Microsoft unveiled a new insider preview build for Windows 10 yesterday. The new version, titled Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14342, includes the much-anticipated updates for extensions support for the Edge browser, along with real-time Web notifications and the ability to navigate using swipe gestures.
The new build also contains a slew of fixes for known issues such as problems with DRM-protected content, bugs causing audio content to crash and an issue causing the search box on the Language Settings page to crash. The company said it has also removed the Wi-Fi Sense feature that had allowed users to share Wi-Fi networks with their contacts.
“The cost of updating the code to keep this feature working combined with low usage and low demand made this not worth further investment,” Gabe Aul, a corporate vice president with Microsoft’s Engineering Systems Team, wrote in a blog post yesterday. “Wi-Fi Sense, if enabled, will continue to get you connected to open Wi-Fi hotspots that it knows about through crowdsourcing.”
Download Extensions Directly from Windows Store
Perhaps the most anticipated change that’s being rolled out in the new build is the Extensions for Edge update. The biggest change is that instead of extracting and loading extensions from a local folder, all available extensions can now be downloaded directly from the Windows Store.
The change will mean that users’ currently installed extensions will be removed, and they will have to reinstall the ones they want from the Windows Store. In future updates, their extensions will be automatically re-downloaded and installed. Microsoft has also made several new extensions available for download.
Another change to the Edge browser included in the update is the introduction of real-time Web notifications that allow participating Web sites to send notifications to users via the Action Center, a single place for all system notifications and fast access to various settings
For example, a user who receives a notification from Skype for Web alerting him that he’s received a message while he’s using the Xbox app, can click on the notification to be sent directly to the Web site on Edge.
Swipe for Navigation
Another feature that’s included in the new version for Edge is the swipe gesture, which can be used to navigate backward and forward through Web pages. Microsoft said this feature, which had existed in previous versions of Windows 10 Mobile, was one of the top 10 most requested.
System administrators should be pleased with some new Bash on Ubuntu on Windows improvements included in the new build. For instance, Symbolic links, (a symbolic link is a file-system object that points to another file system object) within the Windows Subsystem for Linux are now functional on the mounted Windows directories. This fix helps support many scenarios including the npm installer, Microsoft said. Users with non-Latin Windows usernames, meanwhile, are now able to install Bash on Ubuntu on Windows.
Users will also soon be able to redirect certain Web sites to open with apps instead. While there are currently no apps that support this, in preparation for their availability, Microsoft said it has added a new page under settings where users will be able to manage the feature.
Image Credit: Screenshot of Windows 10 Insider Preview Build via Microsoft.
