Windows 10 Preview Build 18970 (20H1) Brings New Tablet Experience

May. 29, 2020 / Updated by Bessie Shaw to News

Los Angeles, Calif. - August 29th, 2019 - August is coming to an end. To catch the end of August, Microsoft introduces a new 20H1 (also known as Windows 10 May 2020 Update version 2004) preview build to Insiders in the Fast ring today, along with a Cumulative Update Build 18970.1005 (KB4518974). That's Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18970 (20H1). The company is just testing their ability to service a build at the same time it is released. Let's check out the changelog for more details.

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What's new in Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18970 (20H1)

Build 18970 comes with a couple of new features of note, including a new tablet experience for 2-in-1 convertible PCs. These are all the important updates.

A new tablet experience for 2-in-1 convertible PCs

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With Build 18970, a new tablet experience for 2-in-1 convertible PCs is currently available for a portion of Insiders as a Beta. This new experience allows users entering tablet posture to stay in the familiar desktop experience without interruption, plus a few key touch improvements:

  • Increased spacing between Taskbar icons.

  • Search box on taskbar collapsed into an icon.

  • File Explorer switches to touch optimized layout.

  • Touch keyboard auto invokes when you tap text fields.

As part of this, there are also a few small changes in the tablet section in Settings.

If this new experience is available on your PC, you can test it through these steps:

Step 1. Use your convertible PC as a laptop as you normally would–opening apps and interacting with them.

Step 2. When you’re ready to pick it up and go or simply lean back on the couch, you can fold back the keyboard or remove it altogether, and it should switch to this new mode shown above.

Step 3. Now use your device as a tablet with touch.

A new Reset this PC option – Cloud Download

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Reset this PC now provides users a new choice to download Windows or use local reinstall. That’s cloud download. The cloud download option will reinstall the same build, version, and edition, that is currently installed on your device. This new option is available to all Windows 10 devices and is different from the “Recover from the cloud” feature available on some earlier Windows 10 devices.

Note: This is a recovery operation and will remove apps you have installed. Additionally, if the “Remove everything” option is selected, your data will also be deleted.

Here is a known issue with this new option:

The cloud download option is not currently working when specific optional features are installed. The process will begin, but an error will occur and roll back the changes.

To work around this issue, remove the optional features before trying this option. The optional features are: EMS and SAC Toolset for Windows 10, IrDA infrared, Print Management Console, RAS Connection Manager Administration Kit (CMAK), RIP Listener, all RSAT tools, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Windows Fax and Scan, Windows Storage Management, Wireless Display, WMI SNMP Provider.

Continuing the Cortana rollout

With Build 18970, Microsoft is continuing the rollout of the new Cortana experience. Now it’s available to all Insiders in the Fast ring in the United States.

Bug Fixes and Improvements in Preview Build 18970 (20H1)

  • Fixed a DWM memory leak that was impacting the previous two flights.

  • Fixed an issue resulting in some WSL distros not loading (Issue #4371).

  • Fixed an issue impacting a small number of Insiders, involving a lsass.exe crash and resulting in a message saying, “Windows ran into a problem and needs to restart.”

  • Fixed an issue resulting in WIN + (period) closing if you tried to search for an emoji when focus was set to a text field in an Electron app.

  • Fixed two issues that could result in Settings crashing when interacting with options on the Search page.

  • Improved the launch performance of Settings when the Settings header is visible.

  • Fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders experiencing a bug check with BTHport.sys in recent flights.

  • Starting in recent Insider builds, Windows Home and Pro users without a first party backup solution will now see a friendly reminder to consider setting up a backup option that is included with Windows. If you’d prefer to turn this off, there’s an option to do so in the notification.

  • Fixed an issue that the acrylic in certain surfaces not appearing immediately (for Start menu, the volume flyout, the network flyout, the clock & calendar flyout, and notification toasts).

  • Made some bug fixes and improvements to Magnifier reading capabilities.

  • Improved Magnifier performance when moving the mouse around the screen.

  • Fixed an issue where Control + Alt + L would not put Magnifier into Lens mode.

  • Text cursor indicator now appears and disappears more reliably. Also fixed an issue where text cursor indicator preview in settings did not change size when text scaling was on.

  • Made improvements in Magnifier reliability.

  • Fixed an issue where the File Explorer search suggestions weren’t being read out by Narrator.

  • Fixed an issue in Narrator where it would speak “unknown” if you had the “Header Status” column enabled within Outlook as you arrowed between different email messages.

  • Fixed a couple Narrator dialog reading issues. Narrator would sometimes speak “empty document” or stop the dialog reading too early.

  • Fixed an issue where Narrator would not always speak the group name of a radio button on web pages.

  • Fixed an issue with Narrator and Excel not speaking the column header when arrowing between cells in a table.

  • Fixed an issue where Narrator would only speak “item” when navigating by table cells in an Outlook email instead of reading the entire cell’s contents.

  • Narrator will now read web pages from the top of the page and not at the main landmark with a fallback to find a paragraph.

  • Narrator now supports the aria-haspopup property.

  • Improved Outlook performance and stability when reading mail messages in Outlook.

  • Made improvements in Narrator reliability.

  • Made a change to Narrator input learning, so you just have to press Narrator + 1 once to turn input learning off.

  • Fixed an issue when a user navigated to a web page in Edge, Narrator would read just the URL field and not the web page.

  • Fixed an issue when a user was replying to an email in Outlook, Narrator was automatically reading the message while the user was trying to type.

Known Issues in Windows 10 20H1 Preview Build 18970

  • There has been an issue with older versions of anti-cheat software used with games where after updating to the latest 19H1 Insider Preview builds may cause PCs to experience crashes. To minimize the chance of running into this issue, please make sure you are running the latest version of your games before attempting to update the operating system.

  • Some Realtek SD card readers are not functioning properly.

  • The minimize, maximize, and close title bar buttons not working for certain apps. If you’re using an impacted app, Alt + F4 should work as expected to close the app if needed.

  • Text on Devices pages in Settings for “Bluetooth and Other Devices” and “Printers and Scanners” isn’t rendering correctly.

  • Search isn’t working for Insiders using certain display languages, including Polish. If you are impacted by this, switching your display language to English then back to your preferred display language should resolve it.

You may also like to check out:

If you are Windows Insiders in the Fast ring, you can get into Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update and then check for new updates to try the Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18970 (20H1) right now. Welcome to share your usage experience with us in the comment section below. To get more information about Windows updates, please visit the Windows News section on this site.

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