Microsoft is ramping up the action with fresh preview builds for Windows 11 and Windows 10 Insiders on the Release Preview Channel today.

Let’s dive into the details and see what’s new.

For those of you testing Windows 11, there are two noteworthy builds: the 22H2 build 22621.3951 and the 23H2 build 22631.3951.

These updates include various improvements that enhance the user experience, particularly within File Explorer, the Start Menu, and Windows Share.

Highlights for Windows 11 Insiders:

• File Explorer Enhancements: One of the standout features is the introduction of Duplicate File Explorer tabs. When you right-click on a File Explorer tab, you’ll see a brand-new option to duplicate it. This small but mighty addition can significantly streamline your workflow, allowing for quicker navigation and multitasking within File Explorer.
• Start Menu Tweaks: Microsoft has also made pining apps to your taskbar more intuitive. You can drag apps directly from the Pinned section of the Start Menu and drop them onto the taskbar. This improvement simplifies the process and enhances the customization of your workspace.
• Nearby Sharing Notifications (China-specific): Another interesting update caters to our users in China. If Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are turned off when you enable Nearby Sharing, Windows 11 will now prompt you to turn these features on. This ensures a seamless sharing experience without diving into settings manually.

Windows 10 Updates:

Let’s not forget about our Windows 10 Insiders. Microsoft is also flighting the Windows 10 22H2 build 19045.4713 to Insiders on the Release Preview and Beta Channels.

This build is particularly exciting for those who recently joined the Windows 10 Beta Channel, as it invites you to toggle on new features early via Windows Update.

• Taskbar Fix: One of the key fixes in today’s build addresses an issue with the taskbar on secondary monitors. When the search box setting is enabled, it will now display correctly on secondary monitors, enhancing usability and consistency across multiple displays.
• Bug Fixes: In addition to the taskbar fix, this build includes several bug fixes for Insiders on both the Beta and Release Preview Channels. Although not all the fixes are worth detailing, it’s important to note that Microsoft has resolved issues affecting Windows Backup and Universal Print clients, ensuring smoother operation in these areas.

Additional News:

If you missed it, yesterday also saw a noteworthy release. Microsoft rolled out Windows 11 build 26252 for Insiders on the Canary Channel.

This build brings a fresh design for lock screen widgets and introduces new energy recommendations specifically for devices with HDR displays. These updates are part of Microsoft’s ongoing effort to refine and enhance the user experience.

These latest builds showcase Microsoft’s commitment to continuously improving and evolving the Windows ecosystem. Whether you’re a Windows 11 or Windows 10 Insider, there are plenty of exciting updates to explore and provide feedback on. Stay tuned to The Redmond Cloud for more updates and insights into Microsoft’s latest developments.

Happy testing!

This is odd, seeing as the whole point of splitting the Beta channel and releasing two builds concurrently was to test all the new additions in one specific build. One build comes with new features enabled, other comes disabled.

Confusingly, Microsoft seems to have taken this approach with the fixes this time — the fixes in both these new versions of the preview are also split between the two builds.

You can locate the official blog post here.

It has Microsoft talking about what these two new builds, build 22621.590 and build 22622.590 (KB5017846), come packing. Build 22622 was supposed to receive new features, but since these releases are all about fixes, they are split between both.

Not evenly, of course.

Windows 11 build 22622.590 is the one that comes with the majority of fixes, including an issue where the Control Panel failed to launch from the Start Menu, Search, or if it was pinned to the Taskbar in the previous flight.

Redmond has also disabled the ability to share a local file directly to OneDrive using the built-in Windows share feature that it recently rolled out to Insiders.

This is also the case with the latest Dev channel release, Windows 11 build 25193, so no surprises here!

Moving beyond, we have several fixes for the good old Taskbar, including one where the overflow flyout now follows your accent color like the rest of the Taskbar. The company also took care of a number of issues that could lead to sporadic explorer.exe crashes.

There are only a couple of fixes for both build 22621.590 and build 22622.590, including one minor one that affects Robocopy.

Wrapping things up, there are a few known issues that you might want to be aware of. The first of which is rather severe in the sense that audio stopped working altogether for some users. Other niggles include the inability to open File Explorer and a problem where command bar items are not enabled.

Though the prime focus, as expected, is still bug fixes and overall polish.

The announcement post provides complete details of this build’s new features. It also announces that starting with build 25182, the expiration date of these Windows 11 preview versions is September 15, 2023.

The previous expiry date of these builds was, correspondingly, September 15 of this year.

Although you still have plenty of time if you deploy these Insider builds on your test systems, paying attention to these expiration notices is always a good idea so that your build does not stop functioning.

Speaking of functioning, this new version functions like fine wine.

That’s because Microsoft has packed in a whole range of bug fixes and improvements in this version of the preview. There are general improvements to the OS, fixes for taskbar troubles, solutions for the Start Menu, and fine-tuning of the File Explorer, to go with a few other refinements.

There’s also a fix for an issue where users experienced a decrease in FPS when playing certain games due to using the wrong graphics card.

On the new additions side of things, we have an update to the Camera app that now understands the state of privacy shutter on supported hardware like Microsoft Modern Webcam or the integrated camera on many new Windows 11 laptops.

The camera app will now be able to display a warning if these cameras have a shutter blocking the view or the lid on a laptop closed, noting that the camera is blocked and will offer help.

Microsoft has also improved the Camera app on ARM64 devices, meaning you will see faster and better performance when you use the application on these machines.

Do note that this is still version 22H2, as development of the Sun Valley 3 update has been canceled in favor of releasing a major new version of Windows every three years. Most of these new additions will eventually be released, sometimes in 2023, under the Windows 11 23H2 version naming.

This is a version 23H2 build from the Sun Valley 3 development branch of the preview program, which is for the Windows 11 version that will be released in 2023.

As usual, this new build brings plenty of changes and improvements, along with the usual splattering of bug fixes that we expect from such builds. Prime among them are fixes for a number of issues plaguing the Windows Security app.

To get an idea of all that this version brings, give the announcement post a scan.

For starters, we have a couple of fixes for the File Explorer. Microsoft has fixed a scaling issue that could result in tabs being unexpectedly large. Also, right-clicking a tab and then clicking somewhere else in File Explorer should dismiss the context menu more reliably now.

Then we move on to Windows Security, where Redmond has taken care of a couple of problems.

The first is a high-impact app crash issue that the default security app suffered from. The other involves updating the Exclusions page in the Windows Security app so that file paths can better use the available space rather than truncating when space is still available.

That’s about it for the major fixes.

There are a bunch of known issues discovered in Windows 11 build 25151. Most of these involve the user interface, File Explorer, and widgets, and the details of all of these are available in the post linked above.

Most machines will not get a sniff at it until early 2022, though.

The software titan still has to refine and fine-tune the rollout by confirming hardware, software, and firmware compatibility. Expect a fair amount of artificial intelligence and machine learning to be involved as the company decides which PCs to beam the update first.

Then there is also the little case of the improvements that the Windows development team has lined up.

Work on Windows never stops, after all.

This is why the Redmond-based company recently confirmed that additional bug fixes and improvements will be released for the new OS in the coming weeks. These could appear in cumulative updates.

Microsoft detailed these in the release notes of build 22468.

For example, the company is testing a new feature that will allow users to see some stats about the VPN connection they have running on their Windows 11 PC.

Likewise, we are also about to get a new setting option to turn off the recent searches popup that appears when you hover over the search icon in the Taskbar on the new OS. This option will be offered under Taskbar behavior in Settings.

Additionally, the company is testing various bug fixes that will be released to users in the production channel later this year.

These include a new change that improves the reliability of flyouts when hovering over the Search icon. Similarly, we have a fix for an issue that prevents recent files from appearing when searching for apps like Word.

Microsoft has also made changes in the OS that reduce context menu crashes when right-clicking files in OneDrive locations.

Long story short, many of these improvements and fixes missed the cut for the RTM version of the operating system, and Redmond is working to ensure that they show up soon after you upgrade your PC to Windows 11.

Good on them!

Insiders enrolled in this outer ring of the preview program now have access to build 22000.176, which brings with it a bunch of bug fixes. It is not surprising that the software titan is focusing on bug-fixing releases now that the new OS is about to see daylight.

Microsoft has already begun cautioning Dev channel users that upcoming builds will be less stable.

As for what this build actually brings, details are in the announcement.

There is just one interesting change: Users will no longer be able to right-click on the Search, Task View, Widgets, and Chat icons on the Taskbar and unpin them directly. They will now be forced to do this from the Taskbar settings option.

Long route, unnecessary route, but what can you say?

Other than that, the operating system has improvements in the form of bug fixes, which there are plenty of here. In fact, there is a long list of these alongside a substantial array of known issues that you can scan in the blog post above.

Now, that Redmond has decoupled the Windows 11 build that is slated for launch this year from the one that is now in the Dev channel, there is every chance that the company will bring the operating system to Release Preview channel users in the next few weeks.

Dev channel users, however, will start testing features and changes that will make their way to the OS in a future release.

Likely, the 22H2 update that is on track for arrival next year.

It does come with a couple of really interesting new features, which you can check out here.

But it is clear that as we get closer to the launch of the Fall Creators Update in September, Microsoft is focusing less on adding new features, but refining existing ones and giving this version of the operating system the polish it needs.

The company also had plenty of time to deal with bugs these past few weeks, owing to the delayed releases of the preview builds, so here’s a very detailed list of improvements added in.

First up, are the improvements to the Windows Shell:

• We fixed an issue resulting in Start, Action Center and notification toasts at times having a background that was 100% transparent.
• We fixed an issue from recent flights where the Action Center icon might show it had some number of notifications but when you opened Action Center no notifications were displayed.
• We fixed an issue from recent flights where suggested apps were visible in Start despite the related setting being off. For now, if you encounter this please try toggling Settings > Personalization > Start > “Occasionally show suggestions in Start”.
• We fixed a recent issue where removed placeholder tiles in Start might come back after explorer.exe restarted.
• We fixed an issue resulting in certain live tiles not updating in the last flight, including the Weather and Money apps. If you were impacted by this you may need to unpin and repin the live tile for it to work again.
• We fixed an issue from recent flights where typing immediately after opening up the Start menu would sometimes not switch to Cortana, even though if you tapped the Cortana icon Cortana was up and running.
• We fixed an issue where notification groups in the Action Center couldn’t be dismissed by swiping across the app name. We also fixed a recent issue where notifications in the Action Center couldn’t be dismissed with pen.
• We’ve fixed some timing issues so that swiping to dismiss a notification toast should feel more reliable now.
• You can now middle click to dismiss a notification toast!
• We fixed an issue resulting in no “Safe to Remove Hardware” notification after following the device removal process from the “Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media” tray icon
• We fixed an issue where it wasn’t possible to tab to the quick action area of Action Center if there were no notifications visible.
• We fixed an issue where the network flyout might become unresponsive when Bluetooth was enabled.
• We fixed a deadlock resulting in Start, the network flyout, and other Shell UI elements becoming unresponsive after tethering certain Android phones.
• We fixed an issue that could potentially result in Start not launching after installing a 3rd party IME.
• We fixed an issue where if you started dragging a tile on Start just as the flip animation started in the tile, it could result in the tile becoming invisible under your finger until you released it.
• We fixed an issue where right clicking on an image file in File Explorer would show “Next desktop background” instead of “Set as desktop background” in recent flights.
• We fixed an issue where desktop icons sometimes couldn’t be drag-and-dropped to certain places on the desktop, even though the desired spot appeared to align to the same grid as the other icons already in place.
• We fixed an issue where desktop icons could become unexpectedly spaced out when logging in after the primary monitor’s DPI had changed.

A whole bunch of fixes for Microsoft Edge:

• When using Find on Page, pressing F3 will now go to the next result. Shift+F3 will go to the previous result.
• We fixed an issue resulting in certain websites not rendering correctly when used in inPrivate mode.
• We fixed an issue resulting in Microsoft Edge sometimes getting into a state where after right-clicking a website the context menu would immediately dismiss.
• We fixed an issue which resulted in the video element defaulting to a black background if the size didn’t match the aspect ratio of the video.
• We fixed an issue where right-clicking and selecting “copy link” would sometimes not work as expected.
• We fixed an issue where copying bitmap images from Microsoft Edge wouldn’t work.
• We fixed an issue where pasting Chinese, Japanese, or Korean text into Microsoft Edge in recent builds would result in question marks instead of the expected characters.
• We fixed an issue where misspelled words in input fields were sometimes not updated when a correction is selected from the spell checker.
• We fixed an issue from recent flights where a session cookie might unexpectedly get overwritten, potentially resulting in login issues on certain websites after a page refresh.
• We fixed an issue resulting in status updates to Facebook.com sometimes being erased during input.
• We fixed an issue causing certain controls such as calendar widgets to break on some sites.
• We fixed an issue for websites with images added using source-set where the height would sometimes unexpectedly be computed to 30px.
• We fixed an issue where clicking Run on a download in Microsoft Edge that required elevation would result in input no longer being received in that window until switching focus away and back to it.
• We fixed an issue resulting in the tab bar sometimes drawing incorrectly after dragging the window between two monitors with different DPIs.
• We fixed an issue from recent builds where you couldn’t use the letter ‘x’ when renaming a favorite.
• We fixed an issue resulting in a crash when using drag and drop to rearrange favorites.
• We fixed an issue resulting in not being able to type @ using the Hungarian or Czech keyboard in recent flights.
• We fixed an issue where PDFs containing xref streams might have rendered as blank pages in the last few flights in Microsoft Edge.
• Scrollbars in Microsoft Edge will now be the correct size on secondary monitors where the DPI differs from the primary monitor.

Enhancements to input, aplenty:

• We fixed an issue that resulted in words sometimes being input twice when using the handwriting panel in certain websites using Microsoft Edge.
• We fixed an issue where you could end up with multiple underlined words when using shapewriting in a text field then switching focus away from and back to that text field and shapewriting some more.
• We fixed an issue in Win32 apps where a space wasn’t automatically inserted if you used shapewriting to write a word then tapped a letter to start a new word on the touch keyboard.
• We fixed an issue with the Hebrew touch keyboard where tapping certain keys didn’t produce the expected character. Please take a moment with this build to try out the touch keyboard in your language and let us know how it feels for you.
• We fixed an issue where the Full touch keyboard layout was unexpectedly not available at certain screen resolutions.
• We fixed an issue when using the Emoji Panel with Narrator where using tab to switch sections would resulting in Narrator repeating the old section name for each emoji instead of the current one.
• Changes to pen behavior in recent Insider builds have been met with positive feedback, however also caused drawing in certain apps to work incorrectly. In this Insider build we’ve made a change to address this feedback pertaining to Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, and Clip Studio Paint.

And finally, a long list of general changes, improvements, and fixes:

• We fixed the issue causing the Virus and Threat Protection pillar in Windows Defender Security Center to show as “unknown” after upgrading to the last build.
• We fixed an issue from recent flights resulting in the idle timer continually being reset – thus preventing the display from going to sleep.
• We fixed an issue resulting in an unexpected 0x800706BE error sometimes when trying to initiate a remote desktop connection in recent flights.
• We fixed an issue some Insiders were experiencing where Windows Update’s Delivery Optimization settings would reset back to default upon leaving the page.
• If you previously accessed Device Encryption on the About Settings page, you’ll find we’ve moved it to its own page under Settings > Update & Security > Device Encryption.
• We fixed an issue where the lock screen might unexpectedly just show your theme color instead of the selected custom or Spotlight image after upgrading in recent builds.
• We fixed an issue from recent flights resulting in certain apps crashing when attempting to use the app to capture a picture using the webcam.
• We fixed an issue resulting in Node.js (v6.9.4) not being able to run scripts stored in OneDrive or access any paths in OneDrive.
• We fixed an issue resulting in an unexpectedly large number of OneDrive app-requested download notifications.
• We fixed an issue where using Alt-P to open the preview pane in File Explorer for PDFs associated with Acrobat would say “This file can’t be previewed.” in recent builds instead of displaying their first page.We fixed an issue where right-clicking on the volume icon in the systray might sometimes unexpectedly take 3-5 seconds for the context menu to appear.
• We fixed an issue where changing the selected option in the dropdown under Multiple Displays in Display Settings didn’t do anything.
• We fixed an issue resulting in adding a phone or taking a new profile picture in Settings not working if Settings was run elevated.
• We fixed an issue resulting in DVD Player failing with error 0xC00D36B4 on machines with DX10 graphics cards.
• We fixed an issue for PowerShell in Japanese where the “た。” character of the sentence “検証 23% が 完了しました。” would display repeatedly when running SFC /scannow.
• We fixed an issue resulting in certain games like Cut the Rope, Buggy Racing and others from unexpectedly extending past the bottom of the screen when put in full screen mode in recent flights.
• We fixed an issue with the custom color picker, for example seem in Color Settings, where panning with touch across the colors would move the area rather than smoothly update the selected color.
• We fixed an issue resulting in acrylic material’s noise layer blinking in a second after the rest of the UI if the UI was animating in on top of a video.
• We’ve improved the rendering performance when using touch to pan UWP app windows that have applied acrylic material.
• We fixed an issue resulting in XAML controls sometimes unexpectedly becoming pure white in recent builds when transparency was enabled.
• We fixed an issue resulting in the OneNote app sometimes having rendering issues in recent flights (for example, missing text blocks).
• We fixed an issue resulting in Forza Horizon 3 crashing when loading (after selecting “continue”).
• As a result of low usage, Screen Saver functionality has been disabled in themes. Screen Saver functionality in Group Policies, Control Panel, and Sysprep is now deprecated but continues to be functional. Lock screen features and policies are preferred.

So, there you, go, a quick scan reveals several important additions in this build, from improvements to searching for text in Edge, to the safe to remove hardware notifications.

Interestingly, not a single known issue has been documented in these release notes.

A hint that Microsoft is very close to the quality it plans on achieving for the Fall Creators Update?

In fact, ever since Microsoft moved away from their noble goal of feature parity in preview build releases for Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile. Anyway, that’s old news now. The new, new thing is that Redmond just released a new Insider builds of its mobile OS.

One that goes by the build number 15237.

Available for Windows Insiders who are enrolled in the Fast ring of the program, this new version of the preview does not bring anything substantial in terms of features — nothing in particular for you to play with, if you’re wondering.

But Redmond has included a range of fixes and improvements for the mobile operating system, to go with a few general changes.

Details of which you can check here, before installing this version on your smartphone.

Overall, though, this build is nothing like the previous one, and does not follow the footsteps of its immediate predecessor, build 15235 that actually contained a new feature. Which was actually a really simple one, portrait mode orientation in Continuum.

This time around, Microsoft does not list any new feature in the release notes.

Which is not all that surprising, because the company is not shipping these builds for phones from the Redstone 3 Development Branch, as is the case of the PC builds. These are part of the feature2 branch, and it appears that this new direction will continue for a while now.

Nevertheless, a new build is a new build is a new build.

And even if it rounds up the bugs and issues, and optimizes performance for the owners of eligible Windows 10 Mobile handsets, they’ll take it.

Cumulative Update KB4032188 is the one in question.

It was spotted on July 27, specifically on systems running the Creators Update, which apparently this new release is aimed at. But for one reason or another, this new update is no longer available for download.

What’s more, the official KB page has been pulled down as well.

Famous Microsoft watcher, and part-time leaker, WZor, caught eye of this cumulative update, and has posted the released notes of this update that apparently was supposed to bump the version number of the operating system to 15063.501.

Here are all the juicy highlights:

So basically, this update was all about bug fixes.

Redmond usually likes to ship out security improvements as part of the Patch Tuesday update cycle, and all versions of Windows 10 have already received their share of patches for vulnerabilities earlier this month.

KB4032188, then, brought along fixes for such interesting things like Skype calls becoming unresponsive after 20 minutes when using certain Bluetooth headsets, device drivers not loading correctly and impacting USB Type-C stability.

Windows Store users also got a patch for the error that read the app had encountered an error, and asked them to sign in again later — a rather widespread problem.

Anyway, goes without saying that this new cumulative update will be officially rolled out to all users in the coming days. Microsoft probably encountered some issues with delivery, or needed more time to improve upon a fix, or something.

You don’t make all these preparations and then not release it.

We’ll let you know when KB4032188 starts flying off of Microsoft servers once again!

In fact, the company has been releasing new patches for Windows 8.1 Preview ever since it was made available for download, late June.

And this makes sense, considering the large number of users (and businesses) that have installed the preview version.  Not only does Redmond get a chance to fix up security flaws and vulnerabilities in the operating system, it also allows the technology titan to further improve the stability of its upcoming OS.

With Patch Tuesday updates for the month of August about to go live any time now, Microsoft has issued four bug fixes for Windows 8.1 Preview.

The first of which is supposed to fix a critical security hole in Internet Explorer 11. This bug is said to allow remote execution of code on a PC if a user surfs to a website that exploits the issue.

The second update resolves some flickering issues that were reported when running Flash based videos in Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 8.1 Preview. The third bug fix takes care of a problem in IE 11 with playback of content that used adaptive streaming and Digital Rights Management features.

And finally, the fourth and final bug fix deals with the aforementioned adaptive streaming and DRM playback problems on the operating system itself.