Microsoft has now seeded a fresh Windows 10 for PCs build to developers in the fast ring developer cycle. The new build is more of an improvement build with significant upgrades to Microsoft’s Edge (still named ‘Project Spartan’) Browser and start menu.
The new build, named 10130 is also inline with Microsoft’s recent announcement of developing Windows 10 as a service rather than as a software package. Microsoft’s Gabe Aul states,
As I mentioned with the last build, from here onward you are going to see a lot of tuning, tweaking, stabilizing, and polishing which means fewer big feature changes from build to build.
In this fresh build, you can now customize your Start experience by opening the Settings app > Personalization > Start, a feature long in demand from numerous developers under Windows Insiders Program.
You will be able to turn on full screen Start when in the desktop if you want. You can also customize the locations that are shown on bottom left of Start where you see Power and All apps listed. In 10122, it showed File Explorer and Settings but you can now customize this list here.
Microsoft has also tweaked this build heavily on the design front. In Build 10130, you will now see fresh desktop icons, in line with Microsoft’s Flat UI design principle which the company launched along with Windows 10. These icons are more modern and lightweight, and Microsoft says, will create a better visual relationship between typography and iconography. Again, these subtle icon design changes were brought in based on huge amount of feedback which the Redmond giant received from Windows 10 Developers.
Microsoft has also refined the UI for Jump Lists so that it matches the rest of the new UI for Start and the Taskbar in Windows 10. Right-click on File Explorer if you have it pinned to your Taskbar and check out the updated Jump List.
On the Continuum front, when in Tablet mode, you can now swipe the top edge to open up the app commands if the app has them just like you could on Windows 8.1,a feature which Microsoft has brought back owing to huge developer demand.
Microsoft’s Edge browser (which continues to remain ‘Project spartan’ in this new build) also sees necessary improvements. Edge now has the ability to pin/unpin the Cortana pane, Favorites pane, Reading list pane, or any other pane in the browser.
Microsoft has also introduced more advanced print options, improved Address Bar badge and Reading view to support different content, window sizes, and device layouts such as the Surface Pro 3 in portrait. And playing full screen video on websites like YouTube or Hulu now work as you would expect.
A nifty addition is the keyboard shortcut for Cortana. Try out Win key + C. This will now launch Cortana’s speech recognition to ask questions, set reminders etc.
However, to the disappointment of Slow ring developers, Microsoft says it won’e be pushing the previous build 10122 to slow ring developers due to a bug impacting upgrades from Windows 7 and Windows 8.1. As for this current build 10130, Microsoft says that it will have to see this build’s performance in fast ring before releasing it out to slow ring developers.
