Windows 10 Build 21292 is available to Insiders

Microsoft has made available a new build of Windows 10 to Insiders in the Dev channel. It comes from the RS_PRERELEASE branch, but doesn't offer much changes. It is all about reliability fixes. Also, there is a ton of fixes made to the News and Interests taskbar flytout.

What’s new in Build 21292

Microsoft has announced the following changes in this Insider Preview release.

Improvements to news and interests on the taskbar

• We fixed multiple issues impacting performance and reliability.
• We fixed an issue where an empty flyout would be shown after opening news and interests.
• We fixed an issue where the text on the taskbar button wasn’t being read by screen readers and some tooltips were missing.
• We fixed an issue where news and interests in the taskbar was not displaying correctly when using small taskbar icons.
• We fixed an issue where the news and interests button would temporarily show no content.
• We fixed an issue where the news and interests flyout would not dismiss by tapping outside the window or again on the taskbar button.
• We fixed an issue where the content of the taskbar button would look blurry.
• We fixed an issue where news and interests would not show fresh content after toggling the background apps setting.
• We fixed an issue where the flyout would not dismiss when you hover off the right edge.
• We fixed an issue where it was not possible to navigate into the flyout using keyboard.
• We fixed an issue where the news and interests taskbar setting would be reset to show icon and text after updating to a new windows version.

Microsoft points that the weather information in the taskbar is accurate and provides the real weather condition as it updates frequently. It detects your location automatically, but you can change it from the "..." three dot menu.

Other improvements

Based on feedback, Microsoft has updated the Settings > System > Sounds page. It will now display a message when microphone permissions have been turned off for the whole system or for all apps, with a link to the microphone privacy settings page.

Finally, this build comes with dozens of fixes.

Fixes

• We’re continuing to work on improving x64 emulation on ARM64 thanks to your feedback. This build fixes issues in several apps, including crashes in Zwift, Serif Affinity Photo, and Your Phone as well as blank pages in Steam.
• We fixed an issue resulting in an increase in Insiders seeing a message saying “Critical Error: Your Start menu isn’t work” in recent builds.
• We fixed an issue from the last two builds where explorer.exe / the Windows shell was hanging and or crashing, particularly after interacting with audio/video.
• We fixed an issue where NTFS was logging false positive torn write events.
• We fixed an issue resulting in Microsoft Teams and certain other apps unexpectedly displaying as just “Program” (instead of the app name) in Task Manager’s Startup tab.
• We fixed an issue where it wasn’t possible to sort processes in Task Manager by Status.
• We fixed an issue that could result in not seeing notifications following WIN + Shift + S shortly after clean installing or resetting your PC.
• We fixed an issue from the previous build where when Xbox Game Bar was launched from Start or via the Windows key + G when using a text editor, the computer might appear unresponsive.
• We fixed an issue where when using Windows with scaling greater than 100% in recent builds, if you opened and closed Task View, open windows would appear unexpectedly large in the transition back to the desktop.
• We fixed an issue where typing “-“ on a number pad when using the Japanese IME wasn’t taking into consideration whether the IME was in full width or half width mode.
• We fixed an issue where Hanja word conversion with the Korean IME wasn’t working in Excel when the Korean Language pack for Office was installed.

As it often happens to Insider Preview builds, there is also a list of known issues.

Known issues

• We’re working on a fix for an issue Insiders have reported where certain games like State of Decay 2, or Assassin’s Creed, may hang or crash when launching.
• We’re investigating an issue where Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War may not launch starting with this build. If you play these games, you may wish to pause updates until the issue is resolved.
• You may experience some rendering / graphic issues after resizing certain app windows. If you minimize all your app windows and open them again it should resolve the issue (Press the Windows key plus D twice).
• We’re investigating an issue where some 32-bit systems may lose network connection after taking this build. If you are running a 32-bit version of Windows, you may wish to pause updates until the issue is resolved.
• Miracast users may experience very low frame rates in this build.
• We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
• Aero Shake is disabled in this build. To enable it, you will need to go here in Registry Editor and create a new DWORD entry named DisallowShaking with a value of 0:
  • HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
• Live previews for pinned sites aren’t enabled for all Insiders yet, so you may see a grey window when hovering over the thumbnail in the taskbar. We’re continuing to work on polishing this experience.
• 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.
• [News and interests] Upgrading to this build will cause your news and interests taskbar setting to be reset to “Show icon and text”. This is fixed going forward.
• [News and interests] Sometimes the news and interests flyout cannot be dismissed with pen.
• [News and interests] News and interests uses more taskbar space on the left than expected.
• [News and interests] The taskbar button can show stale information each time the user signs into their Windows session.
• [News and interests] The news and interests flyout shows content in a single column before quickly switching to double column.
• [News and interests] Text in taskbar button can look pixelated in high resolution screens.
• [News and interests] The taskbar context menu and news and interests overlap.
• [News and interests] In certain circumstances, news and interests uses 100% of CPU when first launched.
• [News and interests] Attempting to share content dismisses the flyout.
• [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 will be addressed in a future update.

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The Dev Channel, formerly known as the Fast Ring, reflects the latest changes made to the Windows code base. It is a work-in-progress, so the changes you see in Dev Channel releases may not appear in the upcoming feature update. So we can expect to see some features which will never appear in stable Windows 10 versions on Desktop.

If you have configured your device to receive updates from the Dev Channel/Fast Ring ring, open Settings - > Update & recovery and click on the Check for Updates button on the right. This will install the latest available Insider Preview of Windows 10.