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Microsoft releases new Windows 10 preview with Edge, Notepad, Remote Desktop, and Sign-in improvements

Windows 10
Image Credit: Microsoft

Microsoft today released a new preview for PCs with improvements to Edge, Notepad, Remote Desktop, Sign-in, Windows Defender Application Guard, and Inking. This build is from the RS5 branch, which represents the Windows 10 update the company plans to release later this year.

Windows 10 is being developed as a service, meaning it receives new features on a regular basis. Microsoft has released five major updates so far: November Update, Anniversary Update, Creators Update, Fall Creators Update, and April 2018 Update.

Edge has received per-site media autoplay controls, which means you can now control autoplay permissions on a per-site basis by clicking the information icon or lock icon on the left side of the address bar and hitting “manage permissions.” There’s also a new dictionary function, so you can look up definitions when reading a webpage or document by simply selecting a single word, or even have the word read aloud to you to hear the correct pronunciation. Edge’s PDF Reader has gained improved toolbar options, the ability to pin or unpin the toolbar, and rendering performance fixes.

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Notepad has gained find/replace improvements: an option to do wrap-around find/replace, remembering previously entered values/state of checkboxes, and automatically populating the find dialog with text selected. Notepad now also has options for zooming text (View => Zoom, or use Ctrl + Plus, Ctrl + Minus, and Ctrl + MouseWheel). Additionally, you can now see line and column numbers when word-wrap is enabled, performance has been improved when opening large files, and Ctrl + Backspace now deletes the previous word. As for bug fixes, the arrow keys now correctly unselect text first and then move the cursor, saving a file in Notepad no longer resets the line and column numbers to 1, and display lines that don’t fit entirely on the screen are properly displayed.


Azure Active Directory and Active Directory users using Windows Hello for Business can now use biometrics to authenticate a remote desktop session. Just bring up Remote Desktop Connection (mstsc.exe), type the name of the computer to which you want to connect, click Connect, and if you signed in using Windows Hello for Business, you’ll be given the option to use it again (click “More choices” to choose alternate credentials).

Web Sign-in is a new way of signing into your Windows PC. Until now, Windows logon only supported the use of identities federated to ADFS or other providers that support the WS-Fed protocol. To try out Web Sign-in, Azure AD Join your Windows 10 PC, set the CSP/Authentication/EnableWebSignIn policy, select Web Sign-in under Sign-in options on the lock screen, and click the “Sign in” button.

Speaking of signing in, Microsoft has also introduced Fast Sign-in, which enables users to sign into a shared Windows 10 PC faster than ever before. To try it, set up a shared or guest PC with Windows 10, set the CSP/Authentication/EnableFastFirstSignIn policy, and sign into the PC with your account.

Windows Defender Application Guard has a new user interface inside Windows Security that lets standalone users install and configure their settings without having to change Registry keys, while users who are managed by enterprise policies can check their settings to see what their administrators have configured for their machines.

The embedded handwriting panel, first introduced with the Windows 10 April 2018 Update and refined in the RS5 branch, has become the default experience for text entry with a pen in modern applications. Just tap a text area, and it will expand to give you a comfortable area in which to write.

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

  • Fixed an issue where the state of a Narrator command such as toggling Scan Mode on and off, volume up and down, voice speed, changing verbosity and context verbosity commands may not be announced when executed.
  • Fixed an issue where you could see pixel thin lines in the fluent shadows depending on where the popup UI had been invoked.
  • Fixed an issue where some of the text on the Settings > Privacy > File System page under “Allow apps to access your Filesystem” has some unusual characters in the place of spaces.
  • Improvements to the performance when loading the Language Settings page.
  • Fixed an issue where powercfg / batteryreport was missing numbers in certain languages.
  • Fixed an issue resulting in some apps failing to update via the Microsoft Store with error 0x8007019A if the update was paused and then resumed.
  • Adjusted the design of the “Settings and more”/“…” menu in Microsoft Edge so that the text “New inPrivate window” will no longer be clipped and added tips about the keyboard shortcuts for creating a new window and new inPrivate window.
  • Fixed an issue where imported favorites on favorites bar in Microsoft Edge may not always load favicons.
  • Fixed an issue that could result in an unclosable inPrivate window if it was created by dragging an inPrivate tab out of an existing Microsoft Edge window.
  • Fixed an issue resulting comments with markdown on github.com not previewing correctly in Microsoft Edge.
  • When viewing the certificate details for a website in Microsoft Edge, the text is now selectable so you can copy it out if needed.
  • Fixed an issue resulting in some sites showing an unexpected small blank tooltip when hovering over text fields in Microsoft Edge in the previous flight.
  • Fixed an issue where Ctrl-key combos on the wide touch keyboard layout wouldn’t work in website text fields when using Microsoft Edge.
  • Fixed an issue resulting in an open PDF in Microsoft Edge crashing in the previous flight if you right-clicked on the PDF to bring up the generic context menu.
  • Fixed a high hitting DWM crash in the previous flight.

Today’s update bumps the Windows 10 build number for the RS5 branch from 17711 (made available to testers on July 6) to build 17713.

This build has 19 known issues:

  • Window Recovery Environment (WinRE) is inaccessible and causing Recovery/Reset scenarios to be blocked. ‘Reset this PC’ and ‘Advanced Startup’ options under Settings -> Update & Security -> Recovery are affected and not working as designed.
  • You may see some unexpectedly light colors in File Explorer and the Common File Dialog when in dark mode and/or dark on dark text.
  • In certain cases on PCs with multiple monitors, all the windows may appear shifted “up” and the mouse inputting to the wrong location. The workaround is use Ctrl + Alt + Del to bring up the task screen and then hit cancel. Repeat as necessary.
  • When you upgrade to this build you’ll find that the taskbar flyouts (network, volume, etc) no longer have an acrylic background.
  • Some users are not able to enable/disable HDR display support.
  • Applications that use ICC color profiles may encounter errors such as Access Denied. This includes the Color Management control panel, and color profile switching on certain Surface devices.
  • When you use the Ease of Access Make Text bigger setting, you might see text clipping issues, or find that text is not increasing in size everywhere.
  • You may find that when interacting with any “…” menu in a modern app (for example Microsoft Store) clicking the items will just dismiss the menu. While the menu is open, if you move your mouse to the opposite side of the app you should find a place where the menu items will become highlighted and you can interact with the menu. You can also use the keyboard while to menu is open to interact with it.
  • The icon for Delivery Optimization in Settings is broken in this build (you’ll see a box).
  • If you install any of the recent builds from the Fast ring and switch to the Slow ring – optional content such as enabling developer mode will fail. You will have to remain in the Fast ring to add/install/enable optional content. This is because optional content will only install on builds approved for specific rings.
  • Narrator speech fades when waking from sleep mode.
  • When the Narrator Quickstart launches, Scan Mode may not reliably be on by default.
  • When using Scan mode you may experience multiple stops for a single control. An example of this is if you have an image that is also a link.
  • If the Narrator key is set to just Insert and you attempt to send a Narrator command from a braille display then these commands will not function. As long as the Caps Lock key is a part of the Narrator key mapping then braille functionality will work as designed.
  • There is a known issue in automatic dialog reading where the title of the dialog is being spoken more than once.
  • The framerate counter chart sometimes doesn’t show up correctly over known games.
  • The CPU chart shows an incorrect percentage of usage in the top left corner.
  • Charts in the Game Bar performance panel don’t update immediately when clicking through tabs.
  • The user’s gamerpic doesn’t display correctly, even after signing in.

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

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