Microsoft expands Cortana support, features in new Windows 10 'Redstone' build
Microsoft is expanding its support of Cortana in a new Windows 10 Insider preview build the company released on March 4.
Windows 10 Build 14279, which is for Fast Ring Insider testers, includes several new features.
Cortana's language support is expanding with this test build to include Spanish (Mexico), Portuguese (Brazil) and French Canadian. Cortana also is now able to save new reminder information, such as the name of a book and to-do items without specific due dates (like "remind me to wash the car").
Today's new Redstone 14279 test build also provides a merged logon experience, combining the lock screen background and the logon screen background into just one background. For those with custom lock screen backgrounds, the lock screen will now be used for both the lock screen and logon screen.
Build 14279 also includes fixes and known issues, as do all Insider builds. Among the fixes are remedies to the situation that caused the Edge browser and Cortana to crash for users with roaming profiles. Cortana also will no longer show reminders that have been completed. Microsoft also fixed issues causing certain drivers from Windows Update to cause some PCs to bluescreen, according to today's blog post.
In the known issues area, Microsoft is looking into an issue I've heard several users report: Their Surface Pro 3, Pro 4 and Surface Book devices can freeze or hang and prevent inputs including typing and touch from registering. Right now, the workaround is to hold the power button to force a hard reboot.
Users who have Kaspersky Anti-Virus, Internet Security or the Kaspersky Total Security Suite installed may also experience problems, which Microsoft and Kaspersky are working to fix.
Microsoft released a number of additional Windows 10 updates earlier this week for PC users, Windows 10 Mobile Insider testers and for Windows 10 IoT testers.