Windows 10 Build 17123.1 & 17623.1000 - HEIF and a small suprise

On March 16, MS released Windows 10 Build 17123.1 to Fast Ring Insiders and 17623 to Skip Ahead Insiders.

 Both builds included support for the new High Efficiency Image Format (HEIF) file structure.  HEIF - developed by the MPEG group is a new Still image file format which supports the High Efficiency Video Codec (HEVC).  HEIF will begin replacing jpeg as the standard for storing high def still images.  

 I've written about HEVC before as it is what is used for H.265 video compression which supports 4K & 8K video in a much smaller file size than the previous H.264 standard.   For those of you who rip video and haven't tried H.265 - by all means go there - The test's I've performed really reduce the overall file size making it much more portable and with more and more devices supporting 4K video it's really the only way to go.  You get all the video and audio fidelity you want in about half the size.  

 17123 also contained some small updates around Mixed Reality and included 4 fixes.  17623 was kind of a catch-up build introducing some of the features in 17120 like WDAG along an external GPU Safe Remove capability and about 20 fixes.

 Both 17123 & 17623 installed easily on all my test platforms including my revived Dell Venue 8 Pro Tablet.  

 BTW - I did receive a replacement screen assembly - which calibrated immediately and now my Venue Pro is back and running perfectly.  

 After updating to 17123 on the Venue - I decided it might be a good time to perform a reset after all I hadn't performed on in over a year - and after so many builds and testing - I felt it might be good to get a clean start.  So performed a full reset including erasing all data, accounts, settings, the works.

 And I got a small surprise after the reset - after completing the OOBE experience and getting to the Start Screen - I noticed three Office apps were installed - Word, Excel and PowerPoint Mobile.   Say What ?   

 At first I though okay maybe this is something related to RS4 and Windows on ARM support.  But then after a little checking - Windows actually did something during the reset it was supposed to.  The build had properly identified my device as a "tablet" or a sub 10.1" device and notified the store to install the Mobile Editions of the three core office apps.

 According to MS  "View, edit, and create documents with the familiar Office interface optimized for mobile phones and tablets. Core editing is free for consumers on devices with screen sizes of 10.1 inches or less."  

 This to me is very encouraging.  As I stated I hadn't performed a reset in quite some time - but the fact that Windows Install did the identification properly was very cool.  The office mobile editions were 2017 - so not the latest and greatest - but the fact that they were there tells me RS4 is ready for release.  

 I did end up uninstalling the Mobile editions and went to Office 365 Insider Edition.

 Redstone 4 is ready for release - now it's just a matter if my guess on build range is correct 17120 - 17130...

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