Project Spartan now available in the Windows 10 Technical Preview

By Matthew S. Smith Updated March 30, 2015

project spartan now available in the windows 10 technical preview projectspartan — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Few features in Windows 10 have been more anticipated than Project Spartan, but the high-profile replacement to Internet Explorer 11 has been missing from the Technical Preview. Until now.

Build 10049, released today, has the full Spartan browser. That means it offers not just the rendering engine, which was technically accessible before if you knew the right trick, but also the interface with its hotly anticipated features.

These include Cortana integration, the ability to markup web pages, and a reading mode that simplifies pages so that distracting page elements are no longer an issue. In addition to this trio, Microsoft has added a feedback feature into both Spartan and Internet Explorer. An emoji icon in the interface of both lets users quickly “send frowns” that provide feedback about the company’s progress and any issues impacting the browsing experience.

As previously announced, Spartan is meant to be a full replacement to Internet Explorer, and as such it replaces the well known (but not well loved) browser on the task bar. IE can still be accessed, but Spartan is now the default.

Of course, while Build 10049’s highlight is the new browser, it’s not the only change made. Several bug fixes are included as well. The Windows Blog details these, and they include:

An issue from Build 10041 for when the Photos app on your PC crashes when you tap on the circular icon at the top left to view the photo you just took.
An issue from Build 10041 where you might end up in a state where windows open on your desktop are accidentally visible behind the Start Screen, Task View, Snap Assist, and when rearranging windows in Tablet Mode.
Users no longer get stuck when they manually lock a PC (Windows Key + L) during the initial out-of-box experience.

On the other hand, users will also have to deal with a few new bugs, including a potential blue-screen at login (but not the Blue Screen of Death!) Microsoft has provided some workarounds until the issues are fixed.

Have you given Project Spartan a try yet? What did you think?

Topics

Matthew S. Smith

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Matthew S. Smith is the former Lead Editor, Reviews at Digital Trends. He previously guided the Products Team, which dives…

Computing

Update Windows now — Microsoft just fixed several dangerous exploits

Person sitting and using an HP computer with Windows 11.

Microsoft has just released a new patch, and this time around, the update comes with fixes for several dangerous and actively abused vulnerabilities and exploits in Windows.

A total of 68 vulnerabilities were addressed in the patch, many of them critical. Here's what was fixed and how to make sure your Windows device is up to date.

Computing

Top 10 Windows shortcuts everyone should know

An individual using a laptop's keyboard.

Windows shortcuts are a constantly-used feature by practically all PC users. Apart from saving you time from carrying out the specific command without having to perform a few extra clicks on your mouse, it’s simply more convenient to refer back to shortcuts via your keyboard.

Although you may be satisfied with the Windows shortcuts you already know about and utilize on a daily basis, you can enhance your general Windows experience in a big way with these 10 shortcuts everyone should know.
Ctrl + Z
Tired of always having to use your mouse to find and click the Undo button on a program like Microsoft Word or, say, entering details on a website or editing images? Ctrl + Z will basically undo whatever your last action was, providing you a convenient way to reverse edits and changes within a second. From personal experience, this shortcut proved to be especially useful for productivity applications.
Ctrl + Shift + T
We’ve all been there. Nowadays, our browsers are inundated with multiple tabs, and as such, it’s hard to keep track of at times. Eventually, you’re going to close a tab on accident when trying to select it. Instead of trying to remember what it was or spending a few seconds accessing it and reopening it via the Recently Closed feature (on Chrome), simply hit Ctrl + Shift + T to restore the last closed tab. Similarly, Ctrl + N will open a new tab.
Alt + Tab

Computing

After 10 years of headaches, I’m finally a believer in Windows on ARM

The Microsoft Surface 3 with its blue keyboard.

Almost two years in, Apple is on the verge of completing its transition to ARM. It might surprise you to know, then, that Microsoft started its own journey to ARM chips long before Apple.

But Windows' support for ARM has been far less smooth. There aren't many more Windows devices with ARM chips than there were five years ago -- and I can attest to having personally used every failed attempt along the way.