Microsoft released Windows 10 Insider Preview build 18272 to the Fast ring today. It's the latest preview from the 19H1 development branch, and as usual, the new features are pretty minor.
The changelog itself is actually pretty long, but it's filled with redesigned sign-in options, Snip & Sketch improvements, Sticky Notes 3.1, and more. There's still no word on the return of Sets, a feature that debuted in Redstone 4 testing, returned in Redstone 5 testing, and was once again delayed. The feature should still be coming though.
Here's the full changelog for Windows 10 build 18272:
Sign-in Options Redesigned for Windows Hello
Security shouldn’t be intimidating, and we aspire to help you eliminate passwords. That’s why we want to make sure you can easily set up your first line of defense securing your device with Windows Hello. Your feedback that the previous design was cluttered, and confusing is what drove us to simplify the Sign-in options Settings. We believe this update will help you choose the safest and fastest sign-in option for your needs, whether that’s using a PIN or a biometric factor like fingerprint or facial recognition.
Ultimately, we want to help you make the right decision for your situation. By condensing each sign-in option into a list that explains individual properties and next step for setup, we hope you feel more informed the next time you decide how you want to sign in using enhanced security features with Windows Hello.
Input Improvements
Expanding SwiftKey’s Typing Intelligence to More Languages: In RS5 we started working on bringing SwiftKey’s AI technology to Windows, and we’re excited to announce that we’re expanding support to the following languages:
- English (Canada) – en-CA
- English (India) – en-IN
- French (Canada) – fr-CA
- French (Belgium) – fr-BE
- French (Switzerland) – fr-CH
- Portuguese (Portugal) – pt-PT
- German (Switzerland) – de-CH
- Spanish (United States) – es-US
If you’re a touch keyboard user that writes in any of these languages, please try out the text predictions and shapewriting in this build and let us know how it feels for you. If you’d like to compare how the keyboard feels with and without this change, check the options for supported languages under Settings > Devices > Typing > Suggestions and Autocorrections.
Using a physical keyboard? Hardware keyboard text suggestions are also supported with the above languages now. Text suggestions for the hardware keyboard is a learning tool we originally introduced in RS4, and expanded language support for with RS5. If you’d like to try it out in one of the supported languages, you can do so by enabling the “Show text suggestions as I type” feature under Settings > Devices > Typing.
Indic Phonetic keyboards now available for PC: Do you write in an Indic language? We’ve heard your feedback, and in addition to the Indic Traditional INSCRIPT keyboards already available, with today’s build we’re adding Indic Phonetic keyboards for Hindi, Bangla, Tamil, Marathi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Odia, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam!
How does a phonetic keyboard work? Basically it’s a convenient way of typing that leverages the English QWERTY keyboard – as you type, we use transliteration to suggest possible Indic text candidates. For example, if you typed “namaste” using the Hindi Phonetic keyboard we would suggest नमस्ते, as you can see in the below gif:
If your native language is one of the above languages or you have some knowledge of Indic languages, please try this out with either the hardware or touch keyboard and let us know how it feels.
Here are the steps to get started:
- Select Start > Settings > Time & Language-> Language from the navigation menu.
- Select the + icon labeled [Add a preferred language] (or skip ahead to step 4 if your preferred Indic language was already added).
- Type the name of an Indic language into the search box and select it – for example “Hindi”. Click the Next button and install the Indic language on your device, which will return you to the Language page.
- Now back on the Language page, click the one you just added, and then click the Options button. This will take you to that language’s options page.
- Select the + icon labeled [Add a keyboard].
- Enable the Phonetic keyboard, for example [Hindi Phonetic – Input method editor] – now the languages options page will look something like this:
- Click input indicator on the taskbar (or press the Windows key + Space) and select the Indic Phonetic keyboard. Time to type something!
Note: The dictionaries used for the Indic Phonetic keyboards need to be downloaded. Right after adding the keyboard, please connect to Internet – you may need to wait a bit for the dictionary download to finish.
Accessibility Improvements
Narrator Caps Lock ON alert while typing: Narrator will now alert you when you are accidentally typing with Caps Lock turned on. The setting is on by default. To adjust this setting, visit Narrator Settings (Ctrl + Win + N), then navigate to the “Change how much content you hear” heading and review the combo box for “Change when you receive Caps Lock warnings while typing”.
It will work even if you have character echo option (“Hear characters as you type”) disabled, and it will work in edit fields as well as password field. By default, Narrator will always alert you regardless of presses of the Shift key as you type alphabetic characters. But you can choose to only be alerted when you press the Shift key together with an alphabetic character, or you can disable the feature altogether.
In this initial release, the sound effect you hear will sound like the standard Narrator error sound effect which we are working on improving. We look forward to your feedback on this new feature!
Other Updates for Insiders
Snip & Sketch (Version 10.1809.2964.0): Thank you to everyone who’s shared feedback so far! It’s been great seeing all of your comments, and we’re making progress on addressing them with our latest app update that’s in the process of rolling out to Insiders in the Fast ring. The update brings several improvements, including:
- Adding some emphasis. Planning to paste your screenshot somewhere? Does that place have the same color background as the background of your screenshot? When you update to the latest app version you’ll find a new option to add a border to your screenshots – giving them that little bit extra needed to stand out.
- Printing! Sometimes you want to keep a physical copy of your screenshots – we hear you that it took too many steps before, and have added a button in the toolbar so you can print directly from the app (you can also print to PDF!)
- Refining our save options:
- If you have unsaved changes and go to close a window or open a file that will now pop a confirmation.
- The default proposed file name will now include a timestamp.
- We’ve heard your feedback and saving now also supports jpg and gif file types.
- Also, we have a new settings page! We’re replacing our old the old About flyout with a full settings page where you’ll find the aforementioned option to add a border, an option for updates made to your snip to copy automatically to your clipboard, and more!
Have an opinion as to what’s next? We have a few things on our list already and would love to hear your thoughts! Head to the Feedback Hub to see some of the things we’re already tracking and share your voice.
Sticky Notes 3.1 (Version 3.1.32): Thank you for sharing your feedback on 3.0 release with us. We think you are going to love this update!
- We tested the waters with the Charcoal Note and you all seemed keen to go even darker! Introducing full-on Dark Mode support in Sticky Notes. We support Windows Dark Mode as well as the ability to set your color mode in Sticky Notes to suit your mood independent of your system settings.
- Everyone seemed excited about Sticky Notes syncing, so we spent some time making it even faster! Check it out and let us know how it feels.
Please give it a shot and let us know on Feedback Hub your thoughts on the new update.
Want to get to your notes from anywhere? How about on the web at https://www.onenote.com/stickynotes! It will be rolling out worldwide soon – take a look and let us know what you think.
While 19H1 development presses on, there's still no word on the Windows 10 October 2018 Update. The feature update was originally released on October 2, but was pulled on October 6 due to files being deleted upon upgrading. It's now the end of the month, and Microsoft has offered no statement regarding when the missing version of Windows will be re-released. There are fixes being tested with Insiders though.
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