Microsoft releases new Windows 10 preview for PCs and ninja monkey wallpapers

Microsoft today released a new Windows 10 preview for PCs, the fourth build of 2016. The release doesn’t include any new features, once again, but the company did give testers a bunch of ninja monkey wallpapers instead.

Windows 10 is a service. As we wrote in our deep dive on how Microsoft is still building Windows 10, this means Windows Insiders are getting new builds even though the operating system launched in July 2015.

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Like the last few builds before it, this build is more about laying the foundation for upcoming features. As such, it includes the following bug fixes:

• The issue of periodic app crashes or other memory-related app errors due to a memory management change has been resolved (including with the Git client for Windows)
• The Connect button now shows up again in Action Center
• F12 Developer Tools will now load correctly in Microsoft Edge
• An issue where suggested apps were being shown on the Start menu even though “Occasionally show suggestions in Start” was turned off under Settings > Personalization > Start
• An issue where if you try to change the Lock screen picture with “Get fun facts, tips, tricks and more on your lock screen” turned on it will revert back to the default.
• An issue where the positions of desktop icons get jumbled up after switching DPI settings from 100% to 150% or 175%
• An issue where pasting files into a new .zip file (compressed folder) in File Explorer by either right-clicking or Control-V would not work

That said, this build still has a few known issues:

• You might see a WSClient.dll error dialog after logging in, just like in the last build. The workaround is to run the following in Command Prompt with administrative rights: schtasks /delete /TN “\Microsoft\Windows\WS\WSRefreshBannedAppsListTask” /F
• If you choose “Reset This PC” under Settings > Update & Security > Recovery – your PC will be in an unusable state and you will need to reinstall Windows (though you can still roll back to the previous build)
• The front-facing camera is unusable on PCs with Intel RealSense resulting in being unable to use Windows Hello or any other apps that utilize the front-facing camera
• After logging into your PC, you may hit a UI issue in which Airplane Mode will incorrectly show as “on” even though your PC’s Wi-Fi is powered on (the UI essentially does not wait long enough for the device’s physical radios to power on before reporting the current state), but you can just toggle Airplane Mode as a workaround

Today’s update bumps the Windows 10 build number from 14251, made available to testers on January 27, to build 14257.

The update should arrive overnight for testers (your PC has to be plugged in, and be on or sleeping). If you’re OK with the above known issues and want to get build 14257 now, head to PC Settings, select “Update and recovery,” then “Preview builds,” and click the “Check Now” button.

Microsoft promised to release new builds to testers more frequently in 2016, and so far it has delivered four builds in just three weeks. Gabe Aul, Microsoft’s vice president of the Engineering Systems team, explains:

The increased pace of the Fast ring (You’ll note that this build is only 6 revs newer than the last build we sent to the Fast ring) means that there will be fewer big changes between builds as opposed to this time last year when builds were about 30 days apart. There is a ton of coding work going on, but I want to set your expectations on how it will show up for you at our increased Fast ring pace.

The pace will likely slow down as new features start to trickle in, but it could still be quicker than in 2015. Either way, testers will welcome having new builds to play with, even if they don’t like the lack of significant changes.

To appease them, Microsoft is offering new images and wallpapers in the spirit of ninja cat. In celebration of the Year of the Monkey, you can now download the Ninja Monkey pack.