Microsoft released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16237 for PC to Fast ring members of the Windows Insider Program. Several of the latest preview builds have focused on new features, but Preview Build 16237 seems to be more focused on refining Windows 10’s existing features.
This cycle between introducing new features and refining existing ones makes sense. Windows 10 is installed on more than 400 million devices, according to Microsoft, which means the company’s unlikely to break a bunch of stuff just so it can add a few new features. Not for long, anyway. That’s what the Windows Insider Program is for: breaking things for a smaller group of people so they can be fixed in time for an official launch.
That isn’t to say Preview Build 16237 is only focused on bug fixes. Instead, the build offers numerous quality of life improvements that support or complement existing features. Edge got a new feature that can read aloud words and lines you highlight in web pages and PDFs. You’ll no longer have to restart your PC to make desktop apps respond to scaling settings on high-DPI displays. Action Center and its notifications have been redesigned to be more understandable and make it easier to perform quick actions like archiving an email without having to go into an app.
Microsoft also said it updated the Game Mode icon in the Game Bar, changed how Task Manager shows GPU performance, and fixed a bunch of bugs. The list of changes goes on for a while, and you can find the full thing in Microsoft’s blog post announcing Preview Build 16237.
Perhaps more interesting is Microsoft’s apparent delay of new features in Cortana. Here’s what the company said:
Thank you to everyone who tested and submitted feedback on the Cortana Vision features –including the Camera Roll Insights and Cortana Lasso – which we introduced in Build 16215. These features will no longer be available in Insider Preview builds going forward. The cross device Map Handoff feature has also been removed from Insider Preview builds. You will no longer see directions shared with your mobile device after searching for a location on your PC.
Those features’ absence from preview builds suggests we won’t see them included with the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. It’s starting to seem like that update might not be as big as originally expected. We recently learned that one of the most exciting features revealed at the Build developer conference, Windows 10 Timeline, won’t arrive until after the Fall Creators Update is released… well, sometime this Fall.
In addition to Preview Build 16237, Microsoft also announced that it will hold the second, final bug bash for the Fall Creators Update from 12am PT on July 14 to 11:59pm PT on July 23. That should help the company prepare the Fall Creators Update for a launch sooner than later. Microsoft said it plans to share more information about the bug bash “early next week,” so you’ll have plenty of time to prepare if you want to participate.
