In July, Microsoft offered up the option for Insiders on the Fast ring to opt into a new "Skip Ahead" feature that would let them move on to testing the next big Windows 10 feature update, Redstone 4, while Redstone 3 is finishing up testing. Now, Microsoft has released the very first Redstone 4 build to anyone who was able to throw their hat into the ring before the branch was filled up and subsequently closed to new opt-ins.
Labeled as build number 16353, this initial build doesn't contain any big new features. Those will come with time, but for right now, Microsoft is in a transition period of ramping up its efforts with Redstone 4 while winding down development of Redstone 3. That said, here's a look at all of the changes and improvements in Windows 10 build 16353:
- When the Action Center is black (the default option) the "clear all", "expand"/"collapse", and "see more" link text will now all use your accent color – making them pop more and improving discoverability.
- We've updated the Action Center to now support a two finger touch gesture to dismiss all notifications. Place two fingers vertically within the Action Center near the edge opposite to the side of your screen. Then slide these fingers towards the side of the screen. You will notice all notification groups following your fingers and then dismissing as you slide your fingers off the side of the screen.
- We fixed an issue in XAML resulting in text animations appearing slightly blurry in the last flight until the animation had stopped (for example, when loading the main page of Settings).
- We fixed an issue resulting in the taskbar being unexpectedly thick if you booted up the PC while plugged in to an external monitor with a different DPI.
- We fixed an issue that caused minimized per-monitor DPI aware windows to miss DPI changes and end up with a mix of DPI scaling upon restoring.
- We fixed an issue from recent flights where when Slideshow was enabled resuming from sleep a second time might place the Lock screen in a state where it couldn't be dismissed without pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del.
- We fixed an issue resulting in an unexpected change in mouse sensitivity in the last flight for PCs using non-default display scaling.
- We fixed an issue resulting in Asphalt 8 not accepting input in recent flights.
- We fixed an issue resulting in progress wheels on certain websites in Microsoft Edge unexpectedly moving out of place during their rotation.
- We fixed an issue where the Windows Hello strings would appear on top of the page when performing a pin reset from the login screen.
Again, this build is only being flighted to those who managed to opt into the "Skip Ahead" portion of the Fast ring. If you're a standard Fast ring Insider, you'll continue to receive Redstone 3 builds as development winds down.
What exactly is Windows Insider 'skip ahead?"
