Microsoft releases new Windows 10 build 1702

Just today, Microsoft has released a new build of Windows 10 for Insiders and developers to test out. Build 17025 comes just a week after the release of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, which brought new some new UI enhancements and support for 3D.

What’s new?

Settings

When Windows 10 was first released in July 2015, Microsoft added a new Settings app, mainly to help people who had never used Windows before get used to where things are and also, people who have come from smartphones. Windows has long been a bit confusing on where you go to change settings and with the latest build, Microsoft is still on its slow mission to add most of, if not all of the Control Panel into the Settings app.

The Ease of Access has been redesigned and tidied up, it now has relevant grouping for types of settings, which should make it a bit easier to use.

Microsoft Yahei Font, for China

Following in Apple’s footsteps from a while back, Microsoft is doing a good job in supporting Chinese fonts and scripts. Windows 10 Build 1702 adds in much needed improvements for the Microsoft Yahei Font.

In the blog post, Microsoft notes they have improved:

We’ve added three additional weights for Microsoft Yahei: Semilight, Semibold and Heavy. The additional weights will be installed by default in ZH-CN builds, and available as an optional feature to download for non-ZH-CN builds.

We’ve scaled the glyphs to improve inter-character spacing. This makes reading easier and increases character recognition.

We’ve tuned the fonts with our new hinting algorithm so that the glyphs will be less jagged at small sizes.

We’ve redesigned all punctuations and symbols in the new fonts per customer feedback.

General fixes

As usual with software updates, there is a ton go bug fixes and improvements. Far too many to note down here, so you can find the full list of new features and bug fixed over on the Windows Blog.

The most notable were a fix for Microsoft Edge becoming slow when cycling thigh controls, while some third party readers were activated and the constant improvements to the Fluent Design language, which Microsoft is using now.