The latest Tech Preview gives most users their first glimpse of the new browser.
If you are like me, you have been really anxious to get your hands on the new browser of Windows 10, codenamed Project Spartan. Great news – Build 10049 of the Tech Preview has it!
This build comes down today for you if you have your Tech Preview refresh settings set to FAST. If you were not brave enough to do this setting, no problem, you can change it today by visiting the Updates section of Settings.
The browser (at least for me) is pretty slow and will even freeze on content, but it was full-fledged enough for me to play with the latest touted features. These are:
- Web Note: This feature allows you to easily mark up a Web page and then save that image for sharing elsewhere. While this would be killer on a Surface or other such pen-enabled device, I found it pretty cool even with a mouse on screen.
- Reading Lists: Finally the ability to save articles for later reading comes to the browser, although, admittedly, I never use this feature even on the Mac/Safari side of the house. I guess I can just never wait!
- Cortana integration: That’s right, talking to your computer about what you need to see on the Web.
- Reading Mode: By far my favorite new feature (shown above). When you are on an article and you would love to eliminate everything but the article as you read it – no worries – a click of a button in the top of your browser gets the job done.
I am very much looking forward to patches and other new Tech Preview builds to see this project become faster and more stable. It certainly appears to be a tool I will love using.
And, oh yes, I was glad to see IE still tucked away inside Windows 10 since I have many applications that still rely on that, and will most likely require it for a long time to come.
