Today, Microsoft released a new cumulative update for Windows 10 to Insiders in the Release Preview ring. As usual, there are actually two new builds, one for Insiders testing 19H1, which is 18362.285, and another for those testing 19H2, which is 18363.385. The update packages are actually the same, but the 19H2 build has an additional enablement package for new features in 19H2.
What's interesting, though, is that despite this enablement package, users in the Release Preview didn't actually get any of the new 19H2 features that are already in the Slow Ring. That is, until today, since build 18363.385 enables all of those features. As a reminder, here's the full list of new features in Windows 10 19H2:
Windows containers require matched host and container version. This restricts customers and limits Windows containers from supporting mixed-version container pod scenarios This update includes 5 fixes to address this and allow the host to run down-level containers on up-level for process (Argon) isolation.
A fix to allow OEMs to reduce the inking latency based on the hardware capabilities of their devices rather than being stuck with latency selected on typical hardware configuration by the OS.
Key-rolling or Key-rotation feature enables secure rolling of Recovery passwords on MDM managed AAD devices upon on demand request from Microsoft Intune/MDM tools or upon every time recovery password is used to unlock the BitLocker protected drive. This feature will help prevent accidental recovery password disclosure as part of manual BitLocker drive unlock by users.
A change to enable third-party digital assistants to voice activate above the Lock screen.
You can now quickly create an event straight from the Calendar flyout on the Taskbar. Just click on the date and time at the lower right corner of the Taskbar to open the Calendar flyout and pick your desired date and start typing in the text box – you’ll now see inline options to set a time and location.
The navigation pane on the Start menu now expands when you hover over it with your mouse to better inform where clicking goes.
We have added friendly images to show what is meant by “banner” and “Action Center” when adjusting the notifications on apps in order to make these settings more approachable and understandable.
Notifications settings under Settings > System > Notifications will now default to sorting notification senders by most recently shown notification, rather than sender name. This makes it easier to find and configure frequent and recent senders. We have also added a setting to turn off playing sound when notifications appear.
We now show the options to configure and turn off notifications from an app/website right on the notification, both as a banner and in Action Center.
We have added a “Manage notifications” button to the top of Action Center that launches the main “Notifications & actions” Settings page.
We have added additional debugging capabilities for newer Intel processors. This is only relevant for hardware manufacturers.
We have made general battery life and power efficiency improvements for PCs with certain processors.
A CPU may have multiple “favored” cores (logical processors of the highest available scheduling class). To provide better performance and reliability, we have implemented a rotation policy that distributes work more fairly among these favored cores.
We have enabled Windows Defender Credential Guard for ARM64 devices for additional protection against credential theft for enterprises deploying ARM64 devices in their organizations.
We have enabled the ability for enterprises to supplement the Windows 10 in S Mode policy to allow traditional Win32 (desktop) apps from Microsoft Intune.
We’re updating the search box in File Explorer to now be powered by Windows Search. This change will help integrate your OneDrive content online with the traditional indexed results. More details here.
We have added the ability for Narrator and other assistive technologies to read and learn where the FN key is located on keyboards and what state it is in (locked versus unlocked).
Additionally, this update will now be offered if you use Windows Defender Application Guard (WDAG) or containers.
The testing process for the WIndows 10 19H2 update has been quite confusing. At one point, there were four update paths - two in the Slow ring, and two in Release preview. Now, the Slow ring has been unified, but still, until today, those in Release Preview didn't have the new 19H2 features, even if they had 19H2 builds. Now, that's been addressed, so things are starting to come together.
Right now, everyone in the Slow ring is on build 18362.10019 with all 19H2 features enabled. Those in Release Preview can be on either build 18362.385, which is a 19H1 build without the new features, or 18363.385, which now has the 19H2 features enabled. Though only 10% of users in Release Preview are getting 19H2 builds automatically, anyone in that ring can check for updates manually to get those builds.
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