Microsoft releases new Windows 10 preview with Snooze in Edge and better upgrades

Microsoft today released a new Windows 10 preview for PCs and phones. Highlights include Snooze in Microsoft Edge, an improved PC upgrade experience, and better pin logic.

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. The most recent significant update is the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, released last month.

First up, Edge now has a “Snooze” option on tabs. The experimental feature lets you set a Cortana reminder on the website you are viewing. This is Microsoft’s way of addressing the fact many users keep countless tabs open until they’re done with them. Snooze lets you clean up your list of tabs and get back to the ones you need to via a notification or from the Action Center.

Next, Windows 10 now remembers which preinstalled apps you’ve uninstalled when you upgrade to the latest build. When Windows 10 is upgraded, it will now check for apps that have been uninstalled, and preserve that state. This is great for all users, but Windows Insiders who regularly upgrade to new builds will particularly benefit from the improvement.

Lastly, regardless of your Num Lock state, numbers will be input if you’re typing into the pin password field. No more typing only to realize that you didn’t input anything because of Num Lock.

The desktop build includes the following improvements and bug fixes:

• Fixed the issue causing Adobe Acrobat Reader to crash when you try to launch it.
• Fixed the issue causing the Settings app to crash when navigating to Settings > Personalization.
• Fixed an issue where Windows icons and text are not rendered correctly on some devices with Intel Atom (Clovertrail) processors.
• Improved scaling for full screen games where the aspect ratio doesn’t match the native display resolution, for example, when playing Counter Strike: Global Offensive using a 4:3 stretched resolution.
• Fixed the issue where some people would experience a bugcheck (bluescreen) after plugging/unplugging certain types of Kindles such as the Paperwhite and Voyage.
• This build improves the performance on websites with changes to large numbers of HTML Elements containing text by improving spellchecker efficiency. This results in substantially improved performance on websites like TweetDeck.
• Addressed the largest cause of reliability issues in Microsoft Edge running on Insider Preview builds. This should improve reliability on major websites such as Facebook and Outlook.com.
• Fixed an issue resulting in certain links (for example, Facebook) displaying a default favicon in the Microsoft Edge Tab, rather than the logo intended by the website.
• Fixed an issue where the Wi-Fi icon in the taskbar might show full bars when connected to a Wi-Fi network with low signal.
• We have fixed the issue which prevented the wireless network adapter in Surface Pro 1 and Surface Pro 2 devices from working. This also fixes the issue with the Xbox Wireless Adapter for Windows not working. and other wireless network adapters from third-parties such as D-Link.
• Fixed an issue where File Explorer’s “Open Command window here” context menu option was opening set to the C:\Windows\System32 path, rather than the desired directory.
• Fixed an issue potentially resulting in the taskbar no longer auto-hiding when a full screen window has focus (for example, when watching videos, gaming, or when using Remote Desktop). Note: If there’s an app that is asking for attention, it’s by design that the taskbar won’t hide (so you can see that there’s something trying to notify you).

Today’s update bumps the Windows 10 build number from 14915 for PCs (made available to testers on August 31) to build 14926.

This build has six known issues:

• While using Narrator and Groove Music, if you navigate to the progress bar while a song is playing then Narrator will continually speak the progress of the song e.g. update with the current time of the progress bar every second. The result is you will be unable to listen to the song or hear any other control you navigate to.
• You may experience a black screen when signing out and switching to another user account and will be unable to log in to that account. A reboot of your PC should allow you to log in to that account.
• Oracle VM VirtualBox will crash on launch after upgrading to this build.
• Optional components may not work after upgrading to this build. To get it working again, go to “Turn Windows features on or off”, scroll down and check the right optional component and click ok. After a reboot, the optional component will be enabled again.
• After updating to this build, Windows Calculator may not work. To get Calculator working again, go to the Store and re-download/install Calculator.
• For keyboard users, using tab to navigate the Settings app will not work in this build. The arrow keys should work as a temporary workaround.

If you’re OK with the above known issues and want to get build 14926 now, head to PC Settings, select “Update and recovery,” then “Preview builds,” and then click the “Check Now” button.

The corresponding Windows 10 Mobile build also includes a bunch of improvements and fixes, but Microsoft has yet to openly discuss its plans for the future of the platform.