Microsoft releases new Windows 10 preview with Sets, wireless projection, Edge, and setup improvements

Microsoft today released a new preview for PCs with improvements to Sets, wireless projection, Edge, RSAT, and the setup experience. This build is from the RS5 branch, which represents the Windows 10 update the company plans to release later this year.

Windows 10 is being developed as a service, meaning it receives new features on a regular basis. Microsoft has released five major updates so far: November Update, Anniversary Update, Creators Update, Fall Creators Update, and April 2018 Update.

Microsoft continues to tweak Sets, its new tabbed windows interface. The new tab page makes it more obvious you can launch apps — When you click the plus button in a Sets window, you will now see apps included in your frequent destinations list and the all apps list.

Just like remote desktop, wireless projection now shows a control banner at the top of your screen when you’re in a session. You can use the banner to check the state of your connection, disconnect, reconnect to the same sink, and tune the connection based on what you are doing. This tuning is done via the settings gear, which optimizes the screen to screen latency based on one of three scenarios: Game mode minimizes the screen to screen latency, video mode increases screen to screen latency for smooth playback, and productivity mode (the default) strikes a good balance between the two.

Edge now includes unprefixed support for the new Web Authentication API. The API lets users log into their online accounts using a single device, like a YubiKey, eliminating the need for passwords. Firefox 60 got support first earlier this month, followed by Chrome 67 this week.

Windows 10 no longer requires manually downloading RSAT every time you upgrade. You can now just pick the ones you want, and the next time you upgrade, Windows will automatically ensure those components persist (Settings => Manage optional features => Add a feature => pick the RSAT components you want).

After you upgrade, you may be given the option to go through the setup questions since you first got your device. Microsoft says the conditions for showing this page are cloud programmable and “may change over time.”

This desktop build also includes the following general bug fixes and improvements:

• Fixed the issue for Windows Insider Program for Business folks where PCs using AAD accounts to receive new flights (via Settings > Update & Security > Windows Insider Program) where they would see a “Fix me” option presented and couldn’t to receive the latest flights.
• Experimenting with adding tips and suggestions to the Settings homepage. If you see one of these, you can choose to opt out by clicking the “…” in the top corner.
• Fixed an issue resulting in some apps missing pinned and recent items when you right-clicked their icons in the taskbar.
• Fixed an issue resulting in File Explorer showing blank/generic icons for any file type associated with a UWP app.
• Fixed an issue where Alt + Tab would sometimes unexpectedly have duplicate entries for app windows in recent flights.
• Fixed a crash when asking Cortana to play any music in recent flights. This issue also impacted the ability to launch apps using voice commands.
• Fixed an issue where if the taskbar jump list didn’t show (for example if you clicked away before it finished launching), the next time you watched a video full screen the taskbar would unexpectedly appear on top of the video.
• Fixed an issue where you couldn’t scroll to the end of the clipboard items list (WIN + V) using mouse wheel/touchpad.
• Fixed an issue where the wallpaper and app preview thumbnails were unexpectedly flipped when using Task View in Arabic or other bidirectional display languages.
• Screen snipping (WIN + Shift + S, or other entry points) will now default to rectangular snipping. Your most recent mode selection (rectangular or freeform) is preserved across invocations, so you may not notice a change if you have already been using this experience.
• Fixed an issue resulting in the “Add a feature” page in Settings not finding any features in the last few builds.
• Fixed an issue where text written using OTF fonts wouldn’t show up when printed.
• Fixed an issue resulting in some apps failing to launch recently with application error 0xc0000005 when certain antivirus software programs were installed.
• Fixed an issue impacting certain touch-capable devices where all Bluetooth accessories would periodically stop working until the screen was touched.
• Fixed an issue resulting in some explorer.exe hangs when using Remote Desktop, projecting your screen, or having multiple monitors in recent flights. This issue may also have led to Microsoft Edge hangs.
• Fixed an issue resulting in multiple Win32 apps and system components becoming unresponsive after waking from sleep in the last two flights.

Today’s update bumps the Windows 10 build number for the RS5 branch from 17677 (made available to testers on May 24) to build 17682.

This build has 12 known issues:

• For the dark theme in File Explorer and the Common File Dialog, you may see some unexpectedly light colors in these surfaces when in dark mode.
• After updating to this build, Mixed Reality Portal will reinstall the Mixed Reality Software and environment settings will not be preserved. If you need your Mixed Reality home experience to persist, we recommend skipping this build until these issues are fixed.
• Some Insiders may find increased reliability and performance issues when launching Start on this build.
• Some Insiders may experience some bugchecks (GSOD) on this build with “Critical Process Died” error.
• If you have a Surface Studio, it will fail to update to this build with a “Your PC hardware is not supported on this version of Windows 10” error.
• Sets UX for Office Win32 desktop apps is not final. The experience will be refined over time based on feedback.
• The top of some Win32 desktop app windows may appear slightly underneath the tab bar when created maximized. To work around the issue, restore and re-maximize the window.
• Closing one tab may sometimes minimize the entire set.
• Tiling and cascading windows, including features like “View Side by Side” in Word, will not work for inactive tabs.
• The Office Visual Basic Editor window will currently be tabbed but is not intended to be in the future.
• Opening an Office document while the same app has an existing document open may cause an unintended switch to the last active document. This will also happen when closing a sheet in Excel while other sheets remain open.
• Local files or non-Microsoft cloud files will not be automatically restored, and no error message will be provided to alert the user to that fact.

As always, don’t install this on your production machine.