Redmond again ships a build that’s full of goodies

Jun 22, 2017 04:46 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft rolled out a new Windows 10 Redstone 3 preview build a couple of hours ago with major improvements, including new features that are projected to be part of the Fall Creators Update coming in September this year.

First and foremost, the new Windows 10 default browser Microsoft Edge is getting tons of new features, including new behavior for tabs, which can now be closed even when JavaScript dialogs are showing. This way, closing a tab or the full Edge window remains available all the time, no matter what’s on the screen.

Furthermore, Microsoft has also introduced a cookie and setting import tool from Google Chrome, a feature that all the other major browsers have, as well as EPUB refinements like copy and ask Cortana, ink notes, and books roamed across devices.

The bookmark manager has also been revamped with a new directory tree-based UI, but also with options to edit URLs for favorites and group policy support for defining and locking pre-configured favorites in the browser.

Fluent Design updates

This new build also introduces emoji updates, with new smiley faces like snacks, actions, and dinosaurs, as well as OneDrive Files On-Demand, a new feature that brings back placeholders in Windows. Placeholders were originally launched in Windows 8 but removed in Windows 10, so with this build Microsoft is making this feature available once again.

There are also touch keyboard improvements and game mode tweaks, but one particular new feature that appeals to power users is GPU performance tracking in Task Manager. From now on, the task manager also displays information about your graphics card, just like for the CPU, with information like usage, available memory, driver version, and date, as well as graphs to keep an eye on dedicated and shared memory usage.

As part of the Fluent Design visual overhaul, Microsoft is also adding a new Reveal Highlight effect that’s enabled by default in universal apps. This is just one of the effects coming in the Fall Creators Update and Microsoft promises more updates in the coming builds.

Without a doubt, this is one major release for Windows insiders, and it shows that work on the Fall Creators Update advances at a super-fast pace, with lots of new features and improvements rolled out every once in a while. The new update should be ready in September for insiders ahead of its launch date in October.