Microsoft rushes out latest Windows 10 build. 300 fixes? Pff, whatever

Just one day after releasing Build 10158 of Windows 10 to its Insider "fast ring", Microsoft has replaced it with Build 10159.

The new build, says General Manager Gabe Aul, has more than 300 fixes and "one very interesting change," though what this is has not been revealed.

Despite talk of 300 fixes, there is little obviously new in this build, other than new wallpaper. If anything, this build was more problematic on our test machines, with personalisation of the screen background mysteriously not working. It is a minor detail, but worth examining a little as it is a typical Windows 10 problem.

The dialogue box for selecting a screen background is part of the “modern” Settings app, which means it is powered by the Windows Runtime, the engine underneath the Universal Windows Platform (UWP). In Windows 8 and earlier, this dialogue box was a desktop app using the Win32 (or Win64) API.

While some UWP apps are of high quality (including the mobile versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint), they do tend to be slower than their desktop equivalents, and have been more problematic in the various preview releases.

The Windows 10 settings app mixes old and new

Settings is also an interesting case because of the interaction between the modern app and existing Win32 dialogs. Go to Settings > Personalisation > Themes, for example, and you are still in the modern UI. Hit “Advanced sound settings” though, and the ancient (and touch-hostile) Windows sound dialogue box opens. It is an inconsistency which is now baked into Windows, and while Microsoft will continue to work on bringing more settings into the modern UI, this will continue to be a problem for the foreseeable future.

Build 10158 saw a jump in quality overall, but it is unlikely that there will be another similar jump before release. At this point the Windows team needs to be conservative, making only minor tweaks in order to preserve stability.

Microsoft has set a release date of July 29th, the reason being that Windows needs to be finalised at around that time in order to be delivered on new PCs in time for the autumn shopping season. The company has also chosen to upgrade existing PCs on that date, for users who have chosen to upgrade via the “Get Windows 10” advertisement which was installed on Windows 7 and 8.1 via Windows Update.

The company is keen to get its latest Windows, and its accompanying app platform, out there in high numbers as soon as possible - but the initiative could backfire if a large number of upgraders experience problems. ®