Microsoft Releases Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19541

Microsoft released the first new preview build of 2020, Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 19541, to Fast ring members of the Windows Insider Program yesterday. 

Preview Build 19541 featured relatively small changes. Microsoft said that it changed the icon shown in the Taskbar when a program is accessing the system's location, added a new Architecture section to Task Manager and restored some of Cortana's features. (Although the voice assistant still can't tell jokes, the company said.)

The new build also fixed numerous issues with previous releases, which isn't surprising, since it's part of the 20H1 development branch that's supposed to lead to the next major version of Windows 10 in the first half of the year. Rather than adding new features, the company seems focused on bug fixes. Microsoft said that it...

• We fixed an issue impacted System Settings reliability.
• We fixed an issue that could result in Windows Update “Reboot needed” notifications persisting reboot.
• We fixed an issue that could result in the update speed in Task Manager unexpectedly being set to Paused.
• We fixed an issue when using Narrator that could result in Start not saying the correct index of an app in the all apps list.
• We fixed an issue where the Search window wasn’t showing acrylic at the top.
• We fixed an issue from the previous build resulting in the Feedback Hub unexpectedly not showing store apps in the list of contexts when logging feedback under the Apps category. This same issue resulted in the symptom of apps continuing to show Install in the Microsoft Store, rather than Launch, after the app had been installed.

Microsoft acknowledged several known issues in Preview Build 19541, too, including a persistent problem affecting the BattlEye anti-cheat tool. The company said the build also has some issues with "the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build," which isn't ideal for testing software.