Today, Microsoft released this week's Windows 10 for PCs Insider Preview build to the Fast ring, build 17074. It contains a laundry list of new features, just like the last build. They mainly seem to focus on improvements to the Edge browser, such as the ability to use extensions when using InPrivate mode. There are also some improvements to Quiet Hours.
But as is always the case in such a major build, there's also a long list of fixes, improvements, and known issues. Here's what got fixed and improved in Windows 10 build 17074:
We have rolled out Sets to more Insiders – if you see it show up, please try it out and do the Quests in Feedback Hub!
This build includes mitigations to protect Insiders from the Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities. For more information on this topic, please see this blog post from Terry Myerson. Additionally, if you are running 3rd party antivirus software on your PC you will need to ensure you are running the latest most up-to-date version of your antivirus software with the latest antivirus definitions to avoid having your PC get into a bad state.
Windows now fully supports Adobe-style “.otf” OpenType Variable Fonts, like the Acumin Variable Concept font and others recently released by Adobe.
Insiders running Windows 10 S may have noticed that after upgrading to the latest builds, their PC appears to be running “Windows 10 Pro In S Mode”. This change is by design and these PCs will continue to function as Windows 10 S PCs and will continue to be able to take Insider Preview builds as part of testing RS4. We’ll have more to share as we get closer to the next Windows 10 release.
For Insiders who reported that Windows needs activation after upgrading to Build 17063, this build includes the fix that caused the issue however you will need to use the Activation Troubleshooter to get your activation back into a good state once you’re on this build.
We have added a new PowerShell cmdlet to retrieve decoded logs for Delivery Optimization (Get-DeliveryOptimizationLog).
We’ve updated the reveal effect in the Taskbar’s Clock and Calendar flyout such that the day with focus now has a lighter background.
Now that it’s had some time to receive your feedback, we’ve updated to be the default keyboard for the Tamil language.
We fixed an issue where Settings might crash if the window was too small.
We fixed an issue where Windows Update Settings unexpectedly displayed two horizontal lines.
We fixed an issue where in certain cases USB devices with unreliable connections might cause bugchecks (GSOD) on PCs.
We fixed an issue from the previous flight where touch and pen weren’t working on the non-primary display. This might also have resulted in mouse, touch, and pen input not happening in the right place after an orientation change or when using a non-native aspect ratio.
We fixed an issue where if you were using any EUDC fonts Microsoft Edge, Cortana, and other apps that use a webview wouldn’t launch.
We fixed an issue resulting in Microsoft Edge crashing when deleting favorites.
We fixed an issue where Microsoft Edge might crash when trying to copy text or login on certain websites.
We fixed an issue where Microsoft Edge might crash when opening PDFs on the previous flight.
We fixed an issue in Microsoft Edge resulting in images on flickr.com going blank after a follow/unfollow user action.
We fixed an issue resulting in a white line being visible on the right side of screen when certain videos are watched full screen in Microsoft Edge.
We fixed an issue where while navigating through OOBE, some of the buttons in the pages might not display correctly.
We fixed an issue resulting in Themes appearing in Start after they’d been downloaded from Store.
We’ve updated the reveal effect in the Taskbar’s Clock and Calendar flyout such that the day with focus now has a lighter background.
We fixed an issue where the feedback message (like from Windows Hello) could end up overlapping Spotlight text on the lock screen.
We fixed an issue where Windows Update Settings unexpectedly displayed two horizontal lines.
We fixed an issue where when transparency effects were turned off the Virtual Desktops pane in Task View would overlap Timeline with no background.
We fixed an issue resulting in an explorer.exe crash when using WIN + Tab to open Task View on the previous flight.
We fixed an issue resulting in an explorer.exe crash when trying to use control.exe to open app defaults.
We fixed an issue where the Taskbar might render completely transparent on secondary monitors.
We fixed an issue resulting in certain apps, like Firefox, might not have audio after upgrading to the previous flight. This issue also impacted the ability to record audio in Microsoft Edge.
We fixed an issue where surround sound gaming headsets would revert to stereo after rebooting.
We fixed an issue in the audio service around app impersonation which was breaking audio recording from apps like Firefox which intentionally run with a restricted token.
We fixed a couple of issues resulting in crashes in the “audiosrv” and “audioendpointbuilder” audio services which would cause audio not to work, or new audio devices not to be recognized.
We fixed an issue resulting in Hearthstone not launching on the previous build.
We fixed an issue that could result in fullscreen games getting stuck minimized or exiting fullscreen status unexpectedly.
We fixed an issue where the emoji panel search wasn’t working in desktop (Win32) apps.
We fixed an issue where the input flyout wouldn’t appear the first time you pressed WIN + Space.
We fixed a memory leak in NisSrv.exe from the previous flight.
We fixed an issue where MsMpEng.exe might unexpectedly use a high number of disk I/Os per second for a long time.
We fixed an issue where WerFault.exe might spike to 50%+ CPU for an unexpectedly long time.
We fixed an issue from the previous flight where touch and pen weren’t working on the non-primary display. This might also have resulted in mouse, touch, and pen input not happening in the right place after an orientation change or when using a non-native aspect ratio.
We fixed an issue when using the Arabic touch keyboard where pressing Ctrl wouldn’t show the directional markers on the Shift keys.
We fixed an issue where the emoji panel search wasn’t working in desktop (Win32) apps.
We fixed an issue where the input flyout wouldn’t appear the first time you pressed WIN + Space.
We fixed an issue where the OneNote app wasn’t being included in Cortana’s ”Pick up where I left off” notifications.
We fixed an issue on certain PCs where using the fingerprint scanner wouldn’t wake the PC up from Connected Standby.
We fixed an issue where you might show as connected to the network, but you wouldn’t actually be connected to use the Internet.
We fixed an issue where in certain cases USB devices with unreliable connections might cause bugchecks (GSOD) on PCs.
We fixed two issues that could result in some PCs bugchecking (GSOD) when entering into Connected Standby. If you had a laptop that encountered this, the experience would have been that you’d open your laptop and unexpectedly be logging into a new session, rather than continuing the one open before closing the lid.
We fixed an issue where some Bluetooth devices weren’t working and Device Manager showing error 43 for those drivers.
It's interesting that Microsoft noted mitigations against Meltdown and Spectre, since those were supposed to be patched in build 17063. Of course, this doesn't mean that they weren't/
Here are the known issues:
When users try to create a Microsoft Edge InPrivate window from inside a Mixed Reality headset, a regular window will get created instead. Users won’t be able to use InPrivate inside Mixed Reality in this build. InPrivate on desktop is not affected.
We’re preparing for the inclusion of OpenSSH Server as a deployment mechanism in Developer Mode. However the UI code got checked in ahead of the components, and so while there is a “Use OpenSSH (Beta) for remote deployment” switch in the UI under Settings, it won’t work, and turning it on will break remote deployment to that device until the switch is turned off.
When you open Task View immediately after an upgrade, Timeline may not be visible. If you encounter this, wait 15-30 minutes and try launching Task View again.
The Windows Defender icon is missing from the systray, even if it shows as enabled in Settings.
Certain devices may hang on the boot screen after upgrading. If this happens to you, go into the BIOS and disable virtualization.
Apps that come preinstalled with Windows may fail to update in the Store with error 0x80073CF9.
Audio playback from Microsoft Edge is sometimes unexpectedly muted. A workaround is to minimize Edge, count to three, and then unminimize.
Upgrading to 17063 or later builds sometimes causes Settings / Privacy / Microphone, Camera, etc. to flip to “disabled”, which breaks camera and microphone access. A workaround is to manually turn them back on.
Most of the known issues don't seem too terrible. As always, it's recommended to read through them all before installing a build from the Fast ring. It's also important to know that other issues could be added over time, as they were with build 17063.
If you're on the Fast ring, you can grab today's build by heading over to Settings -> Update & security -> Windows Update -> Check for updates. If not, you can sign up by going to the Windows Insider Program tab and clicking 'Get started'.
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