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On November 30, Microsoft first released a test version of the Windows Feature Experience Pack to Insider testers. Pack version 120.2212.1070.0 is available for testers in the beta channel.
Microsoft executives have refused to discuss what the Windows Feature Experience Pack is until today. I reported earlier this year that the Feature Experience Pack is a set of features that can be updated independently of the Windows 10 operating system itself. In today’s blog post about the pack, managers confirmed that this is what the Windows Feature Experience Pack really is.
(Those with recent versions of Windows 10 installed on their PCs can see that the Windows Feature Experience Pack is already installed. When I wrote about the pack in June, it included the updated capture tool, the text entry panel and a shell suggestion user interface.)
Microsoft’s goal is to make the Windows Feature Experience Pack a way to deliver new feature enhancements to customers outside of major Windows 10 feature updates.
“By testing this process with Windows Insiders first, we hope to expand the scope and frequency of releases (of the Feature Pack) in the future,” said Brandon LeBlanc of Microsoft.
Microsoft’s goal is to make Windows Feature Experience Pack updates available to Insiders – and ultimately, mainstream customers – through Windows Update, just like builds and cumulative updates.
The current version of Windows Feature Experience Pack includes some new improvements in the capture experience and the touch keyboard. Testers will be able to use the built-in screenshot experience (WIN + SHIFT + S) to create a screenshot and paste it directly into a folder in File Explorer. And testers will also be able to use split keyboard mode in a portrait pose on a 2-in-1 touch device.
In order to test the current version of the feature pack, beta channel insiders must install version 20H2 19042.662. Microsoft released Windows 10 20H2 for consumer users in October and has tested cumulative updates to the one released through the Insider Program in the past few weeks.
Microsoft officials have still not discussed when and the possibility of a version of Windows 10 21H1. Based on various leaks, it looks like Windows 10 version 21H2 (codenamed “Cobalt”) will be a pretty big update when it releases at the end of next year.
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