Today, Microsoft released Windows 10 Insider Preview build 20161 for the Dev channel. As usual, the build comes from the Iron development branch, even though the build is not tied to a specific version. It’s iron, but it’s not 21H1, if that makes sense. It will be 21H1 when Microsoft begins to repair it in the Beta channel.
For once, this build has a ton of new features. For one, it has themed tiles in the Start menu, along with the ability to switch between tabs in Edge using Alt-Tab. Here is the complete list:
Thematic mosaics in Home
We’re revamping the Start menu with a more streamlined design that removes solid-color backplates behind logos in the app list and applies a uniform, partially transparent background to tiles. This layout creates a beautiful setting for your apps, especially the fluid layout icons for Office and Microsoft Edge, as well as the redesigned icons for built-in apps like Calculator, Mail, and Calendar that we started rolling out earlier this year.
This refined startup design looks great on dark and light themes, but if you’re looking for a splash of color, first make sure to turn on the Windows dark theme and then turn on “Show accent color on the following surfaces” for “Start, taskbar and action center “in Settings> Personalization> Color to elegantly apply your accent color to the start frame and tiles.
Do you want the amazing desktop wallpaper shown in the screenshot above? Download our ‘Pride 2020 Flags’ theme from the Microsoft Store!
ALT + TAB between applications and sites
Are you multitasking? We have exciting news for you! Starting with today’s build, all open tabs in Microsoft Edge will start to appear in Alt + TAB, not just activate it in every browser window. We are making this change so you can quickly get back to whatever you were doing, wherever you were doing it.
If you prefer fewer tabs or the classic Alt + TAB experience, we’ve added some settings in Settings> System> Multitasking. You can configure Alt + Tab to show only your last three or five tabs or choose to disable this feature entirely.
This feature is currently being implemented on a subset of Insiders today on the Dev Channel and requires a Canary or Dev build from Microsoft Edge (version 83.0.475.0 or higher).
This is just the beginning of the productivity improvements coming to Microsoft Edge. Pay attention!
A more personalized taskbar for new users
We want to help customers get the most out of their PCs from day one, and that starts with offering a cleaner, more personalized and ready-to-go experience to deliver the content you want and less clutter. This provides us with a flexible cloud-powered infrastructure to test client reception of default taskbar content and tailor these designs based on user and device signal.
We will evaluate the performance of individual default properties, monitoring diagnostic data and user feedback to assess the reception of an audience. With this information, we will adjust the default layouts to minimize clutter clutter and perceptions.
Please note that this experience is limited to the creation of a new account or the first login scenarios. We will not use the programmable taskbar to alter the design of the taskbar in existing accounts.
Improving the notification experience
We are making some changes to improve the notification experience in Windows 10.
First, know where your toast is coming from by looking at the app logo at the top. Done with the notification? Select the X in the upper right corner to quickly discard and get on with your life.
And second, we are disabling the Focus Assist notification and toast summary by default, so we will no longer let users know that Focus Assist has been triggered by an automatic rule via notification. This can be changed back to the previous behavior through Settings.
Make even better adjustments
We continue working to bring the capabilities of the Control Panel to Settings. As part of this ongoing effort, we are migrating the information found on the Control Panel System page to the About Settings page in Settings> System> About. The links that would open the System page in Control Panel will now direct you to About in Settings. We are also bringing new enhancements, such as making your device information copyable and simplifying the displayed security information. And don’t worry: if you’re looking for more advanced controls that lived on the System page in Control Panel, you can still access them from the modern About page if you need them!
There will be more improvements that will bring the Settings even closer to the Control Panel. If you trust the settings that only exist in Control Panel today, please send your feedback and tell us what those settings are.
Improved tablet experience for 2-in-1 devices
Previously, when you unplug the keyboard on a 2-in-1 device, a notification toast appeared asking if you want to switch to tablet mode. If you selected yes, it would switch to tablet mode. If you choose not, it will bring you the new tablet posture experience introduced in the May 2020 update (or just the desktop in earlier versions of Windows 10). We’re further updating this experience by changing the default so that this notification message no longer appears and instead changes it directly to the new tablet experience, with some improvements to the touch. You can change this setting by going to Settings> System> Tablet. Some users may have already seen this change on Surface devices.
And to address the confusion with some users getting stuck in tablet mode on non-touch devices, we are removing the quick action of tablet mode on non-touch devices.
In addition, new logic is incorporated to allow users to start in the appropriate mode according to the way they were last and whether the keyboard is connected or not.
As you can see there are a ton of new features. The default tablet mode is interesting, because Microsoft used to purposely ask you to go for it. Now, it will only happen. This may have been inspired by Chrome OS ‘new tablet mode, which does so automatically, too.
As usual, you can get the build through Windows Update. If you’re not on the Dev channel yet, you can sign up through the Windows Insider Program tab in Settings.
