Windows 10 Insider Preview 18277 Brings High DPI Scaling Enhancements And Alexa-Cortana Integration

Microsoft hasn't exactly had smooth sailing with regards to its most recent major update for Windows 10. The company launched the October 2018 Update early last month, which was fraught with problems including a file deletion bug. Microsoft quickly pulled the update and has yet to release a replacement.

Despite this setback, Microsoft is continuing to work in parallel on the next major release of Windows 10 Build 19H1 (which stands for 2019, First Half). Microsoft has just fed a build to testers on this track: Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18277.

This latest release brings with it a number of small changes, with one of the most important one being improvements to High DPI. When running certain Win32 applications on high DPI displays, users can often encounter blurry text, disproportioned UI elements, and other visual maladies. Microsoft has made continual improvements to its DPI scaling and that continues with the ability for Windows 10 to automatically fix DPI scaling issues instead of presenting you with a "toast" to fix the app.

Focus Assist is getting more attuned to your desire to be left alone, and is including an option that prevents notifications and other activities from interrupting you. The new option, which can be invoked from the Focus Assist menu in Setting, will prevent anything from interrupting you when you are in full screen mode.

Other small changes include a brightness slider Quick action for Action Center instead of the old "button" controls. This is just another example of Microsoft listening to user feedback over even the smallest details in Windows 10. There are new emoji for the release of Emoji 12, and new settings for the Windows Defender Application Guard.

In addition, Microsoft's Cortana + Amazon Alexa integration in Windows 10 will now be available to Windows Insiders. Microsoft wants Insiders to help refine this digital assistant duality, and is asking them to complete a short survey for cross-platform Cortana-Alexa goodness.

Finally, there are number of improvements, changes, fixes, and known issues, which you can view in great detail in Microsoft's blog post.