Windows 11 Insider Beta Channel

Corrine · Sep 2, 2021

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22000.176
Quote

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22000.176 to the Beta Channels!
We are also making Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22000.176 available to commercial PCs in the Release Preview Channel. Please see this blog post for all the details.

Fixes

[General]

We fixed an issue with paired Bluetooth LE devices that was causing an increase in Bluetooth reliability issues and bugchecks after resume from hibernate or when Bluetooth was turned off.
We mitigated an issue that was resulting some users hitting in an unexpected error when trying to take pictures with certain USB cameras.
When setting up Windows Hello in OOBE, we’ve added a new link to learn more about Windows Hello.

[Chat from Microsoft Teams]

Arabic and Hebrew languages will now allow changing Teams Settings.
We fixed the issue where if you were making an outgoing call, there was no ring tone, but the user interface would show that the call is getting connected.

[Microsoft Store]

The following issues were fixed in the most recent Store updates:

We fixed the issue where the install button might not be functional in limited scenarios.
We also fixed an issue where rating and reviews were not available for some apps.

Corrine · Sep 9, 2021

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22000.184

Fixes
[General]

Fixed an issue where the new learn more info in OOBE about Windows Hello wasn’t translated for non-English languages.
Fixed an issue where a small set of languages were missing translations across the UI in Windows 11

Corrine · Sep 16, 2021

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22000.194

This update is also for commercial PCs in the Release Preview Channel.

Fixes

Addressed an issue where if you enable then disable a contrast theme, it would lead to artifacts in title bars, in some cases making the minimize/maximize/close buttons hard to see and use.
Fixed a crash with certain connected devices that could result in not being able to use Bluetooth.
Mitigated an issue that was resulting in subtitles not appearing when expected in certain apps, particularly Japanese language subtitles.
Fixed an issue that was causing certain PCs to bugcheck during modern standby.
Mitigated an issue when typing with certain 3rd party IMEs into the search box in Settings that could result in the candidate window being rendered elsewhere on-screen (not attached to the search box) and/or characters inserted into the search box not displaying.
We fixed an issue that causes PowerShell to create an infinite number of child directories. This issue occurs when you use the PowerShell Move-Item command to move a directory to one of its children. As a result, the volume fills up and the system stops responding.
This build includes a change that aligns the enforcement of the Windows 11 system requirements on Virtual Machines (VMs) to be the same as it is for physical PCs. Previously created VMs running Insider Preview builds may not update to the latest preview builds. In Hyper-V, VMs need to be created as a Generation 2 VM. Running Windows 11 in VMs in other virtualization products from vendors such as VMware and Oracle will continue to work as long as the hardware requirements are met. For more details on the Windows 11 system requirements – see this blog post here.

Corrine · Oct 20, 2021

Announcing Android™ apps on Windows 11 Preview for Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel

The first preview of Android™ apps on Windows 11 is now available for Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel in the U.S. See the referenced blog post for instructions on getting started as well as Introducing Android™ Apps on Windows 11 to Windows Insiders for additional information.

Corrine · Nov 4, 2021

Releasing Windows 11 KB5008295 to Beta and Release Preview Channels | Windows Insider Blog

Fixes:

We fixed a known issue that might prevent some users from opening or using certain built-in Windows apps or parts of some built-in apps. This issue occurs because of a Microsoft digital certificate that expired October 31, 2021. This issue might affect the following applications:
- Snipping Tool
- Touch Keyboard, Voice Typing, and Emoji Panel
- Input Method Editor user interface (IME UI)
- Getting started and Tips
We fixed a known issue that prevents the Start menu and Settings app from opening as expected (S-mode only).

Corrine · Nov 12, 2021

Releasing Windows 11 Build 22000.346 to Beta and Release Preview Channels | Windows Insider Blog

Fixes:

We fixed an issue that affects the Appx PowerShell cmdlet functionality on PowerShell 7.1 and later.
We fixed an issue that causes some users to see an unexpected “bad image” error message dialog at startup.
We fixed an issue that causes searchindexer.exe to stop responding during a dismount operation in the remote desktop environment.
We fixed an issue that affects the opening of the SearchFilterHost.exe process.
We added support for the cancellation of daylight savings time for the Republic of Fiji for 2021.
We fixed an issue that causes devices that have certain processors to stop responding when waking from hibernation.
We fixed a COM initialization issue in dll that might cause the calling process to stop working.
We fixed an issue in the Hyper-V virtual machine bus (VMBus) that causes the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) VM to occasionally time out when attaching disks. This issue also prevents the utility from starting.
We fixed an issue that affects the System Memory Management Unit’s (SMMU) fault handling after hibernation.
We fixed an issue that causes the system to stop working after you enable Hyper-V.
We fixed an issue that fails to apply machine Group Policy objects automatically at startup or in the background to devices on a domain that have certain processors.
We fixed an issue that causes the Server Manager cmdlet to return a failure. As a result, many Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) validations fail during the installation of optional features.
We added the option to configure an Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) maximum transmission unit (MTU) that is less than 576 bytes on an interface.
We fixed an issue that causes get-winevent to fail, and the error is an InvalidOperationException.
We fixed an issue that incorrectly renders some variable fonts.
We fixed an issue that displays glyphs at the wrong angle when you use the Meiryo UI font and other vertical fonts. These fonts are frequently used in Japan, China, or other countries in Asia.
We added a feature to facilitate certain cross-browser data transfers.
We fixed an issue that occurs when a dialog opens within Internet Explorer.
We fixed an issue in CLSID_InternetExplorer.
We fixed an issue that causes Internet Explorer to stop working when you copy and paste text while using the Input Method Editor (IME).
We fixed an issue that causes certain apps to stop responding to input. This issue occurs on devices that have a touchpad.
We fixed a touch keyboard deployment issue that affects WebView2 controls in Windows UI Library 3.0 (WinUI 3) applications.
We fixed a memory leak in ctfmon.exe that occurs when you switch between different edit clients.
We updated the phone number for Windows Activation for locales that have the wrong phone number.
We fixed a known issue that causes error codes 0x000006e4, 0x0000007c, or 0x00000709 when connecting to a remote printer that is shared on a Windows print server.
We fixed an issue that affects USB Print devices that support Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) Over USB. This issue prevents these USB Print devices from completing installation.
We fixed an issue that causes certain USB Print installers to report that they don’t detect the printer after you plug it in.
We fixed an issue where OS functionality could be improperly redirected when microsoft-edge: links are invoked.
We fixed an issue in the Windows audio system that might cause the audiodg.exe process to stop working, which results in a temporary loss of audio.
We fixed an issue that prevents Software-Defined Networking (SDN) virtual machines from working when you configure the Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) VPN bandwidth limitation.
We fixed an issue that might cause the return value of GetCommandLineA() to be lowercase in some developer scenarios.
We fixed a Primary Refresh Token (PRT) update issue that occurs when VPN users sign in using Windows Hello for Business when the VPN connection is offline. Users receive unexpected authentication prompts for online resources that are configured for user sign-in frequency (SIF) in Azure Active Directory-Conditional Access.
We added the message that indicates that an organization’s policy manages the user’s location privacy settings. This message appears when the privacy settings are controlled by the Group Policy documented in Manage connections from Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating system components to Microsoft services.
We fixed an issue that affects the Fast Identity Online 2.0 (FIDO2) credential provider and prevents the display of the PIN entry box.
We fixed an issue that causes Windows Defender Application Control to incorrectly compare two file version numbers.
We enhanced Microsoft Defender for Endpoint’s ability to identify and intercept ransomware and advanced attacks.
We fixed an issue that might cause Windows Mixed Reality to start when you put on a headset. This issue occurs even when you’ve turned off the option “Start Mixed Reality Portal when my headset’s presence sensor detects that I’m wearing it”.
We fixed an audio distortion issue that affects Xbox One and Xbox Series Audio peripherals and occurs when you use them with spatial audio.
We fixed an issue that causes the AltGr key to stop working if a remote desktop client is running or if RemoteApp was disconnected.
We fixed an issue that causes the edit button and the battery icon in Quick Settings to intermittently disappear.
We fixed an issue that affects the Focus Assist button in the notification area, and we provided an accessible name for screen readers.
We updated several aspects of Windows emoji. As part of an iterative and ongoing work, we have made the following improvements for this release:
- Updated all emoji in the Segoe UI Emoji font to the Fluent 2D emoji style
- Included support for Emoji 13.1, which:
  - Updated the emoji dictionary
  - Added the ability to search for Emoji 13.1 in all supported languages
  - Updated the Emoji and more panel so you can enter emoji in your applications
We fixed an issue that affects the display of the number of unread notifications; some numbers don’t appear in the center of the circle in the notification area.
We fixed an issue that affects the Start menu when you install a large number of apps and change the screen resolution. The app names appear on the Start menu, but the app icons are missing. This update might also improve the reliability of the Start menu when you use secondary monitors in mixed resolution scenarios.
We fixed an issue that causes flickering when you hover over icons on the taskbar; this issue occurs if you’ve applied a high contrast theme.
We updated the Start menu’s Ease of Access folder name to “Accessibility” to match our naming standard across Windows 11 (original release).
We fixed an issue that affects Microsoft Narrator users when they select Braille options in Settings.
We changed the screen color to blue when a device stops working or a stop error occurs as in previous versions of Windows.
We fixed an issue that causes some app icons in the Start’s All apps list to be cut off on the bottom after you change the screen resolution.
We fixed an issue that, under certain conditions, prevents the keyboard focus rectangle from being visible when you use Task View, Alt-Tab, or Snap Assist.
We fixed an issue that affects apps that provide context (shortcut) menu items in File Explorer and desktop context menus. This issue occurs if these apps utilize Directory or Directory\Background registrations.
We fixed an issue that automatically removes the Serbian (Latin) Windows display language from a device .
We fixed an issue that displays the incorrect background for the iFLY Simplified Chinese IME icon in the notification area.
We fixed an issue that displays a blank space on the bottom of the Touch keyboard when you close the keyboard while the Suggestion UI is expanded.
We fixed reliability issues that prevent the display of File Explorer and desktop shortcut menus. This issue often occurs when you choose to use a single click to open an item.
We added an option for you to choose whether to automatically turn on Focus Assist for the first hour after a Windows feature update.
We improved the animation performance of icons on the taskbar.
We fixed a reliability issue on the lock screen that affects the rendering of the network status text.
We fixed volume control issues that affect Bluetooth audio devices.
We fixed an issue that causes File Explorer to stop working after you close a File Explorer window.
We fixed an issue that displays incorrect closed-caption shadows for some videos.
We fixed an issue that causes the Windows Update History page in the Settings app to display a summary count of zero (0) updates per category when there are updates listed.
We fixed an issue that occurs when you run a 32-bit application on a 64-bit version of Windows 11. If you call NetServerEnum(), it might return error 87 or error 1231.
We fixed an issue that prevents your device from starting up, and it becomes unresponsive because of licensing API calls.
We fixed an issue in the Windows Network File System (NFS) client that might prevent you from renaming a file after mounting an NFS share. This issue occurs if you rename the file using File Explorer but does not occur if you rename the file using command line.
We fixed an issue that prevents flash drives, such SD cards and certain USB drives, from appearing in the Defragment and Optimize Drives UI.
We fixed an issue that might cause a stop error in volmgr.sys when you delete a volume.
We fixed an issue that affects NTFS when you enable the update sequence number (USN) journal. NTFS performs unnecessary actions each time it performs a write operation, which affects I/O performance.
We enabled onunload events to create pop-up windows in Microsoft Edge Internet Explorer mode.

Corrine · Nov 19, 2021

Releasing Windows 11 Build 22000.348 to Beta and Release Preview Channels | Windows Insider Blog

This update includes all the improvements previously noted here plus this additional fix:

We fixed a known issue that might prevent apps, such as Kaspersky apps, from opening after you attempt to repair or update the apps using the Microsoft Installer (MSI).

Corrine · Jan 14, 2022

Releasing Windows 11 Build 22000.466 to Beta and Release Preview Channels

This update includes the following improvements:

We improved the reliability of application installations on ARM64 devices.
We updated daylight savings time to start in February 2022 instead of March 2022 in Jordan.
We fixed an issue that causes ARM64 devices to stop responding when they hibernate or resume from hibernation.
We fixed an issue that might prevent some image editing programs from rendering colors correctly on certain high dynamic range (HDR) displays. This frequently affects white colors that might display in bright yellow or other colors.
We fixed an issue that affects predictive pre-rendering in Microsoft Edge Internet Explorer mode.
We fixed an issue that sometime prevents you from entering strings in the Input Method Editor (IME).
We fixed an issue that causes the audio service to stop responding on some devices that support hardware-accelerated Bluetooth audio.
We fixed an issue in which the text that informs a customer about the Windows update progress is incorrect for Japanese.
We fixed an issue that affects icons for apps when the apps are not running. On the taskbar, these icons might display as active as if the apps are running.
We fixed an issue that might cause VPN profiles to disappear. This issue occurs when you use Microsoft Intune or a third-party mobile device management (MDM) tool to deploy VPN profiles on Windows 11 (original release).
We fixed an issue that affects applications that are written to only integrate with Azure Active Directory (AAD). These applications will not work on machines that are joined to Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS).
We fixed an issue that might cause the Get-TPM PowerShell command to fail when it attempts to report Trusted Platform Module (TPM) information. The command fails with the error, “0x80090011 Microsoft.Tpm.Commands.TpmWmiException,Microsoft.Tpm.Commands.GetTpmCommand”.
We fixed an issue that causes a remote desktop protocol (RDP) session to disconnect or the screen to be blank for Server Core. This issue occurs when you install the AppCompat feature.
We fixed an issue that affects windows.system.profile.retailinfo.dll.
We fixed some issues that affect File Explorer’s performance when you browse for files and select files.
We added a new Your Microsoft Account page to the Accounts category in Windows Settings for Home and Professional editions.
We fixed an issue that incorrectly shows the volume icon in the taskbar as muted.
We fixed a reliability issue that causes File Explorer and desktop context menus to stop working.
We fixed an issue that fails to pass the Shift KeyUp event to an application when you use the Korean IME.
We added the HelpWith feature, which uses Microsoft Bing technologies to suggest Help topics that are relevant for each Settings page.
We fixed an issue that prevents the touch keyboard from appearing on the lock screen when a device has a Microsoft account (MSA).
We fixed an issue that affects the loading of badging information on the taskbar, which sometimes causes a device to stop working.
We fixed an issue that prevents some options from appearing on the Win + X menu.
We fixed an issue that causes a device to stop working when it’s connected to multiple displays.
We fixed an issue that affects the auto-hide feature of the taskbar. The taskbar might not reliably appear when you hover over the primary or secondary display.
We fixed an issue that sometimes prevents you from using the Chinese Simplified IME.
We fixed an issue that might prevent icons from appearing on the taskbar of a secondary display.
We fixed an issue that fails to install certain printer companion applications when the printer device driver is installing.
We fixed an issue that displays outdated battery percentages for connected Bluetooth devices on the Bluetooth and other devices page in Settings.
We fixed an issue that prevents IP cameras from connecting and streaming to certain DirectShow (DShow) applications.
We improved the auto brightness algorithm to provide a better response under low light conditions on all the supported systems.
We fixed an issue that causes lsass.exe to stop working and the device restarts. This issue occurs when you query Windows NT Directory Services (NTDS) counters after the NTDS service has stopped.
We fixed an issue that causes a deadlock in the WebDav redirector. This issue occurs when you attempt to read a file from the local TfsStore, which causes the system to stop responding.
We fixed a performance regression issue that occurs when you enable the update sequence number (USN) journal.
We fixed an issue that fails to apply the Group Policy Object (GPO) “Do not allow compression on all NTFS Volume” in some cases.
We fixed an issue that prevents Robocopy from retrying the file copy process.
We fixed an issue that causes Windows to stop working and generates the error, “IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL”.
We fixed a memory leak that occurs when you call WinVerifyTrust(). This issue occurs if verification fails for the first signature of a file that has multiple signatures.

Corrine · Feb 10, 2022

Releasing Windows 11 Build 22000.526 to Beta and Release Preview Channels

This update includes the following improvements:

We fixed an issue that occurs when Windows Server 2016 runs as a terminal server using certain cloud computing virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). As result, the servers randomly stop responding after running for a period of time. This also addresses a regression that proactively checks to ensure that the CSharedLock in rpcss.exe is set correctly to avoid a deadlock.
We fixed an issue that might cause the time zone list in Settings to appear blank for users who are not administrators.
We fixed an issue that affects the Windows search service and occurs when you query using the proximity operator.
We fixed an issue that fails to show the Startup impact values in Task Manager.
We fixed an issue that prevents ShellWindows() from returning the InternetExplorer object when iexplore.exe runs in the Microsoft Edge Internet Explorer mode context.
We provided the ability to share cookies between Microsoft Edge Internet Explorer mode and Microsoft Edge.
We fixed an issue that affects dialog boxes in Microsoft Edge Internet Explorer mode.
We fixed an issue that causes Microsoft Edge Internet Explorer mode to stop working when you press the F1 key.
We fixed an issue that causes the improper cleanup of Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) objects. This prevents session teardown and causes a session to stop responding.
We fixed an issue that prevents printing from operating properly for some low integrity process apps.
We introduced support for Windows Hello for Business Cloud Trust. This is a new deployment model for hybrid deployments of Windows Hello for Business. It uses the same technology and deployment steps that support on-premises single sign-on (SSO) for Fast IDentity Online (FIDO) security keys. Cloud Trust removes the public-key infrastructure (PKI) requirements for deploying Windows and simplifies the Windows Hello for Business deployment experience.
We fixed an issue that prevents you from unloading and reloading drivers when the drivers are protected Hypervisor-protected Code Integrity (HVCI).
We fixed an issue that affects the Silent BitLocker enablement policy and might unintentionally add a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) protector.
We fixed a reliability issue that affects the use of the Remote Desktop app to mount a client’s local drive to a terminal server session.
We fixed an issue that displays right-to-left (RTL) language text as left justified on File Explorer command menus and context menus.
We fixed an issue that prevents you from reaching the LanguagePackManagement configuration service provider (CSP) using the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Bridge.
We opened Microsoft Office files that are in the Start menu’s recommended section in the browser. This occurs if the device does not have an appropriate Microsoft Office license and the file is stored in Microsoft OneDrive or Microsoft SharePoint. If there is a license, the file will open in the desktop app instead.
We fixed an issue that causes a mismatch between a Remote Desktop session’s keyboard and the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) client when signing in.
We added the clock and date to the taskbars of other monitors when you connect other monitors to your device.
We added weather content to the left side of the taskbar if the taskbar is aligned in the center. When you hover over the weather, the Widgets panel will appear on the left side of the screen and will disappear when you stop hovering over the area.
We added the ability to quickly share open application windows directly from your taskbar to a Microsoft Teams call.
We fixed an issue that causes incorrect tooltips to appear in an empty area on the taskbar after you hover over other icons like battery, volume, or Wi-Fi.
We fixed an issue that occurs when you try to write a service principal name (SPN) alias (such as www/FOO) and HOST/FOO already exists on another object. If the RIGHT_DS_WRITE_PROPERTY is on the SPN attribute of the colliding object, you receive an “Access Denied” error.
We fixed an issue that disconnects Offline Files on the network drive after you restart the OS and sign in. This issue occurs if the Distributed File System (DFS) path is mapped to the network drive.
We fixed an issue that displays the authentication dialog twice when you mount a network drive.
We added support for hot adding and the removal of non-volatile memory (NVMe) namespaces.
We added the ability to instantly mute and unmute a Microsoft Teams call from your taskbar. During a call, an active microphone icon will appear on the taskbar so that you can easily mute the audio without having to return to the Microsoft Teams call window.

Corrine · Mar 15, 2022

Releasing Windows 11 Build 22000.588 to Beta and Release Preview Channels

This update includes the following improvements:

New! We displayed up to three high priority toast notifications simultaneously. This feature is for apps that send notifications for calls, reminders, or alarms using Windows notifications in the OS. As a result, up to four toast notifications might appear simultaneously–three high priority notifications and one normal priority notification.
We fixed an issue that turns off auto-startup for Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps after you upgrade the OS.
We fixed an issue that causes SystemSettings.exe to stop working.
We fixed an issue that affects searchindexer.exe and prevents Microsoft Outlook’s offline search from returning recent emails.
We fixed an issue that increases the startup time for Windows. This issue occurs because a UI thread in a networking API stops responding when a 5G wireless wide area network (WWAN) device is slow to wake up.
We fixed a memory leak in the wmipicmp.dll module that causes a lot of false alarms in the System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) datacenter monitoring system.
We fixed an issue that incorrectly returns the Execution Policy settings from the registry.
We fixed an issue in which modern browsers fail to correctly render HTML that is generated by gpresult/h.
We fixed an issue that causes an “Access denied” exception for a file during a PowerShell test for AppLocker.
We fixed an issue that causes the Remote Desktop Service (RDS)server to become unstable when the number of signed in users exceeds 100. This prevents you from accessing published applications using RDS on Windows Server 2019.
We fixed an issue that returns an error message when you browse for a domain or organizational unit (OU). This issue occurs because of improper zeroing out of memory.
We fixed an issue that causes the Group Policy Management Console to stop working after you close it. The system logs Application Error Event ID 1000 and the error, 0xc0000005 (STATUS_ACCESS_VIOLATION); the failing module is GPOAdmin.dll.
We fixed an issue that might cause the Group Policy Service to stop processing telemetry information for Group Policy Registry Preferences.
We fixed a stop error (0xD1, DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL) in the DirectX kernel component.
We fixed an issue that might cause Kerberos.dll to stop working within the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS). This occurs when LSASS processes simultaneous Service for User (S4U) user-to-user (U2U) requests for the same client user.
We fixed an issue that affects the Key Distribution Center (KDC) Proxy. The KDC Proxy cannot properly obtain Kerberos tickets for signing in to Key Trust Windows Hello for Business.
We added support for Microsoft Account (MSA) Pass-through scenarios in Azure Active Directory(AAD) Web Account Manager (WAM).
We fixed an issue that logs Event ID 37 during certain password change scenarios, including failover cluster name object (CNO) or virtual computer object (VCO) password changes.
We fixed an issue that prevents the User Account Control (UAC) dialog from correctly showing the application that is requesting elevated privileges.
We fixed an issue that might cause a Microsoft OneDrive file to lose focus after you rename it and press the Enter key.
We returned the corresponding Settings page when you search for the word widgets.
We fixed an issue that prevents Event 4739 from displaying the new values of certain attributes after a policy change.
We fixed an issue that causes the Move-ADObject command to fail when you move computer accounts across domains. The error message is, “Multiple values were specified for an attribute that can have only one value”.
We fixed an issue that prevents you from accessing Server Message Block (SMB) shares using an IP Address when SMB hardening is enabled.
We fixed an issue that causes stop error 0x1E in the SMB Server (srv2.sys).
We fixed an issue that causes a mismatch between NetBIOS and DNS Active Directory domain names when you create a cluster.

Corrine · Mar 23, 2022

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22581

Build 22581 is also being flighted to Windows Insiders in both the Dev and Beta Channels. Now that the Dev and Beta Channels are receiving the same builds, the limited window has opened for Insiders to switch channels if desired. Please read the details in the blog post about the limited window to switch channels and what happens when the window closes.

Changes and Improvements:

[General]

As described in our blog post here, Windows Insiders who use the Dev Channel may get to try out new ideas, longer lead features, and experiences that may never get released. In this build, a limited set of Insiders will see the first of these experimental features as we explore additional ways to help people discover and get quick access to content that they care about on the web with the Windows search box. If you see some of these concepts, be sure to let us know what you think via Feedback Hub (Win + F) and choose category Desktop Environment > Search.

[Taskbar]

The tablet-optimized taskbar feature which began rolling out with Build 22563 is now available to all Windows Insiders in the Dev and Beta Channels. As a reminder, this feature only works on devices that can be used as tablets. It does not work on laptops or desktop PCs.
Several fixes to taskbar such as the top border line now extending across the entire taskbar will be seen for everyone regardless of device type.
Keyboard focus and mouse hover for Win32 system tray icons and the “Show hidden icons” flyout have been updated to match the rest of the visual style of the taskbar. You may also notice that drag-and-drop is no longer supported to pin/unpin these items — you can show/hide these icons using by right clicking on the taskbar and choosing “Taskbar settings”. We also introduced an optional setting to hide the “show hidden icons” button completely, supporting users who want a simpler taskbar.

[Settings]

In Build 22557, we introduced new links in Settings to help customers give their PC a second life or recycle it. These links will disappear when upgrading to the latest builds (Build 22581 and higher) and will come back later.

Fixes
[Taskbar]

Made a fix for another issue causing taskbar previews to use the wrong fonts for the window title in languages other than English.
Drag and drop to taskbar should now work with auto-hidden taskbars.
When dragging something to pin to the taskbar, the message on the dragged item (for example, displaying an X if it’s not supported) will now have rounded corners.
Mitigated an issue where swiping to collapse the tablet-optimized taskbar might unexpectedly invoke the widgets board.

[Start menu]

Fixed an issue that was sometimes causing the search box in the top of Start to flicker.
Mitigated an underlying issue where if you swiped to open the All apps list, sometimes it would think that you’d tapped one of the letter headers in the All apps list.
Updated the context menu when right clicking a pinned app to say “Move to front” rather than “Move to top”, so it’s clearer what will happen.

[Focus]

A Clock app update (version 11.2202.24.0 and higher) has rolled out that fixes the issue where the Clock app was unable to update the Windows Focus state when configuring focus sessions in the Clock app.

[File Explorer]

Fixed a few cases where icons were missing next to entries in the context menu and command bar (for example, for the Next Desktop Background entry in the context menu if you right click the desktop while using a background slideshow).
Made some small adjustments to some of the icons used in the context menu and command bar, including the copy icon.
Folders whose only content is other folders will now show an icon with a slip of paper to indicate there is content inside the folder instead of an empty folder icon.
Addressed an underlying issue that could cause File Explorer to crash when using the Group By option.

[Input]

Fixed an issue where the conversion option in the Korean IME context menu wasn’t working.
Addressed an issue where the IME toolbar wasn’t showing/hiding correctly if you’d chosen to use the previous version of the Japanese IME.
Improved reliability of showing the touch keyboard on the login screen after tapping the PIN or password field after rebooting or upgrade.
Fixed an issue where some of the text in the touch keyboard was difficult to read when using the “Black and White” text input theme.
Made another fix for the “size and theme” link under Settings > Time & Language > Typing > Touch Keyboard not working.
Mitigated an issue where the touch keyboard was still showing the previous text candidates when you switched to voice typing.
The “Press Enter” and “Press Tab” commands should be working when using voice typing for Chinese (Traditional) now.
Fixed an issue where the 3 or 4 finger touchpad gesture for adjusting your audio volume level wasn’t working with certain paired Bluetooth audio devices.

[Settings]

Changes in Sounds to Program Events (for example, turning certain system sounds off) should persist on upgrade going forward.
Improved visibility of the battery icon in the Bluetooth section of Quick Settings when a contrast mode was enabled.

[Windowing]

If you set keyboard focus to Desktops in Task View, the border shown around the thumbnails will now have rounded corners.
Fixed an issue where hovering over the Task View icon on secondary monitors wouldn’t bring up the Desktops flyout when using the Arabic or Hebrew display language.
Fixed an issue where if you selected one of the Microsoft Edge tabs displayed in snap assist, the window would animate in from the wrong place.
Snap layouts should now minimize properly if you drag a window through the corner of snap layouts.
Fixed an issue where snap layouts would unexpectedly immediately display while dragging a window instead of just showing a hint for Insiders with an Arabic or Hebrew display language.
Addressed an issue where rotating your tablet before the previous screen rotation animation had finished would cause the rotation animation to abruptly cut out.
Mitigated an issue where using the 3-finger touch gesture to minimize all apps quickly could result in windows getting stuck in a shrunken state.
Reduced the size of the area above a notification where clicks weren’t being passed through to the underlying window so it’s the same sized area as the side of the notification.
Mitigated an issue leading to issues dragging the title bar of a maximized window with touch.
Fixed an issue where if the Open or Save dialog was open in an app, and you used ALT + Tab to switch away from the app and then back, keyboard focus might get lost.

[Voice access]

Fixed an issue that was causing voice access to crash when using commands to capitalize text in Office apps.

[Narrator]

Narrator will now correctly tell you if there is an image in table cells in Office apps.
When Narrator is reading with scan mode in Microsoft Edge, it will no longer stop reading when getting to some embedded links and buttons in the middle of text, like on nytimes.com.

[Task Manager]

Fixed an issue where tooltips did not accurately display the preferred visual setting when Task Manager is configured for dark mode.
Fixed an issue where Task Manager wasn’t populating the details of the Status column in the Startup Apps page.

[Other]

Fixed an issue that was causing the volume flyout that appears from using your hardware keys to be stuck on screen.
Mitigated an issue that could result in explorer.exe getting stuck and not fully initializing during first login.
Fixed a few more issues impacting explorer.exe reliability.

Corrine · Mar 25, 2022

UPDATE 3/25: We are starting to roll out Cumulative Update Build 22581.100 (KB5013283). This update does not include anything new and is designed to test our servicing pipeline for builds in the Dev and Beta Channels.

Corrine · Mar 29, 2022

UPDATE 3/29: We are starting to roll out Cumulative Update Build 22581.200 (KB5013296). This update does not include anything new and is designed to test our servicing pipeline for builds in the Dev and Beta Channels.

Corrine · Apr 6, 2022

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22593

Build 22593 is being offered to both the Beta and Dev Channels. In addition, Insiders still have the option to switch channels if they wish.

Changes and Improvements:

[General]

[REMINDER] As described in our in our blog post here, Windows Insiders who use the Dev Channel may get to try out new ideas, longer lead features, and experiences that may never get released. In this build, a limited set of Insiders will see the first of these experimental features as we explore additional ways to help people discover and get quick access to content they care about on the web with the Windows search box. If you see some of these concepts, be sure to let us know what you think via Feedback Hub (Win + F) and choose category Desktop Environment > Search.
Updated WIN + X so that if Windows Terminal is installed the menu will include an entry for Terminal, and in cases where Windows Terminal is uninstalled it will display Windows PowerShell.

[File Explorer]

The default homepage of File Explorer is now called Home. The name Quick access has been repurposed for the pinned/frequent folders section and Pinned files is now called Favorites to align with Office and OneDrive.
Recent and pinned files displayed in Home are now searchable using the search box in File Explorer even if they are not local files, so you can find Office files recently shared with you.

[Input]

Microsoft Journal is now pinned by default on the Pen menu. If you don’t have the app installed, it will be installed from the Microsoft Store if chosen on the Pen menu.
If you press WIN + Z to open snap layouts, all the layouts will now show associated numbers, so you can quickly use the number keys to select the desired layout.

[Focus]

Added 5-minute increments for everything under a half hour to focus session length options.

[Windows Security]

Memory integrity is a feature in Windows 11 designed to prevent attacks from inserting malicious code into high-security processes. This feature can be found in Windows Security under Device Security > Core isolation. In the most recent Insider Preview builds, we will notify the user that this feature is currently turned off so that action can be taken for the user to turn it back on so that their device is as secure as possible against malicious attacks.

[Input]

Updated the ADLaM keyboard layout to add access to brackets and ADLaM Hamza. To access these:
- Right Alt + \ will now input »
- Right Alt + | will now input «
- Right Alt + Shift + [ will now input {
- Right Alt + Shift + ] will now input }
- Ctrl + Shift + ; will now input the Hamza character
Updated the Pashto keyboard layout so that ې and ئ are now directly accessible on the keyboard. Accessing ظ and ط is now done by holding Shift and pressing the aforementioned letters, respectively.

Fixes
[General]

Fixed a few more issues impacting explorer.exe reliability in recent flights.

[Taskbar]

Fixed an issue where app icons were unexpectedly animating in from the upper left when launching a new app.
Improved the performance of rearranging taskbar icons.
Addressed an issue in the previous flight leading to duplicate app icons after closing and re-opening an app.
If you have a lot of apps open, the icons shouldn’t overlap the date and time on your secondary monitors anymore.
Taskbar will no longer disappear when you enter search over a full screen window.
Fixed an issue that was causing icon spacing to invert so that it was large when it should be small and vice versa when switching in and out of the tablet-optimized taskbar.
Tablet-optimized taskbar will now stay visible over full screen apps when expanded and only hide when you collapse it.
If you have multiple keyboards for your current language, the input indicator will now only show one row of text when the tablet-optimized taskbar is in a collapsed state, so that it doesn’t get clipped.
Fixed a crash that was causing taskbar to get stuck in the tablet-optimized taskbar view.
Settings will now remember your taskbar’s auto-hide setting more consistently.
Mitigated an issue where some app icons in the system tray which were expected to flash weren’t doing that.
Fixed an issue causing system tray icons to get stuck there even after you closed the application.
Made a fix for an issue where some mouse move events weren’t being passed to apps for icons in the system tray.
Addressed an issue leading to a decrease in Notification Center launch reliability in recent flights.
Mitigated an issue causing the Notification Center and its context to sometimes show the wrong color text for the system’s theme, making it unreadable.
Updated the names of some of the months in the Simplified and Traditional Chinese lunar calendar to be more accurate.

[Start menu]

Updated the design of the folders in Start so that they’re a little bigger, making it easier to see the app icons highlighted within the folder without having to open it.
Fixed an issue where if you created a folder in Start in the same position as a deleted folder, it would show the old name.
If you tab into naming a folder in Start with your keyboard, you can now tab back out instead of having to hit Esc.
Fixed an issue where when using the keyboard to select options following WIN + X didn’t work. And dismissing WIN + X should be more consistent now.
Fixed an issue where the prompt wasn’t coming to the front when launching Windows Terminal as an admin from Start’s right-click context menu (WIN + X).
The search icon in the taskbar should no longer unexpectedly flash when closing the Start menu.

[Search]

Made some improvements to help with search indexer thread and memory usage for users with a very high number of indexed items.
Fixed an issue impacting search reliability (where you would type into the search window or Start and nothing would happen) in recent flights.
Made another fix to help address an issue where the search searches flyout could get stuck on the screen in a transparent area.

[File Explorer]

Improved performance of loading Home in File Explorer.
Fixed a scaling issue where the context menu could be an unexpected size when invoking it on systems with mixed DPI monitors.
Addressed an issue where the Show More Options entry in the context menu wasn’t working for items in File Explorer’s navigation pane (for example, if you were to right click on This PC).
Did some work to help reduce the chance you will see “Loading” for app entries in the context menu.
Fixed an issue which was causing the “Open in Windows Terminal” context menu option to be unexpectedly missing for secondary users in some cases.
Opening suggested results shown while entering search terms in File Explorer’s search box should now work as expected.
Mitigated an underlying issue leading to the address bar being inaccessible in certain cases.
Mitigated an issue leading to increased launch time for certain file types in the previous flight.

[Widgets]

We fixed the issue where sometimes when pinning from the Feed, the pinned widget is placed at the top instead of below other pinned widgets.
We fixed the issue where after rearranging widgets in the widgets board, some users experience problems with widgets in the pinned section rendering incorrectly.

[Input]

Fixed an issue preventing several input UI surfaces from displaying following explorer.exe crashes in recent flights – this included the emoji panel, candidate windows, clipboard history, and the touch keyboard.
Mitigated an issue where Narrator was silent when launching the emoji panel in certain cases, for example if the search box wasn’t displayed.
Fixed an issue that was causing custom theme changes in Settings > Personalization > Text input to not save properly sometimes.
Addressed a few more color issues with the touch keyboard, including where after changing from dark to light mode, the touch keyboard might end up with a mix of dark and light.
Updated the touch keyboard button so that pressing it always shows the touch keyboard, rather than hiding it if it’s visible.
Returned the Backspace key to the touch keyboard’s small layout when using Chinese (Traditional).
Improved reliability of launching the touch keyboard on the login screen.
You should be able to use the Japanese IME’s context menu on the login screen to change conversion mode now.
Fixed an issue where the Chinese (Traditional) IMEs were only showing 5 suggested associated phrases when they should have been showing 9.
Fixed an issue where if you’d set a custom background image under Settings > Personalization > Text Input, the preview wouldn’t show how it looked in the candidate window for Chinese (Simplified).
Addressed a rendering issue with the corners of the IME toolbar.
Fixed an issue where the IME toolbar wasn’t hiding and showing correctly when using the previous version of the Japanese IME.
Improved voice typing reliability.
Updated voice typing error message “Voice typing is limited on this app” to be “Some voice typing features might not work in this app”, so it’s a little clearer that basic voice typing will still work.
Fixed an issue causing some voice typing commands not to work, for example “scratch that” (刮除它) in Chinese (Simplified).
Addressed an issue where the setting “Disable Touch while using Pen” under Settings > Bluetooth & Devices > Pen & Windows Ink would arbitrarily not take effect sometimes on first boot in recent flights.
Fixed an issue causing the Get-InstalledLanguage and Install-Language PowerShell commands to unexpectedly fail with error 0x8007023E for some languages.

[Settings]

If keyboard focus is on the chevron for a collapsible region on a Settings page, for example, the Snap windows section under System > Multitasking, you can now use the left and right arrows to expand and collapse the area.
Fixed an issue impacting reliability of System > Power & Battery.
When using the custom color picker on Personalization > Colors now, it should appear centered in the window frame and not randomly off to the side.
Setting your background image fit to “fit” under Personalization > Background should no longer cause the background image preview to become a solid color.
Addressed another issue that could cause Windows Spotlight to unexpectedly stop updating for a prolonged period of time.
Fixed an issue that was causing the Settings app to crash when going to focus settings.
Fixed an issue that was letting keyboard focus go to elements in the contrast theme previews in Accessibility > Contrast Themes that you couldn’t interact with.
Fixed an issue where leaving the contrast themes editor in Settings by selecting the breadcrumbs would clear the dropdown selection, but the buttons were still acting as if you had a theme selected.
Updated the text description for voice typing under Accessibility > Speech to make more sense when using the Japanese display language.
Addressed an issue that was preventing Quick Settings from launching with its new touch gesture.
Quick Settings will now show the correct icon to represent your audio output device again.

[Windowing]

Mitigated an issue which could lead to explorer.exe crashes when using ALT + Tab.
Fixed an issue where the keyboard focus outline in ALT + Tab sometimes was smaller than the displayed thumbnail.
Addressed an underlying DWM issue which was leading to crashes when using touch gestures from the sides of the screen.
Fixed a DWM crash when rotating the screen.
Mitigated an issue leading to some lag when resizing two apps snapped side by side in certain cases.
Fixed an issue where snap assist could unexpectedly dismiss if the initial window wouldn’t fit into the selected zone size. Now we resize the snap assist regions accordingly when minimum window size of the initial snapped window is larger than the selected zone.
If you invoke Task View with touch, the close buttons should no longer overlap with the window titles.
Hovering your mouse over the tooltip with the Desktop’s name will no longer unexpectedly make the Desktops flyout dismiss.
Using drag and drop to reorder your Desktops via the Desktop flyout should no longer leave a thumbnail of the Desktop you moved stuck on the screen.

[Voice access]

Fixed a crash that was impacting voice access reliability.
Addressed an issue that was preventing voice access’s speech models from downloading correctly.

[Live captions]

Addressed an underlying issue leading to live captions showing a download error, even though the download had actually completed successfully.
Live captions will now remember your chosen settings for position across sessions.
Mitigated an issue where the live captions position changed to floating when entering full screen, but the settings incorrectly showed the last position still.
Removed the live captions notification about audio playing from multiple apps as it was popping up repeatedly during usage.
The border of the live captions window will now match the style of all other borders in contrast themes.

[Narrator]

We fixed the issue that was causing natural voices to break up sporadically in recent builds.
Narrator will now read out the word minutes with the duration times listed in Settings for focus options.
Fixed an issue that was causing Narrator to read dialog buttons incorrectly in scan mode.

[Task Manager]

Removed backplate (colored square) from UWP app icons were displayed in Task Manager.
Mitigated an issue where the one side of the View button did not appear to do anything.
Fixed an issue which was causing the real time update speed to get set to Paused on its own. Please note, if you were impacted by this, you will need to make a one-time change to set the setting back to your preferred update speed after upgrading to this build.

[Other]

Mitigated an issue which was leading to a black (albeit interactable) screen when playing certain full screen games with Auto HDR enabled.
Fixed a memory leak in Connected Devices Platform User Service.
The volume and brightness flyouts you get when using your hardware keys will no longer show a focus window outline on top of them.
If WIN + Alt + K is pressed when a supported app isn’t running, the pop-up text displayed will now say “No supported apps in use for mic mute”, instead of “Mic mute unavailable”, so it’s clearer.
Addressed an issue which was leading to unexpected errors being displayed in Event Viewer when conhost.exe was activated.

Corrine · Apr 13, 2022

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22598

Build 22598 is being offered to both the Beta and Dev Channels. ISOs are available and can be downloaded here.

Changes and Improvements:

[General]

We are now offering new builds to Windows Insiders in China on Lenovo PCs starting with Build 22598. These users should connect to the internet for a minimum of 15 minutes to allow the Lenovo PC Manager to auto update to the latest version (version 5.0.0.3292 or later) to receive an important fix with the app.
We are trying out auto-launching of the Get Started app with some Windows Insiders after upgrade to help people get started with their PC.
[REMINDER] As described in our in our blog post here, Windows Insiders who use the Dev Channel may get to try out new ideas, longer lead features, and experiences that may never get released. In this build, a limited set of Insiders will see the first of these experimental features as we explore additional ways to help people discover and get quick access to content they care about on the web with the Windows search box. If you see some of these concepts, be sure to let us know what you think via Feedback Hub (Win + F) and choose category Desktop Environment > Search.

[Windows Spotlight]

We are trying out Windows Spotlight on desktop is on by as the default background for new devices (clean installs using the ISO) and for upgrades where the background the Windows 11 default. We are trying this experience out with a limited number of Windows Insiders at first.
We are also trying out displaying 4K desktop backgrounds in Windows Spotlight. We are also trying this experience out with a limited number of Windows Insiders at first.

[Taskbar]

Updated the tooltip on the volume icon to tell you when you’re using spatial sound.

Fixes

[General]

Devices using Windows Information Protection (formerly EDP) policies can now access controlled data via protected apps such as Outlook, Word, Microsoft Edge, etc. as expected.

[Taskbar]

We fixed an issue where if you used keyboard focus on taskbar, hovers like previews would stay up during all taskbar interactions.
Fixed an issue that was causing taskbar badges to come back after explorer.exe crashes even if you had them turned off in Settings.
Made a fix for an issue where some mouse move events weren’t being passed to apps for icons in the system tray.
Fixed an issue where hovering over some app icons in the system tray wasn’t showing previews or tooltips.
App icons in the system tray should now be showing more reliably when opened again in this build.
Fixed an issue that was delaying or preventing the show hidden icons flyout from opening.
Fixed an issue where Chinese characters weren’t displaying in the taskbar calendar when the Lunar calendar was turned on.
Addressed an issue where the visual indicator around an app icon when sharing a window might not go away once you’d stopped sharing.

[Start menu]

We fixed a crash when selecting the More button in Start’s Recommended section.
Addressed an underlying issue which could lead to Start crashing on launch when invoked with a gesture.
Fixed an issue that was causing the buttons and labels in Start to be the wrong colors while using contrast themes.
Addressed an issue where if you swiped to scroll the contents of a folder in the pinned section of Start, it would unexpectedly close Start.

[File Explorer]

Addressed an issue which was causing the context menu to not render completely sometimes and be transparent.

[Input]

Improved the performance of launching the touch keyboard on the login screen.
Fixed an issue where if you had selected text with touch in certain apps like Settings, the backspace key in the touch keyboard would have to be tapped twice for it to delete.
Voice typing should no longer stop responding if you repeatedly press WIN + H.
Fixed an issue for people with a large number of input methods, where the currently selected one might not be in view when you opened the input switcher.
Fixed the link at the bottom of the Chinese (Simplified) IME appearance settings so it points to Settings > Personalization > Text Input.
Addressed an issue where the emoji panel’s background image and color might not be rendered correctly after using options in Settings > Personalization > Text Input.

[Settings]

Fixed an issue where high DPI options in the Compatibility tab of the properties for an executable weren’t working.
Narrator should now read the view options we added in Settings > Apps > Installed apps

[Windowing]

Returned the missing animation when pressing WIN + D or clicking the Show Desktop button.
We addressed an issue when using snap layouts with touch which could result in an acrylic sheet getting stuck on top of the window.
The thumbnails in Task View should no longer be inverted when using Hebrew or Arabic display languages.
Fixed an explorer.exe crash when invoking Task View.
If you have a lot of windows open, they should no longer become superimposed on top of Desktops in Task View.
Fixed an issue when using ALT + Tab with a screen reader, where if you ALT + Tabbed back to certain app windows, focus would be set to a pane within the window rather than the whole window.
Fixed an underlying issue where accented colored title bars (when enabled) for certain apps and File Explorer were only displaying when the windows were maximized.
Mitigated a rare issue that could lead to the system hanging when changing the resolution sometimes in certain games.
Addressed an issue causing white pixels in the corners of some apps when using dark mode.
Did some work to address an issue where certain app windows wouldn’t move to the expected area after selecting them using snap assist.
Fixed a glitch in the animation when using snap layouts at the top of the screen to snap windows.

[Live captions]

Fixed an issue where the very top of maximized apps (e.g., title bar window management buttons) couldn’t be reached with touch while live captions were positioned at the top.
Live captions will now tell you when it’s done downloading and ready to caption.

[Task Manager]

Mitigated an issue causing the Performance page CPU graph to be colored as if Show Kernel Times was enabled even though it wasn’t.
Did some work to further improve Task Manager reliability.
Added access key support for Run New Task (ALT + N), End Task (ALT + E), Efficiency Mode (ALT + V), and other buttons on each page. If you press ALT, the letters will display next to the button.
With a process selected, pressing the Delete key will now end the process like it used to.
CTRL + Tab and CTRL + Shift + Tab will now cycle through the pages in Task Manager.
Fixed an issue where the memory composition graph was blank instead of filed in with the appropriate color.
Mitigated an issue leading to the GPU graph on the performance tab not being displayed in some cases.
The icons in the status column of the Processes page are no longer touching the side of the column.
Fixed an issue where “Efficiency mode” was missing status column of the Users page.

[WSL]

Fixed an issue that would prevent WSL2 from mounting the host file system on ARM64.

[Other]

Fixed an issue from the previous flight where the acrylic might not extend across the entire login screen.
Fixed an issue that was causing the volume and brightness keys that appear when your use your hardware keys to be cut off in the middle.
Running powercfg /query should work now when launched from syswow64 or from a 32-bit process.
Fixed an apostrophe that wasn’t rendering correctly in the text when doing an offline scan from the Windows Security app.
Removed an extra “be” in the text describing Smart Account Control in the Windows Security app.
Fixed an issue for certain language which could lead to question marks being displayed in the place of some of the text when upgrading to a new build.
If you have increased the text size under Settings > Accessibility > Text Size and launch setup from a Windows ISO while booted into your currently installed OS, the text displayed in the setup window will now be increased to match your preferences.

Corrine · Apr 15, 2022

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22598 | Windows Insider Blog

UPDATE 4/15: We are starting to roll out Cumulative Update Build 22598.100 (KB5014100). This update does not include anything new and is designed to test our servicing pipeline for builds in the Dev and Beta Channels.

Corrine · Apr 19, 2022

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22598 | Windows Insider Blog

UPDATE 4/19: We are starting to roll out Cumulative Update Build 22598.200 (KB5014105). This update does not include anything new and is designed to test our servicing pipeline for builds in the Dev and Beta Channels.

Corrine · Apr 29, 2022

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22610 | Windows Insider Blog

See the blog post for information about new group policies for IT administrators and an update to the Family Safety Widget.

Changes and Improvements:

[General]

Windows 11 Home edition Dev and Beta Channel builds no longer enable the SMB1 client by default. If you have installed SMB1 manually or upgraded from a previous version of Windows where SMB1 was installed, upgrading to the latest Dev and Beta Channel build will not remove SMB1. For more information, check out this blog post here.
We have updated the design of the battery icon on the Lock screen to be consistent with the one in the taskbar.
Battery icon on the Lock screen matches the design of the battery icon on the taskbar.
If your PC supports it, we will now show estimated battery life timing in the tooltip for the battery icon in the system tray with the most recent Insider Preview builds.
The build watermark at the lower right-hand corner of the desktop is no longer present in this build. This doesn’t mean we’re done, and the watermark will return to Insiders in a future build.

[Taskbar]

As a result of feedback from Windows Insiders, we have disabled the tablet-optimized taskbar feature that first began rolling out to Windows Insiders in Build 22563 for now. We hope to bring this feature back in the future after further refinement of the experience. As we’ve mentioned previously, features we try out in the Dev or Beta Channels may not always ship.

[Widgets]

The changes in Widgets that bring more dynamic content to your Widgets board announced with Build 22563 is rolling out to more Windows Insiders in the Dev and Beta Channels.

[Task Manager]

We’ve updated the Processes page in Task Manager so that the colors used in the heatmap are now based on your accent color. Please note in certain cases we will use the default blue accent color to ensure readability. We did a demo of this during this month’s Windows Insider webcast featuring Claton Hendricks from the Task Manager Team – watch the webcast on-demand here.
The Processes page in Task Manager now shows colors based on your accent color.

[File Explorer]

We have updated the rename, properties, and optimize icons used in the context menu and command bar to help with discoverability and consistency.
Context menu in File Explorer showing the updated icons for rename and properties.

[Settings]

Your Phone now shows as Phone Link under Settings > Bluetooth & devices. Your Phone is now Phone Link – read the announcement here.

[Other]

Based on feedback from Windows Insiders, we are rolling back the change originally documented with Build 22557 where TKIP and WEP connections were no longer allowed. These connections are allowed again starting with this build as we go back to the previous behavior where a warning is given notifying you that these are not secured connections. As a reminder, TKIP and WEP are deprecated security standards and are planned for removal in a future release. We recommend updating your router or other devices to one that supports at least WPA2 (WPA3 is the current standard).

Fixes

[General]

We fixed the issue causing Windows Insiders running Windows 10 who were trying to join the Dev or Beta Channels to encounter a download error code 0xc8000402 while trying to download the latest build. If you experienced this issue, please install KB5011831 and then try to download the latest build from either the Dev or Beta Channels. If you continue to see this issue – please file feedback in Feedback Hub.
We’ve fixed an issue causing explorer.exe to crash repeatedly in a loop in the latest builds (and unable to successfully load) for a small percent of Insiders.
Made a change to help address an issue causing some Insiders to experience a bugcheck with the error BAD_POOL_CALLER when opening Notification Center and some other actions after the last build.
When opening Group Policy editor, an Administrative Template error will no longer pop up.
Fixed an issue where Group Policy Editor was unexpectedly showing an error saying “mmc cannot initialize the snap-in” on ARM64 in some cases.

[Taskbar]

Fixed an issue that was preventing Shift + Right-click on a taskbar icon from opening the expected context menu.
Changing the resolution of a secondary display should no longer result in the taskbar app icons unexpectedly shifting to the right.
Clicking the taskbar should close things like Quick Settings and Notification Center now if they’re open.
Windows and taskbar icons that were being used on a secondary monitor will now transfer correctly to your primary monitor if you unplug the secondary one.
Fixed an issue that was preventing taskbar icon animations on system icons like Start, Search, and Task view.
Animations will now play correctly the first time you drag and drop to taskbar.
If you drag to the taskbar in a right-to-left (RTL) language, the icon will now appear on the correct side.
When you’re connected to Wi-Fi, the network icon in the taskbar will no longer incorrectly show as disconnected.
Fixed a crash that was happening if the taskbar clock updated while transitioning to daylight savings time changes.
The show hidden icons flyout will now dismiss when you click away from it again.
There will no longer be an empty show hidden icons arrow showing in your system tray when you’ve set all your icons there to show.
Fixed an issue causing Notification Center to be cut off when opened on small screens, hiding the do not disturb button.
Fixed an issue for Arabic and Hebrew display languages, where the Notification Center would jump up unexpectedly when dismissed.
If your microphone is in use but not your location, hovering over the microphone button in the taskbar should no longer show a location section with an empty app name in the tooltip.

[Start menu]

App icons like Microsoft Edge will no longer be cut off on the bottom in Start’s all apps list.
If you cancel while dragging icons to create a folder in Start, they will no longer be stuck in a broken folder with just one icon.
The Windows Tools entry under All apps should be visible again now.
Animations of folders in the Start menu will no longer start on the first pinned app instead of where the folder is located.

[Search]

We did some work to help address an issue where sometimes you couldn’t search for an app you’d just installed, although it was showing in Start.

[File Explorer]

Using the rename, copy, paste, delete, and other options context menu options in File Explorer or on the desktop should no longer cause explorer.exe to crash when the context menu dismisses.
Right-clicking on a file now reflects the updated naming in File Explorer and shows “Add to Favorites”.
Right-clicking on This PC in the Open or Save As dialog’s navigation pane should bring up the context menu again now.
Addressed an issue believed to be the underlying cause for File Explorer freezing when selecting a large number of files in recent builds.
We made some improvements to the performance of keyboard selection of images and zipped files in OneDrive folders.
Fixed an issue which was causing File Explorer to freeze frequently when WSL was installed, and WSL files were opened via Home.
To help with performance, when opening Home only images and videos will now show thumbnails.
Updated the tooltip for the “Please sign in” button in File Explorer from “Sign in again to fix authentication issues.” to “One of your accounts needs attention to show files from Office.com in Home”, so that its purpose is clearer.
We addressed an issue where the Sign In button in File Explorer might not work.
Fixed an explorer.exe crash related to loading recently used Office files in Home.
Addressed an issue where the Open option was unexpectedly showing a generic icon when right clicking on certain file types.
Fixed an underlying issue believed to be the cause of some Insiders not seeing the This PC option in the “Open File Explorer to” dropdown in folder options.

[Input]

Fixed a couple issues where under certain conditions the emoji panel, clipboard history, and voice typing would stop working after unlocking your PC or right after a Windows update.
Fixed an issue where the text suggestions for physical keyboards might sometimes display with a transparent background.
To ensure that text input is always available, if you use touch and tap a text field in OOBE, on the login screen, or in the UAC dialog, the touch keyboard will now always appear even if a physical keyboard is connected.
When you lock your PC, if you have turned off “Play sounds as I type” under Settings > Time & Language > Typing > Touch keyboard, you should no longer hear key press sounds when using the touch keyboard on the login screen.
Added typographic quotes as an option after a press and hold on the quote key when using the German touch keyboard layout.
We did some work to address an issue where if you were using the docked touch keyboard on a tablet and tapped the text field of an app that didn’t have focus, the touch keyboard might appear and immediately disappear.
Improved the performance going into the listening state after launching voice typing (WIN + H).
Fixed a crash when deleting letters using a strikethrough gesture in the handwriting panel.
Addressed an issue where if you had unchecked “leave touchpad on when a mouse is connected” under Settings > Bluetooth & Devices > Touchpad, the touchpad wasn’t re-enabled after connecting and disconnecting a mouse.
Fixed an issue that could lead to the trail when sliding your finger around the screen being unexpectedly red or invisible in some cases.
If you don’t have the Chinese (Simplified) IME installed, it should no longer display as an option to customize under Settings > Personalization > Text Input > Custom Theme.
If an Xbox controller is connected, using it to interact with games should no longer result in an unexpected pop-up saying, “No supported apps in use for mic mute.”

[Widgets]

Improved reliability of opening the widgets board on first login after an upgrade or after an app update.
We did some work to help address an issue where the widgets board wouldn’t light dismiss and you had to use the Esc key to close it.
As some Insiders have noticed, to help make the state clearer, if the weather status on the taskbar isn’t available, we will now show a greyed-out weather icon.
Addressed an underlying issue leading to Widgets being missing from the taskbar and Settings after upgrading. This fix should stop future PCs from being impacted – if you are currently impacted, please try reinstalling this, which may resolve it for you.

[Settings]

Fixed the Windows Update text for English (United Kingdom) so that it will say “last checked” and not “last ticked.”
Addressed an underlying issue leading to not being able to activate the “Restart now” button in Windows Update when it had focus using Narrator in scan mode.
Fixed an issue where if you opened the Bluetooth section of Quick Settings and went back, it could result in the scrollbar style changing in Quick Settings under certain conditions.
Apps should no longer show up with the incorrect icon under Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Other system tray icons.
Fixed an issue that was causing the search icon in Settings > Personalization > Taskbar to be backwards and the wrong color in the Desert contrast theme.
Fixed an issue preventing Quick Settings from taking touch input.
Addressed an additional issue causing the media controls above Quick Settings to stay there after the media source was closed.
Fixed a high hitting crash in recent flights when navigating to the page to pick a sound output option in Quick Settings.

[Windowing]

Did some work to help address an issue related snap layouts at the top of the screen where a large invisible area could get stuck and would consume clicks in that area.
When you drag down on the title bar of a maximized window, it should be easier to invoke snap layouts from the top of the screen now.
If you have a window within a snap group that is set to display across all your Desktops, that setting should now persist if you drag and drop the snap group into a different Desktop in Task View.
Fixed a couple issues leading to explorer.exe crashes when using and interacting with snap.
Fixed a couple high hitting DWM crashes in recent flights.
Addressed an issue where focus wasn’t being properly set when using the 3-finger touchpad gesture to bring up ALT + Tab.
Fixed an issue where snap assist was unexpectedly appearing when you had only a single Microsoft Edge window open and tried to snap it.
Reduced the likelihood of seeing an acrylic backdrop noticeably lagging when dragging a window around.
Improved the reliability of using gestures from the edge of the screen (for example to open Start menu) when using an app full screen.
Addressed an issue which could cause the screen to appear frozen after using a 3 finger on screen gesture to minimize open apps on top of certain full screen apps.

[Narrator]

Fixed an issue when using Narrator and your keyboard to navigate the show hidden icons panel where focus was jumping out to taskbar at the end of the icons instead of looping back to the beginning.
Narrator will now start reading from the beginning of the page on Edge even if a control on the page has focus by default, like Bing’s search box.

[Task Manager]

Fixed an underlying issue leading to some apps not showing as suspended in Task Manager even though they should have been.
Fixed an issue where expanding the child of a child process would result in the content of the Name column in Processes being significantly offset.
Clicking “Show history of all processes” in settings should no longer hang or crash Task Manager.
The Run New Task button should work on the Details and Services pages now.
To address issues with text and UI clipping, Task Manager will no longer show accent color on the title bar.

[Networking]

The issue causing internet connectivity issues for some Insiders recently when certain VPNs were connected should be addressed now.

[Lock screen and logging in]

The login screen shouldn’t crash anymore if you click the Power button while a contrast theme is enabled.
Fixed an issue where the network icon on the login screen could become clipped if you used the text scaling option in Settings > Accessibility.
Did some work to address a high hitting login screen crash.

[Other]

Addressed a few issues that were preventing the accessibility flyout from showing or from selecting items in it with your mouse in the device setup experience (OOBE) for Windows 11.
The accessibility flyout will no longer be empty in RTL languages in the device setup experience (OOBE).
Fixed an issue that was causing notification popups to get stuck as a transparent box on the side of your screen that blocked input.
Addressed an underlying issue believed to be the root cause of the system thinking you were on battery when UPS was connected recently.
The keyboard shortcut to launch Quick Assist (WIN + CTRL + Q) should be working again now.
Addressed an issue where some signed apps were unexpectedly blocked by Smart App Control.
If you use your keyboard to control your brightness or volume level, the flyout that appears with now respect if you’ve turned animation effects off in Settings > Accessibility > Visual Effects.
Addressed an underlying issue that could result in a yellow border getting stuck around your game after taking a screenshot with the Xbox Game Bar.
Fixed an underlying app registration issue leading to the Windows Security app not launching or showing a prompt saying there was no installed app for that protocol after upgrade.
Made a change that should help address an issue where Insiders were seeing Windows Terminal failing to update in the Microsoft Store with error code 0x80073CFB.
Fixed an issue which was causing certain apps relying on the .NET Framework to fail to launch in the last few flights.
Did some work to address a leak in uxtheme.dll, leading to some performance degradation over time in certain apps.
Addressed an issue causing defrag.exe to show an error saying “No such interface supported (0x80004002) recently.
Fixed a bugcheck with error DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION in recent builds that Insiders might have encountered when disconnecting Bluetooth devices or other Bluetooth scenarios.
Improved the reliability of connecting Bluetooth devices like Apple AirPods.
Fixed an issue leading to audio not playing immediately after resuming from hibernation when certain Bluetooth headsets were connected.
Addressed an issue which could lead to a bugcheck with error PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA when connecting certain USB audio devices in recent builds.
Fixed a crash in the previous flight related to cdp.dll.
Fixed an underlying issue which was causing the Wireless Display app to not be able to receive content in the last couple flights.

Corrine · May 5, 2022

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22616

Windows Insiders who like to game on their PCs with an Xbox Controller on the latest Insider Preview builds in the Dev and Beta Channels can try out the new controller bar feature – see this blog post for details.

Note: The window for switching from Dev Channel to the Beta Channel is closing soon. See the blog post for instructions if you need assistance making the change.

Changes and Improvements:

[General]

[REMINDER] The build watermark at the lower right-hand corner of the desktop is no longer present in this build. This doesn’t mean we’re done, and the watermark will return to Insiders in a future build.

[Taskbar]

As a result of feedback from Windows Insiders, we have decided to disable the changes to the system tray introduced in Build 22581 for now. The system tray and specifically the “Show hidden icons” flyout will now function the same way it did with the original release of Windows 11, including the ability to rearrange icons in the flyout. We hope to bring these changes back in the future after further refinement of the experience by addressing some of the feedback we have received. As we’ve mentioned previously, features we try out in the Dev or Beta Channels may not always ship.

[Other]

Previously, we shared new requirements for internet and MSA on the Windows 11 Pro edition. Today, Windows Insiders on Windows 11 Pro edition will now require MSA and internet connectivity during the initial device setup (OOBE) only when setting up for personal use. If you choose to setup device for Work or School, there is no change, and it will work the same way as before.

Fixes

[General]

We fixed an issue where performance and reliability of explorer.exe could degrade over time, eventually resulting in a bugcheck, in the recent Insider Preview builds.

[Taskbar]

We fixed the issue causing the “Show hidden icons” flyout in the system tray to disappear completely for some Insiders, even though it shows as “on” under Settings > Personalization > Taskbar and “Other system tray icons”.

[Input]

Fixed an issue which was leading to some apps crashing when pressing the half-width/full-width key while using the Japanese IME.

[Widgets]

Fixed an issue where if you tried to open the widgets board using a gesture from the side of the screen, you would see the widgets board open and then immediately close.
Fixed an issue where users were unable to use the swipe functionality to reliably invoke Widgets.

[Settings]

Fixed an issue that could cause Quick Settings to crash when projecting to certain wireless devices.

[Windowing]

Addressed an issue where using the 3-finger on-screen touch gesture for minimizing could cause animations to stop working across the system.
Fixed an issue impacting DWM reliability in recent flights.
Fixed an issue which was causing some apps like Settings to open blank if they were re-opened an upgrade or reboot.

[Task Manager]

We fixed an issue that was causing the process list to fluctuate between Apps & Background groups when clicking on Efficiency mode from the command bar

[Windows Sandbox]

Fixed an underlying issue which could cause some text in Windows Sandbox to appear as black boxes in certain cases.

[Other]

Fixed an issue leading to Windows Update notifications showing they were sent from “Windows.SystemToast.WindowsUpdate.MoNotification” instead of “Windows Update”.

Corrine · May 10, 2022

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22616

UPDATE 5/10: We are starting to roll out Cumulative Update Build 22616.100 (KB5014650). This update does not include anything new and is designed to test our servicing pipeline for builds in the Dev and Beta Channels.

Windows 11 Insider Beta Channel

Administrator, Microsoft MVP, Security Analyst

Administrator, Microsoft MVP, Security Analyst

Administrator, Microsoft MVP, Security Analyst

Administrator, Microsoft MVP, Security Analyst

Administrator, Microsoft MVP, Security Analyst

Administrator, Microsoft MVP, Security Analyst

Administrator, Microsoft MVP, Security Analyst

Administrator, Microsoft MVP, Security Analyst

Administrator, Microsoft MVP, Security Analyst

Administrator, Microsoft MVP, Security Analyst

Administrator, Microsoft MVP, Security Analyst

Administrator, Microsoft MVP, Security Analyst

Administrator, Microsoft MVP, Security Analyst

Administrator, Microsoft MVP, Security Analyst

Administrator, Microsoft MVP, Security Analyst

Administrator, Microsoft MVP, Security Analyst

Administrator, Microsoft MVP, Security Analyst

Administrator, Microsoft MVP, Security Analyst

Administrator, Microsoft MVP, Security Analyst

Administrator, Microsoft MVP, Security Analyst

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst

Administrator,
Microsoft MVP,
Security Analyst