Microsoft releases Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20206

Microsoft have released a new Windows 10 build for Windows Insiders on the dev channel. Build 20206 has a modern style input panel as seen in the Windows 10X preview builds. You can see the keyboard in action on my video from a couple of weeks ago.

UPDATE: Here is my hands on video with the new build:

It has a new Emoji picker and clipboard history built into the keyboard. The Emoji picker has the following features:

An updated design: We are making the experience more aligned with our Fluent Design principles, including a new acrylic background.

Emoji search: We are improving discoverability of emoji search in supported languages by having an inline search box.

Animated GIF support, including search: Going forward, WIN + [.] and WIN + [;] will now enable you to quickly input animated GIFs. The selection of animated gifs will be continuously updated based on current trends and #hashtags. Search is also available for those times where you need to find the perfect reaction gif to succinctly communicate your message.

Converging our input experiences across emoji and clipboard history: We are bringing input and clipboard history together into a single experience. You can still press WIN + V to go straight to clipboard history, but now you can also access it by switching to the “Clipboard” category after pressing WIN + [.] or WIN + [;].

As often is the case with Dev channel releases this feature is rolling out to a “subset of Insiders” so you may not see the changes on your machine, in fact all the keyboard changes are going to a subset.

Also in the new keyboard is improved voice dictation:

A modern design – optimized for use with touch keyboards.

Auto-punctuation that allows you to effortlessly put your thoughts down without worrying about question marks and periods (turn it on in settings).

An updated back end for the most reliable voice typing experience ever on Windows.

Easily start voice typing any time by using the keyboard shortcut (WIN + H) or tapping the microphone button on the touch keyboard.

The keyboard also has a new look:

Plus the keyboard also has cursor control in the space bar:

Overall the keyboard is a nice improvement over the existing Window 10 input device.

Here are the other changes and known issues with the build:

Changes and Improvements

• When annotated content and linked control Narrator commands are invoked on context which doesn’t have any linked controls available, Narrator will now say “No linked item”.
• When setting focus to Windows Explorer in the Processes tab of Task Manager, we’re updating the keyboard shortcut for the Restart option to now be Alt + R.

Fixes

• We fixed an issue where the new option to enable DNS encryption wasn’t persisting after update.
• We fixed an issue leading to certain apps not launching due to nlsdl.dll being missing.
• We fixed a race condition in the last few builds that could result in some Insiders experiencing scaling issues after waking their PC from sleep when using multiple monitors.
• We fixed an issue that could result in the Narrator Home crashing when using the back button.
• We fixed an issue where after adding a VPN connection, Narrator focus would move to the Settings home button rather than read that the VPN connection had been successfully added.
• We fixed an issue from the last two flights resulting in Office documents opening blank when opened from File Explorer rather than from within the app.
• We’ve fixed an issue in the Mail app preventing syncing with certain mail services.
• We’ve fixed an issue causing some devices to receive bugchecks with error code KERNEL_MODE_HEAP_CORRUPTION.
• We fixed an issue that could result in Task Manager erroneously indicating that a non-UWP app had been suspended.
• We’ve mitigated an issue with the previous build causing some devices to download larger than normal amounts of data during the update process. This may have resulted in slower downloads and disk space warnings. If you continue to experience the issue with this build, please file a new feedback.
• We’ve made improvements to address issues where the new taskbar experience for pinned websites wasn’t working for some websites. If you continue encountering issues, please ensure you’re running the latest version of Microsoft Edge Dev or Canary, and report the issue using the Feedback button in Microsoft Edge if you are.

Known issues

• We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
• We’re working on a fix to enable live preview for pinned site tabs.
• We’re 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.
• We’re investigating reports of some Office applications crashing or missing after updating to a new build.
• We’re investigating reports of the Settings app crashing when opening Manage Disks and Volumes.
• We’re working on a fix for the Linux kernel not being installed when using the wsl –install command in the Windows Subsystem for Linux. For an immediate workaround run wsl –update to get the latest kernel version.