The Windows Insider team has just released the first new Windows 10 preview build of the year, which is a minor update. If you’re a Fast Ring Insider, you can now download the build 19541, which Microsoft isn’t labelling has “20H2” yet. As you may recall, the Windows Insider team announced last month some important changes regarding the Fast Ring, with new Fast Ring features no longer being tied to a specific Windows 10 release.
The first new feature in the preview build 19541 is a redesigned icon Location in-use icon, which will appear in the System tray. Task manager has also been improved in this build, with the Details tab now displaying the architecture (x64, etc.) of each process.
Microsoft also fixed some bugs related to System Settings, Narrator, and Feedback Hub, and you can find more details about what’s fixed and still broken in the full release notes below:
What’s new in Build 19541
Location in-use icon update
As some keen eyed Insiders have noticed, we’ve updated the notification area icon for when an app is using your location. The new icon looks like this:
Showing architecture in Task Manager
When you’re using the Details tab in Task Manager, we’ve added a new option to show the architecture of each process. If you’re interested, you can add it by right-clicking on a column header, choosing Select Columns, and selecting Architecture from the list.
Other updates for Insiders
Cortana App Update:
Following up on our previous post, we want to let Insiders know that Bing Instant Answers and Timers are back online. We’re continuing to work on getting jokes (and other assistant conversations) back up and running, and appreciate your patience.
If you’re running English (United States) and would like to try it out, here are some example queries you can use with Hey Cortana or by typing into Cortana:
- Set a timer for 10 minutes
- When was the Space Needle built?
General changes, improvements, and fixes for PC
- We fixed an issue impacted System Settings reliability.
- We fixed an issue that could result in Windows Update “Reboot needed” notifications persisting reboot.
- We fixed an issue that could result in the update speed in Task Manager unexpectedly being set to Paused.
- We fixed an issue when using Narrator that could result in Start not saying the correct index of an app in the all apps list.
- We fixed an issue where the Search window wasn’t showing acrylic at the top.
- We fixed an issue from the previous build resulting in the Feedback Hub unexpectedly not showing store apps in the list of contexts when logging feedback under the Apps category. This same issue resulted in the symptom of apps continuing to show Install in the Microsoft Store, rather than Launch, after the app had been installed.
Known issues
- BattlEye and Microsoft have found incompatibility issues due to changes in the operating system between some Insider Preview builds and certain versions of BattlEye anti-cheat software. To safeguard Insiders who might have these versions installed on their PC, we have applied a compatibility hold on these devices from being offered affected builds of Windows Insider Preview. See this article for details.
- We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.We’re looking into reports of certain external USB 3.0 drives not responding with Start Code 10 after they’re attached.
- The Optimize Drives Control Panel is incorrectly reporting that optimization has never run on some devices. Optimization is completing successfully, even though it is not reflected in the UI.
- The Documents section under Privacy has a broken icon (just a rectangle).
- Remote Desktop Connection crashes when attempting to connect to multiple sessions.
- Snipping isn’t working on secondary monitors.
- Timeline isn’t showing any activities.
- We’re investigating reports that Outlook search isn’t working for some Insiders.
We’re still waiting to see if Microsoft will soon share some news about Windows 10 version 2004 (20H1), which we expect to be released in April or May. Previous reports suggested that the major update is now almost complete, so maybe Microsoft will soon start servicing the build 19041 that was released on the Fast and Slow ring nearly a month ago.
