It"s a new week, which means that it"s time for a new Windows 10 Insider Preview build. Build 17713 replaces 17711 in the Fast ring. Interestingly, there"s a really long list of new features in this build.
We"ve had a few "big bang" builds with new features in the Redstone 5 development cycle, but frankly, this is the point where you"d expect the team to start winding down and preparing for the update to be finalized in September. After all, the announcement did say that it will be releasing new Skip Ahead builds soon.
Here"s what"s new today:
Microsoft Edge Improvements
Per-site media autoplay controls: You can now control autoplay permissions on a per-site basis under the “Website permission” section of the Website Identification pane – just click the information icon or lock icon on the left side of the address bar and click “manage permissions” to get started.
Lookup definitions for words in Reading View, Books, and PDFs: We’ve added a new dictionary function, so you can look up definitions for key words when reading a page or document. Simply select a single word to see the definition appear above your selection.
You can choose to have a word read aloud to you to hear the correct pronunciation or expand more details from the definition. You can toggle whether definitions appear and which types of content they work in under the “General” tab of the Microsoft Edge settings menu.
Microsoft Edge PDF Reader Improvements
Improved toolbar options: The toolbar available on a PDF document opened in Microsoft Edge will now show text descriptions for the icons to make them easily understandable. by the users. New options like “Add notes” are now available in the toolbar so that these tools are handy when you need them.
Pin/unpin PDF toolbar: The toolbar can now be pinned at the top of the document, making all the PDF tools easily accessible if you need them. You can also unpin the toolbar for an immersive reading experience. If the toolbar is unpinned, it will hide itself – just hover over the top area to bring it back.
Rendering improvements: We’ve included a bunch of rendering performance fixes with this build. Now you will see less and less of the white pages when you navigate through PDF files in Microsoft Edge.
Notepad Improvements
With Build 17666, we introduced extended line ending support for Notepad. We’re excited to share that today’s build has a few more surprises in store based on what you’ve been telling us!
Wrap-around find/replace: We’ve made significant improvement to the find/replace experience in Notepad. We added the option to do wrap-around find/replace to the find dialog and Notepad will now remember previously entered values and the state of checkboxes and automatically populate them the next time you open the find dialog. Additionally, when you have text selected and open the find dialog we will automatically populate the search field with the selected text.
Text zooming: We’ve added options to make it quick and easy to zoom text in Notepad. There is a new menu option under View > Zoom to change the zoom level and we display the current zoom level in the status bar. You can also use Ctrl + Plus, Ctrl + Minus and Ctrl + MouseWheel to zoom in and out and use Ctrl + 0 to restore the zoom level to the default.
Line numbers with word-wrap: A long outstanding request has been to add the ability to display line and column numbers when word-wrap is enabled. This is now possible in Notepad and we’ve made the status bar visible by default. You can still turn the status bar off in the View menu.
Other Improvements:
- We’ve improved the performance when opening large files in Notepad.
- Notepad now supports Ctrl + Backspace to delete the previous word.
- Arrow keys now correctly unselect text first and then move the cursor.
- When saving a file in Notepad, the line and column number no longer reset to 1.
- Notepad now correctly displays lines that don’t fit entirely on the screen.
Have feedback for Notepad? Share it here!
Remote Desktop with Biometrics
We’re happy to share that with this build of Windows 10, Azure Active Directory and Active Directory users using Windows Hello for Business can use biometrics to authenticate to a remote desktop session!
Note: This feature does not work with convenience PIN.
To get started, bring up Remote Desktop Connection (mstsc.exe), type the name of the computer to which you want to connect and click Connect.
Because you signed using Windows Hello for Business, Windows remembers how you signed in and automatically selects Windows Hello for Business to authenticate you to your RDP session but, you can click More choices to choose alternate credentials.
In this example, Windows uses facial recognition to authenticate the RDP session to the Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V server. You can continue to use Windows Hello for Business in the remote session, but you must use your PIN.
Have feedback? We’d love to hear it! Head to the Feedback Hub to share your thoughts about Windows Hello with face, fingerprint or PIN.
Web Sign-in to Windows 10
Until now, Windows logon only supported the use of identities federated to ADFS or other providers that support the WS-Fed protocol. We are introducing “Web Sign-in,” a new way of signing into your Windows PC. Web Sign-in enables Windows logon support for non-ADFS federated providers (e.g. SAML).
To try out Web Sign-in:
- Azure AD Join your Windows 10 PC. (Note: Web Sign-in is only supported on Azure AD Joined PCs).
- Set the following policy to enable Web Sign-in (Policy CSP/Authentication/EnableWebSignIn)
- On the lock screen, select Web Sign-in under Sign-in options.
- Click on the “Sign in” button to continue.
Faster sign-in to a Windows 10 shared PC
Do you have shared PCs deployed in your work place? Do you wish that signing in to a PC with your account was faster? Starting with this build, we are introducing “Fast Sign-in,” which enables users to sign in to a shared Windows 10 PC in a flash!
To enable Fast Sign in,
- Set up a shared or guest PC with Windows 10
- Set the following policy to enable Fast Sign in (Policy CSP/Authentication/EnableFastFirstSignIn)
- With the policy enabled, sign-in to a shared PC with your account and notice the difference!
Windows Defender Application Guard Improvements
Windows Defender Application Guard introduced a new user interface inside Windows Security in this release. Standalone users can now install and configure their Windows Defender Application Guard settings in Windows Security without needing to change Registry key settings. Additionally, users who are managed by enterprise policies will be able to check their settings to see what their administrators have configured for their machines to better understand the behavior of Windows Defender Application Guard. This new UI aims to improve the overall experience for users to manage and check their Windows Defender Application Guard settings. As long as devices meet the minimum requirements, these settings will appear in Windows Security.
For detailed information, click here.
To check this out, go to Windows Security and select App & browser control.
Select Install Windows Defender Application Guard under Isolated browsing, install and restart the device (only for standalone users).
Select Change Application Guard settings.
Configure or check Application Guard Settings.
Inking Updates
We introduced the embedded handwriting panel with the April 2018 Update, and after taking some time to refine the experience based on your feedback, in RS5 the embedded handwriting will now be the default experience for text entry with a pen in modern applications. Just tap a text area, like a search box, and it will expand to give you a comfortable area in which to write.
You can even edit what you’ve written with simple, intuitive gestures.
In places where embedded handwriting doesn’t support your language or isn’t supported by the app (e.g. legacy Win32 applications), you can still invoke the floating handwriting panel.
As you can see, there"s quite a bit to sort through, particularly with the Microsoft Edge changes.
Microsoft did say that it will start flighting builds from the next development branch soon, which should be called 19H1, as it"s not calling them Redstone anymore. You"ll need to re-enroll for Skip Ahead though.