Microsoft has just released the 20H1 build 18936 for Fast Ring Insiders with a couple of new features to play with. First of all, the Phone Screen mirroring feature in the Your Phone app is now compatible with many more Surface devices, including the most recent Surface Pro, Surface Laptop and Surface Book models.
This new build also brings a Quick Event Creation feature to the Windows 10 Taskbar, which will make it very easy to create events or reminders by just clicking on the date in the taskbar. Lastly, it’s now possible to enable passwordless sign-in for Microsoft accounts in the Settings app, though Microsoft says that this new feature will roll out gradually to Fast Ring Insiders.
As usual, there’s a couple of fixes and improvements in this new build, and Microsoft addressed an issue causing certain games to show a black screen when run in full screen mode. You can learn more about new features, improvements and known issues in the full release notes below.
What’s new in 18936
Your Phone app – Phone screen now available on more Surface devices
As promised, we’re excited to expand the availability of the phone screen feature to more PCs. With the latest driver update in the Windows insider rings (Marvell 15.68.17013.110), the following Surface devices will preview the phone screen feature – Surface Laptop, Surface Laptop 2, Surface Pro 4, Surface Pro 5, Surface Pro 6, Surface Book, and Surface Book 2. If you have one of these devices, give it a try and let us know what you think!
Quick Event Create from the Taskbar
Do you ever open the clock and calendar flyout to help organize your thoughts while making plans? We’ve been working on making it easier to create new events and reminders, and are happy to announce that as of today, all Insiders in the Fast ring should see this when you click on the date in the taskbar:
Pick your desired date and start typing – you’ll now see inline options to set a time and location. We’re looking forward to you trying it out! Let us know if you have any feedback.
Go passwordless with Microsoft accounts on your device
For improved security and a more seamless sign-in experience, you can now enable passwordless sign-in for Microsoft accounts on your Windows 10 device by going to Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options, and selecting ‘On’ under ‘Make your device passwordless’. Enabling passwordless sign in will switch all Microsoft accounts on your Windows 10 device to modern authentication with Windows Hello Face, Fingerprint, or PIN. Don’t have Windows Hello set up yet? No problem! We’ll walk you through the setup experience on your next sign-in. Curious how a Windows Hello PIN is more secure than a password? Learn more here.
Please note: This feature is currently being rolled out to a small portion of Insiders and the above option may not show for all users in Settings. If the toggle isn’t showing for you yet, check back in a week so.
As always, feedback is always welcome! Please leave comments in Feedback Hub > Security and Privacy > Windows Hello PIN.
General changes, improvements, and fixes for PC
- We fixed an issue that was causing failures when installing games via the Xbox app in the previous flight.
- We fixed an issue resulting in the Photos live tile potentially drawing outside the bounds of the tile.
- We fixed an issue where the emoji panel would crash when high contrast was enabled.
- We updated the disk type text in Task Manager’s Performance tab to now match the size of the other subtext on that tab.
- We fixed an issue resulting in items not launching in the foreground when selected from the taskbar jump list of certain apps.
- We fixed an issue that could result in the virtual desktop thumbnail in task view not updating after moving a window to a different desktop.
- Running Windows Sandbox no longer requires Administrator privilege.
- We fixed an issue resulting in the composition string not being shown in certain apps when typing with the Japanese IME.
- We fixed an issue resulting in certain apps crashing when typing with the Chinese Pinyin IME.
- We fixed an issue resulting in certain games unexpectedly just showing a black screen when run in full screen mode on some devices recently.
Known Issues
- A limited number Insiders attempting to install Build 18936 may experience install failures with error code c1900101 due to a compatibility bug with a storage driver on their device. The device will attempt to install, fail, and successfully roll back to the currently installed build on the device. Attempted re-tries to install the build, either manual or automatic, will not bypass this issue. A fix is forthcoming, but there are no known workarounds currently. Note: By default, the update will attempt to install (3) times. Users may pause updates if they experience this issue and want to bypass the re-try attempts.
- Insiders may notice some changes in Magnifier with today’s build. These aren’t quite ready yet for you to try, but we’ll let you know once they are in an upcoming flight.
- There has been an issue with older versions of anti-cheat software used with games where after updating to the latest 19H1 Insider Preview builds may cause PCs to experience crashes. We are working with partners on getting their software updated with a fix, and most games have released patches to prevent PCs from experiencing this issue. To minimize the chance of running into this issue, please make sure you are running the latest version of your games before attempting to update the operating system. We are also working with anti-cheat and game developers to resolve similar issues that may arise with the 20H1 Insider Preview builds and will work to minimize the likelihood of these issues in the future.
- Some Realtek SD card readers are not functioning properly. We are investigating the issue.
- Tamper Protection may be turned off in Windows Security after updating to this build. You can turn it back on. In August, Tamper Protection will return to being on by default for all Insiders.
New 20H1 builds are getting more and more interesting these days, and Microsoft still has plenty of time to introduce new features ahead of the release of the feature update in the first half of 2020. In case you missed it, Microsoft also released a first 19H2 build for Slow Ring Insiders last week, but the new bits had no new features. 19H2 will be a minor update that will install like a normal cumulative update later this Fall, and Microsoft will keep all the exciting new features for the 20H1 update coming next year.
