Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 15025 for PC

Hello Windows Insiders!

Today we are excited to be releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 15025 for PC to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring as the primary build for the second Creator’s Update Bug Bash which starts on Friday. Please look for a detailed bug bash blog post on Friday morning PST. We have discovered a bug that impacts our ability to release this build to PCs running 32-bit (x86) versions of Windows 10 Insider Preview builds. Because the majority of Insiders in the Fast ring have PCs running 64-bit (x64) – we decided to go ahead and release this build with 32-bit PCs blocked until our next flight. We plan to release ISOs for this build by the end of the week and Insiders on 32-bit PCs will be able to update from the ISOs.

What’s new in Build 15025

Announcing braille support in Narrator: We love getting feedback from our visually-impaired Insiders and implementing features to support your needs. It’s so important that we keep our diverse customers in mind as we co-create with you.  Today, we are excited to announce braille support for Narrator . This experience is currently in beta. So try it out and give us feedback! In order to use braille with Narrator, you will need to do the following:

• Ensure Narrator is running. Then go to Settings > Ease of Access (WIN + U) and under the Narrator settings, activate the “Download Braille” button. You will be prompted to install braille support.
• Under Settings > Ease of Access, activate the “Enable braille” button and add a braille display. Note that USB and serial connections for the display are supported.
• Under Settings > Ease of Access, choose the language and braille table you want to use.

Note detailed documentation about braille display key mappings will be made available in the Narrator User Guide closer to when the Windows 10 Creators Update is released.

NOTE: There are coexistence issues with braille support and third party screen readers. Until the documentation is available, we recommend that braille be enabled for Narrator only on PCs that do not also have a third-party screen reader configured to use a braille display.

New mono audio option in Ease of Access settings: Visually impaired users use a screen reader application to read the PC screen content and information to them, and frequently use headphones or earbuds to hear the computer when in meetings or having conversations with others. When doing so, they generally use only one earbud to hear the PC in one ear so the other ear is free to hear conversations and sounds around them. That can cause them to not hear sounds that may be directed to the other earbud. In order to change the sound to be mono mode and so all audio is directed to both ears, they used to need a physical earphone adapter. You can now switch your audio to mono straight from the new Audio section under Settings > Ease of Access > Other options.

Introducing Collections in Feedback Hub: A few months ago, we asked you what was one of your biggest pieces of feedback about the Feedback Hub. You said, “too many duplicate pieces of feedback!”. We love working with you to create a better experience for everyone using the Feedback Hub, so today we are so happy to announce Collections. Collections are now live in Feedback Hub starting with app version 1.1612.10251.0.

A Collection groups together feedback for similar problems and suggestions into single items that bring together all the voices who expressed that sentiment in one place. All of your individual voices will be amplified when your feedback and upvotes are joined together into collections, and you’ll be able to see just how big your voice can become. Same as with individual feedback, you’ll be able to upvote Collections, upload screenshots to show the engineering team a problem you’re seeing or a suggestion you have, and comment on the feedback with others.

Thank you for your feedback, Insiders. Because of you, the Feedback Hub is becoming better for ALL customers.

More night light improvements: The night light color temperature range has been extended to go down to very red (1200 K) and the entire range of the slider now works correctly.

Other changes, improvements, and fixes for PC

• [GAMING] We fixed the issue where clicking on certain elements in desktop (Win32) games causes the game to minimize and cannot be restored.
• Windows Insiders should no longer have trouble connecting to certain Google sites due to an implementation of a new security model being rolled out to further enhance user security.
• Extensions in Microsoft Edge are back to working as expected.
• App developers can now request to pin their primary tile, just like secondary tiles, allowing apps to highlight their awesome live tiles – see this blog post for more info.
• Quicken 2017 should launch and working normally again.
• Windows Insiders will no longer see a “Mixed Reality” entry on the main page of Settings.
• We fixed an issue Insiders may have experienced where the Network flyout would unexpectedly appear blank instead of listing available Wi-Fi networks.
• We fixed an issue where the custom color picker in Color Settings might stop working when selecting new colors.
• We fixed an issue where certain colors in the recent colors section of Colors Settings would unexpectedly not appear selected after being selected.
• We fixed an issue where if you downloaded a theme from the Store, deleted it, then downloaded it again, it wouldn’t appear in Themes Settings.
• We’ve improved the performance when using point erase to ease ink in Sketchpad.
• We’ve updated the Windows Ink Workspace so it will now remember your most recently selected stencil (ruler or protractor) and keep that choice the next time you open Sketchpad.
• We fixed an issue where, after upgrading, some Insiders were left with certain tiles that couldn’t be unpinned from Start. We also fixed an issue where pinning a tile might unexpectedly add it in the middle of an existing group of tiles.
• We fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders using PCs with certain older chipsets seeing colored boxes in the place of text and various other UI in UWPs apps.
• We fixed an issue where desktop shortcuts pointing at URLs weren’t working for some Insiders.
• We fixed an issue resulting in not being able to tab over to Other Users section on the login screen using only the keyboard.
• We fixed an issue resulting in Microsoft Edge sometimes freezing for a short after using CTRL+C to copy selected text in the address bar.
• We fixed an issue resulting in the shadows behind the set aside tabs in Microsoft Edge not being as dark as expected – the thumbnails should pop more now.
• We fixed an issue with notification toast priority from recent flights where an alarm or skype call toast would not interrupt a reminder toast.
• We fixed an issue where some captive portal Wi-Fi networks might fail to connect during OOBE, and if a captive portal network was using DNS hijacking to redirect to a secure site, the captive portal app would crash and you wouldn’t be able to clear the portal.
• We fixed an issue where Yes/No voice commands in the Wi-Fi portion of OOBE weren’t working.
• We fixed an issue resulting in the screen flashing and explorer crashing in a loop for some Insiders if they entered Safe Mode on recent builds.
• We fixed an issue for devices with TPM chips on 15019 where the TPM was unexpectedly not able to start.
• We fixed an issue where a window might appear to get “stuck” on the mouse when releasing it after dragging to resize it – requiring an extra click to let go.
• We fixed an issue resulting in poor quality scaling of taskbar and task view thumbnail previews. We also fixed an issue where periodically when you moved your mouse to hover over a taskbar thumbnail preview, it might unexpectedly immediately dismiss.

Known issues for PC

• [UPDATED] IMPORTANT: You may see “Initializing…” when attempting to download this build and the download progress indicator shown when downloading this build may seem broken under Settings > Update & security > Windows Update. It may look like you’re getting stuck at 0% or at other percentages. Ignore the indicator and be patient. The build should download fine, and the installation should kick off. See this forum post for more details.
• While we fixed the primary bug causing this issue, some Windows Insiders may still hit nonstop exceptions in the Spectrum.exe service causing their PC to lose audio, disk I/O usage to become very high, and apps like Microsoft Edge to become unresponsive when doing certain actions such as opening Settings. As a workaround to get out of this state, STOP the Spectrum.exe service and delete C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Spectrum\PersistedSpatialAnchors and reboot. For more details, see this forum post.
• [GAMING] Popular games may experience crashes or black screens when trying to load due to a platform issue. UPDATE: We believe this is fixed!
• [GAMING] Game Mode is enabled system wide by default, however, the ON/OFF toggle in Settings will incorrectly show it as being OFF until the user manually toggles the Setting to ON which will cause it to update and accurately display the status of Game Mode system wide.
• [GAMING] Certain hardware configurations may cause the broadcast live review window in the Game bar to flash Green while you are Broadcasting. This does not affect the quality of your broadcast and is only visible to the Broadcaster.
• Microsoft Edge F12 tools may intermittently crash, hang, and fail to accept inputs.
• Microsoft Edge’s “Inspect Element” and “View Source” options don’t correctly launch to the DOM Explorer and Debugger, respectively.
• Dragging apps from the all apps list to pin on Start’s tile grid won’t work. For now, please right-click on the desired app in order to pin it.
• Some Tencent apps and games may crash or work incorrectly on this build.
• Under Settings > Update & security > Windows Update you might see the text “Some Settings are managed by your organization” even though your PC isn’t being managed by an organization. This is a bug caused by an updated flight configuration setting for Insider Preview builds and does not mean your PC is being managed by anyone.
• On some PCs, audio stops working sporadically with ‘device in use’ error”. We are investigating. Restarting the audio service may fix things for a bit.
• The Action Center may sometimes appear blank and transparent without color. If you encounter this, try moving the taskbar to a different location on screen.
• ADDED: The Desktop App Converter Preview (Project Centennial) will fail to run on the Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 15025. If you are a developer utilizing the converter tool to convert your desktop app to UWP, we suggest skipping Build 15025 or switching to the Slow ring until we can fix this issue.
• ADDED: [GAMING] We’re aware of an issue due to a kernel change which may affect some games that use copy protection technologies.

Community Updates

This week, we are in Nairobi, Kenya at the NexTech Africa Conference (where we will be announcing an East Africa Fellowship as well as participating in sessions around Engineering at Scale and Digital Transformation at Scale.

You’ll recall that last September we gathered at the Co-Creation Hub in Lagos to kick off the very first #Insiders4Good Fellowship. After reviewing over 5,000 applications, in November we announced the first cohort of 25 diverse people with diverse ideas to change Nigeria, Africa, and the world. We are inspired by the ideas from those 25 entrepreneurs, and hopeful that their creativity and hard work can address decades-old problems like illiteracy, kidnapping, agricultural waste, healthcare access, and much more.

We started in Nigeria because of what we could learn from that market.  1 of every 7 Africans lives in Nigeria. 41 percent of working-age Nigerians were involved in an early-stage business in the preceding three and a half years.  81% of Nigerians value entrepreneurship as a career choice. As with other countries in Africa, we can also learn a lot from working alongside social entrepreneurs overcoming obstacles:  regulations, processes, and custom; working around corruption; mitigating poor electricity, roads, and connectivity.

Over the next few months, our fellowship cohort has received support from Microsoft and from the Windows Insider community. They’ve received hardware, software, tailored mentorship and access to our global network of people and organizations spanning nearly every industry and geography.  As we enter month three of the #Insiders4Good Nigeria fellowship, we’re honored to watch these 25 Fellows progress together from a group of strangers from all across Nigeria—to a cohesive community of creative leaders with promising ideas—into a group of friends, together growing those ideas into viable businesses to make Nigeria a better place to live.

In working with the Nigeria Fellows, we’ve learned so much. Literally every day we use their learnings to improve Windows, and improve the Microsoft tech stack. For example, this month back in Seattle we are focusing on improving the Windows experience in low-bandwidth regions. This is a HUGE focus in our bug bash and we are having “Nigeria Day” where we will encourage the whole Windows team to run quests on a 2G network we have set up.This focus area is a direct result of our time spent in Nigeria working with our Fellows, and hearing about their difficulties when the power goes out or the wireless is poor.

We’re not done learning yet. Not even close. In fact, we’re doubling down. Today, in partnership with GrowthAfrica, the Windows Insider Program is thrilled to expand our #Insiders4Good fellowship to East Africa. The #Insiders4Good East Africa Fellowship will be awarded to 25 entrepreneurs from Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda who have innovative social business ideas with the potential to improve their communities, the East African region, and the world. #Insiders4Good Fellows will receive a suite of Microsoft hardware and software, plus six months of tailored technical and strategic mentorship from local and international leaders.

Thousands in East Africa are creating extraordinary solutions that change the way communities and businesses solve problems and improve people’s lives. Innovation is in the DNA of all Windows Insiders.  East Africa is a key region where exciting new ideas are growing. We’ve been impressed and heartened by the progress made already by the first 25 #Insiders4Good Fellows in Nigeria, and we’re thrilled to expand the #Insiders4Good Fellowship into East Africa. The region is well known as a hotbed of technological innovation.We look forward to deepening our relationships with these exceptional entrepreneurs across East Africa and to supporting their goals with this Fellowship.

The #Insiders4Good Fellowship aims to recognize visionary entrepreneurs, enable them with technology and expert support, and unlock opportunities for them through the global network of Windows Insiders, the world’s largest community of people using technology to solve problems. The Fellowship aims to accelerate their journeys toward achieving their goals.

The deadline to apply for the #Insiders4Good Fellowship is March 31, 2017, 23:59 p.m. East Africa Time. However, applicants are encouraged to apply well in advance of the deadline. Applicants should visit Insiderfellows.com for full information and the application form.

Windows Insiders are the millions who represent the billions. Come join us today.

Keep hustling team,
Dona <3

Updated February 1, 2017 9:26 pm