Microsoft releases Windows 10 build 21286, putting everyone in the Dev channel on prerelease

[mood]

Microsoft releases Windows 10 build 21286, putting everyone in the Dev channel on prerelease

 

 

Today, Microsoft released Windows 10 Insider Preview build 21286 to the Dev channel. It's the first new build in three weeks, thanks to the holiday season. It's the first rs_prerelease build in four weeks though, and it's the first that's for everyone. For a while, Microsoft was releasing builds from the meaningless fe_release branch, and then in mid-December, the firm gave Insiders a choice between fe_release and rs_prerelease. Now, this rs_prerelease build is for everyone on the Dev channel.

 

It has a number of new features too. There's a new news feed feature called 'news and interests'. It will sit right in the taskbar, although you can remove it if you want to.

 

Here's what else is new:

Modernized Storage Spaces Settings

You can now create and manage Storage Spaces from within the Settings app. This includes creating storage pools and storage spaces, adding, and removing disks, and optimizing pools. This new experience provides an accessible, modern experience integrated with other storage features.

Run commands on start up in the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

We have added an option that allows you to run any specified Linux command on startup of a WSL distribution. You can accomplish this by editing the /etc/wsl.conf file in your distribution and adding an option titled “command” under a section titled “boot”. This command will run whenever your specific WSL distribution starts up. The example below shows using this functionality to create a method to log the time and date for each startup of this WSL distro.

 

This command will run when a WSL distribution is first started. WSL distributions will remain running for a few minutes even after the last Linux process inside of them is closed. You can view if your WSL distro is running using wsl --list --verbose and you can manually shut down all WSL distributions using wsl --shutdown.

Improving your experience when transitioning between time zones

Based on feedback, we’re making a couple small adjustments for users of “Set time zone automatically” in Date & Time Settings:

• When your time zone is updated because of a high confidence detected location change, we’ll now send a notification letting you know about it. The notification will include information about the new time zone and clicking it will open the Date & Time Settings.
• If we detect a low confidence location change and there is a single administrator on the device, we will now send a notification asking if you would like to update your time zone – clicking the OK button in the prompt will make the change.

 

As always, you can install this build through Windows Update. If you're not on the Dev channel yet, you can enroll in through the Windows Insider Program tab in Settings.

 

 

Source: Microsoft releases Windows 10 build 21286, putting everyone in the Dev channel on prerelease

[mood]

Here's what's fixed, improved, and still broken in Windows 10 build 21286

 

 

It's the first week of 2021, and with the holiday season behind us, Microsoft is back to its weekly build releases for Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel. Today, the company is releasing build 21286, and it actually brings a pretty significant new feature, a news feed for the taskbar. It also packs a handful of other notable changes.

 

Of course, in addition to the new features, there are some fixes, improvements, and known issues to be aware of, just as with every other build. There's a single item in the list of improvements, which is as follows:

• Based on feedback, (GitHub issue #1495) we’re adding an option to disable automatic controller-to-virtual-key mapping for UWP apps. If you have a need to do this, add the following registry key, with a DWORD value of Enabled set to 0: HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Input\Settings\ControllerProcessor\ControllerToVKMapping.

In terms of fixes, the list is fairly long, which is to be expected considering the downtime we had since the last build release. Here's the full list:

• We fixed and issue causing some Insiders to see a popup that says “Your PC ran into a problem and restart in 1 min” after logging in to Windows with either an Azure Active Directory or Active Directory account on Build 21277.
• We fixed an issue where no drives appeared under Settings > System > Storage > Manage Disks and Volumes.
• We fixed an issue resulting in some printers getting stuck on connecting when added from Settings.
• We fixed an issue that could result in sometimes unexpectedly being signed out of apps and websites after rebooting your PC.
• We fixed an issue where the Windows Security icon would sometimes be unexpectedly large in the context menu when shift-right-clicking taskbar icons.
• We fixed an issue that could result in MediaTranscoder hanging when transcoding certain files.
• We fixed an issue where audio playing from UWP apps wasn’t ducking after pressing the microphone icon to start Cortana listening.
• We fixed an issue that could result in VPN entries in the network flyout getting stuck at Action Needed until you pressed Cancel and Connect again.
• We fixed an issue impacting touch targeting when resizing windows using touch.
• We’ve made some fixes to our emoji keyword search results based on feedback, including adding a new keyword so that typing “lgbtq” will now return the rainbow flag emoji. Please continue sharing feedback with us in the Feedback Hub under Input and Language > Emoji Panel.
• We fixed an issue that could result in the Read Aloud options in Magnifier being unexpectedly greyed out.
• We fixed an issue where the “Help make Narrator better” toggle in Narrator Settings was disabled for Insiders.
• We fixed an issue so that Narrator will now read Excel cell contents when verbosity is set to 2.
• We fixed an issue where Narrator might not announce whether a combo box was in expanded or collapsed state.
• We fixed an issue impacting Narrator’s ability to read the names of certain hyperlinks on websites in Microsoft Edge.
• We fixed an issue impacting Narrator’s ability to read code windows in Visual Studio.
• We fixed an issue for high contrast users that could result in Settings crashing when going to Ease of Access.

Of course, because this is an active development build, there are also plenty of known issues. These include hangs and crashes in some games, while others may not be able to launch at all. Here's what you need to look out for before installing:

• We’re working on a fix for an issue Insiders have reported where certain games like State of Decay 2, or Assassin’s Creed, may hang or crash when launching.
• We’re investigating an issue where Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War may not launch starting with this build. If you play these games, you may wish to pause updates until the issue is resolved.
• You may experience some rendering / graphic issues after resizing certain app windows. If you minimize all your app windows and open them again it should resolve the issue (Press the Windows key plus D twice).
• We’re investigating an issue where some 32-bit systems may lose network connection after taking this build. If you are running a 32-bit version of Windows, you may wish to pause updates until the issue is resolved.
• When Xbox Game Bar is launched from Start or via the Windows key + G when using a text editor, the computer may appear unresponsive. If you encounter this, dismiss the Xbox Game Bar with WIN + G and end the GameBar.exe process from Task Manager.
• Miracast users may experience very low frame rates in this build.
• We’re investigating reports that starting with Build 21277 where explorer.exe / the Windows shell is hanging and or crashing.
• We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
• Aero Shake is disabled in this build. To enable it, you will need to go here in Registry Editor and create a new DWORD entry named DisallowShaking with a value of 0: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
• Live previews for pinned sites aren’t enabled for all Insiders yet, so you may see a grey window when hovering over the thumbnail in the taskbar. We’re continuing to work on polishing this experience.
• We’re working on enabling the new taskbar experience for existing pinned sites. In the meantime, you can unpin the site from the taskbar, remove it from the edge://apps page, and then re-pin the site.
• [News and interests] Sometimes the news and interests flyout may show as offline even when the user is online.
• [News and interests] Users cannot navigate into the news and interests flyout using keyboard.
• [News and interests] In some scenarios, the news and interests flyout may appear empty with no content.
• [News and interests] Sometimes the news and interests flyout cannot be dismissed with touch and pen.
• [News and interests] News and interests uses more taskbar space on the left than expected.

With Windows 10 development back in full swing after the holiday season, we can probably expect to start seeing more changes pop up over the next few weeks and months. Microsoft is expected to have a major overhaul of the Windows 10 UI in a feature update coming in the second half of the year, which Insiders should get an early look at in the near future.

 

 

Source: Here's what's fixed, improved, and still broken in Windows 10 build 21286

[mood]

Microsoft releases ISO images for Windows 10 build 21286

 

 

Earlier today, Microsoft released Windows 10 Insider Preview build 21286, introducing a few new features. One of them is a new news feed that sits right in your taskbar. Now, you won't have to launch a browser or app to get to weather, news, sports scores, and more. It's similar to what Cortana used to offer.

 

Alongside the new build, there are new ISOs, something that we haven't seen since the switch to 21xxx builds. The last publicly available Windows 10 Insider Preview ISO was build 20231, which was released in early October. As usual, there are options to download Windows 10, Windows 10 Enterprise, and Windows 10 Home China.

 

Interestingly, there's still no Windows 10 SDK Preview since the switch to build 21xxx and the return to the rs_prerelease branch. There's nothing new from Windows Server either.

 

There is, however, a new Windows 10 Client ARM64 Insider Preview VHDX image. This is made for those using Hyper-V with Windows on ARM. While the new builds do include cool new features like x64 emulation that you might prefer to test in a virtual machine, Hyper-V still hasn't shipped for Windows on ARM. You need build 19559 or higher for that.

 

You can download the Windows 10 ISOs here, and the ARM64 VHDX here.

 

 

Source: Microsoft releases ISO images for Windows 10 build 21286