Microsoft Posts ISOs For Windows 10 Technical Preview Build 10041

It might have taken an entire week, but Microsoft has just posted the ISO files for build 10041 of Windows 10. As covered last week, this build does not include the much-touted Spartan browser (that'll have to come next), but it does add another level of polish to an already pretty solid OS.

A couple of standout features in 10041 include a transparent Start Menu (which I think could use some tweaking options, as the default effect is sub-par), the ability to drag and drop apps from the All Apps screen to the Start Menu (I can't believe it took this long...), and the ability to drag a window to a different virtual desktop.

Another subtle change in 10041 is that some of the system icons have been updated, such as the Recycle Bin and also the drives in Computer. Unfortunately, this is about all I have discovered thus far personally, as I've been encountering some issues with Windows 10 since the last build (some features and games are broken), so I am planning to soon conduct a fresh reinstall since upgrading from 9926 to 10041 wasn't enough to solve the issue.

Nonetheless, those looking to snag the ISO can hit up the link below, and because it's wise to double-check that the download completed successfully -- especially when it involves OS images -- I'd recommend verifying the hash of the file (I use HashTab to make this easier). The official SHA-1 is below, as well as an MD5 and SHA-256 I've generated:

Windows10_TechnicalPreview_x64_EN-US_10041.iso
MD5: 77DD29D6CF19C5B13AA13F024C0F21ED
SHA-1: C535BC08C862467A19DBBC3A320D7E718834255B
SHA-256: FFF6A41E5A821EFE76CAC03FF0A5D23E605F849B1B792AADE507B9EE2F362C44

At this point, there's no telling when the next preview build will drop, but it hopefully won't take too much longer on account of the fact that the OS could launch this summer. And, if you're like me, you can't wait to be able to give Spartan a good hands-on test.