Microsoft Ships Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16241 to Fast Ring

Microsoft Ships Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16241 to Fast Ring

Windows Insiders on the Fast ring can install build 16241 today, which adds numerous evolutionary improvements late in the development cycle.

“We are excited to release Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16241 for PC to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring,” Microsoft’s Dona Sarkar notes. Ms. Sarkar also notes that Microsoft will hold its second—and final—bug bash for the Fall Creators Update in the second half of July, further indicating that we’re almost done with this version of Windows 10.

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Here’s what’s new.

Pin and password recovery. You can now recover your pin and password directly from the lock screen … as long as you’re signing in with a Microsoft account (MSA) or Azure AD Premium (AADP) account. Just click the “Reset password” or ”I forgot my PIN” link.

Acrylic Material improvements. Insiders complained that the Acrylic Material translucency effects were too “noisy,” so Microsoft toned that down in this build.

Task Manager improvements. After adding GPU performance monitoring to Task Manager two or three builds ago, Microsoft has been busy refining the experience. In this build, the multi-engine view—which monitors for the four most active GPU engines—is now the default. Also, Microsoft Edge processes are now clearly labeled in the Processes view.

Mixed Reality improvements. For the zero people who have a Mixed Reality headset, build 16241 offers a number of improvements, none of which matter. Maybe someday, folks.

Delivery Optimization improvements. This might be the most profound improvement in this build: Microsoft is more clearly calling out that Delivery Optimization applies to both Windows Update (cloud)-based and peer-to-peer (P2P) update delivery in Settings, and has made the configuration more granular. As important, there is now a much-requested Activity Monitor so you can see where your updates are coming from: The cloud or from PCs on your home network or the Internet. If you don’t look at anything else, go look at this.

But wait, there’s more. As always, there are a ton of other general changes, improvements, and fixes, plus some known issues. Check out the Microsoft post for a complete list.

 

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Conversation 13 comments

  • bbold

    13 July, 2017 - 1:57 pm

    <p>Funny how absolutely none of these things have anything at all to do with being a "creator," especially after cutting so many creative-minded features, yet again.&nbsp;They should have just called it the "Acrylic Update." Hopefully, MS will learn from this (marketing-wise) and begin referring to these as something more like "Fall Update."</p>

    • mebby

      13 July, 2017 - 2:16 pm

      <p><a href="#144479"><em>In reply to bbold:</em></a> Hopefully, MS will learn from this (marketing-wise) and begin referring to these as something more like "Fall Update."</p><p><br></p><p>Well, maybe not. Marketing has not really been MS's strong point for… ever.</p>

      • bbold

        13 July, 2017 - 2:33 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#144485"><em>In reply to mebby:</em></a></blockquote><p>That's so hard to believe, but it must be true. Multi million dollar company. They should immediately fire or repurpose all marketing staff then and hire an outside company.</p><p>Marketing-wise, calling it Creators Update is ingenious. Not following through with said creative features is not, that's only letting down new creative MS ecosystem creative adopters.</p>

        • Narg

          14 July, 2017 - 10:27 am

          <blockquote><a href="#144493"><em>In reply to bbold:</em></a></blockquote><p>Marketing departments tend to do what the lead executives tell them to do, no matter what they may think or recommend…</p>

    • johnbaxter

      13 July, 2017 - 3:17 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#144479"><em>In reply to bbold:</em></a></blockquote><p>One problem with "Fall Update" is that the earth has an equator and Microsoft sells on both sides of it. I think that's why the first "Fall Update" became the "November Update".</p>

      • bbold

        13 July, 2017 - 3:18 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#144526"><em>In reply to johnbaxter:</em></a></blockquote><p>Good point. Oh hell, at this point they should just call it "Acrylic Update." :)</p>

    • JerryH

      Premium Member
      13 July, 2017 - 5:16 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#144479"><em>In reply to bbold:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Let's not call things "Fall Update" because that forgets that the world has a southern hemisphere. Marketing FAILS when the do silly things like assume that "Fall" is the same world wide. For example folks in say New Zealand ALREADY got the Fall Creators Update – because the original Creators Update came out – you know – in FALL.</p>

  • johnbaxter

    13 July, 2017 - 4:21 pm

    <p>On my slow laptop (with slow but plenty large hard drive) I have plenty of time during these updates to contemplate things. Today I was wondering why "Modem Setup Host" was using so much disk time (and, why it was doing anything at all). A closer look changed that to "Modern Setup Host" which is certainly entitled to use disk during the "Installing" phase.</p><p><br></p><p>Bad keming (oops kerning) in Task Manager's font and not great screen.</p><p><br></p><p>(Started shortly after 10am (PT)…Status: Installing – 97% at 1:15 pm).</p>

  • JC

    14 July, 2017 - 4:24 am

    <p>Mixed Retality improvement's for your readers Paul</p><p><br></p><p>Added support for Mixed Reality Motion Controllers over USB (Wireless/Bluetooth support to come soon!)</p><p>Connection reliability improvements (Code 43 errors in Device Manager).</p><p>We’ve updated the Mixed Reality Portal icon.</p><p>We’ve updated teleportation experience to make this more intuitive and direct.</p><p>We have also improved stability of the headset during your Mixed Reality session.</p><p>We have fixed the issue where the Hill on the side of the cliff house flickers.</p><p>We have also fixed where the audio of HoloTour can now turn off promptly when switching between apps and cliff house.</p><p>we have also fixed speech commands to work during exclusive app sessions.</p><p>We have also improved the experience where we can now load the Environment effectively with no black screen during startup.</p><p>Mixed Reality Portal now explicitly informs users that headsets require USB 3.0.</p><p>Improved support for ASMedia and other 3rd party USB controllers</p><p>4K 360 Video streaming has also been improved in this build.</p><p>3Glasses improvements: we have fixed various issues with 3Glasses headset and controller to help jumpstart your development.</p><p>Preset holograms in the Cliff House now show up in the right order.</p><p>We have also fixed the issue where black screen is shown when the environment is loading.</p><p>We have fixed the headset’s sleep cycle to correct according to user activities.</p><p>We have also fixed the issue to enable users to share the Mixed Reality captures to Facebook.</p><p>For more details, please go to Mixed Reality Flight Notes </p>

  • Tunrip

    14 July, 2017 - 6:00 am

    <p>"Teleportation experience" !? Holy crap. I had no idea Microsoft were so far ahead of the curve on this!</p>

  • SteveM

    14 July, 2017 - 10:47 am

    <p>Zero people with mixed reality headsets! Stick to the facts please Paul; and this isn't one of them. Few perhaps, buts I can assure you it's not zero.</p>

  • Narg

    17 July, 2017 - 12:08 pm

    <p>The past few releases make me want to switch away from Insider. Wow they are buggy. To be expected though…</p>

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