Today, Microsoft released Windows 10 build 17661 to the Fast ring, bringing a whole bunch of new features to Insiders. It also marks the first build from the Redstone 5 development branch that isn"t exclusive to those that opted into the Skip Ahead subset of the Fast ring.
It contains a number of new features, like a new way of screen snipping, more Fluent Design elements, and more. Unfortunately, it also limits Sets to a select number of Insiders, similar to how Microsoft did it during Redstone 4 development. And as always, there"s a list of fixes, improvements, and known issues.
Here"s what got fixed and improved in build 17661:
We’ve made a number of improvements to how Narrator communicates the use of Sets – for example, Narrator will now inform you of the tabs by reading information such as Tab # N of M as you open and move between tabs. If you’re a Narrator user, please take a moment to try out Sets with today’s build and share feedback about the experience.
When you clean install or do a PC refresh, you’ll find that the Out of Box Experience for setting up your PC now includes a page for enabling activity history sync, which will help you continue what you were doing, even when you switch devices.
We’ve adjusted how you access skin tones in the Emoji Panel – you’ll now see a row of skin tone colors to select from when people emoji are in view.
We fixed an issue where using arrow and Page Up / Page Down keys didn’t work to scroll webpages in Microsoft Edge.
We fixed an issue resulting in the mouse cursor becoming invisible when hovering over certain UI elements and text fields in the last two flights.
We fixed an issue resulting in the mouse cursor not animating correctly in the last two flights.
We fixed an issue resulting in the Game Bar not appearing for some Insiders after pressing WIN+G.
When you hover over the Windows icon in the taskbar, a tooltip will now appear for Start.
We’ve updated the design of the handwriting panel so that the delete button is now a top level button. The button to switch languages is now under the “…” menu.
If you go to Pen & Windows Ink Settings, you’ll find a new option that allows your pen to behave like a mouse instead of scrolling or panning the screen.
Here are the general known issues:
- Certain notifications from Action Center may cause regular Explorer.exe crashes. We’re working to get this fixed in the next flight.
- VPN may not be working after updating to this build. To get VPN working again, delete the %ProgramData%\Microsoft\Network\Connections\pbk* directories. Check if the VPN profile you need shows up already and if not, reinstall the appropriate VPN client app you need.
- After updating to this build and installing the latest app updates from the Microsoft Store, when you log in to additional user accounts on the PC there may be missing apps. You can run the following PowerShell script when logged in to users with missing apps on your PC to fix the issue: Get-AppXPackage *WindowsStore* -AllUsers | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register “$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml”}
- 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.
- We’re aware of an issue that causes Narrator to read extra text when invoking Alt + Tab, and we’re working on a fix.
- If you complete the setup for a Windows Mixed Reality headset on this build, the headset will remain black until it is unplugged and reconnected to the PC.
There"s also a list of known issues that specifically have to do with Sets and Office:
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.
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.
Right-clicking a tab in Sets will not bring up a context menu in this build.
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.
As always, it"s recommended that you read through the known issues before installing this build in a production environment.
If you"re on the Fast ring, you can install today"s build by going to Settings -> Update & security -> Windows Update -> Check for updates. If not, you can enroll by going to the Windows Insider Program tab.