Microsoft has finally started sending some new features and improvements to Skip Ahead Insiders after quite a long wait. The company is concurrently giving the finishing touches to Windows 10 October 2018 Update. As noted previously, Skip Ahead Insiders have been moved to testing the 2019 edition of Windows 10 – aka Windows 10 19H1.
Today’s build brings the first set of features that aren’t being rolled out to the Fast Ring Insiders who are on the upcoming version of Windows 10 expected to be released in October. All of these are focused on Narrator Improvements along with some general bug fixes.
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Here is everything that is new with Windows 10 19H1 build 18219
Narrator Improvements
We have made the following changes and improvements:
- Reliability: We have made improvements in Narrator reliability.
- Scan Mode: Reading and navigating while in Scan Mode has been improved. Selecting text in Scan Mode has also been improved. Selecting forward in Edge has some known issues that we are actively investigating.
- QuickStart: The link in settings to relaunch the QuickStart should now reliably be working and will launch from the very first Welcome page. The QuickStart should also more reliably take focus when Narrator is launched, which means Narrator should start reading it automatically.
- Providing Feedback: The keystroke to provide feedback has changed. The new keystroke is Narrator + Alt + F. This will work both in the Standard and Legacy layouts.
- Note: The Legacy layout also allows you to use Narrator + E to send us feedback.
- Move Next, Move Previous, and Change View: When changing Narrator’s view to either characters, words, lines or paragraphs the Read Current Item command will read the text of that specific view type more reliably.
- Keyboard command changes: The keystroke to Move to beginning of text has changed to Narrator + B (was Narrator + Control + B), Move to end of text has changed to Narrator + E (was Narrator + Control + E).
- Braille: Improved usage of Braille commanding when using the Narrator key from the braille display.
For more information about Narrator new keyboard layout and other known issues, please refer to Intro to New Narrator Keyboard Layout doc (aka.ms/RS5NarratorKeyboard).
Windows development team wrote that in case you encounter hangs running Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) in this latest build, a system reboot should correct the issue. For details on other general fixes and known issues, head over to the official announcement post.
