Last week, Microsoft made a small jump up in build numbers from 11099 to 11102 with the rollout of its most recent Windows 10 Insider Preview for PCs. Today, it's taking a much bigger jump with the rollout of new build 14251 today for those on the Fast ring - the latest build to emerge from its Redstone development branch.
Microsoft's Gabe Aul explained the reason for the big increase in the build number today:
Historically, the codebase for mobile had a different OS version than the codebase for PC because they were developed by different teams on different schedules. With Windows 10, we became one Windows team and brought these two codebases together. We started by changing the version string displayed in the UI to be consistent, which is why you saw similarly labeled builds over the past year for both Mobile and PC, but the underlying binary version numbers were still different. As part of our work getting the common codebase ready for the next release, we decided to complete that work and sync the build numbers between mobile and PC. Because the mobile codebase used higher build numbers than PC, we needed to jump ahead a bunch of build numbers to ensure updates to future builds will continue to work. So that’s why build numbers went from 11105, 11106, and 11107 to 14251.
Those who have been following the rollouts of recent builds will already know that we weren't expecting any new features in this release - and indeed, there are no surprises on that front.
However, build 14251 does include some welcome fixes for various bugs, including:
- We fixed the issue where some PC games would crash switching from windowed mode to full screen, upon game resolution change, or upon launch due to a bug in Windows graphics stack. So play your games! If you run into any issues – please let us know by reporting in the Feedback app and include the game title.
- We fixed the issue where applications such as Narrator, Magnifier, and third-party assistive technologies may experience intermittent issues or crashes.
- We fixed an issue where File Explorer would crash frequently when DPI settings were at 175%.
Gabe also reiterated that Microsoft has switched to a new 'even faster' cadence this year for its Fast ring releases, and that this is likely to result in more bugs popping up - and this may also result in a longer wait for some of those bugs to be fixed. Those who aren't prepared to deal with these issues should switch to the Slow ring for more stable builds.
Indeed, this latest release brings a few known issues of its own:
- You might see a WSClient.dll error dialog after logging in. We’re working on a fix for this but as a workaround, you can run the following in Command Prompt with administrative rights: schtasks /delete /TN “\Microsoft\Windows\WS\WSRefreshBannedAppsListTask” /F
- The Connect button does not show up in Action Center. The workaround is to press Windows key + P and then click “Connect to a wireless display”.
- Due to a recent memory management change, you may see periodic app crashes or other memory related app errors. The workaround is to reboot your PC.
If you encounter any other major issues in the new build, be sure to let us know in the comments below (and don't forget to tell Microsoft too via the Windows Feedback app).
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