News

Windows 10 'Redstone 5' Test Build Missing Sets Feature

• By Scott Bekker
• July 02, 2018

Microsoft last week released test build 17704 of Windows 10 "Redstone 5," but missing from the feature lineup was one of the company's most innovative contributions to productivity.

"Sets" has been in development since late last year, with Microsoft touting the feature as a way to group related information from different applications into one project. Earlier Windows Insider test builds of Redstone 5, the code name for the next major update to Windows 10 that's expected to arrive sometime this fall, have included Sets.

The technology essentially creates tabs within a window related to the same project. For example, if a user opens a Word document for a research project, Sets allows the user to create additional tabs from other programs within that window. One tab could be a Microsoft Edge browser page, another could be a PowerPoint deck, et cetera.

When the user closes the window, all of the components of the project are saved together, so the next time the project is opened, all the context would still be there. Integration with Office 365 and the Microsoft Timeline are supposed to make it easy to find other related content from within Sets.

Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president in the Microsoft Operating System Group, highlighted the feature at Build 2018 conference in May, although he said at the time that Microsoft would only release Sets when "we think it's great."

Apparently, Microsoft needs to take Sets back to the drawing board, rather than just tweak it. The company announced this week in the release notes for Windows Insider Preview Build 17704 that Sets is being pulled for now.

"Thank you for your continued support of testing Sets. We continue to receive valuable feedback from you as we develop this feature helping to ensure we deliver the best possible experience once it's ready for release. Starting with this build, we're taking Sets offline to continue making it great," noted the blog post from Dona Sarkar and Brandon LeBlanc in a reference to Belfiore's Build comment.

"Based on your feedback, some of the things we're focusing on include improvements to the visual design and continuing to better integrate Office and Microsoft Edge into Sets to enhance workflow. If you have been testing Sets, you will no longer see it as of today's build, however, Sets will return in a future WIP flight. Thanks again for your feedback," the post noted.