Microsoft Improves Windows 10 Defrag, Adds Theme-Aware Splash Screens

Microsoft has improved the defrag experience and introduced theme-aware app splash screens with the release of Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20241, the latest Windows build available for Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel.

Insiders in the Dev channel who wish to upgrade to the latest Windows 10 build can go into Windows Update and check for new updates.

Enhanced Windows 10 defrag experience

Starting with this build, the Windows 10 Optimize Drives Settings page will also feature a new ‘Advanced View’ checkbox designed to allow users to also list hidden volumes.

Windows 10 Build 20241 also adds more info in the ‘Current status’ column to help users understand why some volumes are not available for defrag (e.g., ‘Partition type not supported’ and ‘File system type not supported’)

Last but not least, the Optimize Drives page accessible by going to Settings > System > Storage > Optimize Drives will also come with support for refreshing the drive list by pressing the F5 key.

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Theme-aware splash screens

After unveiling theme-aware Start menu tiles in July, Microsoft is now introducing theme-aware splash screens for UWP (Universal Windows Platform) applications.

“Now, when an eligible UWP app is launched, the splash screen color will match your default app mode,” Windows Insider Program senior program manager Brandon LeBlanc explained.

“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.”

The first batch of UWP apps to get support for this new feature in Windows 10 Build 20241 includes Settings, Store, Windows Security, Alarms & Clock, Calculator, Maps, Voice Recorder, Groove, Movies & TV, Snip & Sketch, Microsoft ToDo, Office, Feedback Hub, and Microsoft Solitaire Collection.

Microsoft is planning to update more apps with support for theme-aware splash screens via the Microsoft Store.

The feature is currently rolling out only to a subset of Insiders in the Dev Channel to allow Microsoft to identify any performance and reliability issues, later to gradually roll out to everyone.

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.

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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 where robocopy wouldn’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 unexpectedly 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.