Less than two weeks after releasing the last preview build, 10041, Microsoft has pushed an update for users in the “Fast” ring. We have been asking for more rapid releases and we are beginning to get them. I spent quite a bit of Monday downloading, installing, and rebooting to install Build 10049. Now that I have used it for a bit, I can give my opinion.
Before we get to what's new, I would like to get into what is fixed (and broken). First, apparently Visual Studio 2015 has some issues, particularly with deploying to external devices. On the other hand, my usage of Visual Studio 2013 seems fine and stable. Second, a bug is preventing Hyper-V from being enabled for users who want to create a virtual machine. If you upgrade to 10049 from a previous build, where Hyper-V has been activated, then “everything works fine” when you update.
One of the listed bugs for Build 10041 (the previous build) was that Windows Update would tell you to restart to complete updates even if nothing was installed, and that the messages could be “ignored safely”. I never had that happen in 10041, but have seen it this afternoon in 10049. No big deal.
As for fixed? When I upgraded to 10041, StarCraft II stopped working and apparently the bug extended to Borderlands 2 and The Pre-Sequel, League of Legends, and others. This has been fixed in 10049. I can play StarCraft II without problems. Yay! Also, many sections of the new Settings app crashed when I attempted to open them. This nuisance has been bugging me since one of the earlier builds from last year. It has mostly been fixed now. The only hiccup is “Apps & features”, which sometimes (but not always) crashes after the loading bar completes.
The main “feature” of this build is the introduction of Project Spartan. Now this is interesting. The browser itself feels a lot more smooth. I have been suspecting that Microsoft would include a DirectX 12 rendering path for Project Spartan, which would better explain the move to their “Edge” fork of Trident, but I have been unable to benchmark it. I have been trying to push sites with a lot of small draw calls, but it seems to be within the performance of a normal browser. One WebGL benchmark saw an increase of about 17% going between Internet Explorer 11 with Edge disabled and Project Spartan, but that is probably just more efficient rendering and JavaScript engines. So… nothing yet.
Apparently Cortana has been given some non-descript update. They might be referring to its integration with Spartan, which I have yet to test, but it is still unable to, for instance, set a timer or launch Photoshop.
It took me two installs to get it actually on my system, but it seems to be very stable for a pre-release operating system with a bunch of unfinished APIs and drivers. Looking good (but I'm still scared of Windows Dev Certification)!
Really want to try spartan
Really want to try spartan and everytime i shutdown the PC I get some weird error saying “explorer.exe memory could not be read” even though I know from memtest my RAM is good. Do you think it might be stable enough for me to push up to this build?
I image the hard drive regularly so I could always roll back, just don’t want to hassle with it if i don’t have to.
There is also a rollback
There is also a rollback option in Windows Update.
To me, it seems pretty much all-around better. Could be just me though.
I’ll give it a shot then.
I’ll give it a shot then. Was going to run dsim to try to fix the explorer.exe issue but maybe I’ll just try this new build. Something to gain and little to lose. Thanks for the reply
You play Starcraft 2? It’s
You play Starcraft 2? It’s almost surprising when people say they play it given the reduced player population. I play regularly in team games and watch GSL,SSL,Proleague,etc.
On topic, Windows 10 seems good. I don’t get the excitement for it fixing Windows 8.1 for desktop users. I have my laptop and desktop on Windows 8.1 with StartIsBack to disable all metro UI elements. I’m very happy with the operating system, and will only update for DX12 (when it actually makes a difference in games). Good on Microsoft for continuing to improve on Windows!
Yeah, but I mostly play
Yeah, but I mostly play "StarCraft II Arcade" games. Usually Desert Strike variants. I also watch tournaments.
As for Windows 8.x, I was fine with its interface. I kept on Windows 7 because I didn't want to encourage Microsoft's Windows Store ambitions (well the store is fine but I have a strong distaste for its dev restrictions). This is a major concern of mine with whether I upgraded to Windows 10…
… and how.
Still get my stupid
Still get my stupid explorer.exe error but at least I can play LOL now. Thanks for the article and fast replies!
sc2 stops working on build
sc2 stops working on build 10041 and 10049 and i cant play 1vs1
crashes all the time
Weird. The issue is fixed for
Weird. The issue is fixed for me in 10049 (although I play team Arcade not 1v1). Might want to talk about it in Blizzard forums and Windows Feedback. Which GPUs/drivers?
With the number of people
With the number of people using smartphones (I still do not own one), and the number of people switching to iphone, I fear no matter what MS does on the desktop with windows, notwithstanding how great and robust it might be, apple is going to be the major player in both laptops and desktops, and windows for the non enterprise will be marginalized, with myself and you guys being the only ones left using it. Please tell me it does not seem to be going in that direction and that I am so fucking wrong.
Apple is nowhere near taking
Apple is nowhere near taking over in the desktop/notebook market. Microsoft owns that realm, no one else comes close. IE is still the dominant browser for desktop/notebook (including X86 tablets). Windows is still the dominant OS for desktop/notebook (including X86 tablets).
http://www.netmarketshare.com/
Microsoft needs to grow its OS for phones and tablets to fight off Apple’s advances. Windows 10 looks to greatly improve that area, so I wish them luck.
great work
i have problem
great work
i have problem with metro menu display
Modou
Is it true that users in
Is it true that users in Canada cannot use the audio features of Cortana on Windows 10 Technical Preview build 9926, build 10041 and build 10049?