A new look for Windows 10 Start menu: Live Tiles ditched in leaked preview build
Microsoft's slip-up yesterday leaking an untested Windows 10 preview to the Fast and Slow Insider rings revealed a new look Start menu.
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The alternate Start menu lacks Live Tiles and may be what Microsoft has in mind for Windows Lite, an under-development stripped-down version of Windows that's said to be part of Microsoft's strategy for tackling Chromebooks and which may be intended for a dual-screen laptop.
The new Start menu appeared in Windows 10 build 18947, which Microsoft briefly pushed to Windows Insiders with 32-bit machines yesterday. According to The Verge, it was meant to be an internal-only build for Xbox development.
An image of the new Start menu was shared by Twitter user NTAuthority, showing a stripped back Start menu without the widget-like Live Tiles.
Start. pic.twitter.com/3QvWGPdQW9
— NTAuthority (@NTAuthority) July 24, 2019
Microsoft introduced Live Tiles in Windows Phone 7 and then brought it to the desktop in Windows 8 in its push to bring a touch experience to the desktop.
The new Start menu doesn't necessarily mean Microsoft is completely done with Live Tiles yet. As Windows Central notes, it's not clear whether the Windows Lite start menu will be brought to the full Windows 10 desktop. But with Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile in the rearview mirror, the desktop is the only place it lives on.
As ZDNet reported yesterday, Microsoft has pulled build 18947 and also posted a blog explaining how to rollback affected machines to the earlier preview.
A Microsoft Xbox ambassador and member of the Windows Insider team warned testers who are running build 18947 that they have about 10 days to rollback before losing the ability to do so. Users with Storage Sense enabled may have less time.
"We encourage affected users to complete this action as soon as possible to ensure they're able to roll back successfully," the Microsoft employee wrote.
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Microsoft also offered this explanation for pushing out an untested preview build:
"We actively test and validate each of our preview builds internally before sharing them externally, however a configuration change allowed this build to release to multiple rings simultaneously, including external rings.
"We have made the necessary remediation in our Flighting service and have implemented additional changes to help prevent from this happening in the future. We apologize for any troubles this may have caused for affected Insiders and appreciate your assistance in bringing this to our attention so we could make the necessary changes as quickly as possible."