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With build 14361, the Windows 10 Anniversary Update inches closer to release day

Another week, another preview release of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Today's Fast Ring release includes a big change in Hyper-V, support for the LastPass extension in Microsoft Edge, and a new version number.
Written by Ed Bott, Senior Contributing Editor

Today's launch of Windows 10 build 14361 to Insiders in the Fast Ring makes it official: On the About Your PC page, this build reports its version number as 1607, formally marking the change from last November's version 1511.

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This is the first Windows release to identify itself officially as version 1607.

In the sprint to next month's Anniversary Update, this build is filled with bug fixes and tiny refinements to the UI, with only a few new features.

The most eagerly awaited addition is the popular LastPass password-management extension for Microsoft Edge, which appeared briefly in an earlier build but was pulled within a day. It joins a select handful of other Edge extensions available for preview in the Windows 10 Store, including Adblock Plus and the OneNote Web Clipper.

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The LastPass extension is now available for the Microsoft Edge browser, but only in preview releases.

This release also adds Hyper-V Container support, along with a new version of the Docker engine for Windows and a base OS image built using Windows Server 2016 Technical Preview 5 Nano Server. According to the Quick Start guide, container support is available in Windows 10 virtual machines, using nested virtualization.

For anyone testing this build on a Surface Pro, Surface Book, or other pen-equipped device, the Windows Ink platform has received a slew of changes. The ruler, for example, is now long enough to span diagonally across the entire Surface Book display. In addition, the "clear all" option in Sketch Pad is now available as an icon on the menu bar (previously, it was a hard-to-discover option under the Erase button).

The Windows Ink features, which were announced at the Build conference a few months ago, were relatively late to arrive to Insider releases, and the team responsible for that feature appears to be making up for lost time as the finish line nears.

A whopper of a "known issue" is documented in the release notes for build 14361 that will surely set off alarms among those who are convinced that Windows 10 is filled with privacy gotchas:

Navigating to the Privacy pages in Settings app will crash the Settings app and prevent you from adjusting your privacy settings. Your privacy settings already set will remain intact after updating to this build. If this is a blocker for you, you can move to the Slow ring until this bug is fixed or be sure to set your privacy settings before updating to this build.

More tidbits from the release notes:

  • The Settings app gets some cosmetic improvements to make navigation easier.
  • In Windows Update, the windows for "active hours" when you don't want your PC to be restarted to install updates is now 12 hours instead of 10. (You can manually reschedule a restart after updates are downloaded.)
  • Notifications in the Action Center now use smaller icons.
  • Effective with this build, Task Manager settings are preserved across build updates.
  • The new clock and calendar flyout in the taskbar now has a keyboard shortcut: Windows key + Alt + D.

I'll have a more detailed preview of the Anniversary Update shortly. If you have questions, please leave them in the comments or ask me on Twitter (@edbott).

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