Microsoft is now rolling out Windows 10 build 16226 for testers with PCs enrolled in the Fast ring. The new release is part of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, and it delivers a new set of features and enhancements over the previous build.
Windows 10 build 16226, according to the company, adds a slew of improvements for Microsoft Edge, updated emojis, and improvement for OneDrive Files On-Demand. The Touch Keyboard and handwriting experience get updated. The Settings app introduces more options and changes. Task Manager now shows GPU performance, and the Windows 10 shell gets more tweaks, including Reveal Highlight, updated File Explorer context menu, and a lot more.
What’s new on Windows 10 build 16226
Here are all the new features and improvements included in this new pre-release of the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update expected to arrive later this year.
Start menu, Taskbar, Action Center
In this flight, the Start menu and Action Center deliver new features, but Microsoft made some Fluent Design tweaks to be a little more transparent and let more of the underlying color through. Additionally, Action Center now uses a new conscientious XAML scrollbar design.
When you right-click the network icon in the system tray, Open Network and Sharing Center will now open Network & Internet Settings.
Perhaps one of the best addition on this release can be found in the Task Manager that now tracks GPU performance over time.
Windows Shell
On Windows 10 build 16226, the new Reveal Highlight behavior is an interaction visualization that helps guide users, and it’s now enabled by default on ListView and other XAML collection controls.
The context menu on File Explorer has been updated to include an option to share files. Just right-click a file on File Explorer or desktop and select the new Share option. And Share with has been renamed to Give access to.
You can now right-click on the Taskbar to enable or disable My People.
Windows 10 Emoji
In this flight part of the Fall Creators Update, Windows 10 introduces updated emoji with support for the latest Unicode updates, including new snacks, actions, dinosaurs, and even fantasy characters like genies, fairies and zombies.
The update also enables the emoji pickers to access the profession emoji and gender diverse options.
Users with a traditional hardware keyboard now can easily search emoji in the Emoji Panel. After opening the panel via the Windows key + period (.) or semicolon (;) hotkeys, keep typing to filter the emoji. If you close the panel by clicking X button or pressing Esc, the words will remain.
The Emoji Panel has also been updated to have a dark background when the dark theme is enabled on Windows 10.
Touch Keyboard
In this Windows 10 Fall Creators Update release, shape writing and text prediction are available not only in English, but on more than 25 languages, including English (United Kingdom), French (Canadian), Portuguese (Brazil), Russian (Russia), Spanish (Mexico), Spanish (Spain), German (Germany), and many more. Additionally, the new Touch Keyboard is available on East Asian languages such as Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
For Japanese users, Windows 10 now includes one-handed curve-flick touch keyboard, which is the same found in Windows 10 Mobile.
If you have text copied to the clipboard, you’ll now see a clipboard icon in the touch keyboard candidate pane. Tapping it will paste the clipboard contents.
You can now use the Shift key to cycle between capitalization states, and the settings flyout has been updated to make it easier to access Language Settings, Keyboard Settings, or help.
Handwriting and pen
You can now erase words in the handwriting panel with the back of your pen. The handwriting panel now draws using Microsoft’s Segoe UI font. And pen scrolling now works with traditional desktop apps, in addition to Windows Store apps.
OneDrive Files On-Demand
On build 16226, when using OneDrive Files On-Demand (or another cloud provider), you’ll now see a notification with the files that is being downloaded with a progress bar, and option to cancel the download, dismiss the message, or block it from downloading. You can always unblock apps on Settings > Privacy > App-requested downloads.
Windows Sonic spatial sound
Starting with this flight, it’s easier to enable Windows Sonic sound. Simply connect a pair of headphones, right-click the sound icon in the notification area, and select Spatial sound to choose your preferred format. You can also set up your 5.1, 7.1, or Dolby Atmos for home theaters.
Settings improvements
In the Settings app, the Gaming section gets a new Xbox Networking page, which aims to help to troubleshoot and fix issues preventing you from using voice chatting and playing multiplayer games with other Xbox Live users.
Inside the System section, the Storage page includes an updated Storage Sense page with a new look and the option to Delete your previous versions of Windows straight from Storage Sense.
You can now enable Remote Desktop and configure related settings from Settings > System > Remote Desktop. The page has also been improved to make it easier to establish a remote connection to your PC from a Remote Desktop client application.
Additionally, this page includes related settings like sleep (Keep my PC awake for connections when it is plugged in) and PC discoverability to help you know if your PC is remotely accessible. The new Remote Desktop page also displays your computer name, which you will need to connect from the remote desktop client applications.
On Windows Update, if an update has failed the problem description is easy to understand with an error code, which you can copy to research a fix.
Microsoft Edge
On Windows 10 build 16226, Microsoft Edge gets a lot of new features and improvements.
In a continue effort to make tabs more useful now closing a window always remains an available option, and you can also access many browser features, such as favorites bar and settings, while a dialog is showing.
When moving from Google Chrome your Cookies and settings will also be imported to Microsoft Edge.
On EPUB support, you can now select text, you can Copy and Ask Cortana in addition to adding notes, highlighting, and underlining. If your device includes pen support, it’s now possible to add notes and write on EPUB files. Additionally, books you buy from the Windows Store will sync across devices, including progress, bookmarks, and notes.
Starting with Windows 10 build 16226, Microsoft Edge introduces a new Favorites experience that let you see your favorites as a directory tree when you save new favorites, and collapse or expand folders from within the Add to favorites dialog.
You can now right-click a favorite in the Favorites bar and edit the URL, and organizations can now configure favorites using group policy and mobile device management.
Additional improvements
In this Windows 10 Fall Creators Update release, there is an updated version of the calculator app with support to convert currency, which also includes an offline mode when you need to do conversion on the go and you don’t have internet access.
Narrator can now use artificial intelligence to generate descriptions for images that lack alternative text. In addition, the feature has ability to extract text from images using optical character recognition.
Text will now appear smoother when magnified using Magnifier. To enable or disable this option, go to Settings > Ease of Access > Magnifier, and turn on the Enable bitmap smoothing option.
On Microsoft’s Hyper-V, you can now click a button in the Virtual Machine Connection to compress the virtual machine into a .vmcz file. Then simply double-click the file on another computer to quickly import the VM.
Snipping tool is now natively per-monitor DPI aware.
Alongside the slew of improvements and new features, Windows 10 build 16226 also includes various changes for Japanese Input Method Editor (IME), including Enhanced learning for predictive input, English predictive candidates with spelling correction, and search from Japanese IME Candidate List.
How to download Windows 10 build 16226
Microsoft is listing the complete set of fixes and known issues for Windows 10 build 16226 at the Windows Blog. In case you missed it, you can read all the changes for Windows 10 build 16215 in this article.
You can also follow these resources:
Windows 10 build 16226 for PC is available immediately through the Fast ring. It’ll download and install automatically on your device, but you can always force the update from Settings > Update & security > Windows Update and clicking the Check for updates button.
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].