What You Need to Know About the New Windows 10 Preview

IT people and Windows fans: Today, Microsoft released its new Windows 10 Insider Preview build 14291. It has a slew of new features.

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The Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14291 for both PC and mobile is available for Windows Insiders in the Fast Ring. “Fast Ring,” includes users who have signed up to receive Windows 10 builds and updates earlier than anyone else.

The new Windows 10 Build 14291 features include:

-         New Extensions for Edge: New extensions support adds polish to the Edge browser. These new extensions include: Mouse Gestures, Microsoft Translator, and Reddit Enhancement Suite extensions today with more on the way. Note: They are only available for PCs.

-         Pinned Tabs: The new build now includes Pinned Tabs for Microsoft Edge. This allows for “pinning” most accessed sites and pages quickly. Pinned tabs appear at the start of the tab row, and don’t have a close button, so you won’t accidentally close them. Pinned tabs that are in a Microsoft Edge window when you close the app will come back the next time you open Edge.

-         Enhanced Link Copy and Paste: You can copy any URL or link to the clipboard and then right-click in the address bar in Edge to go right to the site.

-         Updated Maps: Maps now has one-tap access to search and directions from anywhere, even on a phone; you can view multiple searches and directions at the

same time on the same map layered on top of others and then switch between them with tabs; Cortana (the Windows artificial intelligence assistant) will give turn-by-turn directions; and you can now access your favorites offline and add notes to them; plus other new features.

Windows 10 users can try the new extensions by selecting “More” (…) at the top right in Microsoft Edge and “Extensions” to open the Extensions pane, and then click “Get extensions.”

The new build is only available to those receiving Fast Ring updates and Microsoft has yet to announce a date when the build will be pushed to all Windows 10 users.

To get Fast Ring updates, go to Windows Update in Windows 10 and then “Advanced Options,” then, “Choose how preview builds are installed,” and select “Fast.”

Microsoft is currently approving developers first for the new build in Fast Ring.

All of the new features and fixes in the Windows 10 Preview build are listed on Microsoft’s Windows 10 blog.