Accidental leak of untested Windows 10 build reveals another new Start menu design

Features spotted in the leaked build may not be incorporated into a final version of Windows

The accidental release of an untested Windows 10 build earlier this week suggests that Microsoft is working on yet-another new Start menu design.

Twitter user NTAuthority shared an image of the new Start menu on Windows 10, showing a stripped back menu lacking the widget-like Live Tiles.

Live Tiles were first introduced by Microsoft in Windows Phone 7> Microsoft then went overboard with Live Times for Windows 8 desktop to make it more touch friendly in response to the early success of the Apple iPad.

In the leaked build, Insiders also noticed the search functionality going to the top of the menu.

The Start Menu search functionality shows a drop list of search results that can be selected by the user.

The Tablet mode also comes with a redesigned start screen, centred on the display, but otherwise looking similar to the desktop version.

The new build also features a redesigned Emoji Panel that lets users search for GIFs and insert them into open applications.

The leaked build was meant for Microsoft developers only, and the features spotted in this build may not be incorporated into a release version of Windows.

Earlier on Wednesday, the company accidentally pushed an internal Windows 10 Build 18947 to Insiders on the Fast, Slow and Release Preview rings. The build was meant to be an internal-only build for Xbox development, according to The Verge, and was released to 32-bit systems only.

Microsoft's Windows Insider chief Dona Sarkar said that the company was investigating the issue. Users who earlier installed build 18947 but now wish to roll back to the correct version will need to do so within 10 days after installation.

"We encourage affected users to complete this action as soon as possible to ensure they're able to roll back successfully." Microsoft's Jason said in a post.

To return to an earlier version of Windows 10, users will need to go to Settings > Start > Update & Security > Recovery> Go back to the previous version of Windows 10.

This is not the first time that Microsoft has accidentally released an internal Windows 10 update. In 2017, Microsoft released, untested, Build 16212 for 32-bit computers PCs and Windows Phones.

At that time, the company said that build had been accidentally released due to "an inadvertent deployment to the engineering system that controls which builds/which rings to push out to insiders".

Microsoft's Windows 10 is now the most popular desktop operating system in the world, having taken a number of years to overhaul Windows 7. In March, the company's own figures suggested that the operating system was running on 800 million machines worldwide.