Windows 10 Insider build 202141 is out with theme-aware splash screen for some UWP apps

Microsoft has just released the Windows 10 preview build 20241 for Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel, which brings support for theme-aware splash screens for some UWP apps, as well as an enhanced defrag experience. After Microsoft introduced theme-aware tiles in the Start menu in the Windows 10 October 2020 Update, the splash screen color of select UWP apps will now match your default app mode.

Insiders using the light theme on their PC will now see a light theme splash screen when launching apps like Settings or the Microsoft Store, while Insiders using the dark theme will see a dark theme splash screen instead of the previous blue color. You can see an example in the GIF below:

For now, only 14 stock UWP apps will support theme-aware splash screens, and the list includes Settings, the Microsoft Store, Calculator, Maps, Movies & TV, Microsoft To Do, and Office. This feature will only roll out to a subset of Insiders installing this build, and more apps will support theme-aware splash screens over time.

The second new feature in this build is related to the Optimize Drives page (Settings > System > Storage > Optimize Drives) in the Settings apps. Microsoft has added a new “Advanced View” checkbox to list all volumes including hidden ones, though this checkbox may not be entirely functional for now. Moreover, Insiders can now see more details in the “Current status” column when volumes are not available for defrag, and hit F5 to refresh the Optimize Drives page.

The Windows Insider team has also mentioned a minor change for the Narrator, as well as a long list of fixes and known issues. You can find the full details below:

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.

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 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.

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 the new and modern PowerShell 7 which takes advantage of ARM by running natively. Plus the icon is prettier.

Overall, this is another build with very minor changes, and we hope that exciting new features will land soon in the Dev Channel. With the October 2020 Update now rolling out to all Windows 10 users, the Windows Insider team can now focus on the next major Windows 10 Update (21H1) which will ship in the first half of 2021.