Windows 10 build 16273 now available for PCs in the Fast ring - here's what's new

It's been quite a while since Microsoft released a new Windows 10 build - in fact, three full weeks have passed since the last PC preview, build 16257, rolled out. Microsoft had intended to release a new build two weeks ago, but its plans were scuppered by the discovery of a 'blocking bug' in internal testing. A further installation bug halted plans to release a build last week too.

But today, the long wait has come to an end, as Microsoft has announced the release of Windows 10 Insider Preview build 16273 to PCs in the Fast ring, as well as those in the Skip Ahead ring. As Microsoft is increasingly focusing on polishing up the OS in anticipation of its Windows 10 Fall Creators Update rollout in the coming weeks, the new build isn't exactly packed with new features.

However, there are a couple of additions:

Try out emoji notifications with My People

Help test My People and emoji notifications on the desktop by adding the new Windows Insider Emoji Bot to your taskbar in My People and ask it to send you some emoji. We added a Quest in the Feedback Hub so you can rate the experience.

Introducing the Bahnschrift font

Our new first OpenType Variable Font Bahnschrift is now included in builds. This new font industry standard enables us to pack an entire typeface family into a single file with infinite variability. No longer are you constrained to simple weights like Light, Regular, and Bold. Now you can have an infinite range of font styles, with smooth interpolation from Light to Bold and beyond. Better still: because a single, efficient variable font can replace several static fonts, variable fonts save a lot of space. To learn more about variable font technology, see the articles in Wired, Designmodo, or Alphabettes.

Bahnschrift is our own rendition of the DIN font standard. Apart from being the standard road sign font in Germany and much of Europe, DIN is frequently used by graphic designers for its high legibility and clean, hard-working design style. Bahnschrift supports a smooth spectrum of weights from Light to Bold, as you can see in the above image. In this image, each letter is a slightly different weight than its neighbors. All these weights are “duplexed” – meaning they do not change in width when you change weight. You can switch from Light to Bold without changing the layout at all.