Microsoft has detailed what users can expect from the next Windows Feature Experience Pack as the latest version becomes available to the Windows Insider Preview Beta Channel.
What's New in the Windows Feature Experience Pack?
Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.2020.0 includes the following improvements:
- Improvements to the reliability of the screen snipping experience, "especially with apps that access the clipboard often."
The updated screen snipping tool was included in the first Windows Feature Experience Pack, which rolled out towards the end of 2020. The latest version should increase the screen snipping tool's stability when multiple apps are attempting to use it within a short time frame.
Microsoft is also using this smaller Feature Experience update to remove some functionality from the tool, albeit temporarily.
Additionally, we are removing the capability to copy and paste a screen snip directly into a folder in File Explorer for now due to an issue discovered thanks to the feedback from Windows Insiders. We hope to re-enable this capability in a future update after we address this issue.
The unnamed issue has caused enough concern that Microsoft has seen fit to temporarily remove the feature, which is a shame because this was a handy feature for managing screenshots on the fly. Hopefully, Microsoft can reimplement the feature when the bug is resolved.
What Is a Windows Feature Experience Pack?
As more Windows Feature Experience Pack releases arrive, their role in keeping Windows 10 up to date becomes clearer. These are small updates that will introduce new features, update or patch those features, and as we have seen, even remove the broken bits of those new features.
The first Windows Feature Experience Pack contained two features:
- A built-in screenshot tool, with which you can snip and paste your selection into a folder.
- A split keyboard interface for 2-in-1 touch devices that stretches across the two screens when a device is in portrait mode.
Right now, the Feature Experience Pack's require manual installation. However, Microsoft will eventually move the Windows Feature Experience Pack process into the regular Windows Update process. From there, it is just a matter of enabling the features you want to use when they arrive.
So, all in all, not the biggest Windows Feature Experience Pack, but that is precisely what Microsoft intends to use this feature for.
Later Experience Packs are likely to feature small new features Microsoft is happy to deliver outside what are considered the two major half-yearly Windows 10 updates, which is something we can get behind.
After all, who doesn't like new features?
