Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23555 (Dev Channel)

Hi all, Last Thursday Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23555 to the Dev Channel.

Fast & smooth updates here on local & Windows 365 Devices

Copilot updates, hope you have tried & embraced the use of Copilot it is so awesome!

Fixes

[Copilot]

  • Fixed an issue that was causing explorer.exe to crash when trying to open Copilot from the taskbar.

[Narrator]

  • Fixed an issue that was preventing you from previewing Narrator natural voices in Settings.
  • Fixed an issue that prevented Narrator from reading the time stamp on Start’s recommended items correctly.

[Task Manager]

  • Fixed an issue which was causing a Task Manager crash when changing Always on Top mode.

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.

[Windows Copilot]

  • [NEW] The new Copilot icon is not shown currently in Dev Channel builds. It will be updated in an upcoming flight – stay tuned!
  • 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.

source: Windows Blogs

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23550 (Dev Channel)

Hi all, Yesterday Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23550 to the Dev Channel.

Smooth upgraded on all DevChannel devices here,

Happy Upgrades!

What’s new in Build 23550

Voice Access in OOBE  

As part of the work mentioned in Build 23516 for making voice access available to use on more areas in Windows, voice access can be used for setting up your new Windows devices and navigate through OOBE (“out of box experience”). You can launch the accessibility flyout on the bottom right corner of their screens and click on voice access to enable it.

Users can use the accessibility flyout in OOBE to launch voice access.
Users can use the accessibility flyout in OOBE to launch voice access.

NOTE: You will need to make sure you set up an internet connection while setting up a new device to enable the language model download and set up voice access to use it.  

You can navigate OOBE, insert passwords using the on-screen keyboard, type text using dictation and control your mouse and focus using number and grid overlays once voice access has been enabled.

Number overlays using voice access in OOBE.
Number overlays using voice access in OOBE.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Accessibility > Voice Access.

Changes and Improvements

[Windows Subsystem for Linux]

  • The September 2023 update for the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) is rolling out and includes networking improvements in the latest Insider Preview builds. See this blog post for more details.

Fixes

[General]

  • Fixed an underlying issue which was causing sporadic explorer.exe and Start menu crashes for Insiders in recent builds.

[File Explorer]

  • Fixed an issue which was causing thumbnails in Gallery to flash sometimes when scrolling.

[Start]

  • Fixed an issue that was causing some icons in Start’s recommended section not to show correctly.

[Search on the Taskbar]

  • Fixed an issue where the magnifying glass wasn’t displaying correctly when search was set to “Search icon and label”.

[Task Manager]

  • Fixed an issue where the dialog when collecting a process memory dump erroneously said it was collecting a kernel memory dump.
  • Fixed an issue causing Task Manager to not launch for some Insiders.

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.

[Windows Copilot]

  • 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.

source: Windows Blogs

CTRL key Tips in Task Manager

Here are 3 Task Manager hidden features that might come in handy:

Stopping task manager from refreshing

One of the features of the Windows Task Manager is that it automatically refreshes the data every few seconds. This can be useful for monitoring the performance and activity of your system, but sometimes you may want to pause the refresh for various reasons. For example, you may want to examine a particular process or service more closely, or you may want to take a screenshot of the current state of your system. To stop the refresh, you can use a simple keyboard shortcut: holding down the Ctrl key while the Task Manager window is active. This will freeze the data until you release the Ctrl key. very useful when in details view, sorted by CPU usage to stop the processes from jumping up and down the list

Task Manager details pane sorted by CPU usage – paused by pressing CTRL key

Opening an elevated Command Prompt quickly

One way to launch a new program without closing the task manager is clicking on the run new task option. This will open the create new task window (also known as run) For example, if you want to open Notepad, you can type notepad.exe and press enter. The program will start in the background and you can switch to it using the task manager or the taskbar. Holding down the ctrl key prevents the task manager from closing when you run a new task, which can be useful if you need to monitor the performance or processes of your system.

Clicked ‘Run new task’ while holding down CTRL key opens elevated cmd

Ending a process

One of the useful features of the Windows Task Manager is the ability to quickly end a process that is not responding or consuming too much resources. However, sometimes you may encounter a situation where the End Task button is grayed out or does not work. In that case, you can try holding down the Ctrl key while clicking on the End Task button. This will force the process to terminate without waiting for confirmation from the system. This can be handy when you need to close a frozen application or a malware process that is preventing you from using your computer normally.

End task in task manager while holding down CTRL key forces process end

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23545 (Dev Channel)

Hi all, last Wednesday Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23545 to the Dev Channel.

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

Local & cloud pc’s upgraded without any issues

Enjoy upgrading!

Changes and Improvements

[Search on the Taskbar]

  • Instead of providing a hover experience that opens the search box on the taskbar, we are trying out some different experiences for when you click on the search highlight gleam in the search box instead. In some cases, clicking on the gleam will take you to a Bing.com page for the search highlight. A tooltip will always be shown for the search highlight gleam when hovering over the search box. As a reminder, we regularly try out different concepts and get feedback with Insiders in the Dev Channel.

[Windows Share]

  • We’re beginning to roll out the ability to quickly give your device a more friendly name to identify sharing to and from with nearby share under Settings > System > Nearby sharing.
  • We’re also rolling out the ability to see Microsoft Teams (work or school) contacts and to send files to them directly within the built-in Windows share window if you’re signed in with an Entra ID (AAD) account.

Fixes

[File Explorer]

  • Fixed an issue which could cause explorer.exe to crash when closing File Explorer.
  • Fixed an issue where when switching between dark and light mode (or a contrast theme) File Explorer’s address bar, command bar, and context menu could get stuck in the wrong colors, making it difficult to see.
  • Fixed an issue where if you launched File Explorer in dark theme you could see a bright white flash as content loaded.
  • Fixed an issue where rapidly opening two File Explorer windows might make explorer.exe crash.
  • Made a few more fixes to help improve File Explorer launch performance, including fixing a leak which would impact performance over time.
  • Fixed an issue which could make explorer.exe crash when navigating away from Home.
  • Fixed an issue where trying to open Gallery after new images had been added might result in a crash.
  • Fixed an issue where the progress wheel in the tab would get stuck showing that File Explorer was loading a folder when the loading had actually already finished.
  • Fixed an issue where File Explorer sorting changes wouldn’t persist in folders after you navigated away and back.
  • Fixed an issue which could cause the icons in File Explorer tabs to be incorrect.
  • Fixed an issue which was causing icons on the desktop to turn into white generic icons until you refreshed the desktop.

[Taskbar]

  • Fixed a high hitting explorer.exe crash in the latest builds impacting taskbar reliability.

[Search on the Taskbar]

  • Fixed an issue that was causing search to not launch sometimes in the latest Dev Channel builds.

[Input]

  • We fixed the issue causing 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 to no longer appear. These experiences should again be working with this build.
  • Did some work to help address an issue that could cause the Japanese and Chinese IME candidate windows to not appear after using connected standby, due to a crash.
  • Fixed a high hitting tabtip.exe crash that may have impacted the ability to type in the last couple flights.

[Settings]

  • Fixed an issue where Settings wasn’t launching in safe mode for some Insiders.

[Other]

  • Fixed an issue where trying to take window mode screenshots was taking screenshots of the entire screen instead of the app in focus for some Insiders.

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.

[Windows Copilot]

  • 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.

source: Windows Blogs

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25951 (Canary Channel)

Hi all, last Wednesday Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25951 to the Canary Channel.

There are ISOs for this build – they can be downloaded >here<

More security updates on this build, SMB legacy authentication protocols are beeing disabled by default.

An update to snipping tool was also released, text redaction tool built in: New updates for Snipping Tool and Phone Link begin rolling out to Windows Insiders | Windows Insider Blog

All upgrades went smoothly here, Happy Upgrades!

What’s new in Build 25951

SMB NTLM Blocking

Starting with this build (Build 25951), the SMB client now supports blocking NTLM for remote outbound connections. This changes legacy behavior, where Windows SPNEGO would negotiate Kerberos, NTLM, and other mechanisms with the destination server to decide on a supported security package. NTLM in this case refers to all versions of the LAN Manager security package: LM, NTLM, and NTLMv2.

With this new option, an administrator can intentionally block Windows from offering NTLM via SMB. An attacker who tricks a user or application into sending NTLM challenge responses to a malicious server will no longer receive any NTLM data and cannot brute force, crack, or pass a password, as they will never be sent over the network. This adds a new level of protection for enterprises without a requirement to entirely disable NTLM usage in the OS. You can configure this option with Group Policy and PowerShell. You can also block the use of NTLM in SMB connections on demand with NET USE and PowerShell.

For more information on configuring and troubleshooting NTLM blocking, review https://aka.ms/SmbNtlmBlock.

SMB Dialect Management

Starting with this build (Build 25951), the SMB server now supports controlling which SMB 2 and 3 dialects it will negotiate. This changes legacy behavior, where Windows SMB always negotiated the highest matched server dialect from SMB 2.0.2 to 3.1.1 clients. Beginning in Windows 10, support was added for controlling SMB client dialects, but not server dialects.

With this new option, an administrator can remove older SMB protocols from usage in the organization, blocking older, less secure, and less capable Windows devices and third parties from connecting.

You can configure this option with Group Policy and PowerShell. Both SMB client and server now include complete management support (previously the client support was only manual registry editing).

For more information on understanding and configuring SMB dialects, review https://aka.ms/SmbDialectManage.

Changes and Improvements

[Lock screen]

  • We’ve adjusted the network flyout on the Lock screen to better match the UI of the network flyout from quick settings in system tray on the taskbar.

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.
  • [NEW] We’re investigating reports that the print queue is no longer accessible.

source: Windows Blogs

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

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

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

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

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.