Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 21354 Releases

Microsoft has now launched Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 21354 today. In this version, Microsoft did not bring many new features but adjusted some of the system content. For example, drawing and screenshot tools have been moved to the Microsoft Store.

At the same time, Microsoft has also added more options for news and interest modules so that users can get content recommendations that are of interest, and reduce content recommendations that are not of interest.

We, as always, remind everyone not to install the development test version on the main machine. There are many problems in the development test version and sometimes may affect your normal use.

New personalization options for news and interests on the taskbar

The news and interest module is a new feature recently added by Microsoft. It is actually a Microsoft Bing news recommendation window that allows users to quickly track popular events.

This function provides a variety of information such as news, sports, finance, etc. Based on user feedback, Microsoft provides users with more personalized choices only to see what they are interested in.

Now you can not only remove the content modules you are not interested in, but you can also actively set up websites, news categories, and more that you are interested in.

In terms of content recommendation, you can click the close button and select the reason: not interested in the content, dislike the news source, and report the content issue.

Through this kind of personalized operation, Microsoft will gradually only recommend content that you are interested in and will no longer push content that you are not interested in, so as to facilitate your follow-up viewing.

The above features are currently only available in the Windows 10 Insider Preview version and are being rolled out gradually, which means that not all users can get the new features immediately.

Improvements to Display Settings

Content adaptive brightness control can automatically reduce the screen brightness when displaying certain content. This feature can help notebook users reduce power consumption and increase battery life.

But this requires a trade-off and lower image quality, which may cause changes in brightness to distract users and interfere with the user experience where image quality is crucial. Microsoft now provides an option to disable content adaptive brightness control.

If professional creatives do not need to reduce the brightness and only need a more accurate color response, then the brightness control function can be turned off to obtain the initial brightness sensory experience.

The ability to turn CABC off has been a highly requested feature and Windows Insiders can now disable CABC directly in the Display settings via Settings > System > Display.

To help manufacturers and marketers promote high dynamic range imaging technology displays, Microsoft is now adding HDR certification to Windows 10 display settings.

If the user’s monitor supports this technology, the HDR certification mark will be displayed in the display settings, but this feature is currently being gradually developed and improved.

Some HDR monitors may not see the certification mark. Please also be alarmed. When the function is gradually improved in the future, all supported monitors will display the mark.

The first batch of monitors that support display HDR certification is mainly some monitors that support Dolby Vision and VESA DisplayHDR, and others are being promoted one after another.

New Camera Settings page

Microsoft is developing the beta version to optimize and adjust the camera settings, including allowing users to directly add or adjust camera settings in the settings.

Through this setting page, you can directly manage the connected cameras, whether it is a directly connected camera or a webcam, you can adjust the settings.

Users can adjust the camera as needed, such as adjusting the default brightness and contrast to reduce the backlight, and supported cameras also support image rotation.

Microsoft is collecting feedback on the above features. If you find a problem or experience a bad experience during use, you can submit feedback through the Feedback Center.

Changelog

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.