Microsoft today released a new Windows 10 preview for PCs, with three minor additions as well as shell, Edge, and input improvements. This is one of the last builds of the upcoming Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, which is slated to arrive later this year (likely in September).
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.
This first Windows 10 Fall Creators Update build that Microsoft emphasizes is focused on stability:
We are now at the point of the development cycle for the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update where our focus is now on stabilization for release to the world. This means that we intend to release these builds to Insiders more quickly to both the Fast and Slow rings as these builds we include mostly bug fixes.
That said, Microsoft did still manage to sneak in three additions. The first is likely temporary: The Windows Insider Emoji Bot helps you test My People and emoji notifications. The second is the new Bahnschrift font (pictured below), the company’s first OpenType variable font. This new industry standard packs an entire typeface family into a single file with infinite variability.
Bahnschrift is Microsoft’s rendition of the DIN font standard, which is used on road signs in Germany and much of Europe. DIN is also frequently used by graphic designers for its high legibility and clean design style. Bahnschrift supports a smooth spectrum of weights from Light to Bold without changing the layout.
Lastly, this build can be installed as Windows 10 S. If for some reason you want to try the edition that limits you to only Windows Store apps, you now can.
The shell improvements in this build are mainly centered around the Start menu, Action Center, notification toasts, live tiles, the network flyout, and desktop icons. Edge got a bunch of improvements related to rendering, copying and pasting, images, different DPIs, and some typing fixes. Speaking of typing, the input improvements were all related to handwriting and the touch keyboard.
This desktop build also includes the following general bug fixes and improvements:
- Fixed the issue causing the Virus and Threat Protection pillar in Windows Defender Security Center to show as “unknown” after upgrading to the last build.
- Fixed an issue from recent flights resulting in the idle timer continually being reset — thus preventing the display from going to sleep.
- Fixed an issue resulting in an unexpected 0x800706BE error sometimes when trying to initiate a remote desktop connection in recent flights.
- Fixed an issue some Insiders were experiencing where Windows Update’s Delivery Optimization settings would reset back to default upon leaving the page.
- Device Encryption on the About Settings page has been moved to its own page under Settings > Update & Security > Device Encryption.
- Fixed an issue where the lock screen might unexpectedly just show your theme color instead of the selected custom or Spotlight image after upgrading in recent builds.
- Fixed an issue from recent flights resulting in certain apps crashing when attempting to use the app to capture a picture using the webcam.
- Fixed an issue resulting in Node.js (v6.9.4) not being able to run scripts stored in OneDrive or access any paths in OneDrive.
- Fixed an issue resulting in an unexpectedly large number of OneDrive app-requested download notifications.
- Fixed an issue where using Alt-P to open the preview pane in File Explorer for PDFs associated with Acrobat would say “This file can’t be previewed.” in recent builds instead of displaying their first page.Fixed an issue where right-clicking on the volume icon in the systray might sometimes unexpectedly take 3-5 seconds for the context menu to appear.
- Fixed an issue where changing the selected option in the dropdown under Multiple Displays in Display Settings didn’t do anything.
- Fixed an issue resulting in adding a phone or taking a new profile picture in Settings not working if Settings was run elevated.
- Fixed an issue resulting in DVD Player failing with error 0xC00D36B4 on machines with DX10 graphics cards.
- Fixed an issue for PowerShell in Japanese where the “た。” character of the sentence “検証 23% が 完了しました。” would display repeatedly when running SFC /scannow.
- Fixed an issue resulting in certain games like Cut the Rope, Buggy Racing and others from unexpectedly extending past the bottom of the screen when put in full screen mode in recent flights.
- Fixed an issue with the custom color picker, for example seem in Color Settings, where panning with touch across the colors would move the area rather than smoothly update the selected color.
- Fixed an issue resulting in acrylic material’s noise layer blinking in a second after the rest of the UI if the UI was animating in on top of a video.
- Improved the rendering performance when using touch to pan UWP app windows that have applied acrylic material.
- Fixed an issue resulting in XAML controls sometimes unexpectedly becoming pure white in recent builds when transparency was enabled.
- Fixed an issue resulting in the OneNote app sometimes having rendering issues in recent flights (for example, missing text blocks).
- Fixed an issue resulting in Forza Horizon 3 crashing when loading (after selecting “continue”).
- As a result of low usage, Screen Saver functionality has been disabled in themes. Screen Saver functionality in Group Policies, Control Panel, and Sysprep is now deprecated but continues to be functional. Lock screen features and policies are preferred.
Today’s update bumps the Windows 10 build number for PCs from 16257 (made available to testers on August 2) to build 16273. This build is also the first time that Microsoft is not tracking or listing known issues.
