Microsoft has today released a fresh Windows 10 Build, numbered 10240, which according to the redmond giant, is one step closer to the actual release. Developer and Build Version watermarks are gone, as Windows 10 previews finally begin to take shape of the July 29th Public release.
Gabe Aul, in his usual blog post about the new build, says
Over the past few days we’ve been preparing our release pipelines and processes, and this build is one step closer to what customers will start to receive on 7/29.
This fresh build, as announced by Microsoft earlier this week, would only be available through Windows Update. This has basically been done to make the build more consumer-release ready.
So to get this one you can either wait and it will be installed automatically. But since you obviously won’t be waiting for that, go to Start > Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update > Check for updates to get the build right now. Make sure you’re logged in with your Windows 10 account.
A major update in this build, is improved performance stats for Microsoft’s new-age browser, Edge. Gabe says, that MS ran a variety of tests, which not just improved results as compared to previous tests, but also showed how Edge might have just ‘edged past’ Chrome in browser speeds. Here are a few results which MS boasted of :
- On WebKit Sunspider, Edge is 112% faster than Chrome
- On Google Octane, Edge is 11% faster than Chrome
- On Apple JetStream, Edge is 37% faster than Chrome
Apart from Edge related updates, there is update for Windows 10 Universal app developers too. Developers working on Windows 10 will have the first opportunity to upload Universal Windows Applications to the Windows Dev Center using production quality Windows 10 tools on July 29th itself.
Office for Windows 10 also gets a few changes, mostly on the naming convention front. On PCs and tablets Microsoft has added “Mobile” to the app names (to help distinguish them from the Office desktop suite), while on phones the apps are still called Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Microsoft has also promised to roll out continuous updates within the next couple of weeks, until the final Windows 10 release. However, since Microsoft will now be serving Windows as a service, you can expect a few minor glitches in the public release as well, which will be fixed by continuous updates thereafter.
