Hands-On with Windows 10 Build 10147

Continuing what has become a semi-regular cadence, another build of Windows 10 has leaked, and like past leaks, this one has a few neat refinements over the publicly released Windows Insider builds. Windows 10 build 10147 is notable for a few reasons, but the big one is that this was my first opportunity to install Windows 10 Home without resorting to any tricks.

I literally just finished installing this build. But here’s what I’ve seen so far.

Windows 10 Home. You can choose between Windows 10 Pro—which has been the only choice for Insiders—and Windows 10 Home during Setup. So what the heck, I went with Home on the first install.

Product key. In the surest sign yet that this thing is wrapping up soon, this build asks for a product key … twice. And if you don’t provide one, you can’t edit certain personalization settings, as with Windows 8.1.

Default wallpaper. The new default wallpaper matches the one we see in Windows 10 Mobile for Phones build 10146, which I think is a nice bit of synchronicity.

A bit of contrast. I’ve been complaining about the all-white-nothing-but-white Windows 10 UI for a while now, but it looks like we’re finally starting to see a hint of contrast, especially in universal app windows. It’s not as much as I’d like, but better than before.

New icons. The icons on the Mail, Calendar, People and Maps tiles have been updated with new designs, similar to what we saw with Music and Movies & TV (previously Videos) in earlier builds.

Get Office and Get Skype icons are in the All Apps list.

Edge gets a dark theme option.

Fit and finish. As promised, there are tons of little fin and finish changes in this build, especially to icons, and to some of the apps.

Anyway, I’m sure there’s more. I’ll keep looking. But this one looks … very nice.