Windows 10 build 16179 for PC and 15205 for Mobile now available for Insiders

Surface Insider Rings
Surface Insider Rings (Image credit: Windows Central)

Another week, another set of Insider Preview builds for Insiders in the Fast ring. Today's builds are 16179 for PC, and still "feature2" build 15205 for Mobile. As is the case with most builds released in the first few weeks of development, most of the improvements included in these builds are under-the-hood.

What's new/improved for PC?

  • Revert VM: Continuing our theme of simplifying Hyper-V for developers on Windows 10 (see What's New), we're introducing automatic checkpoints so that you'll always be able to undo a mistake in your virtual machine – you can now always revert to the last time you started a virtual machine.
  • Introducing Power Throttling*: You may remember some of the power experiments we did back in January with Build 15002. Power Throttling was one of those experiments, and showed to have up to 11% savings in CPU power consumption for some of the most strenuous use cases. So, we're turning this on for everyone starting with last week's build.
  • We fixed the issue causing apps that use the Desktop Bridge ("Centennial") from the Store such as Slack and Evernote will cause your PC to bugcheck (GSOD) when launched with a "kmode exception not handled" in ntfs.sys error.
  • We fixed an issue where adding Hindi to your language list and downloading the on-demand language resources would result in Microsoft Edge crashing on launch and file search returning no results via Cortana or Windows Explorer.
  • We fixed an issue where desktop icons would sometimes move around unexpectedly when "Auto arrange icons" was set to On and "Align icons to grid" was set to Off.
  • The existing Group Policy to disable the lock screen is now available for those on the Pro edition of Windows 10. Appreciate all who shared feedback on the subject. Note, the Group Policy text has not yet been updated to incorporate this change, that will happen with a later flight.
  • We fixed a rendering issue from previous flights where specific multi-monitor and projection configurations could fail depending on the hardware used. This could have impacted all Surface (Surface Book, Surface Pro, etc.) devices as well as other devices using similar chipsets. Another symptom may have been to see screen flickering and potentially being logged out when any screen mode change occurred.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the location icon being continually on in the taskbar after the first time the Action Center was opened if the night light quick action was visible.

What's new/improved for Mobile?

  • We fixed the targeting issue that caused some variants of the Alcatel IDOL 4S to not receive Build 15204 last week. All variants of the Alcatel IDOL 4S should receive Build 15205.
  • FYI: We fixed the issue where supported Windows 10 Mobile devices were showing the update to the Windows 10 Anniversary Update as "not yet available" in the Upgrade Advisor app.
  • We fixed an issue where Continuum would stop working when HP Elite X3 case is closed.
  • We fixed an issue where Continuum would hang or render incorrectly after disconnecting on devices like the Lumia 950.
  • We fixed an issue with Microsoft Edge where you might get into a bad state after opening a new Microsoft Edge windows and screen off with the JIT process suspended.
  • We fixed an issue with where the device screen might stay black when disconnecting from a Continuum dock after screen has timed out normally.
  • We fixed an issue with backup and restore which impacts users with slower network connection.
  • We fixed an issue around Microsoft Edge reliability.

As always, you can check out the full changelog on the Windows Blog, including a list of known issues and more.

Zac Bowden
Senior Editor

Zac Bowden is a Senior Editor at Windows Central. Bringing you exclusive coverage into the world of Windows on PCs, tablets, phones, and more. Also an avid collector of rare Microsoft prototype devices! Keep in touch on Twitter and Threads