Microsoft releases new Windows 10 preview with updated Cortana animation and Edge improvements

Emil Protalinski
Updated
Windows 10
Windows 10

Microsoft today released a new Windows 10 preview for PCs with an updated Cortana persona and Edge improvements. This is the latest build of the company’s upcoming Windows 10 Creators Update, which is slated for release in “early 2017.”

Windows 10 is a service, meaning it was built in a very different way than its predecessors so it can be regularly updated with not just fixes but new features too. While Microsoft has released many such updates to date, the Creative Update will be a major one and follows the Windows 10 Anniversary Update, released in August 2016.

First up, the Cortana persona has been updated with a new animation when you first see her:

oobe-cortanainout-loop
oobe-cortanainout-loop

In the massive release known as build 15002, Microsoft added click-to-run Flash by default in Edge. Today’s build adds a new dialog in the URL bar to make it clearer when Flash content has been blocked:

flash-edge
flash-edge

Clicking the puzzle icon will let you allow Flash once or every time you return to the same site.

Microsoft also made some improvements to the Edge reading experience:

  • When reading a locally saved EPUB book in Microsoft Edge on PC, a book icon will now be used in the place of the previous generic in the tab bar.

  • If you switch pages while an EPUB book is being read aloud in Microsoft Edge, the reader will now jump to that new location in the book.

  • If you’ve changed the read aloud settings when reading an EPUB in Microsoft Edge, those settings will now be preserved for subsequently opened books.

The desktop build includes the following improvements and bug fixes:

  • Fixed the issue causing the Settings app to crash when navigating to Settings > Devices and you should be able to pair a Bluetooth device without any issue. The Bluetooth quick action from Action Center should also now work again. This issue could have also resulted in decreased Flashlight quick action reliability.

  • Using Continuum to connect to a display wirelessly should also work as expected.

  • Fixed an issue resulting in screen rotation sometimes unexpectedly not working on the last Insider flight.

  • Fixed an issue where live tiles were not updating some apps such as Outlook Mail and Calendar.

  • Fixed an issue where under Settings > Update & security > Phone update Insiders might see the text “Some Settings are managed by your organization” even though the phone wasn’t being managed by an organization.

  • Fixed an issue from recent flights where you couldn’t paste or drag a folder from the PC to your phone

  • Fixed an issue where tapping the link for a website with an associated app would crash Microsoft Edge and not open the associated app.

  • Fixed an issue where downloads from Microsoft Edge directly to an SD card might unexpectedly use space on the local phone storage as well.

  • Fixed an issue where the keyboard might dismiss after a second when opening a new tab in Microsoft Edge and quickly starting to type.

  • Fixed an issue that could result in your personal typing dictionary being unexpectedly deleted and having to train the keyboard from scratch.

  • Fixed an issue where, during the download of a phone update, after disconnecting then reconnecting to Wi-Fi due to low reception you might get an error saying the download needs a better connection to continue, despite currently being connected to a good Wi-Fi connection.

  • Improved the video playback experience when using Continuum for phone wirelessly over Miracast.

  • The icon for Windows Insider Program under Settings > Update & security should be no longer a square.

Today’s update bumps the Windows 10 build number for PCs from 15031 (made available to testers on February 8) to build 15042.

This build has seven known issues:

  • A small percentage of PCs may fail to update to this build due to a corrupt registry key. If your PC appears to be at the spinning dots black screen during boot for an unusual amount of time while updating to this build, hard reboot your PC and then run the following commands in an admin Command Prompt:

    reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\system\setup\upgrade\nsimigrationroot /f

    netsh int ipv6 set locality state=disabled

    reg delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Nsi\{eb004a01-9b1a-11d4-9123-0050047759bc}\28 /f</

  • Windows Insiders may still hit nonstop exceptions in the Spectrum.exe service causing their PC to lose audio, disk I/O usage to become very high, and apps like Microsoft Edge to become unresponsive when doing certain actions such as opening Settings. As a workaround to get out of this state, stop the Spectrum.exe service and delete C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Spectrum\PersistedSpatialAnchors and reboot.

  • [GAMING] Some popular games might minimize to the taskbar when launched. You can click on the game on the taskbar to get the game back.

  • [GAMING] Certain hardware configurations may cause the broadcast live review window in the Game bar to flash Green while you are Broadcasting. This does not affect the quality of your broadcast and is only visible to the Broadcaster.

  • Microsoft Edge F12 tools may intermittently crash, hang, and fail to accept inputs.

  • The icon for Windows Insider Program under Settings > Update & security is shown as a square.

  • Windows Hello face authentication might not work, showing a “Camera couldn’t turn on” error on the lock screen, on some Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book devices.

If you’re OK with the above and want to get build 15042 now, head to PC Settings, select “Update and recovery,” then “Preview builds,” and then click the “Check Now” button.

Microsoft also released Windows 10 Mobile build 15043 today. The company still hasn’t shared details about a new device nor a viable strategy for the platform.