Windows 10 Insider Preview 10074 brings back Aero Glass
Microsoft pushed the curtain away and revealed new information about its upcoming operating system Windows 10 yesterday on the first day of the BUILD 2015 conference.
The company released a new build of Windows 10 which is available as an update for Fast Ring users and also available as an ISO image for new users and those who want to set it up using an ISO image.
A recent post by Gabe Aul on the company's Blogging Windows site highlights what you can expect from the new version.
About half of the new features and improvements fall into the application and mobile category, while the other half may be interesting to desktop users as well.
We have separated the improvements into a desktop and a mobile part.
Desktop and general improvements
One big change is the re-introduction of Aero Glass. The feature, introduced in Windows 7 and pulled in Windows 8, is applied to the taskbar and start menu / screen of the operating system.
Microsoft notes that it is A/B testing normal transparency and a blur effect so that half the users will get the new blue effect while the other half the transparency effect instead.
Work continuous to better support high DPI displays, especially on multi-monitor setups. Microsoft's goal is to make UX components scale well on all monitors regardless of DPI.
The multi-tasking experience has been refined in build 10074 affecting features such as Alt-Tab, Task-View and Snap Assist.
Alt-Tab allows you to cycle through open program windows, Task-View is the multi-desktop component that ships with Windows 10, and Snap Assist improves how you snap windows in the operating system.
If you like sounds, I usually turn them off as I find them annoying after a while, you may want to listen to new sounds that Microsoft ships with this build.
The easiest way to test those is to tap on the Windows-key, type sounds and select the Sound control panel applet that is suggested to you at the top.
There you find all sounds and can go through them one by one playing them in the process.
Mobile improvements
Live Tile performance and stability has been improved in this build. In addition, Live Tiles have a new animation when contents change.
Continuum is one of the most interesting features of Windows 10 in my opinion as it can turn a smartphone into a "basic" PC when you connect it to a HDMI display and mouse/keyboard.
Small improvements went into the feature in this build including being taken back to the start screen if you close apps on a tablet.
New functionality was added to the digital assistant Cortana. New questions are supported by it now that are powered by Bing Instant Answers. You can use it to convert units, use it as a calculator, get dictionary definitions or stock quotes.
Cortana's visual appearance has changed as well. It is now closely tight to the start menu which means that it can take over searches for you for example
The Music and Video Preview apps, and the Xbox app have received updates in this build. Probably the biggest improvements went into the Xbox app which now supports game DVR for PC games, screenshot support and more.
Closing Words
While you could call most improvements of this build marginal, especially if you are a desktop user, you cannot deny that Microsoft is listening at least partially to what Windows users have to say this time.
Who would have guessed that the company brings back Aero from the dead for instance? If you take this into account, and consider that the announcement covers mostly UI changes and not backend changes, then you may have a hard time denying that Microsoft is on a better way know than it was during the development of Windows 8.
The update itself takes a while but keeps all apps and programs installed on the system so that you don't lose any of those in the process.
What mental age of reader are you targeting with the first sentence? 10?
Why not write an article on how to *avoid* upgrading from W10 to W11. Analogous to those like me who avoided upgrading from 7 to 10 for as long as possible.
If your paymaster Microsoft permits it, of course.
5. Rufus
6. Ventoy
PS. I hate reading these “SEO optimized” articles.
I used Rufus to create an installer for a 6th gen intel i5 that had MBR. It upgraded using Setup. No issues except for Win 11 always prompting me to replace my local account. Still using Win 10 Pro on all my other PCs to avoid the bullying.
bit pointless to upgrade for the sake of upgrading as you never know when you’ll get locked out because ms might suddenly not provide updates to unsupported systems.
ps…. time travelling?
written. Jan 15, 2023
Updated • Jan 13, 2023
This happens when you schedule a post in WordPress and update it before setting the publication date.
Anyone willing to downgrade to this awful OS must like inflicting themselves with harm.
I have become convinced now that anybody who has no qualms with using Windows 11/10 must fit into one of the following brackets:
1) Too young to remember a time before W10 and W11 (doesn’t know better)
2) Wants to play the latest games on their PC above anything else (or deeply needs some software which already dropped W7 support)
3) Doesn’t know too much about how computers work, worried that they’d be absolutely lost and in trouble without the “”latest security””
4) Microsoft apologist that tries to justify that the latest “features” and “changes” are actually a good thing, that improve Windows
5) Uses their computer to do a bare minimum of like 3 different things, browse web, check emails, etc, so really doesn’t fuss
Obviously that doesn’t cover everyone, there’s also the category that:
6) Actually liked W7 more than 10, and held out as long as possible before switching, begrudgingly uses 10 now
Have I missed any group off this list?
You have missed in this group just about any professional user that uses business software like CAD programs or ERP Programs which are 99% of all professional users from this list.
Linux doesn’t help anyone who is not a linux kid and apple is just a fancy facebook machine.
Microsoft has removed KB5029351 update
only from windows update though
KB5029351 is still available from the ms update catalog site
1. This update is labaled as PREVIEW if it causes issues to unintelligent people, then they shouldn’t have allowed Preview updates ot install.
2. I have installed it in a 11 years old computer, and no problems at all.
3. Making a big drama over a bluescreen for an updated labeled as preview is ridiculous.
This is probably another BS internet drama where people ran programs and scripts that modified the registry until they broke Windows, just for removing stuff that they weren’t even using just for the sake of it.
Maybe people should stop playing geeks and actually either use Windows 10 or Windows 11, but don’t try to modify things just for the sake of it.
Sometimes removing or stopping things (like defender is a perfect example) only need intelligence, not scripts or 3rd party programs that might mess with windows.
Windows 11 was a pointless release, it was just created because some of the Windows team wanted to boost sales with some sort of new and improved Windows 10. Instead, Microsoft cannot support one version well let alone two.
Windows 11 is the worst ugly shame by Microsoft ever. They should release with every new W11 version a complete free version of Starallback inside just to make this sh** OS functionally again.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released a statement regarding the “unsupported processor” blue screen error for their boards using Intel 600/700 series chipsets & to avoid the KB5029351 Win11 update:
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/MSI-On–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–Error-Message-of-Windows-11-Update-KB5029351-Preview-142215
check out the following recent articles:
Neowin – Microsoft puts little blame on its Windows update after UNSUPPORTED PROCESSOR BSOD bug:
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-puts-little-blame-on-its-windows-update-after-unsupported-processor-bsod-bug/
BleepingComputer – Microsoft blames ‘unsupported processor’ blue screens on OEM vendors:
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-blames-unsupported-processor-blue-screens-on-oem-vendors/
While there may be changes or updates to the Windows 10 Store for Business and Education in the future, it is premature to conclude that it will be discontinued based solely on rumors.
My advice, I left win 15 years ago. Now I’m a happy linux user (linuxmint) but there is Centos, Fedora, Ubuntu depending on your needs.
motherboard maker MSI has recently released new BIOS/firmware updates for their Intel 600 & 700 series motherboards to fix the “UNSUPPORTED_PROCESSOR” problem (Sept. 6):
https://www.msi.com/news/detail/Updated-BIOS-fixes-Error-Message–UNSUPPORTED-PROCESSOR–caused-BSOD-on-MSI-s-Intel-700-and-600-Series-Motherboards-142277