Microsoft today released a new Windows 10 preview for PCs with Sets, Edge, Data Sense, and Magnifier improvements. This build is from the RS5 branch, which represents the Windows 10 update the company plans to release much later this year. The next update will come sooner (possibly as soon as next week), from the RS4 branch.
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 four major updates so far: November Update, Anniversary Update, Creators Update, and Fall Creators Update.
This RS5 build is for Windows Insiders who have chosen the Skip Ahead option, meaning they continue to receive builds from the RS_PRERELEASE branch. Only a small subset of Insiders can opt into Skip Ahead, as Microsoft still needs testers helping with RS4.
The biggest change in this release is that Sets now works with Office 365. You will, however, have to be a Windows Insider, an Office Insider, and an Office 365 subscriber running the latest version of the Office 365 desktop apps to try this out.
Separately, Sets is now enabled for most desktop (Win32) apps that use a default and non-customized title bar. An Edge window within Sets can now be dragged around and dropped into other Sets windows, although dragging between a Sets window and a standalone Edge window does not work, yet.
Speaking of Edge, Microsoft WebDriver has been turned into a Feature on Demand (FoD). The goal is to address one of the biggest pain points from customers around binary mismatches, as FoDs match the build/branch/flavor automatically and installation becomes built into Windows. You can install WebDriver by turning on Developer Mode, or by going to Settings => Apps => Apps & features => Manage optional features and installing it standalone.
The Data Usage Settings have been updated to support SIM cards and show you how much data you are using while roaming. The roaming usage info will appear once you start using roaming data.
The Magnifier now has an option to keep your mouse centered on the screen in Full-Screen mode (Settings => Ease of Access => Magnifier => “Keep your mouse…” => “centered on the screen”). There are also two new zoom level increments: 5 percent and 10 percent.
This desktop build includes the following general bug fixes and improvements:
- Fixed an issue where Reveal would sometimes not appear if you moved your mouse over and off an element repeatedly.
- Fixed an issue resulting in a noticeable screen flicker when the screen adjusts after rotating your device.
- Fixed an issue where the spellchecking menu would always appear on the primary monitor on PCs with multiple monitors, rather than the monitor with the red squiggled word.
Today’s update bumps the Windows 10 build number for the RS5 branch from 17639 (made available to testers on April 4) to build 17643.
This build has 13 known issues:
- If you open Settings and clicking on any links to the Microsoft Store or links in tips, Settings will crash. This includes the links to get themes and fonts from the Microsoft Store, as well as the link to Windows Defender.
- On resuming from sleep, the desktop may be momentarily visible before the Lock screen displays as expected.
- When Movies & TV user denies access to its videos library (through the “Let Movies & TV access your videos library?” popup window or through Windows privacy settings), Movies & TV crashes when the user navigates to the “Personal” tab.
- Tiling and cascading windows, including features like “View Side by Side” in Word, will not work for inactive tabs.
- The Office Visual Basic Editor window will currently be tabbed but is not intended to be in the future.
- Opening an Office document while the same app has an existing document open may cause an unintended switch to the last active document. This will also happen when closing a sheet in Excel while other sheets remain open.
- Local files or non-Microsoft cloud files will not be automatically restored and no error message will be provided to alert the user to that fact.
- Sets UX for Office Win32 desktop apps is not final. The experience will be refined over time based on feedback.
- The top of some Win32 desktop app windows may appear slightly underneath the tab bar when created maximized. To work around the issue, restore and re-maximize the window.
- Closing one tab may sometimes minimize the entire set.
- File Explorer ribbon doesn’t stay pinned open across restart.
- An issue that causes Narrator to read extra text when invoking Alt + Tab.
- Using arrow and Page Up / Page Down keys doesn’t work to scroll webpages in Microsoft Edge. You’ll need to use another input method (mouse, touch, or touchpad).
As always, don’t install this on your production machine.
