Last Updated on October 12, 2021 by Mathew Diekhake

Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 21301 is rolling out to Windows Insiders signed up to the Dev channel. It comes with changes to the touch keyboard design and the Aero Shake feature is back once again.

Aero Shake is one of Windows’ more controversial features and it looked like Microsoft was not going to use it again but it has come back. Aero Shake means, if you have it turned on from the Settings, that when a title bar is grabbed and shook, it will minimize all other windows.

The touch keyboard has also had several changes made to it:

  • When undocking the keyboard, it now switches to the Small keyboard layout, and you can easily move the keyboard around using the gripper region at the top of the keyboard.
  • Small and split layouts will now feature an updated symbol’s view based on the default layout.
  • The settings menu now has a nested structure for improved clarity and less clutter.
  • The default keyboard layout on 12” or larger screens will now have a more traditional keyboard layout featuring an ESC, Tab, and Windows keys.
  • The candidate bar will show 5 suggestions maximum and centering them into position above the keyboard.

Here is what else you can expect to find in Preview Build 21301:

Changes and Improvements

  • We made a change so that when you right click locally saved files displayed in jump lists, in addition to Open you will now have the option to Open File Location.
  • We updated our N’Ko keyboard layout to add access to currency and some other symbols by tapping the keys along the top row of your keyboard while holding the Shift key.
  • We updated the Touchpad on/off toggle under Settings > Devices > Touchpad such that it no longer requires admin privileges to change.
  • We updated our backend dictionaries to help improve spellchecking and text prediction relevance.

Fixes

  • We fixed an issue so that the taskbar context menu and news and interests should no longer overlap.
  • We fixed an issue where in certain circumstances, news and interests would use 100% of CPU when it is first launched.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in Task Manager crashing when switching to the Details tab.
  • We fixed a recent issue for some Insiders related to the Clock and Calendar flyout that could result in ShellExperienceHost using an unexpectedly high amount of CPU.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the State Repository Service being prematurely terminated during service startup. If you were impacted, one possible symptom was it taking longer to load the desktop when signing in. If you’re continuing to experience performance issues when logging in, please file them with a trace under Install and Update > Logon hangs.
  • We fixed an issue where if you searched for “change your password” and used the result to launch Settings, Settings would crash.
  • We fixed an issue where Aero Shake was unexpected disabled in the last few flights.
  • We fixed an issue where when moving a window between mixed DPI monitors it could result in the window margins being calculated with the wrong DPI, leading to the window overflowing on the other monitor when maximized.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in certain HEIF files not rendering although the correct codecs were installed.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in pinning a website to your taskbar from Microsoft Edge not working in the last few flights.
  • We fixed an issue that could result in VPN repeatedly connecting and disconnecting in a loop.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in some 32-bit systems losing the network connection in recent flights.
  • We fixed an issue resulting sometimes in nothing happening after clicking a “Wi-Fi password needed” notification.
  • We fixed an issue where certain games like State of Decay 2, or Assassin’s Creed, may hang or crash when launching.
  • We fixed a few issues resulting in Narrator not reading elements of our troubleshooters when in Scan Mode.

Known issues

  • Miracast users may experience very low frame rates in this build.
  • We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
  • We’re investigating an issue impacting the reliability of Start and other modern apps, which started in the previous flight. If you are impacted, you may experience the Start menu layout resetting.
  • 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.
  • [News and interests] Sometimes the news and interests flyout cannot be dismissed with pen.
  • [News and interests] News and interests uses more taskbar space on the left than expected.
  • [News and interests] The taskbar button can show stale information each time the user signs into their Windows session.
  • [News and interests] The news and interests flyout shows content in a single column before quickly switching to double column.
  • [News and interests] Text in taskbar button can look pixelated in high resolution screens.
  • [News and interests] Attempting to share content dismisses the flyout.
  • [News and interests] In certain situations, the flyout may not dismiss until the taskbar button is clicked or the hover effect may appear stuck.
  • [ARM64] Insiders who installed the preview version of the Qualcomm Adreno graphics driver on the Surface Pro X may experience reduced brightness of the display. This will be addressed in a future update.
  • [ADDED 2/1] Some Insiders have reported that their PC experiences PC an IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL bugcheck when attempting to upgrade to Build 21301. We are working on a fix and will let you know when it’s included in an upcoming flight.