Microsoft Releases Windows 10 (RS5) Insider Preview Build 17704

Microsoft released a new Redstone 5 build today and in addition to a ton of new features and improvements, it also removes the Sets feature.

Microsoft today released Windows 10 Redstone 5 Preview Build 17704 to Insiders in the Fast ring. This new version comes following the previous Build 17692. And this one includes a ton of new features and changes for Microsoft Edge, Skype, Diagnostic Data Viewer, and a lot more. However, while there are several new features to check out, one big one is getting the boot. Microsoft is removing the Sets window-management experience from this build in an attempt to make it better. Here is an overview of some of what you can expect with today’s release.

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17704

Microsoft Edge has several new improvements in this build including an improved address bar, main menu, toolbar icon customization, blocking of autoplay media (huge new improvement), and new PDF icon in File Explorer if Edge is your default PDF reader.

Skype is getting a major overhaul to include new features that include new calling experience, flexible group call canvas, easy screen sharing during calls, customizable themes, and a lot more.

Privacy settings continue to improve with each new feature update and this build includes improvements to the new Diagnostic Data Viewer currently included in Windows 10 1803. The new abilities in this build provide more control and transparency of the telemetry data Windows collects. You will be able to see several new categories of diagnostic data as well as Problem Reports that are sent to Microsoft to help diagnose performance issues.

Diagnostic Data Viewer RS5

In addition to the changes above, here is a look at some of the other general changes and system improvements included in today’s build:

  • If you have a Surface Studio, you should be able to update to Build 17698. Previously – Surface Studios were unable to update to Builds 17682, 17686, and 17692.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in seeing a 0x80070057 error in Windows Update when upgrading to the last few flights.
  • We fixed an issue from the last two flights resulting in the lock screen crashing in a loop when Picture Password was selected.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders experiencing a high volume of Start reliability issues in the last few flights.
  • We fixed an issue where if you used WIN+A to open the Action Center you couldn’t immediately press Esc to close it.
  • If clipboard history isn’t enabled, you can now enable it straight from WIN+V.
  • Have multiple items in your clipboard history (WIN+V)? You can now start fresh in one shot by clicking the new clear all button.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in noticeable lag when launching Task View on high DPI devices.
  • We fixed an issue where Task View would still have a launch animation if “Show animations in Windows” was turned off.
  • We fixed an issue where some cards in Timeline would appear with the text drawn twice, once normally, and a second time dimmer and with slightly different line spacing.
  • We fixed an issue resulting Cortana crashing when attempting to edit reminders in the last few flights.
  • We fixed an issue when using Cortana causing search results to sometimes not do anything when clicked in the last few flights.
  • We fixed an issue where the People flyout was using the old Microsoft Store icon.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in Credential Manager having white on white text when using Windows in dark theme.
  • We fixed an issue where the string “Don’t use the index when searching…” in File Explorer’s Folder Options dialog had corrupted text.
  • We’ve heard your feedback and are updating our sorting by size filters in File Explorer to be something a bit more modern. When you upgrade to this build you’ll find Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, Huge and Gigantic are now defined as 0 – 10KB, 16KB – 1MB, 1 MB to 128 MB, 128 MB – 1 GB, 1 GB – 4 GB, and > 4 GB, respectively.
  • We’ve added some new keywords to help you get to the settings you’re looking for – for example “rename” will now find “View your PC name” (from which you can rename your PC). Please log feedback if there are any others that you’d like us to add!
  • We fixed an issue resulting in Settings crashing when changing the default browser in the last flight.
  • We fixed an issue where after a reboot, settings for Background Apps would revert to default.
  • We fixed an issue where on demand features that were less than 1 MB (such as RSAT: IPAM Client) would fail to install.
  • We fixed an issue where if your Bluetooth was turned off when upgrading to recent builds, the toggle for turning on/off Bluetooth wouldbe missing in the Settings page and the Bluetooth quick action button in the Action Center will not work. Note: this fix willprevent the issue from happening again, however if you are already impacted you will need to uninstall the radioadapter and re-enumerate it to get yourself back into a good state. You can do this by opening Device Manager, finding the radio adapter listed under Bluetooth, right-clicking and selecting Uninstall (make sure “delete the driver software for this device” is left unchecked), clicking Uninstall, then going to the Action menu and selecting “Scan for hardware changes”.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in certain Bluetooth devices, like the NOAHLink, not connecting after upgrading.
  • We fixed the bug that was impacting driver testing scenarios where executing HLK Component/Device driver tests might havecaused abugcheck that blocked test execution.
  • We fixed the issue causing the Game bar to crash on x86 machines.
  • To improve clarity, we’ve separated Settings > Privacy > Speech, Inking & typing into two settings: Settings > Privacy > Speech and Settings > Privacy > Inking & typing personalization.
  • We fixed the issue that caused Settings > Ease of Access > Narrator, Choose Keyboard settings to be missing text as well as visible values in the two combo boxes.
  • We added DTS:X to the list of spatial audio technologies you can use.
  • We addressed a crash in the audio troubleshooter if querying the volume or mute state failed.
  • We fixed an audio service issue that could cause some previously-recoverable hangs to become unrecoverable.
  • We’ve updated Microsoft Edge so that even if a tab is not actively playing audio you will now be able to preemptively mute it from the context menu when right-clicking the tab.
  • We fixed an issue for certain languages where when loading tabs in Microsoft Edge you may briefly see a formatting placeholder (%) in the tab name.
  • We fixed an issue where drag events in Microsoft Edge (after moving a tab) could arrive out of order, leading to not being able to close that window.
  • We fixed an issue where Microsoft Edge would exit full screen video mode if focus was set to an Outlook window on a secondary monitor.
  • We fixed an off-by-one error when using the up arrow to go through your command history in Command Prompt in recent flights.
  • Thanks everyone who shared feedback about the Microsoft Pinyin IME experience introduced with Build 17661. With today’s build the experience will be returning to the one that shipped with the April 2018 Update, while we take your feedback into consideration.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in text being unexpectedly finalized when typing using the Japanese IME in Outlook 2016.
  • We fixed an issue where when using the Emoji Panel in a win32 app the first letter of the search might get dropped.
  • When using the touch keyboard you’ll find that the clipboard button is now always visible in the candidate pane. Tapping it will bring up your clipboard history for you to browse and paste from.
  • Shapewriting on the touch keyboard is now available when using English (Australia)!
  • We have fixed an issue where if you had previously performed a Find using Narrator’s Find feature and you brought up the dialog the text would not have been cleared from the field.
  • We’ve updated Ease of Access flyout on the login screen so that Narrator now has an on / off toggle

Of course, as is the case with all preview builds, there are also several known issues. There is a lot going on with this latest build, so make sure to read Microsoft’s full post on all changes, known issues, workarounds, and developer notes.

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