Microsoft releases new Windows 10 preview with My People features

Microsoft today released a new Windows 10 preview for PCs, ahead of its May 2 event next week. The main addition is My People, a feature the company originally talked about in October 2016 when announcing the Creators Update, but ultimately delayed to later this year.

Windows 10 is a service, meaning it was built in a very different way from its predecessors so it can be regularly updated with not just fixes but new features, too. Microsoft has released many such updates, including three major ones: November Update, Anniversary Update, and Creators Update.

The goal of My People is to “bring the people you care about most to the center of your experience.” To try the new feature, open the Windows Store and make sure you have the latest updates for Skype, Mail, and People apps. Then click on the People icon in the taskbar and follow the setup instructions.

Microsoft is highlighting three My People features in this build: Pin people to the taskbar (up to three for now), view multiple communication apps together and filtered to each person on the taskbar, and choose your chat app. This is still very early days, but My People is based on your contacts from the aforementioned three apps.

Not specific to this build, but Windows Insider should know that Microsoft is improving Windows 10 Mail and Calendar for Gmail users. In short, features such as Focused Inbox, travel reservations, and package deliveries that were previously only available to Outlook.com and Office 365 email address are coming to Google accounts.

The desktop build includes the following bug fixes and improvements:

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

Today’s update bumps the Windows 10 build number for PCs from 16179 (made available to testers on April 19) to build 16184.

This build has nine known issues:

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

If you’re OK with the above and want to get build 16184 now, head to PC Settings, select “Update and recovery,” then “Preview builds,” and then click the “Check Now” button.

Microsoft also released a new Windows 10 Mobile build today. Given the continued losses of its Phone division, we’re not sure why it’s still bothering.