Microsoft released its latest desktop Windows 10 feature update, the October 2020 Update, to the first batch of devices yesterday. Now that Windows 10 October 2020 Update, version 20H2, is out in the public, it's time for the Windows maker to move its focus completely to the next version of the operating system, Windows 10 21H1.

Today's Insider PreviewBuild 20241 is available for Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel, bringing theme-aware splash screen for apps and an improved defrag experience.

Here is what is new with Windows 10 21H1 Build 20241

Introducing theme-aware splash screens for apps

Building ontheme-aware tiles in Start, we’re introducing theme-awaresplash screensfor Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps. Now, when an eligible UWP app is launched, the splash screen color will match your default app mode. For example, if you have light theme turned on, you’ll see a light theme splash screen, and if you have dark theme turned on (for the “default app mode”) then you’ll see a dark theme splash screen.

Settings app splash screen before and after in light theme:

Settings app splash screen before and after in dark theme:

The following apps support theme-aware splash screens today:

SettingsStoreWindows SecurityAlarms & ClockCalculatorMapsVoice RecorderGrooveMovies & TVSnip & SketchMicrosoft ToDoOfficeFeedback HubMicrosoft Solitaire Collection

Over time, more apps will be updated via the Store to support having a theme-aware splash screen.

Enhancing your defrag experience

We’re making a few changes to the Optimize Drives page (Settings > System > Storage > Optimize Drives), including:

Adding a new “Advanced View” checkbox to list all volumes including hidden volumes. Please note we’re still getting this one up and running, so you’ll see the checkbox in this build, but may not notice any differences when you click it.Listing more details in the “Current status” column when volumes are not available for defrag (for example, “Partition type not supported” and “File system type not supported”).Adding support for pressing F5 to refresh.

Changes and Improvements

To help ensure Narrator users are aware of notifications on the screen, if a high priority notification appears while the computer is locked and stays on the screen, we will now also read it out when unlocking your PC and not just at arrival time.We’re removing the Japanese Address and Rinna candidate suggestion services from the Japanese IME – thank you Windows Insiders who’ve shared feedback on them.

Windows 10 21H1 Preview Build 20241: Fixes

We fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders experiencing APC_INDEX_MISMATCH bugchecks in recent builds.We fixed an issue where scrolling and pinch to zoom were not working correctly on devices with touch such as the Surface Pro X, Surface Pro 7 and others.We fixed an issue where selecting an IME candidate or hardware keyboard text prediction candidate was sometimes inserting the candidate adjacent to the one selected.We fixed an issue where new applications will fail to install with a Windows Installer service error on x86 systems.We fixed an issue where when attempting to perform a Reset this PC using the Keep My Files option will fail with the error, “There was a problem resetting your PC. No changes were made”.We fixed an issue whererobocopywouldn’t preserve the directory dates when using the move command.We fixed a high hitting dwm.exe crash from the last few flights.We fixed an issue resulting in the System Information window (msinfo32) crashing on launch.We fixed an issue resulting in the System Information window (msinfo32) unexpectedly having a blank icon in the taskbar.We fixed an issue that could result in Bitlocker encryption failing with error 0x803100b2.We fixed an issue resulting in flickering in certain apps when the media controls pop-up was visible on screen and you moved your mouse.We fixed an issue resulting in the screen flickering on certain devices when accessing the power options on the login screen.We fixed a recent issue where closing a tab in Microsoft Edge while Task Manager was up and running could result in Task Manager crashing.We fixed an issue resulting in some Insiders seeing a “Sorry, something went wrong” message when running through the workflow to improve recognition for Windows Hello Face.We fixed an issue from recent builds where if Settings was open when the PC went into hibernation, connected pens may fail to reconnect until Bluetooth was toggled off and back on.We fixed an issue that could result in Windows Sandbox showing a 0x80070003 error.We fixed an issue where a non-functional link to Rename your PC was displaying for non-admin users on the Projecting to this PC page in Settings.We fixed an issue where the Activation page in Settings would crash if you navigated to it recently while not connected to the internet.We fixed an issue in Printers & Scanners Settings, where clicking the Get App button available for some printers was resulting in Settings crashing recently.We fixed an issue where clicking the Copy button under “View hardware and connection properties” in Network Settings would result in extraneous lines saying “Proxy Auto Detect” appearing on the settings page.We fixed an issue impacting certain VPN connections, where clicking the entry in the Network flyout wasn’t doing anything.We fixed an issue that could result in Windows updates failing with error 0xc0000005.We fixed an issue that could result in windows.old being expectedly large for some Insiders.We fixed an issue resulting in the new gesture to control the text cursor position using the spacebar on the touch keyboard wasn’t working for some Insiders.We fixed an issue that could result in Internet Explorer crashing when typing certain combinations into websites with the Dayi IME.We fixed an issue where incorrect characters were being inserted into passwords fields when typing using the Japanese IME in Kana mode.We fixed an issue where when using the previous version of the Japanese IME, if you set the IME to off mode during a composition, then immediately starting typing, it could result in the underlying app crashing.

Windows 10 21H1 Build 20241:Known issues

We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.Live previews for pinned sites aren’t enabled for all Insiders yet, so you may see a grey window when hovering over the thumbnail in the taskbar. We’re continuing to work on polishing this experience.We’re working on enabling the new taskbar experience for existing pinned sites. In the meantime, you can unpin the site from the taskbar, remove it from the edge://apps page, and then re-pin the site.We’re working on a fix for an issue causing some devices experiencing a KMODE_EXCEPTION bugcheck when using certain virtualization technologies.We’re looking into reports where some devices are still experiencing a DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION bugcheck after taking build 20236.We’re investigating reports that some devices are receiving a DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL bugcheck on tcpip.sys.We’re working on a fix where after taking build 20236 devices running Malwarebytes Web Protection are no longer able to connect to the network. Users can roll back to 20231 and pause updates or disable Web Protection as a workaround.We’re investigating an issue reported by some Insiders wherein the taskbar is obscuring the Power button in the Start menu. If this is happening on your PC, you may need to use the Windows key plus X menu to shutdown for the time being.We’re investigating GPU Compute scenarios, such as using CUDA and DirectML, not working inside of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).Windows Insiders on ARM PCs such as the Surface Pro X will notice that Windows PowerShell will fail to launch on this build. As a workaround, please use “Windows PowerShell (x86)” or “Windows PowerShell ISE (x86)” from the Start menu if you need to use PowerShell. Or download thenew and modern PowerShell 7which takes advantage of ARM by running natively. Plus the icon is prettier.

For more details, head over to the official blog post.

- All that is new with the October 2020 Update