alliance to create solutions for after-school care for students from underrepresented backgrounds.



WP_20161008_10_58_05_Rich.jpg



The team came up with a variety of solutions, including some that are being completed with the help of the Windows Insiders globally. We are creating the world’s biggest open source list of free software tools that NGO and everyone else can use to teach and to learn concepts such as visual design, coding, problems solving and more so that EVERY person can have access and knowledge to these great tools. . This webpage will live on our Windows Insiders website. I’ll share more as it goes live before Friday.

We are excited to be present at the Boston Microsoft store event this weekend as well as the global rollouts of the Create-A-Thon kits.

Thank you everyone and keep hustling,
Dona <3

UPDATED OCTOBER 13, 2016 10:26 AM
Reference:
Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14946 for PC and Mobile
 
New build people!

OCTOBER 19, 2016 3:38 PM
Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14951 for Mobile and PC
By Dona Sarkar / Software Engineer, Windows and Devices Group
SKYPE

Hello Windows Insiders!

Today we are excited to be releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14951 for Mobile and PC to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring.

What’s new in Build 14951
Refining the customization experience for precision touchpad (PC): Since last week, we’ve continued working in this space, and have another set of improvements headed your way. To start with, we’ve hooked up our keyboard shortcut picker, so now if you choose that option on the Advanced gestures page, you’ll be presented a recorder so you can capture your favorite key combo – perhaps WIN + Alt + D or WIN + F to start with? Secondly, we’ve added a Change audio and volume option to the set of basic swipe gestures you can pick from. Finally, we’ve updated the reset button to now has a progress circle and display a check mark when it is finished. We’ve also heard your feedback from the last flight, and fixed a few issues including that the reset button wasn’t clearing the settings listed on the advanced gestures page, that the 4-fingure gesture graphic was visible on devices that only supported 3-contact points, and that some of the advanced gestures options weren’t working as expected. If you have any more feedback for us, please let us know!

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



protactor.png


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

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

WP_20161001_19_50_04_Pro_Ink_LI.jpg


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

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


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

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

camera-app-update2.png


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

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

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

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

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

Other improvements and fixes for Mobile
  • Following feedback discussing French punctuation rules, we’ve updated our French keyboards (with the exception of French (Canada), for which these rules don’t apply) to now add a space both before and after when using two-part punctuation marks, such as the semi-colon, the colon, the question mark and the exclamation mark.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the Camera shutter sounds entry missing from the Sounds Settings page via Settings > Personalization > Sounds.
Other improvements and fixes for PC
  • We fixed the issue causing PCs that are capable of Connected Standby such as the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 to sometimes bugcheck (bluescreen) while in Connected Standby.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in Forza Horizon 3, Gears of War (and some 3rd party games) failing to install from the Store with the error code 0x80073cf9 when the system’s app install location was set to drive with native 4k Sectors (or 4k sector sized drive).
  • We fixed an issue resulting in larger Store games such as ReCore, Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3, Killer Instinct and Rise of the Tomb Raider possibly failing to launch.
  • We fixed an issue where the console window (which hosts Command Prompt, PowerShell, and other command-line utilities) might not snap correctly to the inside edges between two monitors with different DPI scaling.
  • We fixed an issue where all agenda items in the taskbar’s Clock and Calendar flyout were using the primary calendar’s color, rather than matching their respective calendar’s colors as selected in the Outlook Calendar app.
  • We fixed issue where the Add PIN button in Settings > Accounts > Sign-in Options was sometimes unexpectedly greyed out for domain-joined devices.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in Groove crashing if you tried to reorder the songs in a very large playlist.
  • We’ve updated our migration logic to now include custom scan code mappings. That means that going forward from this build, if you’ve used Registry Editor to remap certain keys (for example, Caps Lock key to null), that change will persist across upgrades.
  • We fixed an issue Insiders may have experienced resulting in Adobe Photoshop Express crashing after clicking on the ‘correct’ button when trying to edit a cropped image.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in .csv or .xlsx files downloaded from Microsoft Edge sometimes unexpectedly appearing to be locked for editing by “another user” when SmartScreen was enabled.
  • We fixed an issue where enabling the RemoteFX adaptor for a Virtual Machine would result in it failing to power on with the error ‘Unspecified error’ (0x80004005).
Known issues for Mobile
  • Signing into apps such as Feedback Hub, Groove, MSN News, etc. with your Microsoft Account if you sign out or get signed out of these apps will not work. If this happens to you and you cannot sign in to Feedback Hub, you can send us feedback via the forums.
  • When rebooting a phone on this build and Build 14946 from last week, the device appears to get “stuck” on the blue Windows logo screen during the boot cycle. We have identified 2 bugs causing this issue and working to check in fixes soon. However, being “stuck” is only temporary. Depending on which device you have, your phone may be in this stuck state for 20-30 minutes, but it will eventually progress to the Lock screen. There is no permanent impact from these 2 bugs, just an unexpectedly long boot time. Please don’t reset your device! It’ll take longer to reset the device than it will to wait for the boot cycle to complete.
  • Excel Mobile will freeze after adding sheets and eventually crashes.
  • Insiders who have configured a data limit on their phone may get into a state where they receive frequent notifications about having exceeded this limit. To resolve the issue, please go into Settings > Device & Network > Data Usage and remove and recreate your data limit settings.
  • UPDATE: We are investigating reports of devices getting stuck at 0% while downloading this build. For more information – head over to this forum post.
Known issues for PC
  • Signing into apps such as Feedback Hub, Groove, MSN News, etc. with your Microsoft Account if you sign out or get signed out of these apps will not work. If this happens to you and you cannot sign in to Feedback Hub, you can send us feedback via the forums.
  • You may experience a crash while using the protractor in Sketchpad – we’re working on a fix.
  • If you have a 3rd party antivirus product installed on your PC – your PC might not be able to complete the update to this build and roll-back to the previous build.
Upcoming Bugbash
Just a heads-up that we are planning to kick off our next bugbash starting on Tuesday, November 8th and finishing at the end of the day on Sunday, November 13th. I’ll have more details in the coming weeks. Looking forward to seeing a lot of participation from Insiders!

Team Updates
Last week was tremendously exciting for the #WINsiders4Good work that Windows Insiders are doing. We kicked off a series of Create-A-Thons at Microsoft Retail Stores in Oregon, Puerto Rico, New York, Boston among others. Some of our Insiders who did not have a retail store near them organized their own events in London and Germany! The top thing we learned was that the simplest solution is often the best. Some simple solutions we created were new logos for Red Barn, a resource center for homeless looking to rebrand themselves. a formula and model by which St. Francis House in Boston, a homeless shelter could decided if someone needed new clothing and a free resources list of software and learning tools for after-school care for underprivileged children at Educational Alliance…all using and running on Windows 10! The NGOs were so pleased at having such incredibly passionate people like the Windows Insiders participating in their events. It was amazing to watch Insiders travel across state lines to come attend these events (2 of our Insiders drove from Delaware to NYC for the event!). Again, if you’d like to participate in an event, START ONE! Many of our Insiders are starting to do this.Just let us know what you are doing and we will do our best to help get the word out and support you remotely.

View image on Twitter
CuzMkDoXgAAnPZW.jpg:small


Thank you everyone and keep hustling,
Dona <3

Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14951 for Mobile and PC
 
NOVEMBER 3, 2016 10:02 AM
Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14959 for Mobile and PC
By Dona Sarkar / Software Engineer, Windows and Devices Group

Hello Windows Insiders!

Today we are excited to be releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14959 for Mobile and PC to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring.

The Windows 10 Creators Update
Last week, we held an event in New York to share our aspiration to empower a new wave of creativity with the Windows 10 Creators Update and new devices such as the Surface Studio and Surface Dial. You can catch up on all the details on the things we announced at the event by checking out this blog post from Terry Myerson. As I mentioned last week, Windows is an iceberg, the features that people “see” are quite a small percent of the engineering work that we do to enable new UI to be visible. Windows Insiders running the latest builds have already been trying out the Creators Update – including last week’s build (Build 14955). The new and exciting visible features you saw shown off at the event will start rolling out in builds in the coming weeks. Features such as the Paint 3D Preview are now available for Insiders to try right now! We’re excited to get more of the new Creators Update features in the hands of Insiders in the next couple of months.

What’s new in Build 14959
Unified Update Platform: This build for Mobile is being published using our new update publishing system called Unified Update Platform (UUP). For more information on UUP – check out this blog post from Bill.

Controlling the Display Scaling of your Virtual Machines (PC): We’ve heard your feedback that Hyper-V Virtual Machines sometimes aren’t scaled as you’d expect, so we’ve added a new Zoom option in the View menu, where you can override the default scaling and set it to 100, 125, 150 or 200 – whichever matches your preference. Along the way, we also fixed an issue where certain VMs wouldn’t display the remote desktop connection bar after entering full screen mode. We are still refining the experience so there might be some rough edges. For example, although we added zoom levels to handle high DPI more gracefully, when zooming you won’t be able to see the VM’s whole screen without scrolling.

Other improvements and fixes for PC
  • We fixed an issue for Insiders resulting in the automatic brightness setting unexpectedly being turned off after upgrading. In doing so, we’ve re-enabled automatic brightness adjust for users that have never changed their auto-brightness setting. If you have already manually configured your auto-brightness setting, then this fix will not affect you. If you would like to enable or disable automatic brightness adjustment, please go to Settings > System > Display, where you can adjust your preferences.
  • We fixed an issue Insiders on domain connected PCs may have experienced where login might fail when the computer was disconnected from its domain network.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in certain apps, such as Outlook Mail and Calendar, failing to update for some Insiders with the error code 0x800700B7.
  • We fixed an issue for Insiders with certain device models where ejecting an SD card might result in a system crash.
  • We fixed an issue where disliking one of the Spotlight lock screen images would show the new image immediately, followed by a transition animation from the previous image to the new image.
  • We fixed an issue where launching an app from another app while in Tablet mode no longer launched it side by side, and instead launched it fullscreen (for example, when launching a web link from the MSN News app).
Other improvements and fixes for Mobile
  • The data usage page in Settings via Settings > Network & wireless > Data usage has been updated with performance and UI improvements.
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  • We fixed issues preventing Insiders from adding cards to Wallet and paying using tap to pay.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in being unexpectedly able to close Start in the task switcher.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in certain options for default calling app via Settings > System > Phone > Default apps from being unexpectedly missing.
  • We fixed an issue causing apps that play media in the background, such as Groove Music, to stop when Battery Saver turns on.
  • We fixed an issue Insiders may have experienced where the phone would get into a state where copy/paste wouldn’t work until the device had been restarted.
  • We fixed an issue where Settings might hang after unchecking “Let apps automatically use this VPN connection” in VPN Settings.
Known issues for PC
  • If you have a 3rd party antivirus product installed on your PC – your PC might not be able to complete the update to this build and roll-back to the previous build.
  • We’re aware of an issue where Internet Explorer may crash a few seconds after launch and working.
Known issues for Mobile
  • If you used the previous ‘date change’ workaround to update to Build 14951 or Build 14955: Please don’t use it any longer! The Microsoft account (MSA) ticket on your device needs to expire and then you’ll be offered today’s build. If you changed your date by 30 years… you’ll want to do a device reset.
  • You will be unable to install additional languages, keyboards, and speech packs on your phone for the next few weeks. If you have existing languages, keyboards, and speech packs installed – they will carry over when you update to new builds. You just can’t install any new ones. If you do a hard reset of your phone on these builds – you will also be unable to install additional languages, keyboards, and speech packs. You can use Windows Device Recovery Tool to go back to Windows Phone 8.1 or Windows 10 Mobile, install any languages, keyboards, and speech packs you need and then update to the latest build in the Fast ring as a workaround.
November 2016 Bug Bash begins next week!
We are moving the Bug Bash start date up to Monday, November 7th 12:01 AM PST. We wanted to give you, Windows Insiders, and our Windows Engineers the same dates for finding bugs (in the past our engineers started a day early)! We will start the Bug Bash on Build 14959 that is being released today so you can have time to get your PC’s and phones updated prior to the Bug Bash so you can start Quests as soon as they are published. The Bug Bash will still finish at the end of the day on Sunday, November 13th (PST). Our whole team will be bug bashing with some fun events in-house and we are looking forward to seeing a lot of participation from Insiders!

If you have ideas on what Quests you will like to see for the Bug Bash, let us know!

Team Updates
We just returned from our Ignite NZ adventure! It was amazing to meet so many Windows Insiders and receive so much love from the amazing community down in New Zealand. Many of you have been asking for us to share our content so here you go: my keynote on tech innovation, Jeremiah Marble’s and my Co-Create Community, Katharane Holdsworth’s Inside Windows Insider Program and an interview with Kyle Drunkerley, one of our Insiders in an Insider Interview.

We have LOVED hearing about the Windows Insider started Create-A-Thons. There is one in planning stages in Wellington for December, tentatively called a Sheep-A-Thon! If you’d like to get involved, please reach out to Callum.

If you’d like to have your own Create-A-Thon, please grab the DIY kit and let us know so we can amplify and support!

We are gearing up for the MVP Summit starting on Monday where we are planning to have several Insider events, including a keynote kicking off Monday morning by Bill Karagounis, Jeremiah Marble and me talking about our program and community.

Thank you everyone and keep hustling,
Dona <3

Ref:
Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14959 for Mobile and PC
 
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