Microsoft today announced the release of a new Windows 10 PC preview build for people participating in the fast ring of the Windows Insider Program. Build 15046, which provides another early look at the Windows 10 Creators Update, arrives four days after build 15042.
In some of the most recent Windows 10 preview builds, Microsoft has experimented with different colors for the Cortana virtual assistant search box section of the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. But now Microsoft is done experimenting — it’s going back to the old dark shade of gray, Dona Sarkar, a software engineer in Microsoft’s Windows and Devices Group, wrote in a blog post.
With this build, Microsoft is also enhancing Cortana in terms of what it offers to help you pick up where you left off, across multiple devices. “Cortana now proactively shows you apps, files and websites from Microsoft Edge. Previously, this feature only displayed websites from Microsoft Edge in Action Center,” Sarkar wrote.
As expected, the build also provides a new way for people to control which kinds of applications can be installed. If you go to Settings > Apps > Apps & Features in this build, you’ll be able to specify whether the PC will be able to install apps that come from anywhere or only apps from the Windows Store — or you can just have the PC continue to warn you when you try to install apps that aren’t from the Store.
“When you choose either of the Store options, you’ll see a warning when attempting to install a non-Store app. The warning will direct you to the Store, where you can download an alternate app if available. In some cases, when there’s already an equivalent app in the Store, the warning will provide a link to that app. This is an opt-in feature, and the default setting is to allow installation of apps from anywhere,” Sarkar wrote.
Microsoft has improved translations in this build, especially while setting up a new device in what Microsoft calls the out-of-box experience (OOBE).
The company has added an icon for the Windows Defender app in the notification area on the right side of the taskbar — it will show information when you hover over it. Meanwhile, in Settings, the Gaming icon has changed slightly.
As usual, this new build comes with bug fixes. Edge, in particular, is getting several updates.
Hitting Shift + F10 will bring up the context menu in Edge once again — and hitting the left or right arrow keys won’t make you unintentionally move back or forward a page. After you copy a password in Edge’s LastPass extension, you’ll be able to paste it, and it will work the first time, rather than making you paste a second time. Edge will more quickly follow your mouse as you drag Edge around your display. Tooltips will show up in front of Edge instead of behind it when you open a link in a new tab. When you tear a tab out of Edge to open it in a new window, input will work correctly once again. Edge won’t randomly crash when you delete certain IME characters.
Plus, Edge’s F12 developer tools won’t crash anymore — and hitting Fn + F12 multiple times won’t open multiple F12 windows.
PC Reset will work as it should again. (Great!) Dragging and dropping from one display to another when they have different DPIs will work again.
No longer will some PCs block updates because of a corrupt registry key, Sarkar wrote. Edge and the taskbar shouldn’t randomly stop responding, causing you to restart explorer.exe. Windows Hello should work again on the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book.
But, of course, there are some issues with this build.
One, for example, might stop you from updating this build 71 percent of the way through, Sarkar wrote. If that happens, check the information here.
In Edge, if you open F12, it might show up under the current Edge window. And not only that — “pressing F12 to open the Developer Tools in Microsoft Edge while F12 is open and focused may not return focus to the tab F12 is opened against, and vice-versa,” Sarkar wrote.
With respect to gaming, Windows might minimize some games when you launch them. If so, click on the game to bring it back onscreen. And the broadcast live review window in the Game bar will still randomly flash green when you’re broadcasting. (For more known issues and bug fixes, see Sarkar’s full blog post.)
If you want to try this new build for PC or mobile, but you’re not a Windows Insider, you can sign up here.
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