[German]Microsoft just released a new Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17123 for PC in the Fast Ring on March 16, 2018. This is a new preview for the Redstone 4 branch, which will be released in April 2018 as a Windows 10 Spring Creators Update (version 1803).
The announcement of the new Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17123 for the PC in the Fast Ring was made in the Windows Blog. This build brings bug fixes and some improvements.
High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF)
HEIF is an image container format that uses modern codecs such as HEVC to improve quality, compression and capabilities compared to previous formats such as JPEG, GIF and PNG. In addition to traditional frames, HEIF supports the encoding of image sequences, image collections, auxiliary images such as alpha or depth maps, live images & videos, audio and HDR for more contrast.
Apple and other companies had implemented supported HEIF since months. Now Microsoft adds HEIF support in the Photos app. However, HEIF is only used to display images, editing such image files is not yet possible.
Needs new Photos app
To try the new feature in the Photos app, you must join the Windows App Preview program for the Photos app and make sure that the March version of the Photos app (version 2018.18022.13740.0 or later) is available. This version of the Photos app has been updated for Redstone 4 to include the function to display the primary image in a HEIF file.
The app can also detect dependencies and download and install the required HEIF and HEVC media extensions from the Microsoft Store. Once installed, these media extensions allow HEIF display in photos as well as thumbnails and metadata in File Explorer.
Additionally, any application that uses WIC, WinRT Imaging APIs, or the XAML Image control can now add similar support for viewing single HEIF images.
Windows Mixed Reality
With this build, the Windows Mixed Reality Team informs about a few known issues as you try out the new Windows Mixed Reality features.
- Microsoft is investigating reports of a performance regression for Windows Mixed Reality on hybrid laptops on this build.
- In some cases, the inbox apps will fail to load inside of Windows Mixed Reality and newly placed Holograms may be empty. Restarting Windows Mixed Reality should resolve both issues.
- Occasionally there may be a long delay and restart of mixed reality when transitioning to a new place (Skyloft or Cliff House).
Since the last build, the following bugs should now be fixed:
- The ambient sound in Skyloft should now the correct volume.
- Launching the Store from Movies & TV should no longer crash either app.
- 360 videos should render correctly inside of the Edge app, and the 360 Viewer can be launched from directly from the Store app.
BTW: Are you able to test Windows Mixed Reality on your machines? It seems, that Windows Mixed Reality is some kind of a paper tiger – hyped by the marketing, but not used by people due to hardware requirements and other reason.
Microsoft’s improvement and fixes
Microsoft released a list of improvements and fixes, available within this build. Details may be read here. Currently there is only one know issue: A phone connected to the PC will be unlinked during upgrading.