A new Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 21337 (RS_PRERELEASE) was released in Dev Channel on March 17 2021. This Build 21337 including with a lot of updates and improvements. Let’s check it out!
Updates with Virtual Desktops
Starting from this Build 21337, you can set background for a specific Virtual Desktop or set for all virtual desktops.
Another changes made to Virtual Desktops is that you can re-order by either “drag and drop a Virtual Desktop to another position in the list in Task View” or right-click a Virtual Desktop thumbnail in Task View and select “Move left” or “Move right” in the context menu to move the desktop to another position that you want.
You can also achieve this by press “Alt + Shift + Left / Right arrow” to move it in the list.
Auto HDR Preview for PC
When you enabled on your HDR capable gaming PC, you will automatically get awesome HDR visuals on an additional 1000+ DirectX 11 and DirectX games. Unfortunately, I cannot test it on my current test machine. You may check DirectX blog post for more details!
File Explorer Layout Update
In this Build 21337, Microsoft introduced a new File Explorer layout which added additional padding between elements to make it more readable and operate, this changes especially good for users who had Surface device or other 2 in One device which have a touch screen shipped. As Microsoft says: “The level of padding is designed for better consistency with modern (XAML) experiences.” Note, the UX for toggling this setting is not final. Means we may see it appear away in the next Build.
This changes also applied to the left side of Quick access in File Explorer.
Though, this was set as a default view in File Explore but you can switch back to the classic layout of File Explorer by tick “compact mode” in View Options.
Updates to Captions Settings
Compared with current Windows 10 Enterprise 20H2 in Semi-Annual Channel, Microsoft added four caption style and removed rest of settings to change caption font. Also, the option to discard changes may not work as expected in this build and Microsoft aware of that and trying to fix.
Inbox app updates
Microsoft made some changes to existing inbox apps and adding some new ones.
Notepad is now updated via Microsoft Store
Notepad is now updateable via the Microsoft Store outside major OS updates. It also has a new icon and has been promoted out of the Windows Accessories folder to its own place in the Start menu.
Windows Terminal now included as an inbox app:
Windows Terminal is now an inbox app. Windows Terminal is a modern, fast, efficient, powerful, and productive terminal application for users of command line tools and shells like Command Prompt, PowerShell, and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Its main features include multiple tabs, panes, Unicode and UTF-8 character support, a GPU accelerated text rendering engine, and custom themes, styles, and configurations. Updates for Windows Terminal will continue to come through the Microsoft Store.
Power Automate Desktop now included as an inbox app:
Power Automate Desktop is now an inbox app. Power Automate Desktop allows you to automate web and desktop applications on your Windows desktop by mimicking the user interface actions like clicks, and keyboard input. You can also combine these actions with predefined support for application like Excel to help automate repetitive tasks. You can fine Power Automate within the Windows Accessories folder from the Start menu. Microsoft announced Power Automate Desktop will be available to Windows 10 users at no additional cost earlier this month in Ignite conference.
Changes and Improvements
- Rolling out the new IME candidate window design to all Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel using Japanese, Chinese Traditional, and Indic IMEs. Will let you know once the rollout for the remaining IMEs increases.
- Updating the emoji panel (WIN + Period) to support searching in more languages, including Amharic, Belarus, Cherokee, Filipino, Faroese, Icelandic, Khmer, Mongolian (Cyrillic script), Burmese, Sindhi, Serbian (Cyrillic script), Serbian (Latin script), Swahili, Thai, Turkmen, Tonga, Uzbek (Latin script), and Cantonese (Traditional). Please continue sharing feedback about the emoji search results in the Feedback Hub under Input and Language > Emoji Panel.
- Live previews for websites pinned to the taskbar from Microsoft Edge are now rolling out for all Insiders.
- [ADDED] Moved the settings for showing Windows Ink Workspace, Touch Keyboard button, and Task View from right-clicking on Taskbar to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar.
Fixes
- Fixed a DWM memory leak impacting Insiders in recent flights.
- Fixed an issue resulting in errors for some Insiders when trying to launch Settings via URI, including when using the Display Settings and Personalization options when right clicking the desktop.
- Fixed an issue where if you click on the Advanced Options page under Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update would crash Settings in the previous flight.
- Fixed a set of issues causing crashes in many x64 apps on ARM64, particularly in scenarios involving video or DRM content. Examples of x64 apps no longer crashing include Microsoft Translator, BlueJeans, The CW, Alexa, Astroneer, and Epic Games Launcher.
- Fixed an issue that could result in the Windows Security icon in the taskbar saying an action was needed, but the app had no actions to take.
- Fixed an issue that could result in the Windows Security icon in the taskbar being unresponsive.
- Fixed an issue in recent flights that could result in some games freezing after locking and unlocking your PC while the game was in full screen mode. This issue may also have resulted in freezes after ALT + Tab.
- Fixed an issue in recent flights resulting in flickering when hovering over icons and buttons in certain apps.
- Fixed an issue in recent flights for some Insiders with domain joined devices where their credentials for apps and websites would unexpectedly be lost on upgrade.
- Fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders noticing that System File Checker (SFC) tool would erroneously saying it found corrupt files the first time it was run after each upgrade.
- Fixed an issue causing certain UPS to show up in Device Manager with error code 43.
- Fixed an issue that could result in werfault.exe crashes.
- Fixed an issue in recent builds resulting in some insiders not being able to resume their devices from sleep or experiencing a bug check with the error IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.
- Fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders unexpectedly seeing a Bitlocker recovery screen after upgrading to recent Dev Channel builds.
- Fixed a ctfmon.exe crash impacting the reliability of voice typing (WIN + H).
- Fixed a ctfmon.exe crash that could occur if you switched to a Microsoft IME while in a 3rd party IME reconversion session.
- Fixed an issue in recent builds that could result in Search not opening after clicking the search box in the taskbar.
Known issues
- Looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
- 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] 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.
- 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.
- Working on the fix for an issue where on some high-refresh-rate monitors, games will only run at 60Hz. Variable-refresh-rate monitor scenarios may also result in tearing.
- The network flyout on the login screen doesn’t open on this build, which will prevent you from connecting to a new network before logging in. If your account is in a state that requires internet to log in, you can work around the issue by plugging in Ethernet, getting the device in range of a previously configured Wi-Fi network, or logging in with any other available account first.
- Working on the fix for an issue Insiders reported in the previous flight where devices with certain NVMe drives may experience disk resets or WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR bugchecks. If you were impacted by this on Build 21332, you may want to pause updates.
- Investigating reports of an issue with some devices receiving DPC_WATCHDOG_ERROR bugchecks. If you were impacted by this on Build 21332, you may want to pause updates.
