Microsoft releases KB5015878 update preview to bring notification improvements and more to Windows 10

Microsoft has released a new update for Windows 10 that not only addresses various issues with the operating system, but also adds new notification options for the focus assist feature.

KB5015878 is a non-security update, and it is a preview of the update that will be released more widely next month. Available for Windows 10 version 21H1 and 21H2, as well as Enterprise, Education and Server editions of the OS, the update will be of interest to anyone who has experienced problems with docking station internet connectivity, video playback in games, and other issues.

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Given the number of problems that have emerged with updates for Windows recently, many users will be reluctant to install the preview version and act as guinea pigs. But for those who have been affected by the problems the KB5015878 update is supposed to fix, it might be worth a gamble. There are also new features and options to explore.

Microsoft has published the following list of highlights for this non-security update:

• New!  Gives you the option to receive important notifications when focus assist is on. Focus assist is like a do not disturb mode that hides notifications.
• New! Restores functionality for Windows Autopilot deployment scenarios that are affected by the security mitigation for hardware reuse. This update removes the one-time use restriction for self-deploying mode (SDM) and pre-provisioning (PP). This update also re-enables any User Principal Name (UPN) display in user-driven mode (UDM) deployments for approved manufacturers.
• Addresses an issue that causes certain docking stations to lose internet connectivity when waking from Sleep mode.
• Adds functionality that improves the OS upgrade experience.
• Addresses an issue that might cause consecutive video clip playback to fail in games that use DX12.
• Addresses an issue that affects certain games that use the XAudio API to play sound effects.
• Addresses an issue that affects the height of the Search box when you use multiple monitors that have different resolutions.
• Addresses an issue that prevents certain troubleshooting tools from opening.

The longer list of changes shared by Microsoft reads as follows:

• New! Provides the ability for you to consent to receive important notifications when focus assist is on.
• Reduces the overhead of resource contention in high input/output operations per second (IOPS) scenarios that have many threads contending on a single file.
• Improves the reliability of a push-button reset after an OS upgrade.
• Addresses an issue that makes the tenant restrictions event logging channel inaccessible if you remove the EN-US language pack.
• Addresses an issue that prevents certain troubleshooting tools from opening.
• Updates the Remove-Item cmdlet to properly interact with Microsoft OneDrive folders.
• Addresses an issue that causes certain docking stations to lose internet connectivity when waking from Sleep mode.
• Adds functionality that caches additional audio endpoint information to improve the OS upgrade experience.
• Addresses an issue that might cause consecutive video clip playback to fail in games that use DX12.
• Addresses an issue that affects certain games that use the XAudio API to play sound effects.
• Addresses an issue that causes port mapping conflicts for containers.
• Addresses an issue that causes Code Integrity to continue trusting a file after the file has been modified.
• Addresses an issue that might cause Windows to stop working when you enable Windows Defender Application Control with the Intelligent Security Graph feature turned on.
• Addresses an issue that affects the height of the Search box when you use multiple monitors that have different resolutions as measured dots per inch (DPI).
• Addresses an issue that prevents the Storage Migration Service (SMS) from completing inventory on servers that have many shares. The system logs error event 2509 in Microsoft-Windows-StorageMigrationService/Admin channel (ErrorId=-2146233088/ErrorMessage="Invalid table id").
• Addresses an issue that causes the Windows profile service to fail sporadically. The failure might occur when signing in. The error message is, "gpsvc service failed to sign in. Access denied".

As this is an update preview, it is not rolling out automatically to everyone at the moment. If you are interested in installing it, you can either use Windows Update to search for optional updates, or download it directly from the Microsoft Update Catalog.

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