Microsoft releases Windows 10 Fall Creators Update Build 16232 to the Fast ring

We’re back on the weekly release schedule, and after two jam-packed exciting new builds you might be forgiven for thinking the latest big Insider release would be a little light on new features and… you’d be wrong.

Build 16232 introduces some of the new security features which will be coming to the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, including Exploit Protection, and Controlled folder access in Windows Defender Antivirus. It also introduces improvements for Windows Defender Application Guard (WDAG).

SEE ALSO: With Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, Microsoft is going all-in on security

If you’re not familiar, Windows Defender Application Guard makes use of Hyper-V virtualization technology and is designed to stop attackers from establishing a foothold on your local machine or beyond. If you sandbox Edge in this way, anything you do in the browser will be forgotten once you quit out. This build introduces Edge data persistence to WDAG  so you can favorite sites and return to them afterwards. To use this new feature you’ll firstly have to enable it in Group Policy.

Close all Edge windows and update the Windows Components > Windows Defender Application Guard policy to turn on data persistence. When done, launch the New Application Guard Window from the Microsoft Edge menu, then browse to a site you like and add it to Favorites. This site will now be available for later use, with Microsoft Edge in Application Guard.

Also starting in this build you can make use of Exploit Protection to audit, configure, and manage Windows system and application exploit mitigation settings from Windows Defender Security Center. To access the settings open the Windows Defender Security Center and go to the App & browser control page. You can search for Windows Defender Security Center via the Start menu.

Microsoft warns that this is an early work in progress, so you might encounter errors along the way.

Ransomware is very much in the news again at the moment, and this build can help protect your valuable data from such threats via a new Controlled folder access feature in Windows Defender Antivirus.

To enable the feature, search for and open the Windows Defender Security Center from Start, go to the Virus & threat protection settings section, and set the switch to On.

Other changes, improvements, and fixes for PC include:

• Fixed the issue that was causing updating to the latest build to fail and roll back to the previous build if you had the .NET 3.5 Framework installed. You should no longer need to uninstall .NET 3.5 before trying to update to this build.
• Fixed an issue for those with certain languages installed in the last flight where ctfmon.exe would go into a crash loop, resulting in typing in the Start menu and UWP apps becoming impossible.
• In Windows Defender Security Center you will soon have the option to dismiss recommendations (yellow badged items). In this build, you will see the upcoming addition however it is under construction and not up and running yet.  Stay tuned.
• Fixed an issue where some games like Mass Effect 3 would crash if you used Alt + TAB after 5 minutes of game play.
• Fixed an issue resulting in Word 2016 crashing if you attempted to ink in it.
• Fixed an issue where using the new Ctrl + Win + C hotkey to enable and disable color filters would unexpectedly open Settings.
• Fixed an issue from the last flight where auto-complete in the URL bar of Microsoft Edge might fail on some devices -- searching for a partial string instead of the autocompleted text. This fix should also address the feedback some of you were reporting where Cortana sometimes couldn’t keep up with typing on that flight and the letters would end up out of order.
• Fixed an issue where the File Explorer Ribbon assets were blurry if the window’s DPI was not equal to the system DPI.
• Fixed an issue resulting in apps that start with X, V or Q being incorrectly categorized in Start on Polish builds.
• Moved the new Video Playback Settings page to now be listed under the Apps category, and fixed the issues on the page where the video and battery dropdown weren’t displaying correctly.
• Fixed an issue with the XAML Acrylic Brush that could result in certain apps, for example Maps, occasionally crashing due to attempting to load acrylic brushes while the app was suspended.
• Fixed a rare condition that could result in Start menu appearing to flash/flicker continuously.

Known issues for PC include:

• Your PC may fail to update to this build with an 0x80070643 and rolls back to the previous build. Microsoft is investigating.
• Microsoft is also investigating reports that the battery status on certain laptops isn’t updating while the device is unplugged.
• You may notice some of your inbox apps are now displaying a name that looks like "ms-resource:" and are listed at the bottom of Start. The app should still launch normally, it’s only the name resource that’s impacted.
• Some UWP apps such as Twitter will crash on launch.
• Xbox Live in-game experiences may fail to load. These include gamer profiles, achievement details, and other dialogs that may pop up on top of an Xbox Live-enabled game.
• Avoid doing a PC reset via Settings > Update & security > Recovery and choosing "Remove everything." This may put your device into a reboot loop.
• Task Manager may hang on launch on this build.

Microsoft also warns that it will be pausing the testing new versions of its inbox apps with Windows Insiders:

This means that Insiders will not receive app updates from the Windows Store for our inbox apps that are newer than the apps included in the build. Insiders may notice that some features we were testing in our inbox apps -- including recent updates to the Photos app -- will temporarily disappear. This is because some of our inbox apps won’t have all the latest new features without getting an update from the Store. It is critical that Insiders are experiencing the same version of Windows that will be released as the default version for all Windows users. Insiders will once again start receiving app updates in the very near future.

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