News

Windows 10 Redstone Build 14279 Released to Insiders, Here’s what’s New

By Brian Burgess

Updated August 16, 2021

Good news for Windows Insiders. Microsoft today released Windows 10 Redstone Build 14279 to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring. Here’s what to expect.

Microsoft today released Windows 10 Redstone Build 14279 to Windows Insiders in the Fast ring. This comes on the heels of last week’s Redstone Preview Build 14271. That build included fixes for PCs that were based on Windows Insider user feedback.

This latest build adds some new features to Cortana, including reminders and support for several new languages. It also includes an updated logon experience.

Windows 10 Redstone Build 14279

Here’s a glance at what Microsoft exec Gabe Aul says about the improvements in his blog post:

Cortana in More Languages: “With this build, we are enabling Cortana for the Spanish (Mexico), Portuguese (Brazil) or French (Canada) languages!” It’s worth noting here that this is in addition to the 11 other regions and languages that Cortana already understands.

Cortana now remembers things for you: “With Cortana, you can now save useful information like the name of a book you want to read (ex: “remind me to read [insert book name]”), or a to-do item without a due date (ex: “remind me to wash the car”). You have the option to set specific details like location, time, and people at a later time so that Cortana will surface it when its most relevant.”

Updated Logon Experience: “Previously on PC, there were two separate backgrounds for the Lock screen and then the logon screen. We’re merging the experience so there is just a single background – your Lock screen background. This is similar to the behavior seen on mobile.”

What’s Fixed for PC

• We fixed an issue where Microsoft Edge and Cortana were crashing for users with roaming profiles.
• We fixed an issue where Cortana would continue to show reminders that have been completed.
• We fixed an issue where items copied/moved to the desktop would not display until the desktop is manually refreshed by right-clicking on the desktop and choosing “Refresh” or pressing F5.
• We fixed an issue where downloading certain drivers from Windows Update was causing some PCs to bluescreen.

List of Known Issues in Build 14279 for PC

• We’re investigating an issue in which some Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 4, and Surface Book devices experience a freeze or hang and all input such as keyboard/trackpad and touch do not work. The workaround is to hold down the power button to force the device to hard-reboot.
• We are continuing to track several issues reported by Insiders where some PCs will freeze or bluescreen when resuming from hibernation. Disabling hibernation is a workaround in some cases until this is fixed.
• If you have Kaspersky Anti-Virus, Internet Security, or the Kaspersky Total Security Suite installed on your PC there is a known driver bug that prevents these programs from working as expected in builds from the Development Branch. We are partnering with Kaspersky to fix this issue for a future release, but at this time there are no known workarounds. While this issue is present, we recommend using Windows Defender or another third-party anti-virus product of your choice to remain protected.
• Turning on the “always show all icons in the notification area” setting disrupts the layout of the notification area (“systray”). Your notification area will look out of alignment.
• We are seeing reports of crashes with apps such as QQ crashing due to an OS reliability issue we are currently investigating. This bug is also impacting older apps such as Windows Live Mail and Expression Encoder 4.

Summing Up

As with all Insider builds, this one will take a while as it’s an in-place upgrade. A restart is required, and the amount of time it takes to install will vary for each person.

After installing this new build, you can hit Windows Key + R to bring up the Run dialog and type: winver, and hit Enter. That will show you the new version as Build 14279.

Once you have the latest build installed, let us know what you think of it and any problems you’re experiencing in the comments below. Or, for a more in-depth conversation, check out our new and improved Windows 10 Forums!