Microsoft has released a new build of Windows 10 to the Insider Dev channel and unlike the past couple of releases, there are a few notable changes in this update. Primarily, the Start menu is being slightly refreshed, Edge tabs can now be accessed with alt+tab, and a few other changes too.

The most notable update in this release is that the Start menu has been updated. Specifically, the tiles are now theme-aware which is a further step away from the design language initially introduced in Windows 8.

The theme-aware tiles work with both light and dark mode and if you have an accent color selected with dark mode, it will also reflect that color too. It’s a small change but an update that does improve the look of the Start menu.

Also coming in this release is that Edge tabs will now be accessible with alt+tab. As a very heavy user of this feature, this will make it a lot faster to jump between sites. While you can already use control+X (number of the tab), it’s not quite as natural of a keystroke as alt+tab.

Notifications are being tweaked as well with the app that triggers the event now appearing at the top of the flyout and Microsoft is turning off the Focus Assist notification and summary toast by default.

While the death of the Control Panel is not happening anytime soon, it is one step closer to no longer being needed. Information found in Control Panel’s System page is being moved to the Settings About page under Settings > System > About. Links that would open the System page in Control Panel will now direct you to About in Settings.

There are a few other minor updates including a graphing mode for the calculator is rolling out, a new OOBE for the taskbar is being experimented with and minor changes for 2-in-1 devices for switching between tablet and laptop modes.

You can read about all the bug fixes for this build here, which is 20161, and is hitting the Dev (Fast ring) channel right now.

Tagged with Start Menu, Windows 10