Microsoft today released a new preview for PCs with ink support in the Microsoft To-Do app, Sticky Notes 3.0, and a delay snip feature in Snip & Sketch. This build is from the 19H1 branch, which, as its name indicates, will arrive in the first half of next year. Microsoft is simultaneously in the process of finalizing the RS5 branch, which represents the Windows 10 update the company plans to release later this year (likely in October 2018).

Windows 10 is being developed as a service, meaning it receives new features on a regular basis. Microsoft has released five major updates so far: November Update, Anniversary Update, Creators Update, Fall Creators Update, and April 2018 Update.

Ink support is now available to #WindowsInsiders! Become an Insider to try it out and let us know what you think! https://t.co/Jvkj6hXIeW pic.twitter.com/8DERbhDJdN — Microsoft To-Do Help (@MicrosoftToDo) September 4, 2018

The Microsoft To-Do app has gained support for handwritten input (you’ll need version 1.39.1808.31001 or higher). This means you can capture tasks by writing directly on the list’s surface, complete your tasks by striking through them, and use check marks within the circle to the left of a task to complete it.

Sticky Notes 3.0, which actually rolled out last week, is also worth taking out for a spin in this build. If you use this app, you’ll want to check out what’s new.

Snip & Sketch has gained the highly requested delay snip feature. Just click the chevron next to the New button and you’ll see options to “Snip now,” “Snip in 3 seconds,” and “Snip in 10 seconds.” If you have the app open or pinned to your taskbar, you can also just right click the icon to access these options via the jump list.

This desktop build includes the following general bug fixes and improvements (many will sound familiar to those following updates on the RS5 branch):

The dark theme File Explorer is included in this build!

Fixed the issue where logging out of your user profile or shutting down your PC would cause the PC to bugcheck (GSOD).

The XAML shadows and acrylic in some popup controls are being taken offline but will be back in a future flight.

Fixed an issue resulting in the taskbar flyouts (network, volume, etc) no longer having an acrylic background.

Fixed an issue resulting in hangs when using WSL in the previous flight.

Updated the Emoji Panel to now support search and tooltips for the Emoji 11 emoji that were added recently. These keywords will also populate text predictions when typing with the touch keyboard.

Fixed an issue where explorer.exe would crash if you were in Tablet Mode and opened Task View while in portrait orientation.

Fixed an issue where the app icons in Task View might appear slightly blurry on high DPI devices.

Fixed an issue where on narrow devices activities in Timeline might slightly overlap the scrollbar.

Fixed an issue where you might unexpectedly get an error saying no supported app is installed, after clicking certain activities in Timeline, even though a supported app was installed.

Fixed issue where Taskbar background could become transparent when changing graphics device.

Fixed an issue resulting in pinning to app icons to the taskbar taking longer than usual recently.

Fixed an issue where after setting a pin and removing it, the option to set up a pin from the lock screen could get stuck as the default login method, rather than the login screen remembering your preferred login method.

Some adjustments to improve the amount of CPU that cdpusersvc uses.

Fixed an issue resulting in New button in Snip & Sketch not working.

Fixed an issue resulting in Notepad’s “Search with Bing” feature searching for “10 10” instead of “10 + 10” if that was the search query and also fixed an issue where accented characters would end up as question marks in the resulting search.

Fixed an issue where Ctrl + 0 to reset the zoom level in Notepad wouldn’t work if the 0 was typed from a keypad.

Fixed a recent issue resulting in an increase in the amount of time taken to open large files in Notepad when word wrap was enabled.

The naming the tabs you’ve set aside in Microsoft Edge has been removed for now.

Fixed an issue where downloading a big file in Microsoft Edge would stop at the 4gb mark.

Fixed an issue where clicking the “more” button in Microsoft Edge’s inline definition pop up when reading in recent flights would open a blank pane.

Fixed an issue where items in Microsoft Edge’s Settings and More menu would become truncated when the option to increase text size was enabled in Settings.

Fixed an issue where using Find on page in Microsoft Edge didn’t highlight/select the current instance of the result.

Fixed an issue where after resetting Microsoft Edge saved favorites would get stuck showing a star next to the favorite name rather than populating the website’s favicon (if available).

Fixed an issue where text copied from certain websites in Microsoft Edge couldn’t be pasted into other UWP apps.

Fixed an issue that could result in the contents of the Microsoft Edge window becoming offset from its window frame.

Fixed an issue resulting in the spellchecking menu appearing in the wrong place when you right-clicked on a misspelled word in Microsoft Edge.

Fixed an issue for Insiders using Windows 10 in S Mode recently resulting opening Word from a Word Online document not working.

Fixed an issue impacting Teams resulting all unsent typed text disappearing following the completion of an emoji composition (for example being turned into a smiley).

Fixed an issue where nearby sharing would become blocked on the sender device after canceling share to three different devices.

Fixed an issue resulting in the nearby sharing section of the Share UI not being visible for some users despite being enabled.

Fixed an issue in recent flights where components of a notification with a progress bar (like the one when using nearby sharing) might flash every time the progress bar updated.

Fixed an issue from recent builds resulting in share target windows (aka the app you select when prompted from the Share UI) not closing when you pressed Alt+F4 or the X.

Fixed an issue resulting in a decrease in Start reliability over the last few flights.

Fixed an impactful race condition in recent flights resulting in Cortana crashing when launching tips and doing web searches.

Fixed an issue where right-clicking the desktop and expanding the New subsection of the context menu took longer than usual recently.

Fixed the issue causing Office in the Store to fail to launch with an error about a .dll not being designed to run on Windows on PCs running in S Mode.

Fixed an issue where, when installing a font for a single user (rather than installing as admin “for all users”), the install would fail with an unexpected error saying that the file was not a valid font file.

Fixed an issue where non-admin local users would get an error saying that updating the security questions for their account required admin permissions.

Fixed a recent issue where color and wallpaper settings weren’t correctly applied after a system upgrade when migration was done in offline mode.

Fixed an issue resulting in the amount of time it took to launch Settings having noticeably increased recently.

Fixed an issue where if Settings was open to “Bluetooth & Other Devices” and then minimized to the taskbar, when you tried to resume the app Settings would crash.

Fixed an issue from recent builds where the first time you manually selected the date in Date & Time Settings, it would revert to Jan 1st.

Updating the image size limit for clipboard history (WIN + V) from 1MB to 4MB to accommodate the potential size of full screen screenshots taken on a high-DPI devices.

Fixed an issue where when using the Chinese (Simplified) IME it would leak memory on focus switch, adding up over time.

Fixed an issue resulting in text prediction and shapewriting not working when typing in Russian using the touch keyboard.

Fixed a recent issue that could result in some flakey network connectivity (including networks stuck “identifying”, and stale network flyout connectivity state). Note, there are a variety of factors that may impact your networking experience, so if you continue to experience flakiness after upgrading to this build, please log feedback.

The performance visualizations added to the game bar are being taken offline for now to re-evaluate the best possible approach going forward and work on giving you a great gaming experience on your PC.

Fixed an issue in Narrator so when toggling a checkbox with a braille display and Narrator, the displayed state is now updated and the control information is maintained on the display.

Today’s update bumps the Windows 10 build number for the 19H1 branch from 18219 (made available to testers on August 16) to build 18234.

This build has seven known issues:

When you use the Ease of Access Make Text bigger setting, you might see text clipping issues, or find that text is not increasing in size everywhere.

When using Narrator Scan mode Shift + Selection commands in Edge, the text does not get selected properly.

Narrator sometimes does not read in the Settings app when you navigate using Tab and arrow keys. Try switching to Narrator Scan mode temporarily. And when you turn Scan mode off again, Narrator will now read when you navigate using Tab and arrows key. Alternatively, you can restart Narrator to work around this issue.

This build fixes a general issue resulting in links that launched one app from another app not working in the last flights for some Insiders, however there’s one specific variant of this that will still not work in today’s build: Clicking on web links in PWAs such as Twitter doesn’t open the browser.

You may notice the background of notifications and the Action Center lose color and become transparent (with an acrylic effect), which makes notifications difficult to read.

You may not be able to resize the Task Manager window on this build.

If you install any of the recent builds from the Fast ring and switch to the Slow ring – optional content such as enabling developer mode will fail. You will have to remain in the Fast ring to add/install/enable optional content. This is because optional content will only install on builds approved for specific rings.

As always, don’t install this on your production machine.