Microsoft promised last week to deliver Windows 10 preview builds more regularly, and today it published the first new build in close to two months.

Build 10041 should be available right now to preview users on the fast update track. The new features are broadly those we saw in leaks earlier this month: a prettier Start menu, some changes to virtual desktops, and a better (though still incomplete) interface for picking Wi-Fi networks. Strikingly, the new Project Spartan browser isn't in this build.

From here on out, the plan is to offer at least one build a month and quite possibly two or more. Microsoft has learned that the people on the Windows Insider "fast" track are more willing to accept buggy releases than previously anticipated. This has led Microsoft to shake up its testing process and let it publish builds that are only a couple of working days old.

Previously, public builds had to pass through three internal layers to reach the fast track: Microsoft's Operating Systems Group fast track (the "canary" group), the OSG slow track, and then the Microsoft-wide deployment. Only if a build was accepted by all of these groups would it hit the Windows Insider fast track. From there, it could then be published to the slow track.

Under the new scheme, the Windows Insider fast track will follow on from the OSG slow track. Today's build was created on Friday, so it is relatively hot off the build server. Looking forward, while there will still be blackout periods when no builds will be published to allow for feature integration work, Microsoft's Gabe Aul tells us that the new process could even go so far as to produce a few builds within a week, especially as the operating system nears its final version.

The same process will also be used for builds of the phone operating system. However, that will still have stricter validation due to the greater difficulties in servicing and fixing phones. Accordingly, there's no new Windows 10 for phones built today.