Members of the Windows Insider Program Fast Ring branch have received a new build. Microsoft has rolled out Windows 10 Preview Build 17004 for PC users. This is the latest “Redstone 4” release, the next major update package that will launch next spring.
As usual, Insiders are tasked with testing the new features and providing feedback to Microsoft. As we are at the start of a new preview cycle, expect builds to get new features regularly. Windows 10 Preview Build 17004 is not different, coming with several additions.
Microsoft has not yet officially announced what Windows 10 version Redstone 4 will become. With that in mind, the new features coming in preview are not the main selling points of what the next platform release will have. Nevertheless, there are some interesting things in Build 17004.
Among them is the new ability to adjust how bring SDR content appears when in HDR mode on desktop. PCs that support HDR will now had a slider under Settings => System => Display => “HDR and advanced color settings.”
Other Settings changes can be found in Ease of Access, with the addition of “change cursor thickness,” “Change pointer size and color,” and “Change touch feedback” options.
Microsoft already debuted shape-writing input for the one-handed keyboard through the Fall Creators Update. With Preview Build 17004, the company has made shape-writing available on the wide touch keyboard.
Further changes involve the insertion gesture, which is now changed to a small caret. Speaking of gestures, Microsoft has given Windows 10 a new 90-degree angle at the end of text, which allows users to automatically commit text and clear the handwriting panel.
Windows 10 Build 17004 fixes and improvements
- Added settings that let you view and manage your activity history, which Cortana uses to let you pick up where you left off. Find these settings in Settings > Privacy > Activity history.
- Fixed an issue where network profiles might change from Private to Public after upgrading to the previous build.
- Fixed an issue resulting in checkboxes being missing from certain win32 apps.
- Fixed a typo in the Windows Defender Security Center’s Controlled Folder Settings.
- Fixed an issue resulting not being able to fully remove Windows.old in the last two flights.
- Fixed an issue resulting in Narrator not saying anything when the candidate bar for hardware keyboard prediction opened and fixed an issue where Narrator wasn’t reading the word candidate when the focus moved into candidate bar.
- Fixed an issue where the “Working on updates” screen was black with a small theme colored box instead of entirely theme colored.
- Fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders experiencing a green screen on the previous flight with the error BAD_POOL_CALLER.
- Fixed an issue resulting in UWP app sometimes leaving drop shadow leftovers after closing the window.
- Fixed an issue where inactive window scrolling wouldn’t work if Excel 2016 was in focus.
- Fixed an issue resulting in a noticeable flicker when using hotkeys or a precision touchpad to switch between virtual desktops.
- Fixed an issue where the XAML Reveal light wouldn’t follow your mouse until the first mouse click – instead showing the entire element lit. This issue was visible in Settings and other XAML based UI in the last few builds.
- Fixed an issue resulting in changes to Feedback Frequency in Feedback & Diagnostics Settings not persisting after leaving the page and returning.
- Fixed an issue where Start wouldn’t open if you pressed the Windows key when the system menu from elevated Command Prompt or Task Manager window was open.
- Fixed a rare issue where if you had certain streaming-capable apps on your PC before upgrading you might end up seeing a black screen with only a cursor for some time after logging in.
- Fixed an issue from recent flights where the “Add” button in the PIN section of Sign-in Option Settings didn’t work for local accounts.
- Updated the icon for Collections in Cortana.
- Updated the touch keyboard so that the margin between each key is visual only. This change will be noticeable if you accidentally overshoot the key press by just a tiny bit – before it might seem as if key presses were being dropped in this scenario.
- The feature to restore applications that have registered for application restart after you reboot or shutdown (through power options available on the Start Menu and various other locations) has been set to only occur for users that have enabled “Use my sign-in info to automatically finish setting my device after an update or restart” in the Privacy section under Sign-in Options Settings.
Known Issues
- If you are experiencing broken functionality in Mail, Cortana, Narrator, or missing some features like Windows Media Player, see this post.
- Popular Tencent games like League of Legends and NBA2k Online may cause 64-bit PCs to bugcheck (GSOD).
- VPNs that use custom pop-up windows during connection attempts may fail to connect with error 720.
- Due to a bug that was introduced on this build, you may not receive all of your notifications from Cortana. Reminders are unaffected by this bug, but you may not receive other Cortana notifications that you are expecting. We are working to resolve this issue and will release the fix in an upcoming flight.
- The Properties dialog for This PC in File Explorer isn’t working and can’t be invoked from the context menu.
- Insiders with certain third-party antiviruses and OneDrive Files on Demand enabled may see an error citing “OneDrive cannot connect to Windows.”
- ADDED: [DEVELOPERS] Deploying an x86 app to a x64 PC remotely result in “FileNotFound” deployment failures if the target PC is running Build 17040. Deploying an x64 app to a x64 PC remotely or a x86 app to a x86 PC will work fine.
