Microsoft releases Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 21354

After missing a week last week Microsoft are back with a new Windows Insider build. Build 21354 is from the CO_RELEASE branch and not RS_PRERELEASE as Microsoft move focus to the release branch, I don’t think it will make any impact to the changes we are going to see in the builds.

What’s new in Window 10 build 21354

The main change with this build is a “Manage interests” button in the News and Interest feature. News an Interests has been missing in recent builds and now its coming back with the option to customize your interests.

UPDATE: Here is my hands on video of build 21354

Use the search box at the top of the “My interests” page to search for the topics or publishers you want to follow. You can also discover interests by browsing over a dozen categories, including different types of news, entertainment, and sports topics. When you select a topic to follow, you’ll see more stories about it in your feed as stories become available. You can manage the topics you’re following by selecting “Followed interests” in the left navigation.

There is also a “Tune your feed” personalization feature:

We’re also excited to announce, “Tune your feed”, available from the left navigation on the “My interests” page. This experience makes it easy to explore and follow publishers from our partner ecosystem and select example articles that pique your interest. Select a couple of publishers and stories to get started or scroll to see more. You can see and manage the publishers you’re following by clicking “Followed Publishers” on the left navigation. You can also tune your feed wherever you see a story. Click the “X” on the top right of the card to remove the article and provide feedback: “Not interested in this story”, “Don’t like the source”, or “Report an issue”. We’ve refined this experience based on user feedback, to give you another way to fine-tune your feed for your preferences.

News and Interest is rolling out to the dev channel so it may not be in all installations yet.

In this build there is a new camera settings page in which you can add/remove cameras and configure the default image settings of each one.

A requested feature that has been added is the ability to turn off Content adaptive brightness control (CABC) so Windows Insiders can now disable CABC directly in the Display settings via Settings > System > Display.

The other changes are around the apps that ship with the OS. MS Paint and the Snipping Tool are now updated via the Microsoft Store and paint has a new icon:

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

Changes and Improvements

[News and interests] As mentioned previously, we have enabled the ability to deselect “Open on hover” in the “News and interests” taskbar options. This is based on your feedback.

The default path to access Linux files from Windows using the Windows Subsystem for Linux has been changed from `\\wsl\\` to `\\wsl.localhost\\` to improve performance and reliability. You will still be able to access Linux files using `\\wsl$\\`.

Under Settings > Update & Security > Change active hours, you will find the toggle turned on for “Automatically adjust active hours for this device based on activity”, if you have never adjusted this feature. We are starting a roll out a change for Insiders that makes this setting on by default. With this setting turned on, Windows Update will be able to schedule automatic restarts when you are typically not using your device more accurately.

As of the latest versions of Microsoft Edge, all pinned sites (regardless of what version you were using when you pinned them), should now use the taskbar behavior described here without you first having to unpin and re-pin the site.

On ARM64 devices, you can now toggle compatibility settings for x64 applications.

Under Settings > Personalization > Device usage, you can select all the ways you plan to use your device to get customized suggestions for tips, tools, and services.

Fixes

[Gaming] We fixed an issue where certain games may crash, will not sync save data when a game is played on a different device, or will not save when a new game is installed.

[File Explorer] We fixed an issue resulting in all folders pinned to Quick Access in File Explorer disappearing if you installed Build 21343. Please note that this fix prevents the issue from occurring going forward, it will not bring back the ones that were unpinned if you installed the impacted build previously.

[File Explorer] We fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders experiencing that the entire folders section of Quick Access was missing after installing the previous flight.

We fixed an issue impacting Search reliability in the previous flight.

[News and interests] Fixed an issue where news and interests could occlude other content on the taskbar especially on smaller screens.

We fixed an issue where the tooltip text for items in Start’s Power button menu wasn’t displaying correctly.

We fixed an issue resulting in a crash if you entered WinPE and tried to enable Narrator using WIN + CTRL + Enter.

We fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders experiencing a bug check with error SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED when rebooting or shutting down in the previous flight.

We fixed an issue that could result in a bugcheck when starting WSL.

We fixed an issue that could result in the Windows Update Settings page showing progress dots but never loading.

We fixed an issue where navigating to Power and Sleep in Settings would crash Settings.

We fixed the issue where a random toggle that didn’t do anything was appearing under Settings > Personalization > Lock screen.

We fixed an error resulting in some Insiders recently seeing an error when trying to add a password to a local account that was created without a password.

We fixed an issue where if you opened the Pinyin IME settings via Search, the Settings page would be unexpectedly blank.

We fixed an issue that could result in your desktop background going black after snapping an app to the side of your screen.

We fixed an issue where some of the text in Snipping Tool wasn’t displaying correctly.

We fixed an issue causing the Handwriting Input Panel to not work for pen input on ARM64 PCs.

We fixed an issue impacting clipboard history reliability.

We fixed an issue resulting in characters being duplicated in certain apps when typing with the Korean IME.

We fixed an issue resulting in not being able to insert composition strings when typing with an IME after copying and pasting a text box in PowerPoint.

We fixed an issue resulting in key events being lost when renaming files in File Explorer while typing with an IME.

We fixed an issue where when typing with the Japanese or Chinese IMEs in certain apps that have their own UI for IME candidates, the IME candidates were not displayed in the app’s UI.

The fix we mentioned in Build 21327 to address an issue where a toggled key on the touch keyboard had the wrong background color is now rolling out to all Insiders in the Dev Channel.

We fixed an issue causing an increase in login time in the previous flight.

We fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders finding that boot time was longer in the previous flighting.

We fixed an issue resulting in the network button on the login screen not working and potentially crashing.

We fixed an issue causing some logins to hang on a black screen. If you continue to see a similar problem, please file a new feedback in Feedback Hub.

We fixed an issue that could result in freezes when watching videos in Chromium-based browsers in recent Dev Channel builds.

Known issues

We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.

[News and interests] Pressing ESC key to dismiss an opened context menu in the flyout dismisses the whole flyout instead.

[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.

We’re investigating an issue where elements of Search (including the search box in File Explorer) are no longer displaying correctly in dark theme.

We’re working on a fix for an issue introduced in the previous flight impacting WSUS users where the “Check online for updates from Microsoft Update” option is greyed out. If you are impacted, you can run the following command from an elevated Command Prompt to set the reg key so that scan will check Microsoft servers:

reg add “HKLM\Software\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings” /f /v ScanMicrosoftOnly /t REG_DWORD /d 0x01

Then click the regular “Check for updates” button in Windows Update Settings. Please note, if the scan needs to be done repeatedly the reg key will need to be re-added each time, as scanning reads and erases the key.

Due to an issue with migrating the shortcuts into the new Windows Tools location, This PC shows up with the display name “computer.” We already have a bug fix on the way to address this issue.

Some non-administrative apps, such as 3D Viewer and Print 3D, that were previously in the Windows Accessories folder are now in Windows Tools. These app shortcuts will be moved back into Start with an upcoming bug fix. They are still searchable and accessible via Windows Tools in the meantime.

The Windows Camera App currently does not respect the default brightness setting set via the new Camera Settings page.

Some cameras currently may not support adjustment in the Camera Settings App when the camera is also in use by another app.

Accessing the virtual GPU is broken for Windows and Linux guests, adding a vGPU to a VM will have no effect and the VM will continue running with software rendering.

Via