Windows 10's Insider Build 18894 is out now, adding File Explorer improvements and accessibility...

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Windows 10's latest Insider Preview Build is finally out for those in the Program's "Fast" ring, and it's bringing a wide array of bug fixes to the OS. Perhaps most notably, though, the update will also include a handful of long-awaited File Explorer improvements.

As anyone who uses Windows 10 regularly knows, Explorer's current search functionality is far from perfect - it tends to be slow and unpredictable. The good news is, the improvements Microsoft is rolling out today via Preview Build 18894 should address both of these issues on some level.

The first change of note is to the way Explorer's search function works behind-the-scenes. Now, it's powered by Windows Search, which -- according to Microsoft -- means your results will come from both your indexed system files, as well as files and folders you've stored in OneDrive online. Furthermore, as soon as you enter a search query into Explorer, results will instantly begin to pop up in a drop-down menu - you won't have to wait for them to show up in the main file area.

The second major change is the new search history tool. As Microsoft states, the moment you click the search box (or "focus" on it using CTRL + E), previous search queries will pop up in a similar drop-down menu.

File Explorer improvements aside, Microsoft is also adding a few new accessibility-oriented features to Windows 10 with Preview Build 18894. These features include better data table reading for Narrator, as well as the ability for the screen-reading assistant to "summarize" an entire web page. The latter feature will give you information about "hyperlinks, landmarks, and headings" without reading every bit of text on the page.

If you want to try out 18894 for yourself, feel free to sign up for Windows 10's Insider Program right here.

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I am holding off on W10 until the very last second!
We've been pushing it out for work lately, what a pain in the a$$.
I have countless examples, but here's a quick one:

Unless you know the shortcut to add a printer or have automated printing services (we are setting up PrinterLogic right now) you have to open settings, then devices, then printers & scanners, then click add printer, uncheck 'let windows use my device', wait for the list to load enough, then scroll down and select 'the printer I want isn't listed', and then FINALLY you can manually add your printer.
I've been using print management to delete jobs, check ques and remove printers because the basic one in settings/printers and scanners STINKS SOMETHING FIERCE.
 
I am holding off on W10 until the very last second!
We've been pushing it out for work lately, what a pain in the a$$.
I have countless examples, but here's a quick one:

Unless you know the shortcut to add a printer or have automated printing services (we are setting up PrinterLogic right now) you have to open settings, then devices, then printers & scanners, then click add printer, uncheck 'let windows use my device', wait for the list to load enough, then scroll down and select 'the printer I want isn't listed', and then FINALLY you can manually add your printer.
I've been using print management to delete jobs, check ques and remove printers because the basic one in settings/printers and scanners STINKS SOMETHING FIERCE.

The entire Settings dialog is a joke..all anyone uses it for is to get to *actual* configuration options in the legacy Control Panel. If Windows Update wasn't part of Settings now or if I wasn't forced to manually control updates to keep Microsoft from continually breaking my system I would never have to look at that monochromatic nightmare.
 
I am holding off on W10 until the very last second!
We've been pushing it out for work lately, what a pain in the a$$.
I have countless examples, but here's a quick one:

Unless you know the shortcut to add a printer or have automated printing services (we are setting up PrinterLogic right now) you have to open settings, then devices, then printers & scanners, then click add printer, uncheck 'let windows use my device', wait for the list to load enough, then scroll down and select 'the printer I want isn't listed', and then FINALLY you can manually add your printer.
I've been using print management to delete jobs, check ques and remove printers because the basic one in settings/printers and scanners STINKS SOMETHING FIERCE.
Or you can click on the search button and type "printer" and add one in like 5 seconds...
 
The entire Settings dialog is a joke..all anyone uses it for is to get to *actual* configuration options in the legacy Control Panel. If Windows Update wasn't part of Settings now or if I wasn't forced to manually control updates to keep Microsoft from continually breaking my system I would never have to look at that monochromatic nightmare.
Yeah pretty much. I and pretty much everyone I know hates the new Settings app. I get the idea, in theory it should be a more logical way to organize things but it is incomplete and what is there is more difficult to use and takes more clicks to accomplish the same task you could do in less clicks with nearly all the old control panel applets. And you're right, to top it off the monochrome icons are terrible. The human eye responds well to colors, it helps us organize and recognize things quickly. What the hell was M$FT thinking removing all and/or decolorizing icons?

Windows 7 wasn't perfect but it was a lot easier to use and a lot more user friendly in most areas.

Windows 10 does seem to be getting better, but it is such a long and arduous process to get what should have been there all along.
 
I am holding off on W10 until the very last second!
We've been pushing it out for work lately, what a pain in the a$$.
I have countless examples, but here's a quick one:

Unless you know the shortcut to add a printer or have automated printing services (we are setting up PrinterLogic right now) you have to open settings, then devices, then printers & scanners, then click add printer, uncheck 'let windows use my device', wait for the list to load enough, then scroll down and select 'the printer I want isn't listed', and then FINALLY you can manually add your printer.
I've been using print management to delete jobs, check ques and remove printers because the basic one in settings/printers and scanners STINKS SOMETHING FIERCE.

Agreed, if you do it that way. Just like in Win7, you can just type the path to the print server such as \\printsvr. It will pull up a list of printers and you just double-click on one. It installs and you are done.
 
I am holding off on W10 until the very last second!
We've been pushing it out for work lately, what a pain in the a$$.
I have countless examples, but here's a quick one:

Unless you know the shortcut to add a printer or have automated printing services (we are setting up PrinterLogic right now) you have to open settings, then devices, then printers & scanners, then click add printer, uncheck 'let windows use my device', wait for the list to load enough, then scroll down and select 'the printer I want isn't listed', and then FINALLY you can manually add your printer.
I've been using print management to delete jobs, check ques and remove printers because the basic one in settings/printers and scanners STINKS SOMETHING FIERCE.
Or you can click on the search button and type "printer" and add one in like 5 seconds...

Adding a printer in Windows 10 is a TOTAL mess. I work at a major university that has 1000's of printers, so when that search starts, it takes a long time and will find so many printers that don't have anything to do with my department. So I have to wait for ages for it to search, then eventually get to the link to let me manually input the data, and when I put in the IP, it doesn't like that as much as the WSD protocol it uses now, so it tries to switch to that... which usually works for a couple days, then stops working. So... yeah, it's a real mess at a large organization. Probably all nice and fine for a home environment.

Anyway, I'm glad that 99% of my printers are pushed out through group policies so I don't have to deal with it.
 
I am holding off on W10 until the very last second!
We've been pushing it out for work lately, what a pain in the a$$.
I have countless examples, but here's a quick one:

Unless you know the shortcut to add a printer or have automated printing services (we are setting up PrinterLogic right now) you have to open settings, then devices, then printers & scanners, then click add printer, uncheck 'let windows use my device', wait for the list to load enough, then scroll down and select 'the printer I want isn't listed', and then FINALLY you can manually add your printer.
I've been using print management to delete jobs, check ques and remove printers because the basic one in settings/printers and scanners STINKS SOMETHING FIERCE.
Or you can click on the search button and type "printer" and add one in like 5 seconds...

Adding a printer in Windows 10 is a TOTAL mess. I work at a major university that has 1000's of printers, so when that search starts, it takes a long time and will find so many printers that don't have anything to do with my department. So I have to wait for ages for it to search, then eventually get to the link to let me manually input the data, and when I put in the IP, it doesn't like that as much as the WSD protocol it uses now, so it tries to switch to that... which usually works for a couple days, then stops working. So... yeah, it's a real mess at a large organization. Probably all nice and fine for a home environment.

Anyway, I'm glad that 99% of my printers are pushed out through group policies so I don't have to deal with it.
That is your Admin's fault, if it's done right you should only be able to see the printers in your department. That is how I have it set on our network at work. People love it! Until they want to print in someone else's department... then I just say use email :)
 
So... yeah, it's a real mess at a large organization. Probably all nice and fine for a home environment.

No not nice for a home environment. Regular BSODs with many aspects that are more difficult than previous OSs.
What regular BSODs?

Seriously now, people need to stop saying things that aren't true. Even in beta builds BSODs are not "regular". And even if you do get one, you are much more likely to fix it on win 10 and not break your PC completely.
 
I am holding off on W10 until the very last second!
We've been pushing it out for work lately, what a pain in the a$$.
I have countless examples, but here's a quick one:

Unless you know the shortcut to add a printer or have automated printing services (we are setting up PrinterLogic right now) you have to open settings, then devices, then printers & scanners, then click add printer, uncheck 'let windows use my device', wait for the list to load enough, then scroll down and select 'the printer I want isn't listed', and then FINALLY you can manually add your printer.
I've been using print management to delete jobs, check ques and remove printers because the basic one in settings/printers and scanners STINKS SOMETHING FIERCE.
Yup, M$ added about a billion steps to basically everything an IT person would typically do on a day-to-day basis. They went the Apple route and just assumed their customers are morons and hid everything from site and buried them under layers of nonsense.
 
Or just use Voidtool's 'Everything' search application like a rational human being. I've given up on Microsoft's ineptitude at searching a long time ago.
 
I am holding off on W10 until the very last second!
We've been pushing it out for work lately, what a pain in the a$$.
I have countless examples, but here's a quick one:

Unless you know the shortcut to add a printer or have automated printing services (we are setting up PrinterLogic right now) you have to open settings, then devices, then printers & scanners, then click add printer, uncheck 'let windows use my device', wait for the list to load enough, then scroll down and select 'the printer I want isn't listed', and then FINALLY you can manually add your printer.
I've been using print management to delete jobs, check ques and remove printers because the basic one in settings/printers and scanners STINKS SOMETHING FIERCE.

Here is how we plan to push printers. We are switching from iPrint.
https://www.red-gate.com/simple-tal...group-policy-powershell-and-print-management/
 
What regular BSODs?

Seriously now, people need to stop saying things that aren't true. Even in beta builds BSODs are not "regular". And even if you do get one, you are much more likely to fix it on win 10 and not break your PC completely.

When I said 'regular' I meant 'regular'! I have had more BSODs on Win 10 than ever on Win 7. And the reasons are always different so no way to track it down. And yes all my drivers are up to date and I've stopped overclocking or doing anything else that use to work OK but doesn't any more and I've done sfc and chkdsk and everything else. BSODs were daily for a while, but after the most recent update they have retreated to about weekly which indicates to me that some of the system sensitivity is being picked up by MS.
 
When I said 'regular' I meant 'regular'! I have had more BSODs on Win 10 than ever on Win 7. And the reasons are always different so no way to track it down. And yes all my drivers are up to date and I've stopped overclocking or doing anything else that use to work OK but doesn't any more and I've done sfc and chkdsk and everything else. BSODs were daily for a while, but after the most recent update they have retreated to about weekly which indicates to me that some of the system sensitivity is being picked up by MS.
The words "I have" mean absolutely nothing. For all we know those errors are your fault or you just don't understand what the problem is and how to fix it. It could just simply be a faulty memory stick or a bad storage drive. Or a myriad of many MANY other problems that are not windows related.

What the error logs telling you? Is it a driver, a service, a third party software that is bricking your PC? What is the BSOD error? All you are doing is yelling I have a problem but not actually asking for advice.

Recent updates changed how software interacts with the kernel (like how most AA software bricked PCs after the big windows update because they were using what were essentially hacks to function and were forced by MS to update or forever stop working)

Nobody uses their PC with constant BSODs like you do. The simple fact that you tolerated them on a daily basis for "a long time is just weird and raises a lot of red flags.
 
The words "I have" mean absolutely nothing. For all we know those errors are your fault or you just don't understand what the problem is and how to fix it. It could just simply be a faulty memory stick or a bad storage drive. Or a myriad of many MANY other problems that are not windows related.

What the error logs telling you? Is it a driver, a service, a third party software that is bricking your PC? What is the BSOD error? All you are doing is yelling I have a problem but not actually asking for advice.

Recent updates changed how software interacts with the kernel (like how most AA software bricked PCs after the big windows update because they were using what were essentially hacks to function and were forced by MS to update or forever stop working)

Nobody uses their PC with constant BSODs like you do. The simple fact that you tolerated them on a daily basis for "a long time is just weird and raises a lot of red flags.

I've been working with computers for over 40 years with almost every version of Windows. I know how to test hardware, update drivers and when to remove all 3rd party software - those obvious things have been done. You are right that I don't know what the error is because every time it's a different one! Sometimes it's "System Service Exception", then "NTFS File system" then "Memory Management" and occasionally others. Following them up gave suggestions and as I said all actions were taken but no complete resolution.

I use multiple machines so could avoid the troublesome one because the diagnostic process was so time consuming and a complete reinstall takes a long time to set up the machine again. I finally did this and the BSODs continued after a complete fresh reinstall although with a reduced frequency, and, as I said, with the most recent update now only occur about once a week, and that's often when I'm away from the machine and nothing is happening.
 
I've been working with computers for over 40 years with almost every version of Windows. I know how to test hardware, update drivers and when to remove all 3rd party software - those obvious things have been done. You are right that I don't know what the error is because every time it's a different one! Sometimes it's "System Service Exception", then "NTFS File system" then "Memory Management" and occasionally others. Following them up gave suggestions and as I said all actions were taken but no complete resolution.

I use multiple machines so could avoid the troublesome one because the diagnostic process was so time consuming and a complete reinstall takes a long time to set up the machine again. I finally did this and the BSODs continued after a complete fresh reinstall although with a reduced frequency, and, as I said, with the most recent update now only occur about once a week, and that's often when I'm away from the machine and nothing is happening.
Yeah, it's most likely a hardware issue and it's not the CPU. The mobo could have some issues (if you ever OCed your CPU), the PSU too.

My suggestion, if you have random good HDD/SSD you are not using, do a fresh install on it. Also change the cable used with the HDD. If that doesn't yield anything then try to alternate between memory sticks and see if any one of them is causing errors.
 
Yeah, it's most likely a hardware issue and it's not the CPU. The mobo could have some issues (if you ever OCed your CPU), the PSU too.

My suggestion, if you have random good HDD/SSD you are not using, do a fresh install on it. Also change the cable used with the HDD. If that doesn't yield anything then try to alternate between memory sticks and see if any one of them is causing errors.

Thanks for suggestions. CPU hasn't been OCd. Boot Drive is an M.2 SSD so no cable. Other drives (3) are SATA. Power supply has been recently updated as that was a possible problem with 4 drives plus 2 removable disk drives. Have juggled the memory, tried different slots to see if it makes a difference but it didn't seem to. I could try with just one or the other stick. Two new errors over the past 4 days: "System Thread Exception not handled" and "Critical Process Died". Tried sfc /scannow but just got "Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation." Haven't yet tried it in safe mode. Will do chkdsk on the drives as some suggest.
 
Thanks for suggestions. CPU hasn't been OCd. Boot Drive is an M.2 SSD so no cable. Other drives (3) are SATA. Power supply has been recently updated as that was a possible problem with 4 drives plus 2 removable disk drives. Have juggled the memory, tried different slots to see if it makes a difference but it didn't seem to. I could try with just one or the other stick. Two new errors over the past 4 days: "System Thread Exception not handled" and "Critical Process Died". Tried sfc /scannow but just got "Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation." Haven't yet tried it in safe mode. Will do chkdsk on the drives as some suggest.
Sounds like your motherboard is failing....
 
Sounds like your motherboard is failing....
I hope not! It's only a few years old. Gigabyte Gaming 3 Z170X. sfc won't even run in safe mode with minimal boot! Install of Win 10 was new less than 12 months ago. Sometimes it runs OK for days, sometimes it gives BSOD a few times in a day.
 
I hope not! It's only a few years old. Gigabyte Gaming 3 Z170X. sfc won't even run in safe mode with minimal boot! Install of Win 10 was new less than 12 months ago. Sometimes it runs OK for days, sometimes it gives BSOD a few times in a day.
Is it under warranty? Few years means probably not... have you tried another motherboard to be sure?
 
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