Microsoft has unveiled a number of changes in the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 21343, which is available to Windows Insiders on the Dev Channel.
The first and most important change is the addition of new icons in File Explorer. Microsoft slowly made changes to the Windows 10 icons last year, recently changing the Notepad icon. Some of the changes to the system icons in File Explorer include the Recycle Bin, the Documents folder and devices such as disk drives.
“Several changes, such as the orientation of folder icons and standard file type icons, have been made for greater consistency in Microsoft products that show files,” said Microsoft in a blog post announcing the changes in the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview. “Notably, top-level user folders, such as the Desktop, Documents, Downloads and Images, have a new design that should make it a little easier to distinguish them at first glance.”
Images: Microsoft
The changes further modernize Windows 10 and come after Microsoft introduced changes to File Explorer that adds additional padding to the default option and a layout with more information.
Microsoft’s changelog for Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 21343 is long and exhaustive and includes several changes and improvements. You can check the complete list below.
Windows 10 changes and improvements
- We are changing the name of the Windows Administrative Tools folder in Start to Windows Tools. We are working to better organize all Windows 10 system and administration tools.
- [News and interests] Launch update: After our last update on languages and markets, this week we also introduced the experience to China! We continue to release news and interests for Windows Insiders, so it’s not yet available to everyone on the Dev Channel.
- We are now launching the new IME candidate window design for all Windows Insiders on the Dev Channel using Simplified Chinese IMEs.
- We are updating the “Get help” link on the touch keyboard to now say “Learn more”.
- We’re updating File Explorer by renaming files to now support the use of CTRL + left / right arrow to move the cursor between words in the file name, as well as CTRL + Delete and CTRL + Backspace to delete words at once, as elsewhere in Windows.
- We’ve made some updates to the network-related surfaces in Windows so that the symbols displayed use the updated system icons that we recently added on the Dev Channel.
- Based on the feedback, if the Shared Experiences page identifies a problem with your account connection, it will send notifications directly to the Action Center, rather than repeated notifications for freebies that need to be dismissed.
Fixes
- Fixed an issue where devices with certain NVMe drives were experiencing disk resets or bug checks WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR
- We fixed an issue where some devices were receiving bug checks DPC_WATCHDOG_ERROR.
- Fixed an issue where some devices with Realtek network adapters running driver version 1.0.0.4 experienced intermittent loss of network connectivity.
- [News and interests] Fixed an issue where the news and interests button text sometimes used the wrong high-contrast color.
- [News and interests] Fixed an issue where news and interests may not be available when entering Windows without access to the Internet, but return when online.
- [News and interests] We made several fixes to help improve the performance and reliability of explorer.exe.
- Fixed an issue that resulted in explorer.exe failing with event ID 1002
- We fixed a memory leak when interacting with the Recycle Bin.
- We fixed an impasse in the recent Dev Channel builds related to the Indexer, which could result in the inability to open the Start menu or other applications on the first startup after an update.
- We fixed an issue where, on some high refresh rate monitors, the games only ran at 60Hz. This problem may also have resulted in a disruption in variable refresh rate monitor scenarios.
- We fixed an underlying issue that resulted in some applications crashing during installation and potentially other activities recently.
- We fixed an underlying issue that resulted in some applications unexpectedly displaying a message saying, “You must restart your computer before the new settings take effect”. recently.
- We fixed the issue that resulted in blurred text on secondary monitors in the recent construction of the Dev Channel, when the monitor was set to portrait orientation.
- Fixed an issue that affected the reliability of WIN + Shift + Left / Right Arrow in recent builds.
- Fixed an issue where size information for large capacity drives could be truncated in the File Explorer properties dialog.
- We fixed an issue that could result in garbled header text at the top of Settings in some languages.
- We made a correction to help resolve an issue where the user’s profile image in the Settings header blinked when resizing the window. Please let us know if you still notice this after the update.
- Fixed an issue where, after changing the audio endpoints, the volume controls in the sound settings could stop working.
- We recently fixed an issue where the Properties and Data Usage options were missing from the Network Status settings page.
- We fixed an issue where, if you searched for “Advanced touchpad gesture setup” and clicked on the result, it would just launch Settings, not that specific Settings page.
- We fixed an issue that resulted in some Insiders’ settings crashing after starting it, by double-clicking the Windows Update icon on the taskbar.
- Fixed an issue that was blocking Azure Data Studio from upgrading to a newer version on ARM64.
- We fixed issues that caused Ngen.exe to be unable to precompile .NET Framework binaries on ARM64.
- We fixed an issue that could result in some of the secondary keys on the virtual keyboard being cut off.
- We fixed an issue where a quick movement on the top row of the touch keyboard did not insert the corresponding number when using the small touch keyboard layout, unlike other layouts.
- We fixed an issue that could result in display problems with the IME candidate windows after switching between the light and dark theme.
- We fixed an issue where, after typing a very long string of text, the Japanese IME could be disabled.
- Fixed an issue where it was not possible to use SHIFT + Space in Excel when typing with the Japanese IME.
- We fixed an issue with the Japanese IME where it was not possible to enter a sentence that started with “を” when typing in Kana input mode.
Known issues
- [Gaming] There is a problem with this build where certain games may crash, they will not sync the saved data when a game is played on a different device or they will not be saved when a new game is installed. We are working on a fix, but if you believe it could affect you, to avoid any potential data corruption, we recommend that you pause the updates until we can release a new build with the fix.
- [File Explorer] After installing this build, all folders fixed in Quick Access in File Explorer will disappear. Be sure to write down what is pinned before updating, so that you can find these folders again.
- [File Explorer] Some Insiders may notice that the entire Quick Access folder section is missing. If you find this, deleting this% appdata% Microsoft Windows Recent AutomaticDestinations f01b4d95cf55d32a.automaticDestinations-ms string will bring back the section, but will not bring back items that have been dropped. We are working to fix this and we appreciate your patience.
- We are reviewing reports of the update process interrupted for long periods of time when trying to install a new build.
- We are working to enable the new taskbar experience for existing pinned sites. In the meantime, you can unpin the website from the taskbar, remove it from the edge: // apps page, and then pin the website back on.
- [News and interests] Pressing the ESC key to discard an open context menu in the flyout discards the entire flyout.
- [News and interests] Sometimes the news and interest flyout cannot be dismissed with a pen.
- [ARM64] Internal users who installed the preview version of the Qualcomm Adreno graphics driver on the Surface Pro X may experience reduced screen brightness. This problem was corrected with an updated version of the graphics display driver at https://aka.ms/x64previewdriverprox. If you are experiencing this problem, see the comment collection for more information.
- The network flyout on the login screen does not open in this version, which will prevent you from connecting to a new network before logging in. If your account is in a state that requires internet login, you can work around the problem by connecting Ethernet, place the device within reach of a previously configured Wi-Fi network, or log in with any other available account first.
- The Handwriting Input Panel will not work for pen input on ARM64 PCs running this build.
- There is a problem with this build that may result in the Survey crashing at launch for some Insiders. We are working on a correction.