Microsoft releases Windows 10 19H1 Build 18298 for Windows Insiders

Microsoft have released a new Windows 10 build for Windows Insiders on the fast ring. The new build is 18298 for Insiders on the fast ring and has a few UI changes and changes to Notepad.

The signin options in settings have been brought together so all the options are in one place.

There is a tweaked File Explorer icon:

There is the option to unpin groups and folders in the start menu and the download directory now automatically defaults to downloaded date as the sort method.

Microsoft have improved the touch keyboard

Type faster with more accuracy: When you’re typing quickly, sometimes your fingers miss the actual key you’re trying to hit by a small margin. This is totally normal, but can impact the text prediction accuracy (if you ending up pressing a different letter than expected). To address this, as you type, under the covers we will now dynamically adjust the hit target of each key, based on prediction of what letter most likely will be typed next. The keys will look no different to the eye, but here’s an example of the what’s going on underneath if you’re curious:

We’re making some improvements to reduce the number of times in tablet mode where the touch keyboard ends up occluding the text field when docked.

There are also additional settings for the console and Notepad (which I know must be the top of everybody’s feature list!):

As of Windows 10 build 18298, when you open the properties page of any Console window, you’ll notice an additional “Terminal” tab containing several new settings for some experimental features we’re working on for future OS releases. Read the Console team’s detailed blog post for more details.

Notepad Updates

UTF-8 Encoding: We’ve made significant improvements to the way Notepad handles encoding. Starting with this build, we are adding the option to save files in UTF-8 without a Byte Order Mark and making this the default for new files. UTF-8 without a Byte Order Mark is backwards-compatible with ASCII and will provide better interoperability with the web, where UTF-8 has become the default encoding. Additionally, we added a column to the status bar that displays the encoding of the document.

Modified indicator: Notepad will now show an asterisk (*) in the title bar before the title of a document to indicate that a document has unsaved changes.

Here are the other changes and known issues. Lookout for my hands on video soon:

General changes, improvements, and fixes for PC

• We fixed a merge conflict resulting in the Dynamic Lock settings being missing from Sign-in Settings.
• We fixed an issue resulting in Insiders seeing green screens with error System Service Exception in win32kbase.sys when interacting with certain games and apps in the last two flights.
• The update block for a small number of PCs using Nuvoton (NTC) TPM chips with a specific firmware version (1.3.0.1), due to a bug causing issues with Windows Hello face/biometric/pin login not working, has been removed as this build contains a fix for that issue.
• If you’ve turned off transparency effects, that preference will now also be reflected on the sign-in screen.
• We fixed an issue resulting in Settings crashing for some Insiders when clicking “Check for Updates”.
• We fixed an issue resulting in Settings crashing for some Insiders when going to Settings > Update & Security > Recovery.
• We fixed an issue resulting in night light settings not working and getting stuck in the last few flights.
• We fixed an issue resulting in an unexpected amount of space between the categories and subcategories in Settings in recent flights.
• We fixed an issue where the folder size wasn’t calculated correctly in File Explorer’s Properties dialog when there was a path that was longer than MAX_PATH involved.
• We fixed an issue resulting in menu flyouts appearing blank when using the Arabic display language.
• We fixed an issue where when inking on a PDF in Microsoft Edge, if you erased some ink quickly after starting the inking session, then added more ink, upon saving the PDF not all ink may be saved.
• We fixed an issue where the handwriting panel might crash when using your pen to input into win32 apps in recent builds.
• We fixed an issue resulting in not being able to type into certain tables using the Vietnamese Telex keyboard.
• We’ve made some adjustments when text scaling is enabled to emphasize the icon in the Action Center quick actions so that the text doesn’t overlap.
• We’ve made some improvements so that if theme truncation is detected, we will now handle this more gracefully and not result in unexpectedly thick borders around your windows.
• We’ve made some improvements to reduce the number of times where you might see the error “Windows can’t find one of the files in this theme. Do you still want to save the theme?” appear.
• We’re updating the timeout period when dictating (WIN+H) to be from 5 seconds to 10 seconds, to give you a bit more time to think about what you want to say. If you’d like to stop the dictation before then, just say “Stop dictating” or press WIN+H (same as in previous builds).
• We fixed an issue on the touch keyboard resulting in some letters unexpectedly being black instead of white in dark theme.
• We fixed an issue where the “…” menu in clipboard history (WIN+V) was clipped in recent builds.
• We fixed an issue where when displaying the name of a known file type (one registered under HKCR\<.File Extension>) File Explorer would display an empty string for the file name in some cases. Now, if a file name is not available, File Explorer will always show the extension name, even if Show File Name Extensions is turned off.
• We’ve updated the microphone and camera privacy settings pages to provide information on which apps are currently using the microphone and camera and the date/time apps last accessed your microphone and camera.
• We fixed an issue where Magnifier would not start automatically even when “start after sign-in setting” for Magnifier was enabled if Narrator was not set to auto start after sign-in.
• We fixed an issue where Magnifier did not work with Touch when Centered mouse mode was enabled.
• We fixed an issue where Narrator sometimes would not start after completing Out of Box Experience (OOBE).
• We fixed the issue causing Narrator to start unexpectedly. We also made it easier to turn off Narrator when it was launched unintentionally.
• We fixed an issue where Narrator scan mode did not turn off automatically when you focused the address bar in Microsoft Edge.
• We fixed an issue where Narrator heading navigation was skipping some headings in Chrome.
• We fixed an issue where Narrator read page loaded notification multiple times in Chrome.
• We fixed an issue where Narrator did not read Edit box placeholder text in Chrome.
• We fixed an issue that caused the settings page to crash after changing the account password or PIN.

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