Microsoft released a new Windows 10 Insider Preview build that is designed to be more proactive at keeping PCs up to date.
The Windows 10 Insider Preview build 17107 (RS4) is available now to Insiders in the Fast ring (those who opted into Skip Ahead will not receive an update this week) and includes what Microsoft described as improvements to the way Windows Update scans, downloads, and installs new patches. It will now prevent the PC from going to sleep for up to two hours when it is not in active use and receives an update. The company says it will give the update more opportunity to succeed, indicating that sleep mode may have been problematic to applying Windows 10 updates in the past.
Several other general changes and fixes have also been deployed in the new build, resolving issues with the Settings menu (crashes in various scenarios), Windows Defender (button overlaps, offline scan), and other random hang and crash problems. The new patch also adds a new message when holding down the power button to recover from an unresponsive system for some Insiders. It asks users to “Please release the power button. We just need a few more seconds to shut down,” so that additional diagnostic data about the unexpected shutdown can be collected.
A few nagging problems linger still, with Microsoft disclosing some of the known issues that it plans to address in future builds. Gamers may notice that the Game bar is centered incorrectly, and selecting a notification after taking a screenshot or game clip opens the Xbox app’s home screen instead of opening the media. Tearing a PDF tab in the Edge browser will result in a bugcheck, and a small number of devices are apparently experiencing a reboot loop state in a scenario where the OS fails to load properly after the first user-prompted reboot or shutdown. The company suggests a workaround for the boot loop, noting that disabling the motherboard’s fast boot feature may alleviate the issue. However, it may be necessary to create a bootable ISO on a USB drive to boot into recovery mode if that doesn’t work.
The new Windows 10 Insider Preview build 17107 (RS4) is available now to Fast ring Insiders, and you can read the full release notes at Microsoft's website.