Today, Microsoft released the second Windows 10 for PCs Insider Preview from the Redstone 5 development branch, bringing the build number to 17618. Redstone 5 will be the next feature update for the OS following the spring update, so it"s still only available for those that chose the Skip Ahead option in the Fast ring. The first Redstone 5 build was 17604.
Most notably, this build brings back Sets, a feature that allows users to group apps into tabs, similar to a web browser. The feature was previously available in Redstone 4 development for a limited number of Insiders, but now it should be available for everyone on Skip Ahead.
There are a number of improvements to Sets as well, most notably that it supports Win32 apps. Previously, it was only for UWP apps. Here"s the full changelog:
Sets: Sets is designed to make sure that everything related to your task: relevant webpages, research documents, necessary files, and applications, is connected and available to you in one click. Starting today in RS5 builds, we have turned the Sets experiment back on so any Insider who has opted into Skip Ahead will be able to try out Sets. With Sets, 1st party experiences like Mail, Calendar, OneNote, MSN News, Windows and Microsoft Edge become more integrated to create a seamless experience, so you can get back to what’s important and be productive, recapturing that moment, saving time – we believe that’s the true value of Sets. Additional app integration with Sets is expected over time.
If you are an Insider who was testing out Sets previously, you’ll find the following improvements to the experience:
Support for desktop (Win32) apps. Sets now supports File Explorer, Notepad, Command Prompt, and PowerShell. One of the top feature requests by Insiders has been tabs for File Explorer and with Sets you can get a tabbed File Explorer experience! Try it out with these apps and let us know what you think!
You can now launch apps from the new tab page by typing the app name into the search box.
UWP apps are launched in the same window replacing the new tab page.
The tab UI in Sets now shows icons including website favicons and app icons.
Resume your project with more control – When restoring your projects you’ll be prompted to restore related apps and webpages. In Timeline you’ll see when a project has multiple activities associated with it.
Here are a few keyboard shortcuts you can try out:
Here are a few things we’re still working on that aren’t quite finished yet:
Tab drag-and-drop does not work for re-ordering tabs. You can’t drag a tab to join another window.
When launching a supported desktop (Win32) app from a tabbed window, such as protocol/file launch or from the new tab page, it launches in a new window instead of auto-grouping to the existing window. You can work around this for now by holding down the Ctrl key while launching a supported desktop (Win32) app – note, for File Explorer, in particular, you will need to hold down Ctrl until the new tab with File Explorer appears, not just Ctrl + click and immediately release.
You may notice some flashes when switching between tabs within a Set.
If your display scaling is higher than 100%, using touch to interact with the Sets title bar won’t work.
If needed, you can find a setting to enable or disable Sets under Settings > System > Multitasking. We’re looking forward to your feedback as you try it out in today’s build!
Obviously, there"s plenty more to come from Redstone 5, since this update still has another six months of development ahead of it. If you"re not on Skip Ahead, these Windows 10 builds will arrive in the Fast ring shortly after the spring update is publicly released.
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