Microsoft recently announced that it’s resurrecting the Beta channel for Windows 10 in order to test new features – which means, yes, the OS is officially being actively worked on – and the very first preview build has arrived in this channel.
The not-so-exciting news is that build 19045 (aka KB5039299) for Windows 10 22H2 doesn’t actually contain any new features, and is all about making tweaks and minor adjustments, as well as the usual clutch of bug fixes.
Microsoft lists the various bits of work carried out in this new preview build in the usual blog post, and one of the notable changes for Windows 10 is to bolster the stability of the search box in the taskbar when you’re looking for apps. In other words, a search for a particular app should no longer produce wonky results (or at least fewer of these incidents should occur).
There are also improvements to the Windows Backup app such as now being able to store your device’s Activity History and Printer Device Settings preferences. The Windows Backup improvements mean that it’ll be easier to restore all your previous hardware settings when you set up a new PC – as long as they’re backed up and tied to your Microsoft account.
As well as the above changes, Microsoft also resolved a problem whereby backups would fail when desktop and lock screen backgrounds were backed up twice.
Bug squashing aplenty
That’s the main thrust of this preview build, but as we mentioned there are also bug fixes here. They include the cure for an issue whereby the PC fails to come back from hibernation after BitLocker has been turned on, and a folder management glitch in File Explorer, along with many more fixes.
So, as we said, there’s not a huge amount going on here to get excited about – but this release does at least mean that the Beta channel for Windows 10 is now active. Clearly, we will get new features coming to Microsoft’s older OS soon enough, and the software giant must have allocated some fresh resources towards Windows 10 development to facilitate that.
However, don’t go thinking this means there are any changes coming regarding the End of Life date for the crowd-favorite operating system, as Windows 10 is still scheduled to have support dropped in October 2025, and Microsoft has made it clear that won’t change.
Via Windows Latest