Hi everyone,
We’re releasing Build 10080 of the Windows 10 Technical Preview for phones to the Fast ring today (will show as 10.0.12562.84 in Settings > System > About). We’re excited to get this build out because it brings many improvements but also because it adds support for a few important phones that Insiders have been asking us about. Specifically, it supports the Lumia 930/Lumia Icon, Lumia 640 and 640XL, and our first non-Lumia phone – the HTC One (M8) for Windows. (Please note that if you are on Verizon and your HTC One (M8) for Windows is on version 8.10.15143.154, you won’t be offered today’s build just yet. We are still working to offer the upgrade to Windows 10 for these particular devices.)
This is a Fast ring build so be aware there are some bugs that will affect your experience with it, make sure to read the known issues below before installing.
Here is what’s new
Windows Store Beta for phones: This build brings a first look at the new Windows Store in Windows 10 for phones. You will see it designated as Store (Beta). The Store Beta has a new visual design and if you’ve been using the Store Beta on PC, it should feel familiar since it’s the built using the new Universal Windows Platform code. As a beta, there are a couple of known issues to be aware of with this Store app. Both the app selection and markets where the Store Beta is available are limited in this release. You can browse and search, as well as download apps. You can pay for those apps and games with options such as international credit card, gift cards and PayPal. However, carrier billing is not enabled yet. At Build, we announced that all Windows 10 devices (not just phones), will be able to support carrier billing. That means that the growing number of carrier billing connections we have today may be used by Windows 10 customers to purchase all Store content. We’re also adding music, movies and TV shows into the Store for you to purchase and access across all your devices. Movies & TV page is functional. Music is not available in this build but will be coming soon. And just like on PC, the current Windows Store remains available in this build.
Universal Office apps: Now that the Store Beta is included in this build, you can download the Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote Preview apps. For more information on the Universal Office apps – read this blog post from the Office Blog. We know that you’ve been waiting to try these apps on your phones, so we’re very excited for them to be available for you now.
Xbox app: The Xbox app for Windows 10 is also now available for phones in the Store Beta (version 4.4.230). With the Xbox app on your phone – you can access your activity feed, achievements, friends list, activity alerts, messages, watch Game DVR clips, and connect to your Xbox One. For more information, see this post on Xbox Wire.
Music Preview app: Access your music collection and play all your music – including songs you have added to OneDrive. The new experience for Now Playing makes it easy to swipe between songs and it looks great. We’ve got more improvements coming in future app updates that will be delivered through the Store Beta including a Live Tile showing what’s currently playing, pinning favorites to your Start screen, exploring the full catalog and listening to Radio with an Xbox Music Pass, support for Kids Corner, the ability to shop for music in the Store Beta, and more. Download the Music Preview app here.
Video Preview app: Browse and play video files (including MKV files!) on your device. Try out filtering and sorting your collection and adding a folder of videos to include in your collection. You can also browse and play movies and TV shows you’ve purchased and rented from Xbox Video. Try starting a purchased video on your PC or Xbox and pick up playback right where you left off on your phone. In a future app update, we’ll be adding the ability to download movies and TV shows for offline playback, new device management so you can manage your offline downloads on the devices you care about, improved search results, movie reviews and cast info, and more! Download the Video Preview app here.
Check out the new Camera app: We want your feedback on the new Camera app for Windows 10! Make the Camera app your default camera app by going to Settings > System > Photos & Camera (or pin it to your Start screen) and let us know what you think. Note that high-end Lumia devices (1520, 1020, 930, 830, 640, and 640XL) have some features not supported by the new Camera app. For these devices, the new app will work but to get the full functionality from your device you will need to use the Lumia Camera app. In coming weeks we’ll have updated versions of Camera apps with the superset of all features. Here are a few things to try: try out HDR (click the magic wand button), video stabilization for video and look for face-based autofocus in camera preview window.
A few fixes: We have fixed a few things in this build. Tapping on an e-mail notification now launches you into that e-mail message instead of the calendar. Incoming calls should play a ringing sound now.
Here are some known issues
- We’re aware of several migration issues after upgrading to this build.
- After upgrading, you may see duplicate tiles for apps like Search and Phone under All Apps.
- “Pending” may show under some apps after upgrade and those apps are unresponsive. Restarting the phone will clear the pending flag and the apps should work.
- All data and settings for apps installed on a SD card do not get migrated and you cannot launch these apps or install them again. Workaround is to uninstall then reinstall these apps.
- The old email app will still show up after upgrade in All Apps list with “Error” text displayed and cannot be removed. This app also shows up banged out on the Start screen if it was pinned previously. It can simply be unpinned to remove.
- When upgrading from Windows Phone 8.1 to this build, even if you have your cellular data connection turned on, it will get turned off during upgrade. Go to Settings > Network & wireless > Cellular and SIM to turn it back on.
- VERY IMPORTANT: there is a condition in which you may never receive MMS messages. Usually when someone sends you a MMS message and your phone’s cellular data connection is turned off, you will receive a “Get message” link in the text thread from the sender, allowing you to download the message once you turn your cellular data back on. There is a bug in which this link is not received in this case and the MMS message is completely lost. To ensure MMS messages are not lost, be sure to turn cellular data on (via Settings > Network & wireless > Cellular & SIM > Data connection). This issue will occur any time your cellular data connection is turned off in this build.
- If you are in a region where Cortana is enabled (US, China, UK, France, Italy, Germany, or Spain) and you have changed the default shipping language on your phone – please ensure that your region, language, and speech settings are restored to their default values before initiating the update. This is required in order to avoid a bug that will cause Cortana/Search to repeatedly crash.
- After upgrade, uninstalling an app may not remove it from the All Apps list. Usually restarting your device resolves this issue.
- Playback of movies and TV may fail with error 0x8004c029 in the Video Preview app. If it does, go here to learn more about how to fix it.
- After upgrading, the Twitter app may crash on launch. If you uninstall and reinstall the app, it should work.
- Auto-update for apps is not enabled in this build for apps installed via Store Beta. You will have to manually check for updates.
- After upgrading from Build 10052, the Insider Hub still does not launch. However, if you upgrade from Windows Phone 8.1 the Insider Hub should now launch.
We’re really excited to get a build out for Lumia 930, Lumia Icon, Lumia 640XL, and HTC One (M8) owners who have been wanting to participate, and also to get new apps, Store Beta, and Office Preview apps into your hands.
It’s also worth briefly talking about timing for releasing Windows 10 for phones. Last month, we announced that Windows 10 for PCs would be launching this summer. At the Build conference a few weeks ago, Joe Belfiore spoke to a group of press and elaborated a bit more on timing for other devices including phones. Because we’re treating Windows more like a service, this allows us to release Windows 10 on different devices and customers at different times. For phones, Windows 10 will arrive later this year – both on new devices and also upgrades for existing Windows Phone 8.1 devices. Even though Windows 10 will be arriving for phones later than it does for PCs, the underlying OS code is still the same. As Terry mentioned earlier this year, Windows 10 will support the broadest device family ever – from PCs, tablets and 2-in-1s to phones to Xbox and the Internet of Things. To enable this, we work to specifically tailor Windows 10 to these device types. And what you’re seeing with phone builds today is that work in progress to tailor Windows 10 to be great on phones.
Please continue to send your great feedback and problem reports on things that you see when using this build on your devices, and thanks for being a Windows Insider!
Thanks,
g