Sep 09

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23541 (Dev Channel)

Hi all, yesterday Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23541 to the Dev Channel.

Smooth upgrades on my Dev Channel devices

Lots of fixes on this build, progress is being made here

Happy Upgrading!

Changes and Improvements

[Start menu]

  • Rich thumbnail previews (tooltips) for cloud files under Recommended on the Start menu and the ability to right-click to share on these files which rolled out with Build 23511 may temporarily disappear for some Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel.

Fixes

[Taskbar]

  • Fixed an issue where dragging app icons in the taskbar may sometimes lead to an explorer.exe crash.

[Search on the Taskbar]

  • Fixed an issue where sometimes the tooltip when mousing over the search box wouldn’t match the current search highlight.

[Dev Drive]

  • Fixed an issue where it wasn’t possible to paste a folder path to mount into the dialog when creating a new Dev Drive.

NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11.

Known issues

[File Explorer]

  • [NEW] Icons on the desktop may show as generic white pages rather than their proper icons.
  • [NEW] There is an issue where the progress wheel icon will get stuck in the File Explorer tab even though the folder has finished loading.
  • [NEW] Changing the sort order of folders doesn’t persist if you navigate away and back from the folder.

[Start menu]

  • Some apps under All apps on the Start menu, such as PWA apps installed via Microsoft Edge, may incorrectly be labeled as a system component.

[Input]

  • Unicode Emoji 15support which began rolling out with Build 23475 and the updated color font format with COLRv1 support that began rolling out with Build 23506 no longer appear after updating to Build 23531 due to a bug. This issue will be fixed in a future flight soon.
  • [NEW] There is a high hitting tabtip.exe crash which is impacting the ability for some Insiders to type.

[Windows Copilot]

  • [NEW] We heard feedback from Insiders in the Dev Channel that the Windows Copilot Preview is not available in some regions. We found an issue and plan to re-enable it for these Insiders with a fix in a future flight.
  • You can use Alt + Tab to switch out of Windows Copilot, but not back into it. Windows + C will move focus back to Windows Copilot
  • When first launching or after refreshing Copilot while using voice access you’ll need to use “Show grid” commands to click in the “Ask me anything” box for the first time.

Microsoft Store Update

Windows Insiders in all channels running version 22308.1401.x.x of the Microsoft Store and higher will see the following improvement rolling out:

New Game Pass page: Explore and subscribe to PC Game Pass or Game Pass Ultimate through our new dedicated page. With the new experience, you can learn about Game Pass benefits, such as exclusive games, deals, free perks, EA Play, and more. It’s also easier to discover, jump in, and play your next favorite game, including Day One games, new games on Game Pass, Bethesda games, and more.

New Game Pass page in the Microsoft Store.
New Game Pass page in the Microsoft Store.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Microsoft Store.

source: Windows Blogs

Sep 09

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25947 (Canary Channel)

Hi all, last Thursday Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25947 to the Canary Channel.

Some nice fixes that have been plaguing the channel got fixed in this build, warning for the gamers there might be some games not working correctly on this build.

Happy Upgrades!

Fixes for known issues

  • Fixed a high hitting ctfmon.exe crash in recent flights, which may have impacted the ability to type for some Insiders.
  • Fixed a few issues impacting explorer.exe reliability, including fixing an issue which could cause File Explorer to crash when navigating to Gallery.
  • Fixed an issue which was causing explorer.exe to not work in safe mode.
  • Did some work to help improve the performance when switching between different pages in Task Manager.
  • Fixed the issue causing some Insiders to see an unexpected pop up asking you to “Select an app to open this ‘ms-screenclip’ link” after the latest Snipping Tool app update.

Known issues

  • Some popular games may not work correctly on the most recent Insider Preview builds in the Canary Channel. Please be sure to submit feedback in Feedback Hub on any issues you see with playing games on these builds.

Microsoft Store Update

Windows Insiders in all channels running version 22308.1401.x.x of the Microsoft Store and higher will see the following improvement rolling out:

New Game Pass page: Explore and subscribe to PC Game Pass or Game Pass Ultimate through our new dedicated page. With the new experience, you can learn about Game Pass benefits, such as exclusive games, deals, free perks, EA Play, and more. It’s also easier to discover, jump in, and play your next favorite game, including Day One games, new games on Game Pass, Bethesda games, and more.

New Game Pass page in the Microsoft Store.
New Game Pass page in the Microsoft Store.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Microsoft Store.

source: Windows Blogs

Sep 02

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23536 (Dev Channel)

Hi all, last Thursday Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23536 to the Dev Channel.

Some tweaks & fixes, all smooth upgrades here

Happy Upgrades

Fixes

[Windows Copilot]

  • Fixed an issue that was causing the Windows Copilot icon in the taskbar to be flipped backwards for right-to-left languages.

[Taskbar]

  • Fixed an explorer.exe crash impacting taskbar appearing correctly after powering on your device.
  • Fixed an issue which was causing apps in the taskbar to appear cut off without a rounded corner on the end when you had a lot of app windows open, and the taskbar was set to not combine.

[Live captions]

  • Fixed an issue that was causing live captions to sometimes show the same line of text twice.

[Input]

  • Fixed a high hitting ctfmon.exe crash in recent flights, which may have impacted the ability to type for some Insiders.

[Settings]

  • Did some work to help improve the performance of opening Settings for Insiders with the new Home page.

[Task Manager]

  • Fixed an issue that could cause Task Manager to crash when using the end task option in the Details page recent builds.

NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11.

Known issues

[Start menu]

  • Some apps under All apps on the Start menu, such as PWA apps installed via Microsoft Edge, may incorrectly be labeled as a system component.

[Search on the Taskbar]

  • Sometimes the tooltip when mousing over the search box does not match the current search highlight.

[Input]

  • [NEW] Unicode Emoji 15 support which began rolling out with Build 23475 and the updated color font format with COLRv1 support that began rolling out with Build 23506 no longer appear after updating to Build 23531 due to a bug. This issue will be fixed in a future flight soon.

[Windows Copilot]

  • You can use Alt + Tab to switch out of Windows Copilot, but not back into it. Windows + C will move focus back to Windows Copilot
  • When first launching or after refreshing Copilot while using voice access you’ll need to use “Show grid” commands to click in the “Ask me anything” box for the first time.

source: Windows Blogs

Sep 02

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25941 (Canary Channel)

Hi all, last Thursday Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25941 to the Canary Channel.

Changes and Improvements

[Graphics]

  • In this Insider Preview build, you may notice that there have been some changes in the advanced display settings page via Settings > System > Display > Advanced display. Dynamic refresh rate can now be enabled via a toggle. After being enabled, Windows will then dynamically adjust the refresh rate up to the selected rate to help save power. Click here for more information on Dynamic refresh rate.
  • Additionally, we’ve made small changes to help bring awareness to limitations (related to the display or the cable being used) that may not allow you to set a high refresh rate while being on a high display resolution. When selecting a refresh rate, you may notice some refresh rates will show an asterisk. That means that in order to select that specific refresh rate, the display resolution will need to be changed to one that supports the selected refresh rate. This behavior happens when there are limitations due to the cable or the display’s capabilities and is not new, but we wanted to make sure you were aware of it.

[Cast]

  • Building off the Cast improvements introduced with Build 25926, we have updated the Cast flyout in Quick Settings with additional support for you in case you face any trouble discovering nearby displays, fixing connections, and more.
Cast flyout in Quick Settings now shows link for troubleshooting device discovery and other casting issues.
Cast flyout in Quick Settings now shows link for troubleshooting device discovery and other casting issues.

[Settings]

  • The graph at the top of the Power & Battery page in Settings has been removed. Insiders can continue to see a graph of battery usage in the battery usage section further down the page. The Power & battery settings page is also no longer broken up by “Power” and “Battery” sections.

Fixes for known issues

  • Fixed issues impacting the File Explorer context menu and command bar dropdowns, causing them to become transparent, and not work with touch.
  • Fixed issues impacting File Explorer launch reliability.
  • Fixed issues causing the Japanese and Chinese IMEs to not work properly in certain apps, and to not work correctly in the File Explorer search box.
  • Fixed an issue causing Settings to crash when looking at detailed battery usage.
  • The new options for tuning intensity and color boost of Color Filters now have labels.

source: Windows Blogs

Sep 01

How to Securely Erase a Drive with Windows Reset This PC

If you want to sell or donate your old PC or just the drive inside, you need to make sure that none of your personal data can be recovered by the next person. Simply deleting your files or resetting Windows is not enough, as there are tools that can easily undelete them. You need to securely erase your drive, which means overwriting all the data with zeros or random patterns.

One way to securely erase your drive is to use the Windows Reset This PC feature, which is built into Windows 10 and 11. This feature allows you to reset your PC to its factory default state, while giving you the option to clean the drive as well. Here’s how to use it:

  1. Open Settings and go to Update & Security > Recovery.

2. Under Recovery options, click Reset this PC.

3. Choose Remove everything.

4. Choose Cloud download (new image, local reinstall will take longer as it need to check & repair the local image)

5 Choose change settings to access the clean data option to Fully clean the drive. The standard option is faster, but less secure. Setting Clean Data second option will take several hours, but will overwrite everything on the drive with zeros, making it harder to recover any data.

6. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the reset process.

Note that this method will only work if you have a single drive in your PC, or if you want to erase the drive that has Windows installed on it. If you have multiple drives or partitions, or if you want to erase an external drive, you can use the Windows built-in command-line tool cipher to erase folder or entire drives.

Aug 28

Preparing to upgrade to Windows 11 (MBR to GPT)

If you want to upgrade to Windows 11, you may need to convert your disk from MBR to GPT. MBR stands for Master Boot Record, and it is an old way of partitioning disks that has some limitations. GPT stands for GUID Partition Table, and it is a newer and more flexible way of partitioning disks that supports larger capacities and more partitions.

One of the easiest ways to convert your disk from MBR to GPT is to use the MBR2GPT.exe tool that comes with Windows 10. This tool can convert your disk without deleting any data or requiring any additional software. However, before you use this tool, you should back up your data and make sure your system meets the requirements for Windows 11.

To use the MBR2GPT.exe tool, you need to follow these steps:

  1. Open an elevated command prompt by right-clicking on the Start menu and selecting Command Prompt (Admin).
  2. Type mbr2gpt /validate /allowfullos and press Enter. This will check if your disk is eligible for conversion and if there are any issues that need to be fixed.
  3. If the validation is successful, type mbr2gpt /convert /allowfullos and press Enter. This will start the conversion process, which may take a few minutes depending on the size of your disk.
  4. After the conversion is done, type exit and press Enter to close the command prompt.
  5. Restart your computer and enter the BIOS or UEFI settings by pressing the appropriate key during boot (usually F2, F10, F12, or Del).
  6. Change the boot mode from Legacy or BIOS to UEFI and save the changes.
  7. Restart your computer again and check if Windows 10 boots normally.
  8. You can now check if your disk is converted to GPT by opening Disk Management and looking at the partition style column.

Congratulations! You have successfully converted your disk from MBR to GPT using MBR2GPT.exe. You are now ready to upgrade to Windows 11 when it becomes available.

Aug 27

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23531 (Dev Channel)

Hi all, last Friday Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23531 to the Dev Channel.

A nice list of fixes for this DevChannel build

One of my devices took 12hrs to pass the 65% completed screen, just before I planned to power it down it rebooted & continued the upgrade without further issues (Feedback Hub: https://aka.ms/AAmaxak)

Happy Upgrades!

Changes and Improvements

[General]

  • [REMINDER] Insider Preview Build Expiration: The expiration date for Insider Preview builds flighted to the Dev Channel has been updated to 9/15/2024 starting with Build 23526. Please make sure you are updated to the latest build in the Dev Channel.
  • In the European Economic Area (EEA), Windows system components use the default browser to open links.

[Search on the Taskbar]

  • We’re re-introducing the search experience for invoking the search flyout when you hover over the search box gleam. This behavior can be adjusted by right-clicking on the taskbar, choosing “Taskbar settings” and adjusting your preferred search box experience.

Fixes

[General]

  • Fixed an issue which was causing explorer.exe to not work in safe mode.

[File Explorer]

  • Fixed an issue which could cause explorer.exe to crash when closing File Explorer.
  • Fixed an issue which was causing File Explorer to crash when navigating to Gallery if you had a large number of images.
  • Fixed an issue where “Automatically type into the Search Box” wasn’t working when File Explorer was open to Home.
  • Fixed an issue where if you tried to copy and paste, a file out of a compressed folder and into a OneDrive folder might fail with an error code.

[HDR Backgrounds]

  • Fixed an issue which could cause HDR wallpapers to appear washed out when HDR was enabled.

[Task Manager]

  • Fixed an issue where it wasn’t possible to move the Task Manager window with touch or pen.
  • Fixed an issue where Task Manager was crashing when using the reset to default button in Settings.
  • Fixed an issue which was causing sporadic crashes when using Task Manager, including when ending tasks.
  • Fixed an issue where if you did a search and then cleared it, the view would still be filtered even though there was no search anymore.
  • Fixed an issue where the search icon would become overlapped with the Task Manager text in the title bar.
  • Did some work to help improve the performance when switching between different pages in Task Manager.
  • Updated the summary view for the Performance page (that you see when double clicking the graphs in the navigation pane) to make the window smaller.

NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11.

Known issues

[Start menu]

  • Some apps under All apps on the Start menu, such as PWA apps installed via Microsoft Edge, may incorrectly be labeled as a system component.

[Search on the Taskbar]

  • Sometimes the tooltip when mousing over the search box does not match the current search highlight.

[Windows Copilot]

  • You can use Alt + Tab to switch out of Windows Copilot, but not back into it. Windows + C will move focus back to Windows Copilot
  • When first launching or after refreshing Copilot while using voice access you’ll need to use “Show grid” commands to click in the “Ask me anything” box for the first time.

source: Windows Blogs

Aug 27

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25936 (Canary Channel)

Hi all, last Friday Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25936 to the Canary Channel.

Just before upgrading Edge canary started crashing, still happens on the new build (Feedback hub: Edge Canary crashes after opening a website on 25931-25936 (Version 118.0.2060.0 (Official build) canary (64-bit)))

All devices on the Canary channel went fine for me some messages on twitter noted a GSOD during first attempt though

What’s new in Build 25936

Post-OOBE Experiences

We are trying out several new experiences for after completing OOBE (“out of box experience”) starting with this build. You may see one of these three experiences launched automatically on your device after completing OOBE.

  • If you choose ‘Development Intent’ within the ‘Let’s Customize Your Experience’ page during OOBE, Dev Home will be automatically launched on your device after logging in and reaching the desktop for the first time after OOBE setup.
  • If you choose ‘Development Intent’ within the ‘Let’s Customize Your Experience’ page during OOBE, the Get Started app will be automatically launched on your device after logging in and reaching the desktop for the first time after OOBE setup. The Get Started app will show you a personalized flow that will help you learn more about Dev Home and give you the opportunity to open Dev Home.
  • If you choose to ‘Restore’ your device during OOBE, the Get Started app will be automatically launched on your device after you log into your device for the second time after completing OOBE. The Get Started app will show you a personalized flow that will help you learn about key apps and settings, tell you that Windows has restored on your device and show you how to access your restored apps on Start menu or taskbar.

These experiences will help you learn about new features in Windows 11 and help you complete your device setup. These experiences will only be available to a small subset of Insiders in the Canary Channel at first and you may see different variations of these experiences.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Install and Update > Initial out of box setup.

Changes and Improvements

[General]

  • [REMINDER] Insider Preview Build Expiration: The expiration date for Insider Preview builds flighted to the Canary Channel has been updated to 9/15/2024 starting with Build 25931. Please make sure you are updated to the latest build in the Canary Channel.

[Dynamic Lighting]

  • We have added the ability to choose a custom color to light up your devices with.

[Task Manager]

  • We’ve updated the Task Manager settings page to match the design principles of Windows 11. The design has a similar look and feel to the Settings in Windows 11 and provides a cleaner UI separating categories into different sections.
Redesigned Task Manager settings.
Redesigned Task Manager settings.

[Settings]

  • The end task feature under System > For Developers no longer requires Developer Mode to be enabled first before it can be used.

Fixes for known issues

  • Fixed the underlying crash which was causing .NET updates to get stuck requesting restart in Windows Update Settings in recent Canary Channel builds.
  • Fixed a few issues which were causing the End Task option in the taskbar to not work, or to close more than just the app you had selected.

source: Windows Blogs

Aug 20

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23526 (Dev Channel)

Hi all, last Thusday Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23526 to the Dev Channel.

There are also ISOs for this build – they can be downloaded here.

All my DevChannel devices upgraded smoothly, including the Windows 365 one.

Happy Upgrades!

Changes and Improvements

[General]

  • Insider Preview Build Expiration: The expiration date for Insider Preview builds flighted to the Dev Channel has been updated to 9/15/2024 starting with Build 23526. Please make sure you are updated to the latest build in the Dev Channel.

[Start menu]

  • For files that do not have rich thumbnail previews that can be provided, it will no longer show a blank preview area. This is part of the work for rich thumbnail previews (tooltips) for cloud files on Start that began rolling out with Build 23511.
Updated tooltip on the Start menu for files that do not have rich thumbnail previews that can be provided.
Updated tooltip on the Start menu for files that do not have rich thumbnail previews that can be provided.

[Cast]

  • Building off the Cast improvements introduced with Build 23516, we have updated the Cast flyout in Quick Settings with additional support for you in case you face any trouble discovering nearby displays, fixing connections, and more.
Cast flyout in Quick Settings now shows link for troubleshooting device discovery and other casting issues.
Cast flyout in Quick Settings now shows link for troubleshooting device discovery and other casting issues.

[Narrator]

We have made the following improvements for Narrator:

  • Changed default verbosity level from 2 to 3 which will now announce “Immediate Context Name and Type”. The Control context type like “list” or “toolbar” will allow users to better understand the focused control – same default as JAWS and NVDA.
  • Narrator users are unblocked for typing Traditional Chinese characters in Windows by addition of Traditional Chinese dictionary for detailed reading.

We have made the following improvements for Narrator with Braille:

  • When navigating to any attachment in Outlook with scan mode, narrator announces the & of the attachment, the same is now reflected on braille display.
  • Navigate to different headings in Scan Mode using down arrow, or ‘Space + 4’ key in Braille device, now navigating to heading is reflected in Braille.
  • When navigating a list with items , whenever Narrator announces index with the menu item name, Braille display also reflects the same index values as “1 of 4”.

Fixes

[Start menu]

  • Fixed an issue that was making the System label in Start’s all apps list the wrong color in high contrast themes.
  • Fixed an issue where if you attempt to uninstall certain apps, it would just open Settings and not navigate to the Installed Apps page.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

  • Fixed an issue where the taskbar wasn’t loading for some Insiders when logging into their PC after installing the previous build.
  • Disabled the setting for uncombining taskbar buttons on other screens by default when no secondary monitors are connected.
  • Fixed an issue where if the taskbar was set to uncombined it would still show animations even if they’d been turned off.
  • Fixed an issue where app icons on the taskbar would become empty (with no icon) in recent Insider builds after switching between desktops.
  • Fixed an issue where the hidden icons flyout might close unexpectedly when using keyboard navigation to move focus between icons.
  • Fixed an issue where using drag to rearrange icons in the overflow area wasn’t working well when the taskbar was set to uncombined.
  • Fixed an issue where the new bell icon might be very difficult to see in some cases because it was using a dark outline when your taskbar was dark.
  • Fixed an issue where if you had enabled the End Task option in the taskbar, the setting wouldn’t persist across upgrades.
  • Fixed an issue where after upgrading the Bluetooth icon in the system tray might not display in the system tray after upgrade even though your PC supported Bluetooth and the Bluetooth options were shown in Settings.

[File Explorer]

  • Fixed a high hitting explorer.exe crash when launching or interacting with File Explorer in the last couple flights.
  • Fixed an issue where using the Reset Folders button in Folder Options could cause explorer.exe to crash.
  • Fixed an issue where the chevrons in the File Explorer address bar were pointing in the wrong direction if your display language was set to Arabic or Hebrew.
  • Fixed an issue where saving files to OneDrive locations in File Explorer could take a very long time, making it seem like the app you were saving from had become unresponsive, in the latest Insider builds.
  • Fixed an issue where the context menu and dropdown menus in File Explorer weren’t working with touch.
  • Made another fix for the issue causing the context menu and dropdown menu backgrounds to be transparent.
  • Fixed an issue where the menu shown when doing a right click drag on one of the newly supported archive formats didn’t have an extract option like it does for zip files.

[Dev Drive]

  • Fixed an issue where Dev Drives might not auto-mount after upgrading to a new build, causing apps that tried to access them to not work.
  • Improved error messages if Dev Drives fail to format.
  • Fixed an issue related to the use of Dev Drives which could cause a bugcheck with an INVALID DATA TRAP on upgrade (and then the upgrade would roll back).

[HDR Backgrounds]

  • Fixed an issue which could cause sporadic explorer.exe crashes when using an HDR wallpaper.

[Narrator]

  • Fixed an issue where Narrator was not reading various list items in a combo box on various web pages when navigating with up and down arrow.
  • Fixed an issue where Narrator was incorrectly announcing combo boxes as read-only even when users could actually select different values from the combo box list items.
  • Addressed the issue where Narrator was not announcing the checked and unchecked status of radio buttons but was announcing selected for every item.
  • Fixed an issue where Narrator was announcing older information  while navigating in date/time picker  using arrow keys .
  • Fixed an issue where Narrator was incorrectly reading contents of previous cell and the current cell when navigating in a table using right and left arrow keys.
  • Fixed an issue where Narrator is incorrectly reading older Window title even after navigating to inner control.
  • Fixed an issue where Narrator is reading entire paragraph when up arrow is invoked in online word document.
  • Fixed an issue where Narrator was incorrectly reading out last word of previous paragraph when a new paragraph started with a punctuation mark.
  • Fixed a bug where Narrator was not announcing the character being deleted when using backspace key in some text fields on the web.
  • Fixed an issue in narrator where while entering any number in CVV edit field, Narrator should only announce as “hidden”, instead of “CVV edit, hidden new line selected”.
  • Fixed an issue where Narrator is not able to detect different headings on some web pages in scan mode while using “h” key to navigate.
  • Fixed an issue where Narrator scan mode arrow navigation skipped first item in container.
  • Fixed an issue, where Narrator is skipping the first item after navigating via landmark using “d” key in scan mode.
  • Fixed an issue where Narrator focus did not move past the first check box if there was a list of check boxes  when using up and down arrow key in scan mode.
  • Fixed an issue where Narrator was not activating combo box when navigating using up and down  arrow and using enter/spacebar to activate it in scan mode.
  • Fixed an issue where Narrator would collapse the combo boxes in scan mode when navigating with up and down arrows.
  • Fixed an issue where navigation commands are not executed as expected in a dialog  box when you enter the dialog the second time.
  • Fixed an issue where Narrator find was not working consistently on web pages when using Narrator key + Ctrl + F key combination.

[Input]

  • Fixed an issue where typing with the Japanese and Chinese IMEs may not have performed as expected in certain apps in the last few flights when you had selected the option to use the previous version of the IME. If you are continuing to experience issues with this build installed, please file feedback.
  • Fixed an issue where when inking into a text field, if you were writing in Chinese, certain characters were being perceived as taps and not working.
  • Fixed an issue where inking into a text field while magnifier was running was not working well as the ink was offset.

[Other]

  • Fixed an issue where removing a monitor while connected to a Cloud PC could result in a black screen with only a mouse visible in recent builds.
  • Made some fixes to improve how the Share dialog worked with screen readers, as well as addressing some other accessibility issues.

NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11.

Known issues

[General]

  • We’re working on the fix for an issue causing explorer.exe to crash on the login screen when attempting to enter safe mode.

[Start menu]

  • Some apps under All apps on the Start menu, such as PWA apps installed via Microsoft Edge, may incorrectly be labeled as a system component.

[Search on the Taskbar]

  • Sometimes the tooltip when mousing over the search box does not match the current search highlight.

[Windows Copilot]

  • You can use Alt + Tab to switch out of Windows Copilot, but not back into it. Windows + C will move focus back to Windows Copilot
  • When first launching or after refreshing Copilot while using voice access you’ll need to use “Show grid” commands to click in the “Ask me anything” box for the first time.

source: Windows Blogs

Aug 20

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25931 (Canary Channel)

Hi all, last Wednesday Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25931 to the Canary Channel.

There are also ISOs for this build – they can be downloaded here.

All upgrade went very smooth here, explorer still crashes from time to time but seems to happen less than with the previous build.

Hpapy upgrades!

What’s new in Build 25931

New features from the Dev Channel

This build includes new features from the Dev Channel such as Unicode Emoji 15 support, voice access is available to use on more areas in Windows such as the Lock screen, and more.

DC location will no longer use NetBIOS\WINS\mailslot-based discovery by default

We have previously announced the deprecation of both Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) and Remote Mailslots (see this blog post here for information on Remote Mailslots). These deprecations are legacy technologies that are no longer secure in today’s environments. As part of these deprecations, DC location in your environment may be affected mainly because many legacy applications still specify short NetBIOS-style domain names when trying to locate a domain controller (DC). To help ease this transition with these deprecations, we are making two improvements to the DC locator algorithm in Windows.

First, we are blocking by default the use of NetBIOS\WINS\mailslot-based methods for DC-discovery. This behavior can be reverted with the use of a new Group Policy setting (BlockNetBIOSDiscovery). In addition to disabling the new BlockNetBIOSDiscovery policy, reversion to default behavior also requires enabling the EnableMailslots SMB configuration option. (You can query and set the EnableMailslots setting using the Get-SmbClientConfiguration and Set-SmbClientConfiguration PowerShell cmdlets.)

PLEASE NOTE: Reversion should be considered only as a temporary measure while more viable, longer-term solutions are explored.

Screenshot of the BlockNetBIOSDiscovery Group Policy setting.
Screenshot of the BlockNetBIOSDiscovery Group Policy setting.

Second, we have added additional client-side logic to aid in the mapping of short NetBIOS-style domain names to DNS domain names. This improvement consists of two parts:

  1. DC locator will now automatically download additional information about the child domains in trusting forests and use that information as part of the discovery algorithm.
  2. As a last-resort fallback, and to accommodate unforeseen situations, forest administrators can manually configure a set of DNS-to-NetBIOS-domain-name mappings (using the Active Directory Domains and Trusts management snap-in) which are also downloaded and used by DC Locator during discovery.
Screenshot of the DC Locator domain name mappings property page in the Active Directory Domains and Trusts snap-in.
Screenshot of the DC Locator domain name mappings property page in the Active Directory Domains and Trusts snap-in.

Additional information is available here for DC locator changes.

Changes and Improvements

[General]

  • Insider Preview Build Expiration: The expiration date for Insider Preview builds flighted to the Canary Channel has been updated to 9/15/2024 starting with Build 25931. Please make sure you are updated to the latest build in the Canary Channel.
  • In addition to the Camera app and Cortana, the Photos app, People app, and Remote Desktop (MSTSC) client can be uninstalled.

[File Explorer]

  • Added more fields to show in the Details pane, including image dimensions for pictures, number of pages for .docx, space used and free information for drives, and many others.

[Dynamic Lighting]

  • You can now instantly sync your Windows accent color with the devices around you with the “Match my Windows accent color” toggle under “Effects” for Dynamic Lighting via Settings > Personalization > Dynamic Lighting.

[Windows Spotlight]

  • After doing an OS update, in certain cases such as using the default Windows 11 background or a solid color – Windows Spotlight may be enabled for you. If you decide you don’t want Windows Spotlight enabled, you can turn it off and in future OS updates it should not be enabled for you again unless you choose to re-enable the experience.

Fixes for known issues

  • We fixed a major issue where you could no longer connect over SMB to a third-party storage device using guest (no username or password) credentials.

source: Windows Blogs