Another week, another build from the Insider team for Fast ring Insiders. Some fixes, some updates, some new features. Also, tomorrow May 18th, there are a couple Beam webcasts. Be sure to join in and have a good time!

Also, a good idea to check the known issues before updating just in case it affects something that you use daily.

Known issues for PC

• Some Insiders have reported seeing this error “Some updates were cancelled. We’ll keep trying in case new updates become available” in Windows Update. See this forum post for more details.
• Surface 3 devices fail to update to new builds if a SD memory card is inserted. The updated drivers for the Surface 3 that fix this issue have not yet been published to Windows Update.
• Outlook 2016 may hang on launch due to an issue where the spam filter gets stuck reading the Outlook Data File and the UI waits indefinitely for it to return. We’re investigating.
• We are investigating reports that Microsoft Edge fails to open PDFs with “Couldn’t open PDF. Something is keeping this PDF from opening” error.
• [UPDATED] You will be unable to type in your password to log in to any UWP apps such as Netflix, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Messenger apps.
• Games such as Civilization VI may fail to launch on this build.
• Windows Mixed Reality won’t work on this build. If you are a developing testing and developing for Windows Mixed Reality, you will want to avoid this build. If you update this build and need Windows Mixed Reality, you will need to roll-back to Build 16193.
• VIM is broken for Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) users – we’re investigating.
• The choice command fails when run in a Command Prompt script.

System Admins want to be on the bleeding edge with new features, in a non-production, non-critical server environment, of course – Windows Server is becoming part of the Insider Program. It’s definitely a worthwhile program to be in, getting advanced knowledge of features before they are solidified within the RTM version of the software. I’ll definitely be putting up a new Server 2016 VM just to be a part of this and provide some feedback. It’s always nice to feel like you’re a part of the Microsoft community!

The last year was an incredible partnership with you as we finalized and launched Windows Server 2016. We progressed through five technical previews of Windows Server, shaping and refining the experience and functionality together. Simply put, this release would not be the same without the detailed feedback we received – your partnership was critical to its success.

One common theme we heard again and again came from our customers – you want access to Windows Server builds more frequently to test new features and fixes. Today I am pleased to announce that Windows Server is joining the Windows Insider program! Starting this summer, regular and frequent builds of Windows Server (including container images) will be available to all Windows Insiders who want to download and test them. As Dona Sarkar, who runs the Windows Insider program, recently said of the Insider community, “These are the biggest fans of Windows I’ve ever seen in my whole life.” With the addition of Windows Server, the community has even more reasons to be a fan.

First, for fast ring insiders, build 16193 has been released. A cool new feature that many people will use and those that don’t will definitely complain about, is the Story Remix feature. I think it looks like a great idea that many people will use with the photos and videos.

Next, is the announcement of an upcoming Bug Bash. Starting May 15th and going until the 21st, the Bug Bash gives you more quests within the Feedback App to find bugs or give comments on new features or things they are focusing on. To go with that, there will be a couple Beam webcasts on the 18th. I really recommend checking the webcasts out if you are an active part in the Insider program. It’s very fun to ‘meet’ the people behind the posts and builds we see. They are always a lot of fun, a lot of laughs, and you can give instant feedback and get a response immediately (even if they say to send logs or send the URL to your feedback). I’ll definitely be there and it’s a ton of fun (look for MSTechpages and say hello!).

Enjoy this build, and make sure to submit any feedback or bug reports if you come across anything! It always helps!

We know Windows Insiders love participating in Bug Bashes. So we’re really excited to do our very first Bug Bash for the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update! The Bug Bash will start at 12am (Pacific Time) on Monday May 15th and will run a full week ending at 11:59 pm (Pacific Time) on Sunday May 21st. We’re also planning to do two Beam webcasts on Thursday May 18th – one in the morning, and another in the evening – to reach many of our global Insiders! Look for specific timing from us early next week on these webcasts so you can attend! We’ll also publish some new quests as usual for this bug bash as well. So be sure to open Feedback Hub and complete as many quests as you can!

For those Insiders on the Fast Ring, Microsoft has released build 16188. A few Microsoft Edge new features, a couple others, and a very small but really cool addition –

Ninjacat Icon for Windows Insider Program in Settings: Check out the new Ninjacat icon representing the Windows Insider Program under Settings > Update & security > Windows Insider Program.

Coming in June, the new Surface Laptop looks great. It also comes with Windows 10 S, a new version of Windows aimed at being more secure. The new Surface Laptop will be available in several colors and hardware configurations.

I think the Surface Laptop looks like a great device. I’m not so sold on Windows 10 S, however. I like the cloud integration, but I’ve never been a fan of the “Wild West” of the Store. I know a lot of people, myself included, that have brought it to the attention of Microsoft with all the trash applications, fakes, strictly ads, etc. in the store.  I would rather use AppLocker to whitelist the apps that I would approve in my environment. I like the idea, but my experience with the Store makes me question the security and reliability of the apps within the Store.

The Windows Insiders Team has a new Beam webcast PC built by Jason Howard. The Beam webcasts they’ve had in the past have been fun and cool. I’m very impressed that the program manager built and had fun building this nice machine for the Insiders team. No matter what I do at work, I’m always loving building and playing with PC hardware. It’s nice seeing the program manager’s at Microsoft enjoying the ‘simple things’ as well.

Also, a compliment to the build and great cable management and parts selection. He definitely enjoys what he does! Yet another reason I love Microsoft and their employees. They have a lot of fun!

Any time you set out to create something, be it a piece of software, a new PC build, or something as altruistic as sharing feedback on a bug or new feature idea you have, you’re taking the time to invest yourself. You’re investing in your abilities, your ideas, and your desire to have an impact. Windows Insiders invest every day via participation in this program. Our efforts to build a new PC to better connect with you all via our monthly webcasts is another way of showing our appreciation for all you do day-in and day-out to make the Insider program the success it has become and will continue to be. I look forward to connecting with you and am excited about our new series of webcasts.

Build 16184 for PC and 15208 for Mobile have been released to the Fast Ring Insiders for Windows 10. Some new features as part of the new PC build, too.

What’s New in Build 16184 For PC

My People: Technology is all about making it easier for you to connect with your most important people. Whether you want to share a photo, make plans for dinner, or get an answer from a friend or coworker – My People is here to take it to the next level and bring the people you care about most to the center of your experience.

For Windows Insiders that are on the fast build, gear up for another update – 16179 for PC and 15205 for Mobile. A couple new things in this build:

Revert VM: Continuing our theme of simplifying Hyper-V for developers on Windows 10 (see What’s New), we’re introducing automatic checkpoints so that you’ll always be able to undo a mistake in your virtual machine – you can now always revert to the last time you started a virtual machine.

Introducing Power Throttling*: You may remember some of the power experiments we did back in January with Build 15002. Power Throttling was one of those experiments, and showed to have up to 11% savings in CPU power consumption for some of the most strenuous use cases. So, we’re turning this on for everyone starting with last week’s build. Check out our complete blog post on this for more details!

There are new builds for both PC and mobile. 16176 has been released for the desktop and 15204 for mobile. Like the last update, not a lot of feature updates, but more on the back end. There is also a smaller list of devices that are supported on the mobile side, so some people may be disappointed in the dwindling Windows Phone support.

Today we are excited to be releasing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 16176 for PC to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring. We’re continuing work to refine OneCore with some code refactoring so that teams can start checking in new code. So, you still won’t see any noticeable changes or new features in new builds just yet.

J.D. Power has ranked the Microsoft Surface tablet above Apple’s iPad and Android tablets. The Surface Pro earned a 855 out of 1000 score among tablet owners, making it the number one mostly due to the high rankings in features and the styling and design. I own both the Surface Pro 4 and an Apple iPad. Both are amazing devices, but the Surface Pro is superior in many ways. The iPad is still a very capable tablet, but it is only a tablet whereas the Surface Pro is a full fledged PC and much more powerful. I don’t regret either purchase and still use both almost daily.

In features, Microsoft is the highest performer in three areas: variety of pre-loaded applications; internet connectivity; and availability of manufacturer-supported accessories. Microsoft Surface users have the highest incidences of accessory use, which underscores the device’s versatility. These accessories include a stylus (48% vs. 27% industry average); physical keyboard (51% vs. 14%); and mouse (27% vs. 6%), all of which have higher satisfaction. Microsoft also achieves the highest ratings in these features attributes: variety of input/output connectivity and amount of internal storage available.