After last week’s debacle for its Windows Insiders accidental release, the team has hit the big red button once more with a bit more of a stable build 16215 for PC. And maybe for a great reason! This build is filled to the brim with new features and improvements to explore so let’s dive in.
If you were checking out the new UI for Start and Action Center, now Microsoft has implemented their Fluent Design (a.k.a. Project NEON) elements into them. The Start Menu features acrylic transparency, easier resizing for vertical, horizontal, and diagonal, as well as a smoother transition to tablet mode. The Action Center’s redesign also adds in acrylic elements, along with the toast notifications.
Beyond making the forefront look better, the Windows Team pulled out all the stops int he background with a staggering list of improvements in Preview build 16215. There are very few places that Microsoft didn’t touch with the build.
- Pin your favorite websites to your taskbar
- Full-screen mode (F11)
- Annotate books in Microsoft Edge
- More highlight colors and Ask Cortana in Microsoft Edge PDF
- Taking Cortana reminders to the next level through vision intelligence
- Cortana camera roll insights
- Cortana Lasso
Handwriting Experience in Windows 10 Improvements
- Write as much as you want in the panel with the new conversion & overflow model
- Select text to edit it
- Make corrections within the handwriting panel by overwriting converted text
- Make corrections using ink gestures
- Easier access to emoji and symbols
- Reducing the chance of palm rejection
- Floating by default
- Improved handwriting recognition for English (United States)
- English mode for Simplified Chinese handwriting
- Find My Pen
- Improved scrolling (in UWP apps) and selecting with pen
- Entering emoji on your hardware keyboard
- Familiar Touch Keyboard Experience on Desktop
- Enhancing your Share experience with copy links
- New local media folder detection for UWPs
- My People Improvements fixing issues and improving reliability
- Night light improvements fixing the mirrored display bug and other issues
- New Video Playback Settings
- A new HDR and Advanced Color Settings Page
- Per-App Defaults Settings Page
- Updated Network connection properties page
- A new context menu for Wi-Fi networks in the View Available Networks flyout
- Windows Update improvements and viewing active policies
Adding in the Windows game bar improvements, behind the scenes updates for developers, lots of new Ease of Access additions, and font expansion to include Japanese into its font family, this update can’t be called lacking.
And those are just the tip of the iceberg. We’ll be going more in-depth with each area to explore what’s new here at OnMSFT. Let us know what you think about this hulk of a build in the comments below, and be sure to keep your eyes out for known issues.
