• Brandon LeBlanc

Hello Windows Insiders, today we’re releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20231 to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel.

What’s new in Build 20231

Improving relevancy of initial device setup

Based on feedback, we’re exploring adding a page to Windows setup (OOBE) to help better understand how you plan to use your device and aid in customizing your device given your intended usage.

This is the initial wave of work for this feature, and Insiders may notice different options presented in OOBE depending on what they select, however at this time Insiders will not notice any other configuration differences after exiting OOBE. We look forward to sharing future improvements in this space.

This feature is rolling out to a subset of Insiders in the Dev Channel at first, to help us quickly identify issues that may impact performance and reliability. Rest assured they will be gradually rolled out to everyone in the Dev Channel. NOTE: You will see this feature if you choose to reset your PC and when you do a clean install of Windows. You can find the ISO for Build 20231 here on our download page later today.

Better Management Options for App Default File Associations 

Enterprise customers can now modify file associations on a per-user or per-device basis. This change will apply to existing users as well as users with new deployments. This means that IT admins can set which apps will automatically open various file types or links. For example, this makes it easy to set Microsoft Edge as your organization’s default browser, or always open PDFs in your organization’s preferred app. Leveraging this group policy for the default browser and common file types means that your organization’s end users will not have to decide on these defaults themselves.

Deployment/Testing Steps:

1. Generate Default Application Associations XML file by following this page.
2. Manually modify the XML by adding 2 new properties:
3. Add Version=”1″ to the DefaultAssociations tag.
4. Add Suggested=”True” to any Association tag.
5. Enable the group policy to set the default file associations by following this doc.
6. Reboot or log in as the user.

Please note: If your device does not have this feature enabled, the policy will fall back to the default logic and will not respect the “Version” and “Suggested” fields of the policy.

This feature is rolling out to a subset of Insiders in the Dev Channel at first, to help us quickly identify issues that may impact performance and reliability. Rest assured they will be gradually rolled out to everyone in the Dev Channel.

Updates for developers

The Windows SDK is now flighting continuously with the Dev Channel. Whenever a new OS build is flighted to the Dev Channel, the corresponding SDK will also be flighted. You can always install the latest Insider SDK from aka.ms/InsiderSDK. SDK flights will be archived in Flight Hub along with OS flights.

Changes and Improvements

• Meet Now in the Windows 10 Taskbar is now available to all Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel.
• We’re starting to roll out a change to enable displaying graphics card information listed under Settings > System > About, and some Insiders may see this on their PCs.
• Our change to enable moving the text cursor via gestures on the touch keyboard is now rolling out to all Insiders in the Dev Channel.

Fixes

• We fixed the vEthernet adapter disconnecting inside of the Windows Subsystem for Linux. Please see this GitHub thread for full details.
• We fixed an issue that could result in your ALT + Tab order changing unexpectedly and leading you to switch to the wrong window.
• We fixed an issue that could result in Action Center and notification buttons not being visible after switching between High Contrast Black and High Contrast White.
• We fixed an issue where the “Show audio alerts visually” option under Settings > Ease of Access> Audio wasn’t functioning for incoming notifications.
• We fixed an issue where if the PC was locked using with Narrator running, dismissing the lock screen wouldn’t announce the signed in username on the login screen.
• We fixed an issue when using Narrator and logging in with Windows Hello, Narrator wouldn’t announce the error message if your face wasn’t recognized.
• We fixed an issue resulting in audio and microphone glitches over Bluetooth for certain devices. As a reminder, when encountering issues in this space, please take a moment to capture a repro trace, as it helps the teams investigate. More details about capturing traces available here.
• We fixed an issue impacting Task View reliability.
• We fixed an issue resulting in the Windows Hello setup camera preview in OOBE displaying in the wrong position if you rotated your device into portrait mode during setup.
• We fixed an issue resulting in Settings hanging on launch for some Insiders.
• We fixed an issue resulting in systemsettingsbroker.exe crashing for some Insiders.
• We fixed an issue where the HideRecentJumplists MDM Policy wasn’t taking effect.
• We fixed an issue that could result in duplicate cloud provider entries appearing in the File Explorer navigation pane.
• We fixed an issue resulting in PDF previews no longer displaying in File Explorer.
• We fixed an issue resulting in the touch keyboard unexpectedly dismissing after setting focus to the search box in File Explorer.
• We fixed an issue where when typing with the Chinese Pinyin IME, if your text included an apostrophe, then after finalizing your composition by pressing Shift the result would display a garbled character.

Known issues

• If you were one of the Insiders repeatedly entering a temp profile with the previous flight, please refer to the following forum post to get your profile back into a good state. If you were not impacted, this issue will not impact you in today’s flight.
• 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 working on a fix for an issue where some Office applications crashing or missing after updating to a new build.
• We’re working on a fix for an issue causing some devices experiencing a KMODE_EXCEPTION bugcheck when using certain virtualization technologies.
• We’re working on a fix where some devices are experiencing a DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION bugcheck.
• We’re working on a fix for an issue where after taking this build some users receive a Compatibility Assistant notification that “Microsoft Office is no longer available”. Despite the notification, Office should still be there and working fine.
• We are working on a fix for an issue where selecting an IME candidate or hardware keyboard text prediction candidate may insert the candidate adjacent to the one selected.
• We’re investigating an issue reported by some Insiders wherein the taskbar is obscuring the Power button in the Start menu. If this is happening on your PC, you may need to use the Windows key plus X menu to shutdown for the time being.

Important Insider Links

You can check out our Windows Insider Program documentation here, including a list of all the new features and updates released in builds so far. Not seeing any of the features in this build? Check your Windows Insider Settings to make sure you’re in the Dev Channel. Submit feedback here to let us know if things weren’t working the way you expected.

If you want a complete look at what build is in which Insider ring, head over to Flight Hub. Please note, there will be a slight delay between when a build is flighted and when Flight Hub is updated.

Thanks,
BLB

https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2020/10/07/announcing-windows-10-insider-preview-build-20231/