Windows 10 Insider Preview build 18865 now available - here's what's new

It's another week, and while we haven't gotten any new builds in the Fast and Slow rings yet, as Microsoft is preparing a stable release of Windows 10 version 1903, we do still get a new build for those in the Skip Ahead ring. This time, it's build 18865, which, much like the past few builds in this ring, is part of the 20H1 update planned for early next year.

As per usual with 20H1 builds so far, there's not a whole lot that's new here, and we're mostly looking at bug fixes and small improvements. Most of those revolve around the Narrator feature, addressing a wide range of issues with it and adding some quality-of-life improvements. Here's the full list:

• In Cursor & pointer setting, tooltips will now show when you move the mouse over the different color options.
• We fixed the issue where Narrator’s Copy command in Scan mode in Facebook’s “Write a comment” text field resulted in message “Item cannot take focus”.
• Narrator now announces the toggle state of checkbox in Listview.
• We fixed the issue where Narrator read “has finished loading” multiple times when loading a new page in Chrome.
• We fixed the issue where Narrator did not read cell content in Excel when using F2 to edit.
• We fixed the issue where Narrator said “end of line” when navigated to an empty cell while editing a table.
• Scan mode will now switch off to allow typing in the edit field of a spinner control.
• We fixed the issue where Narrator did not read aria-label information from button.
• Improved Narrator’s fallback logic for controls with no accessible name.
• Narrator will now present “invalid” or “required” properties on more controls.
• We fixed the issue where Narrator Braille showed the window title instead of the first line on the braille display when navigating to the beginning of the document with Ctrl + Home in a text editing area.
• Narrator Braille user can now reliably activate links by routing key.
• We fixed the issue where Narrator Braille did not render information on the braille display about the login pop up while creating a page in Facebook.com.
• We fixed the issue where Narrator Braille would show the accessible name in the beginning of every line in a text area.
• We fixed an issue resulting in a duplicate empty copy of certain folders being created on upgrade for some users.
• We fixed an issue where, if your computer supported Wi-Fi and you had the Performance tab set as default in Task Manager, on Task Manager launch, the Wi-Fi section in the Performance tab would appear to be selected, but the details displayed would be for the CPU section.
• We fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders experiencing unexpected BitLocker prompts to encrypt certain drives, and then subsequently failing to encrypt.

Of course, no Windows Insider build isn't without its fair share of problems, but Microsoft actually has a relatively small list for build 18865, the same as we've been seeing for past builds. That includes a bugcheck when launching certain games with anti-cheat software and issues with Creative X-Fi sound cards. Here's what you need to be aware of:

• Launching games that use anti-cheat software may trigger a bugcheck (GSOD).
• When performing Reset this PC and selecting Keep my files on a device that has Reserved Storage enabled, the user will need to initiate an extra reboot to ensure Reserved Storage is working again properly.
• Some Realtek SD card readers are not functioning properly. We are investigating the issue.
• Creative X-Fi sound cards are not functioning properly. Creative has released updated drivers for some affected X-Fi sound cards. Please refer to Creative’s website for details on your particular hardware and any available updates.

And, of course, if you're a developer, you need to be aware that optional content, such as enabling developer mode, won't work if you move down to the Fast or Slow rings of the Insider program, since those features are targeted for specific builds in specific rings.

If you wanted to join Skip Ahead and start testing next year's big update right now, you're out of luck, as the Skip Ahead ring is limited in capacity and has already filled up. The Fast ring should start receiving build in the 19H2 branch sometime soon, though.