Microsoft releases new Windows 10 preview with more proactive Windows Update

Microsoft today released a new Windows 10 preview for PCs with a small but important change to Windows Update. This build is from the RS4 branch, which represents the next Windows 10 update the company has yet to announce (but is likely to ship soon). There is no new build from the RS5 branch.

Windows 10 is a service, meaning it was built in a very different way from its predecessors so it can be regularly updated with not just fixes, but new features, too. Microsoft has released four major updates so far: November Update, Anniversary Update, Creators Update, and Fall Creators Update.

There is only one major addition in this release: Windows Update has been tweaked to be more proactive at keeping PCs updated. When Windows Update scans, downloads, and installs updates on a PC that is plugged in, it will prevent the PC from going to sleep when it has not been in active use for up to 2 hours. The goal is to “give Windows Update more opportunity to succeed,” the team explains.

This desktop build includes the following general bug fixes and improvements:

  • Fixed an issue where Settings would crash when you tried to open Themes.
  • Fixed an issue where the Settings tile didn’t have a name if you pinned it to Start.
  • Updated About Settings to include at a glance entries for the two new Windows Defender pillars (Account Protection and Device Security).
  • Fixed a typo in Storage Sense Settings.
  • Fixed an issue resulting in all dropdowns in Settings appearing blank until clicked.
  • Fixed an issue that could result in Settings crashing after having navigated to and left Sound Settings.
  • Fixed an issue where closing certain apps after using in-app search could result in them hanging on the splash screen the next time they were launched.
  • Fixed an issue where plugging in an external optical drive (DVD) will cause an Explorer.exe crash.
  • Fixed an issue resulting in the hamburger button in Windows Defender overlapping the home button.
  • Fixed an issue where certain games using Easy Anti Cheat could result in the system experiencing a bugcheck (KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED).
  • Fixed an issue where we had observed seeing longer-than-normal delays during install at the 88% mark. Some delays were as long as 90 minutes before moving forward.
  • Fixed an issue resulting in the Windows Defender offline scan not working in recent builds.

Today’s update bumps the Windows 10 build number for PCs from 17101 (made available to testers on February 14) to build 17107.

This build has four known issues:

  • Buttons on Game bar are not centered correctly.
  • Selecting a notification after taking a screenshot or game clip opens the Xbox app’s home screen instead of opening the screenshot or game clip.
  • Post-install at the first user-prompted reboot or shutdown, a small number of devices have experienced a scenario wherein the OS fails to load properly and may enter a reboot loop state. For affected PCs, turning off fast boot may bypass the issue. If not, it is necessary to create a bootable ISO on a USB drive, boot into recovery mode, and this will allow bypass.
  • Tearing a PDF tab in Microsoft Edge will result in a bugcheck (GSOD).

As always, don’t install this on your production machine.

source:-venturebeat