Windows 10 Build 16199 - Fall Creators Update starts to take shape

On May 17, MS released Windows 10 build 16199 to Fast Ring Insiders.  

 The first release following the BUILD Conference - the 16199 build is starting to show what the Fall Creators update will be all about.

 To me that means two things.  

 First is refinement - MS continues to add capabilities to the Settings area - so from Gaming and About settings to Sharing experiences - the march to making Settings the central source for managing your experience continues.

 Second were continued improvements to the what appears to me the two main new app features in Fall Creators - My People and Story Remix.  

 My People now adds Emoji support and Notification Badging as well as an improved sharing experience that allow you to drag a file to a person, then choose the method.  

 Build 16199 also included 10 or so fixes.   I was happy to see that MS did repair one issue that many of us were experiencing with 16193 which was around WebEx - were it would hang while attempting to join a meeting.  

 With 16199 I did experience installation issues with both my tablet and laptop where they became hung up during the preparing to install updates phase in Windows Update.  In both cases I needed to reboot both devices and they effectively restarted the update and did eventually complete ok.  Not sure if was a local system issue or a distribution issue.

 And yes - on my laptop I still needed to do the whole Cisco AnyConnect and Conexant Audio drivers dance that I've be doing since the beginning of this branch.  

 Another interesting experience is that while my tablet and laptop both have Story Remix enabled, my desktop does not as it is part of what MS described as a "control group".  

 Based on what I've seen so far, I have this feeling that the Fall Creators update is not going to have many more new features introduced.  While it's only mid May, and there are probably at 100 days between now and the scheduled release in September, just knowing the rhythm of MS - so next month being fiscal year end - followed by reorgs and vacations, it may be that what we are seeing now is pretty much the way Windows 10 will look come September.

 Sure there will probably be some additional Store app updates and we haven't seen the OneDrive updates yet - but I don't expect much more.   Now sure I may get surprised, but I feel that MS has focused a lot of development resources towards the Windows on ARM effort.  

 One rumored addition that may be coming is some enhancements to "Action Center" - potentially renaming it to "Control Center" and adding some additional quick settings capabilities there.   

 But we'll see - for right now - Fall Creators appears to be about Settings Improvements, Story Remix, My People and OneDrive.   

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