It"s Wednesday, and that means that it"s time for a new Windows 10 Insider Preview build. Build 19628 is available in the Fast ring, and what"s interesting is that it"s coming from the mn_release branch, rather than the rs_prerelease branch.
Typically, this happens when Microsoft is prepping a feature update for release. It"s split into a separate release branch so new features can be developed on the prerelease branch. That"s not quite what"s happening here.
The "mn" stands for Manganese, the codename for 20H2, but this isn"t actually 20H2. As we"ve said several times before, 20H2 is going to be a small update in the form of an enablement package, just like 19H2 was. I had heard that the full 20H2 update was going to be exclusive to Windows 10X, but now Windows 10X is delayed, so these builds aren"t going out to anyone.
So now, things are being moved to the mn_release branch, mainly because that"s how things work. The team also wanted to test out switching between the development branches. This very much seems like it"s a full feature update that"s just not getting released, with the new features bundled into next spring"s update; and in many ways, that"s just what it is.
It"s an interesting change though, since the Fast ring is meant to be in a perpetual prerelease branch. Back in December, the Windows Insider team announced that Windows 10 previews will no longer be tied to a specific development branch, although now it does seem that builds will be spun off into release branches.
As usual, there are no new features. There"s one item listed under general changes and improvements:
- We’re adding initial support for DNS over HTTPS, so that you can opt into using encryption when Windows makes DNS queries. Follow the instructions in this blog post to opt in as it will be off by default.
There"s also one fix:
- We’ve fixed an issue causing some devices fail to update with error code 0xc0000409. If you continue to experience this error, please let us know by filing new feedback in Feedback Hub.
Finally, there are several known issues:
- We’re aware Narrator and NVDA users that seek the latest release of Microsoft Edge based on Chromium may experience some difficulty when navigating and reading certain web content. Narrator, NVDA and the Edge teams are aware of these issues. Users of legacy Microsoft Edge will not be affected. NVAccess has released a NVDA 2019.3 that resolves the known issue with Edge.
- We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
- We’re working on fixing an issue for a future Insider Preview build where in Settings > Privacy the Documents and Downloads sections show a broken icon next to their page name (just a rectangle).
- We’re looking into reports of IIS configuration being set to default after taking a new build. You will need to back up your IIS configuration and restore it after the new build is installed successfully.
- We’re looking into reports that taskbar preview thumbnails aren’t rendering consistently (showing a blank area).
If you"re on the Fast ring, you can grab today"s build from Windows Update. If not, you can enroll through the Windows Insider Program tab in Settings.