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Microsoft Edge, gaming get updates in latest Windows 10 Insider build

Mark Coppock
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Windows 10
Microsoft
The march toward Windows 10 Fall Creators Update continues, with the Windows Insider program leading the way with increasingly impressive new preview builds. Windows 10 build 16215, for example, was full of new features and fixes that move the operating system that much closer to the next major release.

Today, Microsoft pushed build 16226 to Windows Insider PCs, and it’s full of functionality as well. Microsoft published the complete changelog for build 16226 on the Windows blog, and we’ve covered the highlights below.

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Edge EPUB support

Microsoft Edge is once again the recipient of some significant enhancements, particularly in its support for EPUB ebook reading.

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First up is support for Copy and Ask Cortana when selecting your text, along with adding notes, highlighting, and underlining. Ask Cortana works just as it does elsewhere in Windows 10, providing Bing-powered search results.

Notes can be added using the keyboard or via Windows Ink. Finally, ebooks acquired from the Windows Store are now synced across devices, including reading progress, bookmarks, and notes.

Edge Favorites

Microsoft has made it easier to work with favorites in Edge. First, all favorites can now be viewed as a directory tree when saving, and folders can be expanded and collapse. Next, users can now edit a favorite URL from within the menu or the Favorites Bar, making it easier to update a site that has moved.

Other Edge Fixes

In addition, it’s easier to close tabs, with the X in the tab band now always available even when a Javascript dialog is displayed. Moving from Chrome to Edge has also been made easier, with the ability to migrate Cookies and settings.

Emojis

Microsoft has expanded the number of emojis that are available in Windows 10, with Emoji 5.0 support. New snacks, actions, dinosaurs, and more are now available. In addition, the Emoji Panel has gained a new search feature making it easy to find and select just the right emoji.

OneDrive Files on Demand

Windows 10 preview build 16215 added the long-anticipated OneDrive Files On-Demand feature that allows users to see all of the files in their OneDrive repository but only download the files they need. That saves space on machines with limited storage, and Microsoft has further enhanced the feature in build 16226. Now, users will get a progress bar in the Action Center showing what’s being downloaded, the status, and an option to cancel a download.

Touch Keyboard

The Windows 10 on-screen touch keyboard now supports shape writing in more languages. Note that you’ll need to download the required language resources in order to use a language other than English. In addition, more languages are receiving text prediction support, and the touch keyboard also now works with East Asian languages.

Handwriting and Pen Interactions

Microsoft has improved the handwriting panel, with the ability to erase words with a pen eraser, processed text is now drawn using Segoe UI, and an issue where the font would be an unexpected size has been fixed. Finally, pen scrolling now works in Win32, or Windows desktop, apps such as File Explorer.

Windows Sonic Spatial Sound

Microsoft introduced Windows Sonic for enhanced headphone audio in Windows 10 Creators Update, and it’s been made even easier to enable. Just plug in a set of headphones, right-click on the sound icon in the notification area, and select Spatial sound and your preferred format.

Gaming Improvements

Gaming has also been enhanced in Windows 10 build 16226. New help options have been added via a new Xbox Networking section in Settings > Gaming. Perhaps most welcome is the addition of a new GPU performance tracker in Task Manager, which shows GPU utilization for each separate GPU component such as 3D and Video encode/decode.

That’s just a selection of what’s new in Windows 10 preview build 16226, which also comes with the usual list of fixes and known issues. For example, if you had difficulty upgrading to build 16215, then this build should be less problematic for you. For a complete overview of everything that’s new in the latest build, head over to the Windows blog, and note that you’ll need to be a Windows Insider on the Fast Ring to see build 16226 show up on your PC.

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Mark Coppock
Mark Coppock
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