News and interests in the taskbar get a new look in Windows 10 Insider build 21327

Microsoft has just released the Windows 10 Insider build 21327 for Insiders in the Dev channel, and the new bits bring a refreshed design for News and Interests in the taskbar. This new feature remains only available for select Insiders in the Dev Channel, and the new look will only be rolling out in the US for now.

In addition to more colorful tiles for news stories, Insiders will also see more updates when clicking on the “See more news” shortcut. “The new feed experience that opens in the browser has been redesigned to help you catch up with the top headlines at a glance and enjoy a vibrant feed that brings your personalized stories to light. Larger cards can now also show article text, helping you get a sense of a topic before diving in,” the Windows Insider team explained.

Insiders will also notice the introduction of Skype-like emojis for reacting to news with a like, love, surprise, and more. Again, all these changes are rolling out first for Insiders in the US, but other markets should follow soon.

The build 21327 also brings refreshed system icons that more closely adhere to Microsoft’s Fluent Design guidelines. You can learn more about all the changes, bug fixes, and known issues in this latest flight below:

Changes and Improvements

• Sharped-eyed Windows Insiders will notice many of the system icons in this build have been updated and now align to the Microsoft Fluent Design style. This build includes a new font Segoe Fluent Icons. Areas of the OS that use the Segoe MDL2 assets such as the Start menu and Settings app will include the new icon designs which have a more rounded and simplified look and feel.

• On ARM64 devices, the default architecture for PowerShell is now x64 rather than x86.

Fixes

• We fixed an issue impacting the reliability of Start and other modern apps in recent flights.
• We fixed an issue where a toggled key on the touch keyboard had the wrong background color when you hovered the mouse cursor or pen over it. This change is currently being rolled out to a subset of Insiders at first to help us quickly identify issues that may impact performance and reliability.
• We fixed an issue where the KANA input mode in the touch keyboard was not persisted on next launch when using the Japanese 106/109 traditional keyboard layout.
• We fixed an issue with the new “Paste as plain text” option in clipboard history where the text was cramped in some languages.
• We fixed an issue for specific clipboard content where if you click the first entry in clipboard history would paste something different than what was selected.
• We fixed an issue resulting in the emoji panel and IME candidate window drawing partially offscreen sometimes in recent flights.
• We fixed an issue that could result in a bug check with IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL when installing certain apps.
• We fixed an issue from recent flights that could result in login screen and DWM hangs.
• We fixed an issue where if your primary monitor uses HDR and your secondary monitors were using SDR, thumbnails for apps in the taskbar on the primary monitor would be black.
• We fixed a bug where display changes might unexpectedly cause a window to grow or shrink. This was mostly isolated to systems with monitors set to different scaling factors (DPI).
• We fixed an issue in recent flights where your PC might freeze if you rotated it while in tablet mode.
• We fixed an issue that could result in lag when using the Xbox Game Bar to record your gameplay on a monitor that was 144Hz or higher.
• We fixed an issue in recent builds that could result in stutter when playing games while using multiple monitors.
• We fixed an issue leading to erroneous notifications after each upgrade indicating new apps had been added to the Startup Apps section in Settings.
• We fixed an issue that could result in upgrades getting stuck at 88%.
• We fixed an issue resulting in errors when launching MSIX packaged desktop apps in recent Dev Channel builds.

Known issues

• We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
• Live previews for pinned sites aren’t enabled for all Insiders yet, so you may see a grey window when hovering over the thumbnail in the taskbar. We’re continuing to work on polishing this experience.
• We’re working on enabling the new taskbar experience for existing pinned sites. In the meantime, you can unpin the site from the taskbar, remove it from the edge://apps page, and then re-pin the site.
• [News and interests] We’re addressing an issue where news and interests may not be available when signing into Windows without internet access but returns when online.
• [News and interests] Sometimes the news and interests flyout cannot be dismissed with pen.
• [ARM64] Insiders who installed the preview version of the Qualcomm Adreno graphics driver on the Surface Pro X may experience reduced brightness of the display. This issue is fixed with an updated version of the preview graphics driver at https://aka.ms/x64previewdriverprox. If you are experiencing this issue, please see the feedback collection for more information.
• We’re working on a fix to address reports from Insiders that the Chinese text for the lunar calendar in the clock and calendar flyout is no longer displaying properly as of the previous flight.
• We’re working on a fix for an issue starting with the previous flight where the status information is not being displayed under Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update when you’re up to date.
• We’re investigating reports that Insider devices are experiencing hangs when an Xbox controller is connected while shutting down, restarting, or entering sleep in recent Dev Channel builds.
• We’re investigating an issue where devices with Bitdefender installed may experience a black screen and/or explorer.exe crashes after upgrading to builds 21313 and higher. If you are running Bitdefender, you may choose to pause updates until we release a build with a fix.
• Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) users who upgrade to this build will be unable to use the GPU Compute feature. We’re working on a fix for this. Users who do a clean install will not be affected.
• We’re working on a fix for an issue where some devices with Realtek network adapters running driver version 1.0.0.4 may experience intermittent loss of network connectivity.
• The About page in Settings is not available in this build – we are working on a fix. If you need access to rename your computer, you can do so by running systempropertiescomputername.exe.

News and interests in the taskbar is one of the biggest new features we’ve seen in recent Insider builds, but this is still an experiment and we don’t know yet if it will ship with Windows 10 version 21H2 later this year. Micrsosoft is reportedly planning a big design for Windows 10 codenamed “Sun Valley,” but details remain pretty scarce for now. Still, Microsoft’s Panos Panay hinted at a big year for Windows at the company’s Ignite conference yesterday. “I have not talked about the next generation of Windows and what’s coming next, but I can tell you I am so pumped,” the exec said.