Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 14251 Arrives With Gaming Fix, Microsoft Updates Progress On Windows 10 Mobile

Windows 10 users who are in the Insider Preview program and happen to be games (which is likely a big portion of the audience) were disappointed to learn that the the most recently released build was an absolute mess for gaming. An issue with the graphics stack caused crashing issues for many popular PC games including Fallout 4, Tomb Raider and The Witcher 3.

Thankfully, Microsoft has been working around the clock to ease the pain of Windows Insiders and has fixed the graphics stack bug with the release of Windows 10 Build 14251. Considering that previous preview build was numbered 11102, that is a pretty huge leap. Microsoft’s Gabe Aul took to the Windows Blog to explain the large difference between build numbers:

As part of our work getting the common codebase ready for the next release, we decided to complete that work and sync the build numbers between mobile and PC. Because the mobile codebase used higher build numbers than PC, we needed to jump ahead a bunch of build numbers to ensure updates to future builds will continue to work. So that’s why build numbers went from 11105, 11106, and 11107 to 14251.

Other than fixing the crash to desktop bug that was affecting certain games, Microsoft also resolved issues with third-party assistive technologies (i.e. Magnifier, Narrator, etc.) and an odd bug that crashed File Explorer when the DPI was increased to 175 percent.

Other than those fixes, there isn’t much of anything else new here — or at least nothing new that everyday users would notice. Most of the changes are happening under the hood with Microsoft’s OneCore initiative, which will highlight the Windows 10 “Redstone” release. “We’re at the beginning of a new development cycle for our next feature update to Windows 10,” said Aul. “That means teams will be checking in lots of new code as they integrate their feature payloads.”

Switching gears, Aul also made it clear that Microsoft hasn’t forgotten about Windows 10 Mobile. The company had been hard at work making sure that its initial Windows 10 Mobile devices — the Lumia 550, Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL — were primed for duty and it’s now working to get the operating system pushed out to existing Lumia customers “early this year.”

“The team is working now by looking at data and reports from Insiders who have upgraded their devices to preview builds, and ensuring that we deliver a great upgrade experience to customers,” explained Aul. “We’re excited about making the upgrade available, and will share new information with you just as soon as we can on how the rollout will happen.”