Microsoft Releases Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17677

Microsoft released Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17677 to Fast ring and Skip Ahead members of the Windows Insider Program. This release includes numerous updates to the Microsoft Edge browser, changes how Task Manager reports memory usage, and offers the usual grab bag of bug fixes. This being pre-release software, the build also includes several issues, the most frustrating of which affects Windows Mixed Reality.

Many of the new features in Preview Build 17677 affect Microsoft Edge. The browser has been given a new "Settings and more" menu, which is supposed to make it easier to find all of Edge's options, as well as expanded right-click menus in the "Downloads" pane. Tabs which have been "set aside" can now be organized, too. Microsoft also added your top sites to the Jump List in the Windows taskbar and Start menu.

One of Preview Build 17677's other notable additions is a change to how Task Manager reports memory usage. Microsoft said the monitoring tool's main memory column will no longer include memory used by suspended UWP processes. That's because Windows 10 can automatically reclaim the memory used by these processes and devote it to something else, so Microsoft won't count that memory as being unavailable.

Preview Build 17677 also brings kernel debugging improvements; a Narrator update that lets you select content in Edge, Word, Outlook, Mail, and "most text surfaces"; and a new networking framework that "introduces a new, more reliable, network driver model that inherits the goodness of the Windows driver framework while bringing an accelerated data path." Microsoft said more details on the framework will be revealed soon.

The build also has some known issues. Most are minor, but Microsoft warned that one will be particularly vexing for Windows Mixed Reality users:

After update, Mixed Reality Portal will reinstall the Mixed Reality Software and as a result environment setting will not be preserved. If you need your Mixed Reality home experience to persist it is advised you not take this build until these issues are fixed.

Microsoft also announced that its next Bug Bash, which tasks members of the Windows Insider Program with helping the company find problems in its software, will take place between June 22 and July 1. A Bug Bash Webcast will also be hosted on June 27 at a yet-to-be-determined time on the program's Mixer channel. So if you want to help squash a bunch of bugs in Microsoft's products, well, next month will be your best chance.