It’s BUILD, and that can only mean one thing, a new build. That’s exactly what has happened, with Microsoft pushing out Windows 10 build 17666 to the Fast ring of its preview program.
Part of the Redstone 5 branch, this new version is jam packed with new features.
Okay, maybe not jam packed, but there are a ton of new additions in build 17666. Many of which the company talked about at it BUILD 2018 developer conference. Among other things, obviously. But the notion is that this version offers a number of small features and improvements here and there.
As the software titan reveals in the announcement post, build 17666 brings with it improvements to Sets, a new clipboard experience, a dark theme for File manager, enhancements for Notepad, and more.
For starters, we have an Acrylic title bar, and this is how it looks.
Unsurprising, considering the emphasis Redmond is providing to its Fluent Design language.
Other improvements for the Sets feature include recent Microsoft Edge tabs showing in Alt + Tab, as well as the ability to either open new apps and websites in a new window or a new tab. Also in is the option to mute one of your web tabs, while tabs themselves will now restore with better performance.
A bunch of other fine tunes for Sets are also in this build.
Moving on, we finally have the new clipboard experience that has been the talk of the town lately. This is basically shared clipboard history, though there are limitations like text being under 100KB and images less than 1MB — hopefully that improves to usable levels soon.
Next up is the dark theme for File Explorer, another often requested feature finally seeing daylight.
Notepad, of all programs, got a good look in this version of the preview. The popular app now offers support for line endings, as well as the ability to search with Bing.
Speaking of searching, Microsoft also wants you to save time with search previews, and this is how this feature currently looks.
You can also now rename your tile folders.
And if you have a question about a certain setting in Setting, the most common questions now bubble up right in the panel. Clicking on these contextual FAQs will take you to the search engine with the answer hopefully displayed.
Overall, a pretty solid arrival, for a Windows 10 preview build.
