The Windows has team flipped the switch on the latest Insider preview release, the last one of the year.
Windows 10 Insider preview build 18305 is currently being seeded to testers and brings with it a whole host of new features that include a new sandboxing system as well as a new look for the Clipboard history tool, among others.
As with almost every Insider preview, there is also a laundry list of things that have been fixed or broken during the process of adding new features to the Windows 10 experience.
Here is the list of what’s been changed, improved, fixed and ultimately broken for build 18267.
General changes, improvements, and fixes for PC
- We fixed an issue resulting in bug checks with error “KERNEL SECURITY CHECK FAILURE” while creating/launching VMs or installing/performing scans with certain AV Apps.
- We fixed an issue where the Open Folder icon in File Explorer had a white background when using dark theme.
- We fixed an issue in the previous build where Settings was crashing when opening Speech Settings.
- We fixed an issue where the Action Center didn’t have an opening animation in the last few flights.
- We fixed an issue where the activities listed so you could easily pick up where you left off when opening search all had an unexpectedly old timestamp.
- We fixed an issue where the search box in the taskbar had a truncated dark border in light theme.
- We fixed a few scenarios that could result in the taskbar unexpectedly becoming transparent.
We fixed an issue that could result in taskhostw.exe unexpectedly using a large amount of CPU for a long time. - We fixed an issue where Settings would crash when clicking on the “View storage usage on other drives” option under System > Storage in recent builds.
- We fixed an issue where “Delete previous version of Windows” in Configure Storage Sense was not selectable.
- We fixed an issue resulting in Backup unexpectedly failing for some with a message saying the media is write protected (error code 0x80070013).
- When the Search section is visible in Settings it will now come before Update & Security.
- We fixed an issue where some pages in Settings had more space at the top than others.
- We fixed an issue resulting in ☆ and some other characters not appearing correctly in certain text fields.
- We fixed an issue where the Windows Ink Workspace was using the old Microsoft Store icon.
- We fixed an issue where the emoji picker might draw partially offscreen if invoked near the bottom of the screen.
- We fixed an issue where the second line of the input indicator in the taskbar, when shown, wasn’t legible in light theme.
- We’ve updated our message in the Snipping Tool to include a tip about using WIN+Shift+S to help improve discoverability – thanks folks that suggested this!
- We fixed an issue where in the Details tab of Task Manager you couldn’t sort by the “Shared GPU memory” column.
- We fixed an issue resulting in ShellExperienceHost.exe preventing the device from going to sleep with message “A Miracast Session is currently connected.” despite said session having already been disconnected.
- We fixed an issue from the previous flight where on some systems the High Definition Audio Controller failed to start with Code 10, resulting in no audio from the onboard speakers and microphone.
And…here is what remains a broken or outstanding issue with this new build.
Known issues
- The hyperlink colors need to be refined in Dark Mode in Sticky Notes if the Insights are enabled.
- The Windows Security app may show an unknown status for the Virus & threat protection area, or not refresh properly. This may occur after upgrade, restart, or settings changes.
- The cmimanageworker.exe process may hang, causing system slowness or higher than normal CPU usage. This can be bypassed by rebooting the machine if it occurs.
- Launching games that use BattlEye anti-cheat will trigger a bug check (green screen) – we’re investigating.
- USB printers may appear twice in the Devices and Printers under Control Panel. Reinstalling the printer will resolve the issue.
- We’re investigating an issue where clicking your account in Cortana Permissions isn’t bringing up the UI to sign out from Cortana (if you were already signed in) for some users in this build.
- If you’re using Hyper-V and have added an external vSwitch in addition to the default, many UWP apps won’t be able to connect to the internet. Removing the additional vSwitch will resolve this.
- The Task Scheduler UI may appear blank even though there are scheduled tasks. For now, you’ll need to use the command line if you want to see them.
- Creative X-Fi sound cards are not functioning properly. We are partnering with Creative to resolve this issue.
- When attempting to update to build 18305 some S Mode devices will download and restart, but fail the update.
Known issues for Developers
- If you install any of the recent builds from the Fast ring and switch to the Slow ring – optional content such as enabling developer mode will fail. You will have to remain in the Fast ring to add/install/enable optional content. This is because optional content will only install on builds approved for specific rings.
Build 18305 is proving to be a bit of doozy when it comes to an end of the year preview release for Insiders. Tons of new features, fixes and its fair share of broken items. The Windows team will have a lot to come back to in 2019.
