Windows 10 Build 18970 with Plenty of Features, Improvements, Fixes

Windows 10 Build 18970 20H1 comes out to the Insiders in the Fast ring bringing plenty of features fixes, changes, and improvements. With this Pre-release build, Insiders will notice a cumulative update KB4518974 which has been pushed at the same time. When the update is installed, you will be on 20H1 Build 18970.1005. Microsoft specialist has started rolling out a new tablet experience for 2-in-1 convertible PCs. Addition to the features, the company also comprises recovery improvements with known issues.

Being into the Fast ring, you’re able to straight away get Build 18970 20H1 via Windows Update. For this, just open the Windows Settings app and navigate to the Update & Security category. Finally, click on the ‘Check for updates‘ button and let download the update on your device.

Windows 10 Build 18970 [20H1] Features, Improvements, and Fixes

Here is the Windows 10 Build 18970 changelog –

A new tablet experience for 2-in-1 convertible PCs

Microsoft developer team has announced to start the delivery of a new tablet experience for 2-in-1 convertible PCs as a Beta to Windows Insiders. Here are a few key touch improvements –

• Increased spacing between Taskbar icons.
• The search box on taskbar crash down into a logo.
• On installing the build, you will experience that the File Explorer turnabout to the touch-optimized layout.
• The Touch keyboard invokes by itself. It happens when you tap text fields.

The team has also made small alterations to the tablet section in Settings.

This arrangement is currently available for a small part of the Insider. Below are the steps once it becomes available on your machine –

1. Now, you are able to use your convertible PC as a laptop as you normally would–opening apps and communicating with them.
2. When you’re willing to pick it up then shift yourself or simply lean back on the couch. You can fold back the keyboard or take it away altogether, and it should switch to this new mode as in above screenshot.
3. You can easily use your machine as a tablet with touch.

Improvements in Recovery

New option in Reset this PC option – Cloud Download

The team has worked on the Recovery Improvements and henceforth introduced a new Reset this PC option. This option now grants you a new choice to download Windows or use local reinstall. Earlier this feature only had the ability to do a local reinstall. This feature was originally introduced in Windows 10 v1507.

Important note –

This is a recovery procedure and will remove the apps you have installed. Besides, if the “Remove everything” option is selected, user data will also be deleted.

In addition to this, Microsoft technician stated that the cloud download option will reinstall the same build which has currently been placed on your machine. This new feature is available to all devices and is divergent from the “Recover from the cloud” feature available on some earlier Windows 10 devices.

Known issues

• The cloud download option doesn’t operate when specific optional features are installed. The process will start, but an error will arise and roll back the changes. To work around this issue, remove the optional features before endeavoring the cloud download option. Here is the list of optional features. “These are – “EMS and SAC Toolset for Windows 10, IrDA infrared, Print Management Console, RAS Connection Manager Administration Kit (CMAK)”, RIP Listener, all RSAT tools, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Windows Fax and Scan, Windows Storage Management, Wireless Display, WMI SNMP Provider”.

Other updates for Insiders

Continuing the Cortana rollout

Now, all the Insiders in the Fast ring are able to take the benefits of the new Cortana feature. However, yet, it is only available in the United States.

Windows 10 Build 18970 changes, improvements, and fixes for PC

• The company has resolved a DWM memory leak. In the previous build, it was affecting the previous two flights.
• Microsoft specialist fixed an issue which emerged in some WSL distros, not loading (Issue #4371).
• With Windows 10 Build 18970, no insiders will get affected by an issue which implicates a lsass.exe crash. Additionally, because of this error, you may also get a message -“Windows ran into a problem and needs to restart.”
• The tech giant resolved an issue which results in WIN+(period) closing. This issue mainly used to arise while trying to search for an emoji when the focus was set to a text field in an Electron app.
• According to the report, While interacting with options on the Search page, the Settings will not crash now.
• Windows 10 team enhances the launch performance of Settings. This issue generally appears when the Settings header is visible.
• The company has resolved an issue which results in some Insiders confronting a bug check with BTHport.sys in recent flights.
• It’s important to regularly back up your data. As per Microsoft technician, you are able to turn off a reminder to consider setting up a backup option which usually used to appear without a first-party backup.
• Microsoft expert is trying to settle the feedback about the acrylic in specific surfaces not appearing instantly. Moreover, several applications have been resolved in this build, like – “Start menu, the volume flyout, the network flyout, the clock & calendar flyout, and notification toasts” as well.
• Build 18970 works on various bugs and threats. It also enhances the Magnifier reading capabilities.
• With this update, Windows 10 team improved Magnifier performance. It used to appear while running the mouse around the screen.
• Now, Ctrl + Alt + L will work as Magnifier into Lens mode.
• Several of bugs related application has been destroyed to the new text cursor indicator. By which the text cursor indicator now appears and disappears easily. They also resolved the text cursor indicator in settings. Now, you can easily change size when text scaling remains on.
• The team has made advancement in Magnifier reliability.
• Now, the File Explorer search suggestions are able to read out by the Narrator.
• The tech giant resolved the Narrator issue which speaks – unknown. This issue predominantly occurs when you had the ‘Header Status’ column enabled within Outlook.
• Windows 10 team resolved a couple reading issue related to Narrator dialog. After installing this build, the narrator will not speak ’empty document’. You will not experience the terminating issue of the dialog reading too early.
• According to the developer team, the Narrator will announce the group name of a radio button which is available on web pages.
• With this latest updates, the Narrator and Excel will announce the column header. In the previous patch, this issue arises while arrowing between cells in a table.
• In the previous update, you would experience the item word through the Narrator. It used to happen while navigating by table cells in an Outlook email instead of reading the entire cell’s contents. However, with this build, they fixed that issue.
• Windows 10 Build 18970 enhances the readability by which a narrator will now read webpages from the top of the page and not at the main landmark with a fallback to find a paragraph.
• As per the Windows 10 developers, the narrator now supports aria-haspopup property.
• They also enhanced Outlook performance and durability while reading mail messages in Outlook.
• We have made advancements in Narrator reliability.
• The company made a modification to Narrator input learning. Therefore, to disable the input learning, just press Narrator+1 together.
• The tech giant has resolved an issue which read only the URL but not the webpage. This issue normally used to occur when a user navigated to a webpage in Edge.
• Microsoft expert fixed an issue when a user was replying to an email in Outlook, the Narrator was reading the message by itself while the user was trying to type.

Known issues

• There was a crucial concern of the anti-cheat program uses with games. However, when you update to the latest build 18970, you may face some crashes experience the PC. With the associate’s partners, the company is working on to receive their software updated with a relevant fix. Most of the games have released patches to hinder PCs from encountering this issue. To mitigate the potentiality of running into this issue, ensure that your device is working on the most recent version of your games before trying to update the OS. The company is also working on with anti-cheat and game developers to settle these types of bothered relevant issues. This will work to decrease the possibility of these issues in the forthcoming days.
• With this release, a few Realtek SD card readers will not operate well. However, the company is investigating the issue.
• Microsoft professional is observing the reports that the minimize, maximize, and close title bar buttons aren’t working for certain apps. If you’re using an affected app, press Alt+F4 to close it if needed.
• Text on Devices pages in Settings for “Bluetooth and Other Devices” and “Printers and Scanners” isn’t rendering correctly.
• The “search option” isn’t functioning for Insiders using some specific display languages, including Polish. To resolve it, simply switch your display language to English then back to your preferred display language.

Source – Windows Experience blog.