Microsoft Improves Windows Sandbox In Latest Windows 10 Build

The Windows Sandbox and the Microsoft Defender Application Guard (WDAG) now launch faster in Windows 10 after installing the Insider Preview Build 21343 for Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel.

Windows Sandbox helps Windows 10 users safely run apps in an isolated desktop environment. MDAG blocks old and newly emerging attacks using a hardware isolation approach powered by Hyper-V-enabled containers.

“Starting with Build 21343, we are introducing a new runtime that is designed and optimized for container scenarios,” Windows Insider Program senior program manager Brandon LeBlanc said.

“It is lightweight and allows faster launch times for both Windows Sandbox and Microsoft Defender Application Guard.”

This change should not impact application compatibility in any way within Windows Sandbox containers, but Microsoft is expecting some behavior changes.

Microsoft also introduced new File Explorer icons, with multiple system icons used throughout the file manager now updated to a new look.

The new Chromium-based Edge is now the default web browser after replacing Edge Legacy, starting with Build 21313. The new Edge browser was officially released in January 2020 with an installer that replaces the legacy version.

Edge Legacy will be permanently removed and replaced in all Windows 10 builds with the new Microsoft Edge by April’s Windows 10 Patch Tuesday security update.

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Changes and Improvements:

• We’re changing the name of the Windows Administrative Tools folder in Start to Windows Tools. We are working to better organize all the admin and system tools in Windows 10.
• [News and interests] Update on the rollout: following our last update on languages and markets, this week we’re also introducing the experience to China! We continue to roll out news and interests to Windows Insiders, so it isn’t available to everyone in the Dev Channel just yet.
• We are now rolling out the new IME candidate window design to all Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel using Simplified Chinese IMEs.
• We’re updating the “Get Help” link in the touch keyboard to now say “Learn more”.
• We’re updating File Explorer when renaming files to now support using CTRL + Left / Right arrow to move your cursor between words in the file name, as well as CTRL + Delete and CTRL + Backspace to delete words at a time, like other places in Windows.
• We’ve made some updates to the network related surfaces in Windows so that the displayed symbols use the updated system icons we recently added in the Dev Channel.
• Based on feedback, if the Shared Experiences page identifies an issue with your account connection, it will now send the notifications directly into the Action Center rather than repeated notification toasts that need to be dismissed.

Fixes:

• We fixed an issue where devices with certain NVMe drives were experiencing disk resets or WHEA_UNCORRECTABLE_ERROR bugchecks.
• We fixed an issue where some devices were receiving DPC_WATCHDOG_ERROR bugchecks.
• We fixed an issue where some devices with Realtek network adapters running driver version 1.0.0.4 were experiencing intermittent loss of network connectivity.
• [News and interests] Fixed an issue where on some occasions the news and interests button text was using the wrong high contrast color.
• [News and interests] Fixed an issue where news and interests may not be available when signing into Windows without internet access but returns when online.
• [News and interests] We’ve made multiple fixes to help improve performance and reliability for explorer.exe.
• We fixed an issue resulting in explorer.exe crashing with Event ID 1002.
• We fixed a memory leak when interacting with the Recycle Bin.
• We fixed a deadlock in recent Dev Channel builds related to the Indexer, which could result in not being able to launch Start menu or other apps on first boot after an upgrade.
• We fixed an issue where on some high-refresh-rate monitors, games would only run at 60Hz. This issue may have also resulted in tearing in variable-refresh-rate monitor scenarios.
• We fixed an underlying issue resulting in some apps crashing during install and potentially other activities recently.
• We fixed an underlying issue resulting in some apps unexpectedly displaying a message saying, “You must restart your computer before the new settings will take effect.” recently.
• We fixed in issue resulting in blurry text on secondary monitors in recent Dev Channel build when the monitor was set to portrait orientation.
• We fixed an issue impacting the reliability of WIN + Shift + Left / Right Arrow in recent builds.
• We fixed an issue where the size information for large capacity drives could be truncated in File Explorer’s properties dialog.
• We fixed an issue that could result in the header at the top of Settings having truncated text in some languages.
• We made a fix to help address an issue where the user profile picture in the Settings header would flicker when resizing the window. Please let us know if you’re still noticing this after upgrading.
• We fixed an issue where after changing audio end points the volume controls in Sound Settings might stop working.
• We fixed an issue where the Properties and Data Usage options were missing in Network Status settings page recently.
• We fixed an issue where if you searched for “Advanced touchpad gesture configuration” and clicked the result, it would just launch Settings, and not that specific Settings page.
• We fixed an issue resulting in Settings crashing for some Insiders after launching it by double clicking on the Windows Update icon in the taskbar.
• We fixed an issue that was blocking Azure Data Studio from updating to a newer version on ARM64.
• We fixed issues that were causing Ngen.exe to fail to precompile .NET Framework binaries on ARM64.
• We fixed an issue that could result in some of the touch keyboard’s child keys being cut off.
• We fixed an issue where a flick up on the top row of the touch keyboard wouldn’t insert the corresponding number when using the small touch keyboard layout, unlike the other layouts.
• We fixed an issue that could result in display issues with the IME candidate windows after switching between light and dark theme.
• We fixed an issue where after typing a very long string of text the Japanese IME could become disabled.
• We fixed an issue where it wasn’t possible to use SHIFT + Space in Excel when typing with the Japanese IME.
• We fixed an issue with the Japanese IME where it wasn’t possible to enter a sentence that began with “を” when typing in Kana input mode.

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