Tag: Windows 10

Microsoft released Windows 10 version 1909 in November 2019; the new major version of Windows 10 was just a minor update that did not introduce many new features or changes to the system.

Windows 10 devices that run older versions of the operating system can be upgraded to the new version. While there are some stopper bugs and devices that are held back, as usual, most devices are eligible for the update to Windows 10 version 1909.

Microsoft revealed earlier this month that it won’t release smaller updates like Windows 10 version 1909 anytime soon. The company revealed that it used the update to test the functionality but that it had no plans to make the 2009 update a minor update as well.

Another major change that happened recently was the termination of the Skip Ahead Insider Ring. Microsoft dropped it entirely from the program which meant that Fast, Slow and Release preview rings are all that is left.

Microsoft’s plans for 2020

What about 2020 then and Windows 10? Microsoft published a new Windows 10 Insider Preview version, build 19033, on November 26, 2019 and announced the release on the official Windows Experience blog.

Brandon LeBlanc, a Windows Insider Program Senior Program Manager, revealed the version of the next feature update for Windows 10 in the blog post.

Eagle-eyed Windows Insiders will notice that that as of this build, 20H1 officially shows it is version 2004. We have chosen to use 2004 as the version to eliminate confusion with any past product names (such as Windows Server 2003).

To avoid confusion with Windows Server 2003, Microsoft made the decision to make Windows 10 version 2004 the next feature update for the operating system. Obviously, that may still be confusing considering that users could interpret the version as year.

Still, the month may align better with the actual release date of the feature update considering that the last two, named Windows 10 version 1903 and Windows 10 version 1909, were released in May 2019 and November 2019 respectively.

Build 2004 has been pushed to the Fast and Slow ring. Fast ring systems will receive Windows 10 20H2 soon; the second feature update for Windows 10 of 2020 will then be tested by participants who run Fast Ring devices.

Closing Words

Microsoft plans to release two major feature updates for Windows 10 in 2020. Windows 10 2004 will be the first major release in 2020 and it will introduce new features and make changes to the operating system. Little is known about the second feature update of 2020 as public testing has not yet begun.

Here’s the good news: If you haven’t updated your Realtek Bluetooth drivers in some time, or don’t even know that’s a thing, you can finally update to Windows 10 version 1909—the latest and greatest iteration of the operating system as of when we published this article.

According to Bleeping Computer, Microsoft has removed a block that prevented you from upgrading to this, or even Windows 10 versions 1903 and 1809, as a result of your older Realtek drivers causing issues with device connections on newer versions of the OS.

Whatever that problem was, it has since been fixed with a newer version of Realtek’s drivers. In theory, you should be able to update to the latest version of these via Windows Update itself—version 1.5.1012 or later, that is. You can check to see what you’re running by opening up Device Manager, expanding the Bluetooth section, right-clicking and selecting “Properties,” and clicking on the Driver tab:

If you’re running an older driver, and no update is available via Windows Update, you can try installing Realtek’s Bluetooth drivers manually. It looks like an incredibly complicated process, but you’ll be fine. As Microsoft describes:

Download both of the Realtek Bluetooth radio drivers to your preferred folder: Driver 1, Driver 2. Note We recommend downloading them to your Documents folder.

Open File Explorer. If there is no file explorer icon in the task bar, select the search box and enter file explorer and select it.

Within File Explorer, go the the Documents folder or the folder you downloaded the drivers to.

Find and double click or double tap on the file named 068de0d6-6ac2-473a-8cbd-bd449cd5c97c_942eec5828662eecc6b98cc2706658bf2433717c.cab

Select CTRL+a on the keyboard. This should select all of the files

Right click or long press on any of the files and select Extract.

Select the New folder button and rename it Realtek Bluetooth.

Select the Extract button.

In File Explorer, select the back button to go to the location you downloaded the drivers into.

Find and double click or double tap on the file named f2748416-7753-49c6-9185-56f4986f490b_e98e0d664b7e874011b8e3752046ca61f3475295.cab

Select CTRL+a on the keyboard. This should select all of the files

Right click or long press on any of the files and select Extract.

If you are in the folder named Realtek Bluetooth, then select the New folder button and type Realtek Bluetooth 2.

Select the Extract button.

In the search box on the taskbar, enter device manager, then select Device Manager.

Find Bluetooth and expand it.

Find the Realtek device and right-click or long press on it.

Select Update Driver from the context menu.

Select the Browse my computer for driver software button.

It should default to your Documents folder, if this is where you saved the drivers then just select the Next button. If you did not save the drivers to your Documents folder, select the Browse button and find the folder you downloaded the drivers to and select OK.

It should now find the updated drivers and install them. Wait for this to complete and select Close.

Once you’ve done that, feel free to ponder a refreshing beverage while you wait for Windows 10 to update to the latest version, too. However, I wouldn’t start pouring it until you have confirmation that the update is ready to download and install; Microsoft says it could take up to 48 hours or so after you’ve updated your Bluetooth drivers for the Windows update to become available.

As promised, the next Windows 10 feature update is now live for Insiders in the Slow ring. Microsoft has this month released the November 2019 Update for the public, internally finalized Windows 10 20H1 and now released its Preview Builds to the Slow ring. Quite a happening month.

The build arriving today is Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19025.1051 from the 20H1 branch, which was released on November 15 to the Fast ring. Since then Microsoft has delivered another update to Insiders in the Fast ring.

Here is the changelog of Windows 10 20H1 build 19025 – which isn’t everything that is new with 20H1, just the changes coming with that particular build as Slow ring will be getting A LOT more!

Improving Windows Search

As Insiders know, over the releases, we’ve been continuing to work on improving search results based on your feedback. Including adding Enhanced search mode (adding an easy option to expand search across all folders and drivers) in 19H1, as well integrating Windows Search into File Explorer, to ensure more consistent results regardless of where you start your search.

In 19H1, we asked Insiders why they were turning off the search indexer. Your feedback helped us make improvements then and helped us focus on three key areas of improvement in 20H1: excessive disk and CPU usage, general performance issues, and low perceived value of the indexer.

Based on this, we’re introducing an algorithm that detects high disk usage and activity, so it can better identify peak usage times and manage the indexer accordingly. We’re also making changes for developers to prevent searches of certain repositories and project folders to improve disk usage.

Learn more about these features that we’ve been working on throughout 20H1 and get helpful tips and troubleshooting info to help you make the most of Windows Search in our Supercharging Windows Search article.

General changes, improvements, and fixes for PC

We fixed an issue from the previous flight preventing Sandbox and WDAG from working.

We fixed an issue resulting in certain fingerprint readers no longer working as of Build 19013.

We fixed an issue that could result in VPN Settings hanging after upgrade.

We’ve done some work to help address an issue that could result in certain modern UI components (including notifications and the network flyout), scaling either too large or too small after attaching an external monitor or remoting into the machine from a monitor with a different DPI.

We fixed an issue impacted login performance for some users in recent builds.

We fixed an issue resulting in Windows Hello authentication not working with certain apps in recent builds.

We fixed an issue that could result in the mouse pointer not displaying when logging in to a PC locally after remoting in.

We fixed an issue where, when using the touch keyboard docked on a large screen, the keys would stretch out to span the width of the monitor, rather than staying an optimal width for touch interaction.

We fixed an issue that could result in ctfmon.exe crashing when using reconversion with the Japanese IME in certain text fields.

We fixed an issue that could result in web activities in Timeline not opening if you had new Edge installed.

We fixed an issue where a high number of app deployment failures in a short period of time could result in an unexpectedly large volume of disk space being used by evtx files saved under %windir%\temp.

We fixed an issue resulting in some apps failing to update with error 0x8007000A.

We fixed an issue resulting in jitters when using Magnifier in certain multi-monitor configurations.

We fixed an issue where the mouse pointer did not start from where the Magnifier viewport was if it had moved from typing.

We fixed an issue impacting Narrator performance reading aloud in Outlook after switching focus from an email back to the list of emails in your inbox.

We fixed a memory leak in EoAExperiences.exe after using the text cursor indicator for prolonged periods of time.

Windows 10 20H1 19025: Knowns issues

BattlEye and Microsoft have found incompatibility issues due to changes in the operating system between some Insider Preview builds and certain versions of BattlEye anti-cheat software. To safeguard Insiders who might have these versions installed on their PC, we have applied a compatibility hold on these devices from being offered affected builds of Windows Insider Preview. See this article for details.

We’ve heard that Settings still isn’t available outside of launching via the URI (ms-settings:) for some Insiders and are investigating.

Some Insiders are reporting that after successfully installing printer drivers from the Optional Updates section, the same driver is still showing as available for install. We’re looking into the issue.

We’re looking into reports where, when certain external USB 3.0 drives are attached, they stop responding with Start Code 10 or 38.

You can also clean install Windows 10 20H1 as Microsoft recently released ISO images for Insiders.

In the wake of the release of Windows 10 version 1909, Microsoft has made the Setup ISO available for download.

You get it as you did with past releases: Visit the Download Windows 10 website, select the “Download tool now” button under Create Windows 10 installation media, and then download and run the Windows 10 Setup tool. Then, following the steps in the wizard, choose “Create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD, or ISO file) for another PC,” the correct language, edition, and architecture, and then “ISO file.”

I’ve verified that the ISO you download this way is for version 1909 (as opposed to the previous version, 1903), but if you’re worried about it, you can ensure you get a 1909 ISO by using a bizarre method I’ve seen publicized on Bleeping Computer and elsewhere: Basically, you use the Chrome or new Edge developer tools to fake the site into thinking you’re using an iPhone so that it will skip the wizard download and just deliver you the 32-bit or 64-bit version of the Windows 10 version 1909 ISO.

Either way, you should be good to go.

Yesterday, Microsoft released the Windows 10 November 2019 Update. It’s a small update, with a small list of new features. It’s no surprise, since Windows 10 version 1909 is really just an enablement package that lights up some new features and bumps up the build number. Version 1903 and 1909 are even serviced with the exact same cumulative updates.

Microsoft has updated its support documents to show which features are being removed or deprecated in the new update. Being that this is a small update, it should come as no surprise that this list is small as well.

And then there are the features that are being deprecated. This means that these features are still included in the OS, but they’re not longer being actively developed. It also means that they may be removed in a future release.

My People is probably the most consumer-facing feature that’s being deprecated. Presumably, it wasn’t being used much.

The next feature update is Windows 10 20H1, which is due out in the first half of 2020. The good news is that it’s pretty much done, so if a deprecated feature on the list isn’t removed just yet, it probably won’t be.

New Windows 10 20H1 ISO files have been released. These latest ISO files are available for Build 19013 that was released to Insiders in the Fast ring last week. This particular build brought new kaomoji, newer version of PowerToys and some WSL 2 improvements.

Microsoft last released ISO files about a month ago for build 18990. But you can now clean install a latest build of the next major Windows 10 version. As reported earlier, Microsoft has internally almost finalized Windows 10 20H1 potentially planning to deliver the RTM build to Insiders at the end of this year to align the release with Azure. This is probably why we aren’t seeing any new features being tested with Windows 10 20H1 anymore.

You can now download official Windows 10 ISO files for build 19013 from the Windows Insider website

To be able to download the ISO files, you will first need to follow these steps to get yourself enrolled in the Windows Insider Program. [Windows Insiders can directly download the Windows 10 20H1 ISO files]

Sign up for the Windows Insider Program .

Make sure your machine meets the system requirements.

Download the ISO files.

A new Stardock utility called TouchTasks makes Windows 10 easier to use on tablets and other multitouch PCs.

“To make the Surface Pro and devices like it a much better tablet experience, we’re releasing TouchTasks 1.0,” Stardock’s Brad Wardell told me. “This is an app that takes advantage of the fact that the touch surface of a tablet extends slightly beyond the display area so you can define spots just off the screen that you can tap to have them do things.”

TouchTasks defines five areas—three on the top of the display and one each on the left and right—that you can tap to perform an action. There are some useful actions built-in, like a customizable application launcher (on the left by default) and a task switcher (on the right).

But you can also access a brightness control panel, the on-screen keyboard, recent documents, the Start menu, a quick nav panel, or Show desktop. Or you can launch any application or press a hotkey. It’s your choice.

TouchTasks works in both portrait and landscape modes, and it will rotate its touch points as you rotate the display. It doesn’t interfere with Windows 10’s built-in edge swipes, either, based on my initial testing.

TouchTasks normally costs $9.99 but it’s available for just $4.99 right now and you can grab a 30-day trial to see if it’s what you want.

For the past three years, Microsoft has delivered updates to Windows 10 on a predictable schedule, with new major releases arriving as a large update every six months. Those feature updates are targeted for completion in March and September, with public release following a month or two later.

The next feature update, Windows 10 version 1909, is on track to arrive right on schedule, but that’s the only thing about this version that will follow the familiar pattern.

Members of the Windows Insiders Program can get version 1909 today by configuring a Windows 10 device for the Release Preview ring. The build should begin rolling out to the general public in November.

When it’s available, it will appear as an optional update. It won’t be installed automatically; instead, you’ll need to click Download And Install Now to kick off the update.

If you’re dreading the thought of twiddling your thumbs for an hour or more as yet another large update installs, I have some good news for you. On systems already running version 1903, this feature update is being delivered as a small “enablement package” (KB4517245) that takes only a few minutes to download and install. (If you’re running Windows 10 version 1809 or earlier, you’ll get the full feature update.)

Checking the contents of the Software Distribution folder (the system folder where Windows downloads and stages updates) confirms just how small this update is. Checking the Windows build numbers before and after installing the 1909 Enablement Package offers a clue why.

Normally, that build number jumps significantly with each feature update. From 1803 to 1809 to 1903, for example, the major build number went from 17134 to 17763 to 18362, respectively.

On my test system, after upgrading from Windows 10 version 1903 to version 1909, the build number increased from 18362.418 to 18363.418. No, that’s not a typo. Even the minor build number, which indicates the most recent cumulative update, isn’t reset with this new feature update. The About page in Settings shows the version as 1909, but the “Installed on” date shows a date from April 2019, the same date that version 1903 was installed.

In short, version 1909 is version 1903 with a few tiny tweaks and an equally tiny change in build number. The enablement package increments the build number and enables the new features. That’s all.

In a July blog post, Microsoft said this build includes “a scoped set of features for select performance improvements, enterprise features, and quality enhancements.” Which is a high-falutin’ way of saying there are very few new features in this update.

The changes are outlined in a blog post published last week: What’s new in Windows 10, version 1909. I’ve gone through that short list (fewer than 20 items) and categorized them.

For starters, Microsoft says this build offers “general battery life and power efficiency improvements for PCs with certain processors.” Without knowing which “certain processors” are the beneficiaries of these improvements, it’s hard to say how meaningful these changes will be.

Two of the new features are strictly for PC makers. One allows OEMs to reduce inking latency based on the hardware capabilities of their devices; the other allows access to additional debugging capabilities for newer Intel processors.

Enterprise administrators have a few new features to incorporate into their management infrastructure. The list includes support for mixed-version container scenarios, additional security for recovery passwords on devices managed using Microsoft Intune and other MDM tools, the ability to allow Windows desktop apps on Windows 10 in S Mode using Microsoft Intune, and the availability of Windows Defender Credential Guard for ARM64 devices. (The latter feature should be especially useful for organizations deploying Surface Pro X.)

For Windows 10 users, the list of new features is extremely short.

Third-party digital assistants can activate above the Lock screen using voice commands.

The Calendar flyout on the taskbar allows you to create an appointment or meeting on the fly, without having to open the Calendar app.

The navigation pane on the Start menu expands when you hover over it with your mouse to provide more details about what each icon represents.

The search box in File Explorer is now powered by Windows Search, allowing results to include OneDrive content online. This change also means that search results appear instantly in a drop-down list below the search box as you type.

A group of changes to notifications make it easier to configure and manage notifications in banners (aka “toast” pop-ups) and in Action Center.

Finally, Narrator and other assistive technologies can now detect the location of a dedicated Fn key and determine whether it’s locked or unlocked. That accessibility feature is increasingly important as more PCs use this technique to toggle the actions assigned to function keys.

As always, you can defer this update on business editions of Windows 10 using Group Policy or Windows Update for Business settings. Organizations that run Windows 10 Enterprise edition version 1909 will be supported with updates for 30 months, until well into 2022.

In order to service Windows 10 with improvements, bug fixes, and security updates, Microsoft releases updates every month. Unfortunately, these updates often introduce other bugs that could cause problems with the proper operation of Windows.

For example, in the past months, we have seen many reports of compatibility issues and other problems caused by a Windows 10 update. For example, the Windows 10 April 2018 Update affected the performance of web browsers and Windows 10 October 2018 Update deleted some people’s personal files, documents and pictures.

Windows 10’s monthly cumulative and security updates have caused problems, too. For example, a patch shipped in late September that disabled Printing spooler service and an update shipped in the first week of October 2019 broke the Start menu.

This has led some Windows users to want to delay, or pause, the installation of new updates until they have been determined to be bug free.

To do this, Microsoft lets you pause or delay Windows Updates, and here’s how:

Open the Start menu.

Click on Settings cog icon or simply type ‘Settings’.

Click Update & Security.

Click Advanced options.

Under Pause updates section, click on ‘Select date’ drop down box to select a date that you wish to pause updates until.

Windows 10 Home with May 2019 Update lets you pause updates for up to 7 days and you can pause updates for more than 35 days if you use Windows 10 Pro.

Windows 10 Pro and Enterprise editions also have other advanced options, including Group Policy to pause updates.