Last Updated on October 12, 2021 by Mathew Diekhake

One of the biggest smartphone brands, Samsung, has been working with Microsoft to bring more Your Phone application features in Windows 10 Build 20257.

While we are witnessing an increasing number of devices that bridge the gap between traditional laptop and smartphone usage, we’re also seeing some apps help people transfer what they would usually find on a smartphone over to a desktop or laptop computer as well. Most notably, the Your Phone app now includes the ability to run multiple Android apps simultaneously on your PC.

Using multiple devices on a computer with Your Phone app from Samsung
Samsung and Microsoft have been working closely to bring support for multiple devices to use the Your Phone app on Windows PCs. Support for other manufacturers would take deeper device and operating system integration.

Some computers won’t love the idea of running multiple Android apps yet because the processors within them weren’t intended to handle that many tasks at once, but with the new range of CPUs we’re seeing on average laptops, it’s no wonder we’re starting to see features such as these begin to arrive.

Do note that the Your Phone app is strictly for selected Samsung smartphones only. This is not a universal app across all devices, though it would have been better if Microsoft created it themselves and made it as such. After reading around the Web, some users have suggested they would love it if their devices we’re supported as well, to which Microsoft representatives have replied one day it may be possible but for now, Microsoft has been working with Samsung only and to include more manufacturers would require a deeper OS and device integration. It may also be possible that Microsoft wants to trial this feature with one of the largest smartphone manufacturers first, both because they’re one of the more competent companies to work with as well as the fact that they have many users, to see if they want to continue in this direction. Microsoft is no stranger to not finishing what it has started, and most often the reason for this is financial concerns going forward from not enough users et cetera.

What’s new in Windows 10 build 20257

Changes and Improvements

  • Based on feedback, we’re updating our Start menu tile theming logic such that the tile background for Win32 apps will no longer adjust based on detected contrast ratio, except in the case of pinned Microsoft Edge PWAs.

Fixes

  • We fixed an issue starting with Build 20236 where installing games from the Store to a secondary non-OS drive would result in the secondary drive becoming inaccessible.
  • We fixed an issue causing some devices to experience a DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION bugcheck in recent builds.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in some apps crashing on launch in the previous flight, including Microsoft Jigsaw and Microsoft Minesweeper.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in File Explorer having a transparent line across the top when maximized on systems with multiple monitors.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in win32 app titles being unexpectedly highlighted in the title bar after enabling and disabling high contrast.
  • We fixed an issue where the windows.old folder is not completely deleted when performing disk cleanup.
  • We fixed an issue where if you reset your PC then and re-connected your MSA, then your MSA picture might never sync down.
  • We fixed an issue impacting Windows Hello Face recognition if the device was trained in a different orientation than the orientation used at unlock time.
  • We fixed an issue where setting up a kiosk (assigned access) account wouldn’t work the first time you tried, only subsequent tries.
  • We fixed a deadlock that could result in unexpected CPU usage. If you continue experiencing other performance issues, please take a moment to file feedback including details about the issue you’re seeing, and a performance trace.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in recently some apps being slower to accept keystrokes into text fields.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in links from apps failing to launch the browser.
  • We fixed an issue from the last couple flights that could result in audio playback unexpectedly stopping.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in not hearing audio after streaming certain content then turning your Bluetooth headset off and back on.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in Movies & TV failing to play some recorded HDR videos with error 0x80004001.

Known issues

  • We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
  • Live previews for pinned sites aren’t enabled for all Insiders yet, so you may see a grey window when hovering over the thumbnail in the taskbar. We’re continuing to work on polishing this experience.
  • We’re working on enabling the new taskbar experience for existing pinned sites. In the meantime, you can unpin the site from the taskbar, remove it from the edge://apps page, and then re-pin the site.
  • We’re investigating reports that some users are seeing error 0x80070426 when using their Microsoft account to sign into various apps. If you encounter it, rebooting your PC may resolve this.
  • We’re investigating an issue where, after taking this build, no drives appear under Settings > System > Storage > Manage Disks and Volumes. As a workaround, you can manage your disks in the classic Disk Management tool.
  • We’re investigating reports that some screens incorrectly have black text on dark backgrounds when dark theme is enabled.

Updates for developers

The Windows SDK is now flighting continuously with the Dev Channel. Whenever a new OS build is flighted to the Dev Channel, the corresponding SDK will also be flighted. You can always install the latest Insider SDK from aka.ms/InsiderSDK. SDK flights will be archived in Flight Hub along with OS flights.

Source: Announcing Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 20257

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