Microsoft Brings Picture-in-Picture To Windows 10 With Latest Insider Build

Microsoft has released a new build of Windows 10, 15031, to Insiders and there are a couple of new features in this release. This release is only for desktop users and there is no word on when this will come to mobile.

Microsoft is calling its new Picture-in-Picture feature a compact overlay which allows you to continue to watch a movie or video chat while working on other content. When an app enters compact overlay mode, it will be shown above all other windows and will not get blocked; the first apps to take advantage of this feature will be Skype Preview and Movies & TV.

Dynamic lock, a feature that had shown up in previous builds is now functioning. This feature will lock your Windows 10 PC when you are not around the device by using Bluetooth as the proximity detector; your PC will lock after 30 seconds of you being out of range.

Other small changes include a new share icon and Windows Game bar now supports 52 additional games. You can read about all the changes (and the issues with this release), here; as always, if you run into any issues, make sure to let us know.

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Conversation 22 comments

  • 2947

    08 February, 2017 - 2:13 pm

    <p>the Zune desktop software used to allow you to do this! It was a great feature, I’m glad they are bringing it back. I wonder if the window is one size fits all or if you can scale it to fit your workflow??</p>

  • 2435

    08 February, 2017 - 2:18 pm

    <p>Isn’t this literally what made Windows, umm… Windows? The fact that you have windows that you can resize and view multiple windows at a time? So it’s another way of doing something every app already supports? I’d prefer if they gave me the option to always keep any&nbsp;window on top, like you can with task manager.</p>
    <p>I feel like this is the start of a Yo dawg meme… I head you like Windows, so we added a new window, to your Windows, so you can look at windows, in Windows…</p>

    • 2039

      08 February, 2017 - 2:22 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#41635">In reply to </a><a href="../../../users/mtsmedly">mtsmedly</a><a href="#41635">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>This puts app in minimal or even no UI mode and is standardized across OS which means no developer has to make their own implementation. If you can’t see value in the feature then don’t use it.</p>

      • 2435

        08 February, 2017 - 2:29 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#41636">In reply to </a><a href="../../../users/Vidua">Vidua</a><a href="#41636">:</a></em></blockquote>
        <p>I’m not saying I don’t see value. I do very much see the value. I just find it strange that it’s not being branded in a way that is consistent with the OS that pioneered this UI experience. Windows has always had Picture in Picture. The snap modes introduced in Windows 7 are a great example of this evolution. Why not call it "Pin Window on Top"? We can already "Pin to Start" or "Pin to Taskbar." I’d love it if I could pin any app to keep it at the forefront of my attention and interact with another application behind it taking up most of the screen. Let me resize it and shape it just how I can with any other Window.</p>
        <p>Maybe the world doesn’t use the OS the way I do with multiple Windows in non-full screen mode. But I tend to use two monitors with more than two applications visible at one time already. Didn’t mean to sound upset that they are adding this feature, because I clearly see the value and will probably use it, but it just seems silly how it’s being presented, to me its an evolution of the way windowed applications interact.</p>

        • 6922

          08 February, 2017 - 5:17 pm

          <blockquote><em><a href="#41637">In reply to </a><a href="../../../users/mtsmedly">mtsmedly</a><a href="#41637">:</a></em></blockquote>
          <p>&gt;&nbsp;Maybe the world doesn’t use the OS the way I do with multiple Windows in non-full screen mode.&nbsp;</p>
          <p>plenty of productive people do. No matter how many monitors you have, it’s unlikely to be enough – with sufficient RAM there’s no reason to close a window of an application. That’s the reason why Windows has windows.</p>

    • 5496

      08 February, 2017 - 9:30 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#41635">In reply to </a><a href="../../../users/mtsmedly">mtsmedly</a><a href="#41635">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>I don’t think this is the same as Windows snap, or having multiple windows opened.</p>
      <p>this sounds something like floating Windows.</p>

  • 1189

    08 February, 2017 - 2:47 pm

    <p>I love this feature in the Opera browser. Yes I use Opera.</p>

    • 241

      Premium Member
      08 February, 2017 - 5:41 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#41641">In reply to </a><a href="../../../users/VTScott">VTScott</a><a href="#41641">:</a></em></blockquote>
      <p>I use Opera as well. But I did not know it had this feature.</p>

  • 5538

    08 February, 2017 - 3:07 pm

    <p>Use this all the time in Mac OS and iOS. Pretty handy because it keeps it above all the other windows, whereas right now you have to resize, then find some 3rd party homebrew app to keeps the window on top. This was super unreliable at the time. On iOS is so fun to use and resize and just toss the darn thing corner to corner to get it out of the way, or just pocket it on the side if you needed the whole screen for the moment. Then I like how they did snapping. I think it’s a slight improvement over what Windows does in tablet mode, the bar isn’t so intrusive. It was like melding Windows 8 and iOS together, which seems to work great on the iPad. Windows 10 is still imo atrocious for navigating apps.</p>

  • 5530

    08 February, 2017 - 3:27 pm

    <p>they should just enable it for any UWP app that plays video!</p>

  • 903

    Premium Member
    08 February, 2017 - 4:54 pm

    <p>Perhaps someday soon I’ll be able to watch First Ring Daily while reviewing my emails.</p>

  • 1088

    08 February, 2017 - 5:18 pm

    <p>I am not sure how this will work, but I think I will love this feature. &nbsp;I use it all the time with Youtube on Opera!! &nbsp;</p>

  • 241

    Premium Member
    08 February, 2017 - 5:41 pm

    <p>Yahoo! My productivity will increase by at least 100 percent!</p>

  • 5056

    08 February, 2017 - 9:51 pm

    <p>I got excited as well by the first&nbsp;feature but then I saw it was UWA (assuming that = UWP). I suspect that many of the&nbsp;win32 apps will not make that jump just for that.</p>

  • 5664

    Premium Member
    08 February, 2017 - 10:09 pm

    <p>Does this work when in a game? It would be FsCKING COOL to use for playing walkthroughs.</p>

  • 5539

    Premium Member
    08 February, 2017 - 10:49 pm

    <p><em>Known issues for PC</em><br /><em>Going to Settings &gt; Devices will crash the Settings app. You will be unable to pair a Bluetooth device. Bluetooth quick actions from Action Center also does not work </em>(this is confirmed BTW, selecting BT settings crashes Settings)</p>
    <p>So I get a Dynamic Lock feature that is somehow connected to some BT device I have, but I cannot see the BT settings panel to see what is connected, or connect anything new?&nbsp; It appears I can turn this on or off. So how do you designate what BT device is involved? Does it have to be a phone. My mouse is BT, but remains with my PC when I leave. How about a BT headset, could that be the ‘locker’?</p>

  • 5539

    Premium Member
    08 February, 2017 - 11:02 pm

    <p>Picture-in-Picture; the first apps to take advantage of this feature <em>will be</em> Skype Preview and Movies &amp; TV.</p>
    <p>So nothing supports this yet? Why bother to mention it if no-one can see it work? Really, there appears no way to get the current Movies and TV into the frameless window pictured.</p>

  • 5267

    09 February, 2017 - 7:44 am

    <p>I bought a separate screen just to see videos while I work…</p>

  • 1165

    09 February, 2017 - 11:38 am

    <p>Glad to see this coming, I use this feature all the time on my iPad Pro. Maybe I am not interpreting correctly, but it sounds like this will be something developers will need support vs having it as a feature of the OS video play back capabilities. &nbsp;Apple did something similar with it’s implementation and to be honest that sucks, as the number of apps that supported it was very limited and has only grown marginally. &nbsp;Also of note, YouTube supports it on the iPad, if you are a YouTube Red subscriber. &nbsp;Hence, my preference that this be a native feature of video playback.</p>

  • 5501

    Premium Member
    09 February, 2017 - 11:58 am

    <p>Have to admit this almost sounds like an obvious feature that should have been included a long time ago, to me.&nbsp; It’s like … "Windows 10 to now support two-button mice."</p>

  • 1283

    Premium Member
    13 February, 2017 - 7:47 pm

    <p>Wanting an option to tell an app "always on top while playing" is the primary reason I still use a desktop app to play media.&nbsp;&nbsp; ideally being able to break out specifics (like the video window, versus all) would be nice.&nbsp;&nbsp; This really does seem like something that should have always been there.</p>
    <p>&nbsp;</p>

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