Fast ring Insiders get first taste of Windows 10 Redstone 5 with build 17661

At present that the Windows 10 April 2022 Update has shipped to the public, Microsoft is giving Fast ring Insiders their commencement sampling of the side by side big update, currently codenamed Redstone five. Windows Insider primary Dona Sarkar announced today that build 17661 is now rolling out to Insiders on the Fast and Skip Ahead rings, bringing a load of new features and fixes. Here's a expect at what'southward new.

What's new in Build 17661

A mod snipping experience

Today we're taking the first pace toward converging our snipping experiences. The new modernistic snipping experience is here to help yous effortlessly capture and annotate what you lot encounter on your screen. While working on this we've been carefully going over all your feedback virtually taking screenshots in Windows – you lot'll observe the flow and tools are optimized for sharing and make communicating visually with others quick and easy.

Screen Sketch is now an app! Originally introduced as role of the Windows Ink Workspace, this comes with a variety of benefits, including that information technology can now exist updated via the Microsoft Store, it will at present show up in the list when you press Alt + tab, y'all can set the window size to be your preference if you like multitasking, and it even supports multiple windows (and tabs, thanks to Sets!).

Easy snipping is just a single stride away. 1 of the loudest things nosotros heard is that y'all desire to exist able to quickly snip & share a screenshot, and we're making it happen! WIN + Shift + S volition now bring upwardly a snipping toolbar – snip a rectangle, something a bit more freeform, or full screen and it will get direct to your clipboard. If that'due south all yous need, y'all tin can take information technology from there. Want more, though? Immediately after taking a snip you'll now get a notification that volition take you and your snip to the Screen Sketch app where you can annotate and share away!

But wait, in that location's more! Is the WIN + Shift + South keyboard shortcut too long to remember? Guess what! We've added piece of cake entry options for every input modality:

Just click the pen tail push button. If you lot have a pen, go into Pen & Windows Ink Settings – you'll notice Screen Snipping is now an option for single click. This will launch you directly into our snipping feel:

Press Print Screen. You heard it right, just i button! It's not enabled by default – go to Keyboard Settings – you lot'll see a new option that says "Use the Impress Screen key to launch screen snipping". Opening Settings and searching for "print screen" will take yous to the right page.

Press the quick activity push button in Action Center. Called "Screen snip" – it should be there every bit soon as you upgrade, but if not y'all can ever enable it via Notifications & Actions Settings.

Standing the Sets Experiment

For the last few weeks, we accept made the Sets experiment available to all Windows Insiders who have opted in to Skip Alee. At present that the Fast band and Skip Ahead are merging back together and will be receiving the same RS5 builds, we are going to continue with the controlled study just similar we did back in December. This means that non all Insiders will see Sets. Insiders who were opted into Skip Ahead who had Sets previously will continue to have Sets. However, unlike the controlled report nosotros did in December, the large majority of Insiders in the Fast ring will encounter Sets and a smaller grouping won't.

More Fluent Design: Introducing acrylic in Chore View

We've heard yous similar acrylic! We like it too – when you update to this build y'all'll find that the unabridged Task View background now has a soft blur outcome.

Windows Security improvements

Windows Defender Security Center is now called Windows Security. Yous can still become to the app in all the usual ways – just ask Cortana to open Windows Security or collaborate with the taskbar icon. Windows Security lets you manage all your security needs, including Windows Defender Antivirus and Windows Defender Firewall.

Focus assist improvements when gaming

Now Focus assist will turn on automatically when you're playing any full screen game. No more interruptions when you're burdensome it. This behavior should exist turned on automatically, simply you can e'er check by going to Settings > Organisation > Focus assist and ensuring the "When I'm playing a game" automated dominion is enabled.

Continuing our Sound Settings migration

Consolidating our settings experiences is an ongoing priority for us. We started our work moving Sound settings to Settings with the Windows ten April 2022 Update, and we're happy to announce the adjacent piece of that with today'southward flight. Device properties has now been integrated into Settings – simply click on the links in Sound Settings and you'll observe a new page where you lot can proper noun your device and select your preferred spatial audio format.

Taking the Microsoft Pinyin and Wubi IMEs to the next level

Do you write in Chinese (Simplified)? Nosotros're updating the Microsoft Pinyin IME! We've been focusing on addressing your performance, reliability and compatibility feedback. You'll too notice a number of other improvements, including:

Design improvements – a new logo (for the Microsoft Pinyin IME), new IME toolbar, and dark theme back up!

An updated context menu. We've added a bunch of options to the IME mode indicator's context card in the taskbar, and then you can chop-chop access the things y'all need.

The IME now uses the same UX for Expressive Input as other languages. You tin bring it up by clicking the emoji push in the IME toolbar, or use the Emoji Panel hotkeys (WIN + period (.) or WIN + semicolon (;)). Yous tin can browse between Emoji, Kaomoji, and Symbol input when Chinese (Simplified) is the active locale.

Improving HEIC back up

We announced back up for the High Efficiency Paradigm File Format (HEIF) in Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17623. We are happy to denote that in build 17661 you can at present rotate HEIF-format images in File Explorer, and edit metadata, such as "Date taken".

Redstone v is still early on in development, so we should see many more features added in the coming months. And now that information technology's on the Fast ring, Slow band Insiders should meet their offset taste of Redstone v before as well long as well.

For more, including a look at more than general changes and fixes, check out Microsoft's full release notes.

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