Windows10 Technical Preview for phones is now available for the following devices: Lumia 630, 635, 638, 730, and 830.
Notice that high end devices are not available. Microsoft says that there is a partitioning problem that will be resolved by adding a partition stitching tool into the installation. They do not give a time frame for this update, so persons with other devices do not know when the preview will be available to them. There are not that many changes. A list will be provided below, and it is quite buggy, which was expected. Microsoft has warned that installing the preview can cause loss of data or damage to your device. Therefore, Cool Blind Tech is not responsible for any problems caused by installing this update. In fact, we strongly recommend that you do not install the update at this time.
Another reason to hold off is that there are not many changes added. A list of the new features will be provided. Also, many of the existing features in Windows Phone 8.1 are no longer working properly. Finally, there are accessibility issues with the new build.
Here is a list of the new features provided by Microsoft:
The following are the new features currently available in the build released yesterday.
- Full-size Background Image for Start: We believe phones should be intensely personal – so we’ve added another option to customize the start screen with a full-size background image.
- More Quick Actions in Action Center: We’ve increased the number of quick actions available to you. Windows Phone 8.1 has four programmable quick actions – but with Windows 10 you also get an expanded view that can now have up to three rows.
- Interactive Notifications: Notifications are now interactive, allowing you to take action directly like dismissing an alarm, or seeing images for maps. For example, for text messages, when the toast pops, you can quickly reply inline via text or voice.
- Significantly enhanced speech-to-text capability: You can talk to virtually any data field you choose. Your words show up as you speak them – and punctuation appears automatically. This feature is smart enough to understand when to use ‘two’ – the number — instead of ‘too’ as in ‘also’.
- More powerful Photos app: From your very first launch, Photos will show the aggregated set of all your local photos and all your OneDrive photos
Microsoft has confirmed that new Office universal apps for Word, Excel and PowerPoint, new Mail and Calendar Universal Apps, IP-based messaging from Skype and others are coming in the future builds.
Here is a link to a video from Microsoft that highlights the new features available.
Here is a list of some known problems with work arounds included if available:
- Existing alarms will not be migrated to Windows 10 Reset alarms after upgrade
- Wi-Fi settings don’t roam when phone is upgraded to Windows 10 Manually set Wi-Fi settings when on Windows 10
- VPN not available in current Windows 10 builds. Setting will fail to launch. Coming in a future update –
- Additional language keyboards may not be present and may not be able to install on US builds after upgrading to Windows 10. Reopen the Windows Insider app and re-select Insider Fast/Slow again. The download of keyboard packages will then work
- Photos app will fail to launch periodically when attempting to add a photo attachment to an email, OneNote or Facebook item. Try again. Succeeds after a few attempts.
- Quiet Hours is missing the automatic rule that enables Quiet hours during calendar appointments marked busy. Also the setting “Anyone breaks through if they call 2 times in 3 minutes” us unchecked but enabled. –
- Apps are not displayed in Battery saver after the upgrade. –
- Access Point Names (APNs) in recovery images can fall out of date. For some phones/networks, this will block the cellular data and MMS capabilities of a phone when recovering back to the base image. Before using the Windows Mobile Recovery Tool to recover, record the specific APN settings on your phone. Set manually once phone restored
- Cellular data not working while roaming, despite enabling data roaming. The setting doesn’t work the first time it’s enabled. Turning off and then turning on again will enable data while roaming
- Using a Bluetooth headset while playing back video results in low frame rate for video, due to a bug in the interaction between video playback and Bluetooth. Use wired headset for listening to audio when playing videos.
- Sync to Microsoft Band doesn’t work after updating to Windows 10. If you have your phone synced to Microsoft band, it will not pair after the update to Windows 10. After upgrade to Windows 10, go to Bluetooth settings, un-pair the Microsoft Band device and re-pair it.
- DataSense resets data use history on upgrade to Windows 10. No workaround. Will calculate correctly after the reset.
- Trying to set lock screen picture will fail the first time. Re-attempt the operation.
- After upgrade, tapping on “Playlist” from start screen or from within Music App fails to play music. Playlists are greyed out. –
- Cortana is only available in United States. More countries will be added in future builds.
- Cortana fails to open apps. No work around as of yet.
- Netflix fails to play videos. Driver error is given.
- Accessibility features do not work properly in this build. Will be fixed in future build.
If you still want to install the preview, even after hearing all the reasons not to, here is a step by step instruction on how to do so.
First, sign up as a Windows Insider, if you haven’t done so already.
Next, install the Windows Insider app on your phone.
Open the Insider app, sign in with your Microsoft account, select slow or fast install, fast install is recommended, press the next button.
Here you will run into an accessibility issue. The next button is not accessible while Narrator is running. You must turn off Narrator and get sighted assistance to get to that button.
After you confirm that you wish to proceed, the Insider app will say that you are done. Next go to phone update in the settings menu. Your phone should be checking for the update already, but if it isn’t, manually check for the update.Now, you will go through the very long process of downloading, installing, and configuring your phone. It took me about two hours.
Once again, we recommend that you not proceed with the installation because of the risk to your data, the risk to your hardware, and because Microsoft has stated that the accessibility features will not work properly in this version of Technical Preview.
We are not liable for any loss caused if you proceed with the installation of Windows10 Technical Preview for your phone.
