Windows

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3380 (KB5053660) to the Dev and Beta Channels. As a reminder – we’re also offering the same Dev Channel updates based on Windows 11, version 24H2 to Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel. These updates will be optional at first, so if you are in the Beta Channel today, you can upgrade when you are ready to do so. We plan to make these updates recommended later this year, which means you will eventually get upgraded to 24H2-based updates automatically in the Beta Channel. If you are an Insider in the Dev Channel, the window is open to switch from the Dev Channel to the Beta Channel if you would like. This window will only be open for as long as we’re releasing the same 24H2-based updates (same build numbers) across both the Dev and Beta Channels. When the Dev Channel jumps ahead (higher build numbers), the window to switch will close. Please note that switching from the Dev Channel to the Beta Channel may result in the loss of some features temporarily. IMPORTANT: This window is closing soon, so we highly encourage you to evaluate which channel you would like to be in during this time in which the window to switch is still open. New features gradually being rolled out to the Dev Channel with toggle on* Recommended files in File Explorer Recommended files in File Explorer Home are now available to all Windows Insiders who are signed in with their personal Microsoft account (and local accounts). These files will provide you quick access to relevant files based on your activity in the Recommended section which is displayed as a carousel with thumbnail previews. This includes content such as files you frequently use, have recently downloaded, or added to your File Explorer Gallery. Users with a work/school account (Entra ID) will have additional types of recommendations available with this update. This change is not yet rolling out in the EEA (European Economic Area). Quick access folders will continue to be available in the navigation pane for easy access to pinned folders. [caption id="attachment_177672" align="alignnone" width="605"] File Explorer Home showing Recommended files.[/caption] FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Files Folders and Online Storage > File Explorer. Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out to the Dev Channel with toggle on* [Live captions] On AMD and Intel®-powered Copilot+ PCs, we’re beginning to roll out the ability to do real-time translation to Chinese (Simplified). Supported languages include Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech Danish, German, Greek English Spanish, English, Estonian, Finnish, France, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovene, and Swedish. [Start menu] We are trying out a new change where we will recommend a snap group in the Recommended section of the Start menu based on two apps that are most likely to be snapped together. Let us know what you think if you see this! [caption id="attachment_177673" align="alignnone" width="500"] Example of recommended apps to snap together on the Recommended section of the Start menu.[/caption] [Search on the Taskbar] Improved support for web search providers in Windows Search for the EEA, including with increased discoverability. [Notifications] To ensure you never lose access to your Microsoft account, we are introducing a new toast notification that will prompt you to add a secondary email or recovery phone number to your account. This will only appear if you’re signed in to your PC with your Microsoft account and this information is missing from your profile. Adding these account proofs will help you recover your Microsoft account if you ever forget your password or get locked out for any reason. [Widgets] In this flight, we’re introducing the ability for web developers to easily utilize their existing web content to build dynamic and interactive widgets that can be added to the widgets surfaces in Windows 11. For more information, click here. [Input] We are trying out a new experience to improve the discoverability of the emoji and more panel in Windows 11 with the introduction of a new system tray icon on the taskbar. With this new system tray icon, you can easily express yourself by using emojis, GIFs, Kaomoji etc. across all apps and surfaces in Windows in addition to using the WIN + . keyboard shortcut which is also now shown on the emoji and more panel. This new system tray icon for the emoji and more panel shows can be changed by right-clicking on the icon to go to taskbar settings page. [caption id="attachment_177656" align="alignnone" width="427"] The new system tray icon for the emoji and more panel highlighted with a red box.[/caption] [Settings] We are rolling out “top cards” under Settings > System > About. These top cards provide an easy way to view your PC’s key specifications—processor, RAM, storage, and GPU—helping you understand your PC’s capabilities at a glance. This is designed to simplify decision-making by highlighting potential areas for hardware improvements while giving you a clear snapshot of your PC. Top Cards won’t appear yet on managed commercial PCs. Note this change appears only on specific PC form-factors such as desktops. [caption id="attachment_177527" align="alignnone" width="613"] New top cards at the top of the About settings page displaying your PC’s processor, RAM, storage, and GPU specifications.[/caption] Fixes gradually being rolled out to the Dev Channel with toggle on* [File Explorer] As part of our ongoing commitment to improving File Explorer accessibility, this release includes increased support for the text scaling (via Settings > Text size) across File Open/Save dialogs and Wizard dialogs. [Windowing] Fixed an issue where the Snap Bar at the top of the screen was unexpectedly showing corners on the side closest to the screen. [Input] Fixed a high hitting ctfmon.exe crash, which could impact the ability to type. [Settings] Fixed an underlying issue which could lead to Settings crashing when adding a color profile in Settings > System > Display. Fixed an issue where Settings might crash after using Settings to sign into an MSA. Fixed an issue for Japanese users, where the name displayed at the top of Settings > Accounts showed First Name Last Name instead of Last Name First Name. [Other] Fixed an issue which could lead to a bugcheck with PDC_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT when resuming from sleep. Fixed an issue with windows.storage.dll in the last few flights, where trying to open files from an app could lead to the app crashing. Known issues [General] After you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not prevent you from getting future Dev Channel updates which will resolve this issue. [Recall] [REMINDER] Make sure you update Microsoft 365 apps to the latest version so you can jump back into specific documents. The following known issues will be fixed in future updates to Windows Insiders: [NEW] If you are trying out Recall on a PC managed by an IT administrator in your organization (signed in with a Microsoft Entra ID), you will see your Recall snapshots get deleted after installing this build and then continue to get deleted each time you reboot. As a temporary work around until we fix this issue, you can follow these steps before installing this update to prevent your snapshots from being deleted (you may need to do these steps prior to each reboot as well after installing this update): Type gpedit.msc in the search box on your taskbar to open Group Policy Editor. Navigate down to the following: Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows AI. AI-generated content may be incorrect. Set “Allow Recall to be enabled” to Enabled. Set “Turn off saving snapshots for use with Recall” to Disabled. Some Insiders may experience an issue where Recall is unable to automatically save snapshots, and the setting can’t be turned on in Settings. We’re working on a fix for this issue. Recall can be enabled or disabled from “Turn Windows features on or off”. We are caching the Recall binaries on disk while we test add/remove. In a future update we will completely remove the binaries. [Click to Do] [REMINDER] If any of your actions on image entities are no longer appearing, please ensure you have the latest updates for the Photos and Paint app from the Microsoft Store. [REMINDER] The intelligent text actions leverage the power of Microsoft’s secure cloud to improve your text results by ensuring prompts and responses are safe and appropriate. This data is automatically deleted. Local moderation to ensure the safety of prompts and responses will be added in the future, replacing this cloud endpoint. The following known issues will be fixed in future updates to Windows Insiders: Sometimes additional context is given when using more intelligent text actions powered by Phi Silica. [Improved Windows Search] [REMINDER] For improved Windows Search on Copilot+ PCs, it is recommended that you plug in your Copilot+ PC for the initial search indexing to get completed. You can check your search indexing status under Settings > Privacy & security > Searching Windows. [File Explorer] We’re working on the fix for an issue causing File Explorer to be very slow to close for some Insiders when closing using the X button. This may also have an impact on the other title bar buttons. [Task Manager] After adding the new CPU Utility column, you may notice that System Idle Process always shows as 0. The CPU graphs in the Performance page are still using the old CPU utility calculations. Reminders for Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel on Windows 11, version 24H2 will receive updates based on Windows 11, version 24H2 via an enablement package (Build 26120.xxxx). Updates delivered to the Dev Channel are in a format that offers a preview of enhancements to servicing technology on Windows 11, version 24H2. To learn more, see https://aka.ms/CheckpointCumulativeUpdates. Many features in the Dev Channel are rolled out using Control Feature Rollout technology, starting with a subset of Insiders and ramping up over time as we monitor feedback to see how they land before pushing them out to everyone in this channel. For Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel who want to be the first to get features gradually rolled out to you, you can turn ON the toggle to get the latest updates as they are available via Settings > Windows Update*. Over time, we will increase the rollouts of features to everyone with the toggle turned on. Should you keep this toggle off, new features will gradually be rolled out to your PC over time once they are ready. Features and experiences included in these builds may never get released as we try out different concepts and get feedback. Features may change over time, be removed, or replaced and never get released beyond Windows Insiders. Some of these features and experiences could show up in future Windows releases when they’re ready. Some features in active development we preview with Windows Insiders may not be fully localized and localization will happen over time as features are finalized. As you see issues with localization in your language, please report those issues to us via Feedback Hub. Please note that some accessibility features may not work with features like Recall and Click to Do while in preview with Windows Insiders. Because the Dev and Beta Channels represent parallel development paths from our engineers, there may be cases where features and experiences show up in the Beta Channel first. Check out Flight Hub for a complete look at what build is in which Insider channel. Thanks, Amanda & BrandonView the full article

Hello Windows Insiders, we are beginning to roll out an update for the Microsoft Copilot app on Windows via the Microsoft Store which introduces the following changes and improvements: Press to talk: Allows you to interact with Copilot using your voice by using a hotkey, providing instant responses while staying in your current workflow and continuing tasks without interruption. To start a voice conversation with Copilot, hold the Alt + Spacebar for 2 seconds on your PC. To end your conversation, press the Esc key. If there is no speaking for several seconds Copilot will automatically end the conversation. When the conversation is over the microphone on the screen will disappear. [caption id="attachment_177681" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Hold Alt + Spacebar for 2 seconds to start a voice conversation with Copilot.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_177682" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Copilot on Windows app.[/caption] This Copilot app update (version 1.25024.100.0 and higher) is beginning to roll out across all Insider Channels via the Microsoft Store. The above-mentioned features are gradually rolling out so not all Insiders will get the update right away. We are excited to be previewing improvements with our Insiders to ensure all our customers have a great Copilot experience for Windows. FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Apps > Copilot or directly within the Copilot app by clicking on your profile icon and choosing “Give feedback”. Thanks, Windows Insider Program TeamView the full article

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27808 to the Canary Channel. We are also not planning to release SDKs for 27xxx series builds for the time being. Changes and Improvements [Task Manager] We are beginning to roll out a change to the way Task Manager calculates CPU utilization for the Processes, Performance, and Users pages. Task Manager will now use the standard metrics to display CPU workload consistently across all pages and aligning with industry standards and third-party tools. For backward compatibility, a new optional column called CPU Utility is available (hidden by default) on the Details tab showing the previous CPU value used on the Processes page. [caption id="attachment_177652" align="alignnone" width="328"] New CPU utility column option for Details page in Task Manager.[/caption] Fixes [Gaming] Fixed an issue leading to some popular games like Roblox potentially having a bugcheck (green screen) on launch on Build 27802. [Printing] Fixed an issue where printing from some apps might cause a bugcheck (green screen) on Build 27802. [Search] Fixed an issue causing the search window to be blank for some Insiders recently when searching from the taskbar, due to a background crash. [Graphics] Fixed an underlying issue which could lead to Settings crashing when adding a color profile in Settings > System > Display. Fixed an issue which could cause color profiles to not load correctly after waking your PC from sleep. [Power and Battery] Fixed an issue where the colors in the new battery icon weren’t displayed correctly when you have your mode in Personalization > Colors set to certain options with Custom. [BitLocker] We did some work to improve the performance of loading early boot UI including the BitLocker PIN, BitLocker Recovery key, and boot menu screens. Fixed an issue for a small number of Insiders which was causing a BitLocker loop in Build 27802. Fixed an issue in recent flights where if you tried to run Get-BitLockerVolume, it unexpectedly showed an error. [Other] We believe one of the underlying changes in the previous flight addressed the issue causing reports that Hyper-V, and other features which rely on Hyper-V (such as WSL) weren’t working properly. If you continue having issues, please don’t hesitate to file a new piece of feedback in the Feedback Hub. Known issues [General] [IMPORTANT NOTE FOR COPILOT+ PCs] If you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel or retail, you will lose Windows Hello pin and biometrics to sign into your PC with error 0xd0000225 and error message “Something went wrong, and your PIN isn’t available”. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking “Set up my PIN”. [NEW] We are investigating a d3d9.dll crash which is causing multiple apps to fail to launch starting with Build 27802 for some Insiders. Microsoft Store Update Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels running version 22402.x and higher of the Microsoft Store and higher will see the following improvement rolling out: New Spotlight Design: We are trying out a new design for the “spotlight” on the department pages that show off more products at a glance for users to explore. [caption id="attachment_177665" align="alignnone" width="1024"] New spotlight design in the Store.[/caption] Updates to the Downloads Page: We’re continuing to improve the Downloads page with new sections to display updates for Microsoft-managed apps, which will be automatically applied, and updates for publisher-managed apps where you can update each independently. This ensures you can more easily view and manage updates for your apps and games. [caption id="attachment_177667" align="alignnone" width="1024"] New sections to display updates for Microsoft-managed apps in the Store highlighted in green boxes.[/caption] FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Microsoft Store. Reminders for Windows Insiders in the Canary Channel The builds we release to the Canary Channel represent the latest platform changes early in the development cycle and should not be seen as matched to any specific release of Windows and features and experiences included in these builds may never get released as we try out different concepts and get feedback. Features may change over time, be removed, or replaced and never get released beyond Windows Insiders. Some of these features and experiences could show up in future Windows releases when they’re ready. Many features in the Canary Channel are rolled out using Control Feature Rollout technology, starting with a subset of Insiders and ramping up over time as we monitor feedback to see how they land before pushing them out to everyone in this channel. Some features may show up in the Dev and Beta Channels first before showing up in the Canary Channel. Some features in active development we preview with Windows Insiders may not be fully localized and localization will happen over time as features are finalized. As you see issues with localization in your language, please report those issues to us via Feedback Hub. To get off the Canary Channel, a clean install of Windows 11 will be required. As a reminder - Insiders can’t switch to a channel that is receiving builds with lower build numbers without doing a clean installation of Windows 11 due to technical setup requirements. The desktop watermark shown at the lower right corner of the desktop is normal for these pre-release builds. Check out Flight Hub for a complete look at what build is in which Insider channel. Thanks, Amanda & BrandonView the full article

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.5025 (KB5053661) to the Beta Channel. Please note this build will only be provided to Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel who did not upgrade to receiving updates based on Windows 11, version 24H2. Changes in Beta Channel builds and updates are documented in two buckets: new features, improvements, and fixes that are being gradually rolled out for Insiders who have turned on the toggle to get the latest updates as they are available (via Settings > Windows Update*) and then new features, improvements, and fixes rolling out to everyone in the Beta Channel. For more information, see the Reminders section at the bottom of this blog post. New features gradually being rolled out to the Beta Channel with toggle on* Recommended files in File Explorer Recommended files in File Explorer Home are now available to all Windows Insiders who are signed in with their personal Microsoft account (and local accounts). These files will provide you quick access to relevant files based on your activity in the Recommended section which is displayed as a carousel with thumbnail previews. This includes content such as files you frequently use, have recently downloaded, or added to your File Explorer Gallery. Users with a work/school account (Entra ID) will have additional types of recommendations available with this update. This change is not yet rolling out in the EEA (European Economic Area). Quick access folders will continue to be available in the navigation pane for easy access to pinned folders. [caption id="attachment_177672" align="alignnone" width="1717"] File Explorer Home showing Recommended files.[/caption] FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Files Folders and Online Storage > File Explorer. Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out to the Beta Channel with toggle on* [Start menu] We are trying out a new change where we will recommend a snap group in the Recommended section of the Start menu based on two apps that are most likely to be snapped together. Let us know what you think if you see this! [caption id="attachment_177673" align="alignnone" width="538"] Example of recommended apps to snap together on the Recommended section of the Start menu.[/caption] [Search on the Taskbar] Improved support for web search providers in Windows Search for the EEA, including with increased discoverability. Fixes gradually being rolled out to the Beta Channel with toggle on* [File Explorer] Fixed an issue causing File Explorer to be very slow to close for some Insiders when closing using the X button. This may have also impacted the other title bar buttons. Known issues [Start menu] The following are known issues for Windows Insiders with the new grid and category views on the All” page in the Start menu: There's sometimes a delay in app icons showing in grid and category views after installing an app. When right-clicking on an app, the "Start settings" context menu flashes before the app's context menu appears. Windows Tools related apps are broken out into folders instead of being in one single app. Reminders for Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel on Windows 11, version 23H2 will receive updates based on Windows 11, version 23H2 via an enablement package (Build 22635.xxxx). Many features in the Beta Channel are rolled out using Control Feature Rollout technology, starting with a subset of Insiders and ramping up over time as we monitor feedback to see how they land before pushing them out to everyone in this channel. For Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel who want to be the first to get features gradually rolled out to you, you can turn ON the toggle to get the latest updates as they are available via Settings > Windows Update*. Over time, we will increase the rollouts of features to everyone with the toggle turned on. Should you keep this toggle off, new features will gradually be rolled out to your PC over time once they are ready. Features and experiences included in these builds may never get released as we try out different concepts and get feedback. Features may change over time, be removed, or replaced and never get released beyond Windows Insiders. Some of these features and experiences could show up in future Windows releases when they’re ready. Some features in active development we preview with Windows Insiders may not be fully localized and localization will happen over time as features are finalized. As you see issues with localization in your language, please report those issues to us via Feedback Hub. Because the Dev and Beta Channels represent parallel development paths from our engineers, there may be cases where features and experiences show up in the Beta Channel first. Check out Flight Hub for a complete look at what build is in which Insider channel. Thanks, Amanda & BrandonView the full article

We'd love to hear your feedback about a new feature proposal that we think will give you more control over the performance of your website or native application, by constraining the performance impact of any web content that you might embed. When it comes to optimizing the performance of your app, you're often limited by the performance of the content your app embeds. Embedded content may be 3rd party iframes for example, but it can also be shared components or apps from other teams within your organization. A common case is when an application gets embedded and starts causing performance problems because it wasn't originally designed for embedded scenarios. Being able to minimize the performance impact of the content you embed is crucial to improving the overall performance of your site or app. Goals With this new feature proposal, we aim to do two things: To make it possible for you to control the performance impact of the content you embed, and make it easy to do so, without having to determine exactly the individual constraints that are needed. And to make it possible for you to know when performance violations occur, so that you can understand when the user experience is negatively impacted by embedded content and improve the experience. Proposal We're proposing to achieve the above goals by introducing new DocumentPolicy configurations and by reporting the violations to the embedder, so you can make decisions accordingly, and to the embedded content so they can also be aware of issues and mitigate them. Here are the document policies we're proposing to add for developers to apply to embedded content: basic - Basic web development best practices that are scenario agnostic This category encompasses fundamental web development best practices to ensure websites are optimized for performance across various environments. These tasks are typically simple to implement but are frequently overlooked, leading to significant performance issues. Constraints include limits on oversized assets (images, web fonts, etc.), and flagging unzipped assets and uncompressed resources. early-script - avaScript constraints to enhance performance and minimize impact on user experience before interaction begins This category focuses on JavaScript development best practices that can be done to minimize performance issues before user interaction begins. This includes capping JavaScript resources loaded initially to avoid overwhelming devices with limited processing power or bandwidth, serving JavaScript with constrained content-length headers, and requiring animations to run on the compositor thread. globals - Overall media and system resource usage constraints This category entails imposing limits on overall media and system resource usage during interactions to help prevent websites from over-consuming resources and degrading user experiences. This includes capping total media usage, iframe count, iframe depth, and CPU usage before the first interaction. script - Strict JavaScript restrictions while running/post-load This category enforces restrictions on more complex JavaScript to further enhance performance. This includes limiting long tasks running on the main thread and capping high CPU usage tasks, particularly those involving workers that exceed certain execution times. Violations will be reported through the Reporting API. Developers can also opt into letting the browser address the violations directly, for example by not rendering oversized assets, blocking out images that are too large, pausing/blocking loading of scripts that violate limits, etc. Example Imagine a complex app that embeds real-time content from different sources through iframes. The app has a weather widget that contains animations or high-definition videos which autoplay for different weather conditions without user interaction. To minimize the performance impact of the embedded content, the developer of the host application aligns with producers of the embedded content on guidelines and best practices for the iframes to be loaded into the experience. While the producers of the embedded content make the necessary changes to meet the requirements, the host app serves its main document with Document Policy directives to enforce on the embedded content. In the simplest case, the app uses the basic policy to ensure oversized assets are limited and require assets to be zipped, by using the following Document Policy header: Require-Document-Policy: basic If the developer also wants to ensure that video and animations pause when the user is not interacting with them as well as apply some additional limits on JavaScript code, the developer can also set the early-script policy: Require-Document-Policy: basic, early-script Alternatively, the developer can choose to set these policies individually, per iframe: <iframe policy="basic"> <iframe policy="basic, early-script"> Let us know what you think We're very excited about how this proposal can give you more control of your app's performance and help uncover issues to improve the overall user experience. We're looking for feedback on this proposal so if you're interested in this API and want to help us shape it, please read the explainer, and share any thoughts you have by opening a new issue on our repository.View the full article

Hello Windows Insiders, we are beginning to roll out an update for the Microsoft Copilot app on Windows via the Microsoft Store which introduces the following changes and improvements: Native XAML app and new UI: Includes a new side panel where you can easily start a new conversation and see your conversation history. [caption id="attachment_177661" align="alignnone" width="1144"] The new Copilot on Windows native app and user interface.[/caption] Ask questions about your PC, like "How do I set up a Bluetooth headset on this device?" and Copilot provides information tailored to your current version of Windows. [caption id="attachment_177662" align="alignnone" width="1155"] Copilot on Windows with OS context.[/caption] As a reminder, you can get quick access to the Copilot app using the Alt + Space hotkey across all PCs and the Copilot Key for those using a Copilot+ PC. This Copilot app update (version 1.25023.101.0 and higher) is beginning to roll out across all Insider Channels via the Microsoft Store. This is a gradual roll out so not all Insiders will get the update right away. We are excited to be previewing improvements with our Insiders to ensure all our customers have a great Copilot experience for Windows. FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Apps > Copilot or directly within the Copilot app by clicking on your profile icon and choosing “Give feedback”. Thanks, Windows Insider Program TeamView the full article

At Microsoft, we believe the future of AI is happening now — spanning from the cloud to the edge. Our vision is bold: to build Windows as the ultimate platform for AI innovation, where intelligence isn’t just in the cloud but seamlessly woven throughout the system, silicon and hardware at the edge. Building on our recent announcement of bringing NPU-optimized versions of DeepSeek-R1 1.5B distilled model directly to Copilot+ PCs, we’re taking the next step forward with the availability of DeepSeek R1 7B & 14B distilled models for Copilot+ PCs via Azure AI Foundry. This milestone reinforces our commitment to delivering cutting-edge AI capabilities that are fast, efficient and built for real-world applications — helping developers, businesses and creators push the boundaries of what’s possible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GotHKdBQPw4 Availability starts with Copilot+ PCs powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon X, followed by Intel Core Ultra 200V and AMD Ryzen. The ability to run 7B and 14B parameter reasoning models on Neural Processing Units (NPUs) is a significant milestone in the democratization and accessibility of artificial intelligence. This progression allows researchers, developers and enthusiasts to leverage the substantial power and functionalities of large-scale machine learning models directly from their Copilot+ PCs. These Copilot+ PCs include an NPU capable of over 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS). NPUs are purpose-built to run AI models locally on-device with exceptional efficiency NPUs like those built into Copilot+ PCs are purpose-built to run AI models with exceptional efficiency, balancing speed and power consumption. They ensure sustained AI compute with minimal impact on battery life, thermal performance and resource usage. This leaves CPUs and GPUs free to perform other tasks, allowing reasoning models to operate longer and deliver superior results — all while keeping your PC running smoothly. Efficient inferencing has heightened significance due to a new scaling law for language models, which indicates that chain of thought reasoning during inference can improve response quality across various tasks. The longer a model can “think,” the better its quality will be. Instead of increasing parameters or training data, this approach taps into additional computational power for better outcomes. DeepSeek distilled models exemplify how even small pretrained models can shine with enhanced reasoning capabilities and when coupled with the NPUs on Copilot+ PCs, they unlock exciting new opportunities for innovation. Reasoning emerges in models of a certain minimum scale, and models at that scale must think using a large number of tokens to excel at complex multi-step reasoning. Although the NPU hardware aids in reducing inference costs, it is equally important to maintain a manageable memory footprint for these models on consumer PCs, say with 16GB RAM. Pushing the boundaries of what’s possible on Windows Our research investments have enabled us to push the boundaries of what’s possible on Windows even further at the system level and at a model level leading to innovations like Phi Silica. With our work on Phi Silica we were able to create a scalable platform for low-bit inference on NPUs, enabling powerful performance with minimal memory and bandwidth tax. Combined with the data privacy offered by local compute, this puts advanced scenarios like Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) and model fine-tuning at the fingertips of application developers. We reused techniques such as QuaRot, sliding window for fast first token responses and many other optimizations to enable the DeepSeek 1.5B release. We used Aqua, an internal automatic quantization tool, to quantize all the DeepSeek model variants to int4 weights with QuaRot, while retaining most of the accuracy. Using the same toolchain we used to optimize Phi Silica we quickly integrated all the optimizations into an efficient ONNX QdQ model with low precision weights. Like the 1.5B model, the 7B and 14B variants use 4-bit block wise quantization for the embeddings and language model head and run these memory-access heavy operations on the CPU. The compute-heavy transformer block containing the context processing and token iteration uses int4 per-channel quantization for the weights alongside int16 activations. We already see about 8 tok/sec on the 14B model (the 1.5B model, being very small, demonstrated close to 40 tok/sec) — and further optimizations are coming in as we leverage more advanced techniques. With all this in place, these nimble language models think longer and harder. This durable path to innovation has made it possible for us to more quickly optimize larger variants of DeepSeek models (7B and 14B) and will continue to enable us to bring more new models to run on Windows efficiently. Get started today Developers can access all distilled variants (1.5B, 7B and 14B) of DeepSeek models and run them on Copilot+ PCs by simply downloading the AI Toolkit VS Code extension. The DeepSeek model optimized in the ONNX QDQ format is available in AI Toolkit’s model catalog, pulled directly from Azure AI Foundry. You can download it locally by clicking the “Download” button. Once downloaded, experimenting with the model is as simple as opening the Playground, loading the “deepseek_r1_1_5” model and sending it prompts. Run models across Copilot+ PCs and Azure Copilot+ PCs offer local compute capabilities that are an extension of capabilities enabled by Azure, giving developers even more flexibility to train, fine-tune small language models on-device and leverage the cloud for larger intensive workloads. In addition to the ONNX model optimized for Copilot+ PC, you can also try the cloud-hosted source model in Azure Foundry by clicking on the “Try in Playground” button under “DeepSeek R1.” AI Toolkit is part of your developer workflow as you experiment with models and get them ready for deployment. With this playground, you can effortlessly test the DeepSeek models available in Azure AI Foundry for local deployment too. Through this, developers now have access to the most complete set of DeepSeek models available through the Azure AI Foundry from cloud to client. Copilot+ PCs pair efficient compute with the near infinite compute Microsoft has to offer via its Azure services. With reasoning able to span the cloud and the edge, running in sustained loops on the PC and invoking the much larger brains in the cloud as needed — we are on to a new paradigm of continuous compute creating value for our customers. The future of AI compute just got brighter! We can’t wait to see the new innovations from our developer community taking advantage of these rich capabilities. Please keep the feedback coming!View the full article

At Microsoft, we believe the future of AI is happening now — spanning from the cloud to the edge. Our vision is bold: to build Windows as the ultimate platform for AI innovation, where intelligence isn’t just in the cloud but seamlessly woven throughout the system, silicon and hardware at the edge. Building on our recent announcement of bringing NPU-optimized versions of DeepSeek-R1 1.5B distilled model directly to Copilot+ PCs, we’re taking the next step forward with the availability of DeepSeek R1 7B & 14B distilled models for Copilot+ PCs via Azure AI Foundry. This milestone reinforces our commitment to delivering cutting-edge AI capabilities that are fast, efficient and built for real-world applications — helping developers, businesses and creators push the boundaries of what’s possible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GotHKdBQPw4 Availability starts with Copilot+ PCs powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon X, followed by Intel Core Ultra 200V and AMD Ryzen. The ability to run 7B and 14B parameter reasoning models on Neural Processing Units (NPUs) is a significant milestone in the democratization and accessibility of artificial intelligence. This progression allows researchers, developers and enthusiasts to leverage the substantial power and functionalities of large-scale machine learning models directly from their Copilot+ PCs. These Copilot+ PCs include an NPU capable of over 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS). NPUs are purpose-built to run AI models locally on-device with exceptional efficiency NPUs like those built into Copilot+ PCs are purpose-built to run AI models with exceptional efficiency, balancing speed and power consumption. They ensure sustained AI compute with minimal impact on battery life, thermal performance and resource usage. This leaves CPUs and GPUs free to perform other tasks, allowing reasoning models to operate longer and deliver superior results — all while keeping your PC running smoothly. Efficient inferencing has heightened significance due to a new scaling law for language models, which indicates that chain of thought reasoning during inference can improve response quality across various tasks. The longer a model can “think,” the better its quality will be. Instead of increasing parameters or training data, this approach taps into additional computational power for better outcomes. DeepSeek distilled models exemplify how even small pretrained models can shine with enhanced reasoning capabilities and when coupled with the NPUs on Copilot+ PCs, they unlock exciting new opportunities for innovation. Reasoning emerges in models of a certain minimum scale, and models at that scale must think using a large number of tokens to excel at complex multi-step reasoning. Although the NPU hardware aids in reducing inference costs, it is equally important to maintain a manageable memory footprint for these models on consumer PCs, say with 16GB RAM. Pushing the boundaries of what’s possible on Windows Our research investments have enabled us to push the boundaries of what’s possible on Windows even further at the system level and at a model level leading to innovations like Phi Silica. With our work on Phi Silica we were able to create a scalable platform for low-bit inference on NPUs, enabling powerful performance with minimal memory and bandwidth tax. Combined with the data privacy offered by local compute, this puts advanced scenarios like Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) and model fine-tuning at the fingertips of application developers. We reused techniques such as QuaRot, sliding window for fast first token responses and many other optimizations to enable the DeepSeek 1.5B release. We used Aqua, an internal automatic quantization tool, to quantize all the DeepSeek model variants to int4 weights with QuaRot, while retaining most of the accuracy. Using the same toolchain we used to optimize Phi Silica we quickly integrated all the optimizations into an efficient ONNX QdQ model with low precision weights. Like the 1.5B model, the 7B and 14B variants use 4-bit block wise quantization for the embeddings and language model head and run these memory-access heavy operations on the CPU. The compute-heavy transformer block containing the context processing and token iteration uses int4 per-channel quantization for the weights alongside int16 activations. We already see about 8 tok/sec on the 14B model (the 1.5B model, being very small, demonstrated close to 40 tok/sec) — and further optimizations are coming in as we leverage more advanced techniques. With all this in place, these nimble language models think longer and harder. This durable path to innovation has made it possible for us to more quickly optimize larger variants of DeepSeek models (7B and 14B) and will continue to enable us to bring more new models to run on Windows efficiently. Get started today Developers can access all distilled variants (1.5B, 7B and 14B) of DeepSeek models and run them on Copilot+ PCs by simply downloading the AI Toolkit VS Code extension. The DeepSeek model optimized in the ONNX QDQ format is available in AI Toolkit’s model catalog, pulled directly from Azure AI Foundry. You can download it locally by clicking the “Download” button. Once downloaded, experimenting with the model is as simple as opening the Playground, loading the “deepseek_r1_1_5” model and sending it prompts. Run models across Copilot+ PCs and Azure Copilot+ PCs offer local compute capabilities that are an extension of capabilities enabled by Azure, giving developers even more flexibility to train, fine-tune small language models on-device and leverage the cloud for larger intensive workloads. In addition to the ONNX model optimized for Copilot+ PC, you can also try the cloud-hosted source model in Azure Foundry by clicking on the “Try in Playground” button under “DeepSeek R1.” AI Toolkit is part of your developer workflow as you experiment with models and get them ready for deployment. With this playground, you can effortlessly test the DeepSeek models available in Azure AI Foundry for local deployment too. Through this, developers now have access to the most complete set of DeepSeek models available through the Azure AI Foundry from cloud to client. Copilot+ PCs pair efficient compute with the near infinite compute Microsoft has to offer via its Azure services. With reasoning able to span the cloud and the edge, running in sustained loops on the PC and invoking the much larger brains in the cloud as needed — we are on to a new paradigm of continuous compute creating value for our customers. The future of AI compute just got brighter! We can’t wait to see the new innovations from our developer community taking advantage of these rich capabilities. Please keep the feedback coming!View the full article

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.5015 (KB5052089) to the Beta Channel. Please note this build will only be provided to Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel who did not upgrade to receiving updates based on Windows 11, version 24H2. Changes in Beta Channel builds and updates are documented in two buckets: new features, improvements, and fixes that are being gradually rolled out for Insiders who have turned on the toggle to get the latest updates as they are available (via Settings > Windows Update*) and then new features, improvements, and fixes rolling out to everyone in the Beta Channel. For more information, see the Reminders section at the bottom of this blog post. Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out to the Beta Channel with toggle on* [Input] We are trying out a new experience to improve the discoverability of the emoji and more panel in Windows 11 with the introduction of a new system tray icon on the taskbar. With this new system tray icon, you can easily express yourself by using emojis, GIFs, Kaomoji etc. across all apps and surfaces in Windows in addition to using the WIN + . keyboard shortcut which is also now shown on the emoji and more panel. This new system tray icon for the emoji and more panel shows can be changed by right-clicking on the icon to go to taskbar settings page. [caption id="attachment_177656" align="alignnone" width="442"] The new system tray icon for the emoji and more panel highlighted with a red box.[/caption] Fixes gradually being rolled out to the Beta Channel with toggle on* [File Explorer] Building on our commitment to improve File Explorer accessibility, this release adds more text scaling support in various warning and error message dialogs for text scaling (via Settings > Accessibility > Text size). Fixed an issue which was causing File Explorer Home to crash for some Insiders in the previous flight. [Windowing] Fixed an issue where the Snap Bar at the top of the screen was unexpectedly showing corners on the side closest to the screen. [Settings] Fixed an issue where the storage count in Settings > System > About wasn’t correct in some cases. [Other] Fixed an issue for Insiders using the ability to resume OneDrive files, which could result in your mouse frequently showing a spinning icon. Known issues [Start menu] The following are known issues for Windows Insiders with the new grid and category views on the All” page in the Start menu: There's sometimes a delay in app icons showing in grid and category views after installing an app. When right-clicking on an app, the "Start settings" context menu flashes before the app's context menu appears. Windows Tools related apps are broken out into folders instead of being in one single app. [File Explorer] We’re working on the fix for an issue causing File Explorer to be very slow to close for some Insiders when closing using the X button. This may also impact the other title bar buttons. Snipping Tool Update (version 11.2501.7.0) We are rolling out an update for Snipping Tool to Windows Insiders in the Beta and Release Preview Channels (in addition to the Canary and Dev Channels already) that introduces trim! With trim, you can adjust the start and end times of your screen recordings to cut out any unnecessary video snippets from your video. [caption id="attachment_177646" align="alignnone" width="675"] New trim capability for screen recordings in Snipping Tool.[/caption] To get started, record a new screen recording with Snipping Tool. Open the recording in the app and select the new Trim button at the top of the window to enter the trim feature. Use the grabbers to move and select new timepoints for the start and end times of your screen recording. Press the Apply or Cancel button to save or discard your changes. You can also re-enter trim to undo or adjust any trimmed portions. FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Apps > Snipping Tool. Reminders for Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel on Windows 11, version 23H2 will receive updates based on Windows 11, version 23H2 via an enablement package (Build 22635.xxxx). Many features in the Beta Channel are rolled out using Control Feature Rollout technology, starting with a subset of Insiders and ramping up over time as we monitor feedback to see how they land before pushing them out to everyone in this channel. For Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel who want to be the first to get features gradually rolled out to you, you can turn ON the toggle to get the latest updates as they are available via Settings > Windows Update*. Over time, we will increase the rollouts of features to everyone with the toggle turned on. Should you keep this toggle off, new features will gradually be rolled out to your PC over time once they are ready. Features and experiences included in these builds may never get released as we try out different concepts and get feedback. Features may change over time, be removed, or replaced and never get released beyond Windows Insiders. Some of these features and experiences could show up in future Windows releases when they’re ready. Some features in active development we preview with Windows Insiders may not be fully localized and localization will happen over time as features are finalized. As you see issues with localization in your language, please report those issues to us via Feedback Hub. Because the Dev and Beta Channels represent parallel development paths from our engineers, there may be cases where features and experiences show up in the Beta Channel first. Check out Flight Hub for a complete look at what build is in which Insider channel. Thanks, Amanda & BrandonView the full article

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3360 (KB5052090) to the Dev and Beta Channels. As a reminder – we’re also offering the same Dev Channel updates based on Windows 11, version 24H2 to Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel. These updates will be optional at first, so if you are in the Beta Channel today, you can upgrade when you are ready to do so. We plan to make these updates recommended later this year, which means you will eventually get upgraded to 24H2-based updates automatically in the Beta Channel. If you are an Insider in the Dev Channel, the window is open to switch from the Dev Channel to the Beta Channel if you would like. This window will only be open for as long as we’re releasing the same 24H2-based updates (same build numbers) across both the Dev and Beta Channels. When the Dev Channel jumps ahead (higher build numbers), the window to switch will close. Please note that switching from the Dev Channel to the Beta Channel may result in the loss of some features temporarily. IMPORTANT: This window is closing soon, so we highly encourage you to evaluate which channel you would like to be in during this time in which the window to switch is still open. New features gradually being rolled out to the Dev Channel with toggle on* Choose what Lock screen widgets appear We’re beginning to roll out support for lock screen widgets (previously referred to as “Weather and more”) to Windows Insiders in the European Economic Area (EEA). You can add, remove, and rearrange lock screen widgets such as Weather, Watchlist, Sports, Traffic, and more. Any widget that supports the small sizing option can be added here. To customize your lock screen widgets, navigate to Settings > Personalization > Lock screen. We are starting this rollout first with Insiders in the EEA and plan to expand to Insiders in other regions in the future. Insiders outside the EEA will continue to see the “Weather and more” experience. [caption id="attachment_177608" align="alignnone" width="625"] Customization settings for lock screen widgets shown in Settings.[/caption] As part of this, we’re also adding support for a new group policy called “Disable Widgets On Lock Screen” that will allow IT administrators to disable lock screen widgets without disabling widgets elsewhere on PCs they manage. To edit this policy, please launch the Local Group Policy Editor app and navigate to Computer Configurations > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Widgets. This policy is only supported in EEA regions at this time but will expand to include other regions in the future as well. FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Desktop Environment > Lock screen. Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out to the Dev Channel with toggle on* We are beginning to roll out a change to the way Task Manager calculates CPU utilization for the Processes, Performance, and Users pages. Task Manager will now use the standard metrics to display CPU workload consistently across all pages and aligning with industry standards and third-party tools. For backward compatibility, a new optional column called CPU Utility is available (hidden by default) on the Details tab showing the previous CPU value used on the Processes page. [caption id="attachment_177652" align="alignnone" width="357"] New CPU utility column option for Details page in Task Manager.[/caption] [Windows Share] We are adding the ability to share directly to apps that support sharing in Windows when right-clicking on local files in File Explorer or the desktop. [caption id="attachment_177359" align="alignnone" width="468"] Share with apps directly through the context menu in File Explorer or on the desktop.[/caption] Fixes gradually being rolled out to the Dev Channel with toggle on* [File Explorer] Fixed an issue where File Explorer Home might not load correctly and just show random floating text saying “Name”. [Taskbar] Fixed an issue where the underlines under app icons in the taskbar may get stuck showing even if the app had been closed. [Remote Desktop] Fixed an issue which was leading to some people experiencing Remote Desktop freezes on login, or frequent disconnects. [Settings] Fixed an issue where an underlying crash was causing Settings to show an error message on launch ("The instruction at 0x00007FFEDEBDC003 referenced memory at 0x0000000000000010. The memory could not be read,"). If impacted, you might also have seen a similar error message with RuntimeBroker.exe. [Other] Fixed an issue where if you were upgrading to a higher build number and it failed and rolled back, it could potentially result in a duplicate Windows entry in the boot menu. Fixed an issue for Insiders using the ability to resume OneDrive files, which could result in your mouse frequently showing a spinning icon. Known issues [General] After you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not prevent you from getting future Dev Channel updates which will resolve this issue. [Recall] [REMINDER] Make sure you update Microsoft 365 apps to the latest version so you can jump back into specific documents. The following known issues will be fixed in future updates to Windows Insiders: Some Insiders may experience an issue where Recall is unable to automatically save snapshots, and the setting can’t be turned on in Settings. We’re working on a fix for this issue. Recall can be enabled or disabled from “Turn Windows features on or off”. We are caching the Recall binaries on disk while we test add/remove. In a future update we will completely remove the binaries. [Click to Do] [REMINDER] If any of your actions on image entities are no longer appearing, please ensure you have the latest updates for the Photos and Paint app from the Microsoft Store. [REMINDER] The intelligent text actions leverage the power of Microsoft’s secure cloud to improve your text results by ensuring prompts and responses are safe and appropriate. This data is automatically deleted. Local moderation to ensure the safety of prompts and responses will be added in the future, replacing this cloud endpoint. The following known issues will be fixed in future updates to Windows Insiders: Sometimes additional context is given when using more intelligent text actions powered by Phi Silica. [Improved Windows Search] [REMINDER] For improved Windows Search on Copilot+ PCs, it is recommended that you plug in your Copilot+ PC for the initial search indexing to get completed. You can check your search indexing status under Settings > Privacy & security > Searching Windows. [File Explorer] We’re working on the fix for an issue causing File Explorer to be very slow to close for some Insiders when closing using the X button. This may also have an impact on the other title bar buttons. [Task Manager] [NEW] After adding the new CPU Utility column, you may notice that System Idle Process always shows as 0. [NEW] The CPU graphs in the Performance page are still using the old CPU utility calculations. Snipping Tool Update (version 11.2501.7.0) We are rolling out an update for Snipping Tool to Windows Insiders in the Beta and Release Preview Channels (in addition to the Canary and Dev Channels already) that introduces trim! With trim, you can adjust the start and end times of your screen recordings to cut out any unnecessary video snippets from your video. [caption id="attachment_177646" align="alignnone" width="675"] New trim capability for screen recordings in Snipping Tool.[/caption] To get started, record a new screen recording with Snipping Tool. Open the recording in the app and select the new Trim button at the top of the window to enter the trim feature. Use the grabbers to move and select new timepoints for the start and end times of your screen recording. Press the Apply or Cancel button to save or discard your changes. You can also re-enter trim to undo or adjust any trimmed portions. FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Apps > Snipping Tool. Reminders for Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel Windows Insiders in the Dev and Beta Channels on Windows 11, version 24H2 will receive updates based on Windows 11, version 24H2 via an enablement package (Build 26120.xxxx). Updates delivered to the Dev Channel are in a format that offers a preview of enhancements to servicing technology on Windows 11, version 24H2. To learn more, see https://aka.ms/CheckpointCumulativeUpdates. Many features in the Dev Channel are rolled out using Control Feature Rollout technology, starting with a subset of Insiders and ramping up over time as we monitor feedback to see how they land before pushing them out to everyone in this channel. For Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel who want to be the first to get features gradually rolled out to you, you can turn ON the toggle to get the latest updates as they are available via Settings > Windows Update*. Over time, we will increase the rollouts of features to everyone with the toggle turned on. Should you keep this toggle off, new features will gradually be rolled out to your PC over time once they are ready. Features and experiences included in these builds may never get released as we try out different concepts and get feedback. Features may change over time, be removed, or replaced and never get released beyond Windows Insiders. Some of these features and experiences could show up in future Windows releases when they’re ready. Some features in active development we preview with Windows Insiders may not be fully localized and localization will happen over time as features are finalized. As you see issues with localization in your language, please report those issues to us via Feedback Hub. Please note that some accessibility features may not work with features like Recall and Click to Do while in preview with Windows Insiders. Because the Dev and Beta Channels represent parallel development paths from our engineers, there may be cases where features and experiences show up in the Beta Channel first. Check out Flight Hub for a complete look at what build is in which Insider channel. Thanks, Amanda & BrandonView the full article

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27802 to the Canary Channel. We are also not planning to release SDKs for 27xxx series builds for the time being. What’s new with Build 27802 Improving the battery iconography in Windows 11 Introducing new and improved battery icons in Windows 11! These icons have been designed to communicate the battery status of your PC with just a quick glance. Key changes include colored icons to indicate charging states, simplified overlays that don’t block the progress bar, and an option to turn on battery percentage. [caption id="attachment_177547" align="alignnone" width="338"] Battery shown in black, yellow, and green to indicate different charging states.[/caption] When your battery icon is green, this shows that your PC is charging and in a good state. A yellow battery icon will let you know that your PC using battery in energy saving mode – this automatically happens when your battery is less than or equal to 20% to preserve power. When the battery icon is red, you have a critically low battery and should plug in your PC as soon as possible. You will see these new battery icons on the taskbar in the system tray, in the quick settings flyout, and in Settings. The new battery icons will begin showing on the Lock screen in a future flight. As always, your PC’s battery status and more will also be available to you when you hover over the battery icon in the system tray and under Settings > System > Power & battery where you can also adjust the battery level percentage in which energy saver mode kicks on for your PC. [caption id="attachment_177548" align="alignnone" width="633"] The toggle to turn on showing battery percentage in Settings highlighted in a red box.[/caption] Along with the updates to the battery icon, we are also introducing the ability to show your battery percentage next to the battery icon in the system tray – a highly requested feature by Insiders and customers. To enable this, go to Settings > Power & battery and toggle on the “Battery Percentage” setting. FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Desktop Environment > System Tray. Changes and Improvements [Taskbar & System Tray] We are rolling out the ability to share files directly from the jump lists on the taskbar, which appears when you right-click on an app with a jump list like Notepad the taskbar. [caption id="attachment_177429" align="alignnone" width="265"] Share icon appearing on a txt file on the jump list for Notepad.[/caption] [Spotlight on the desktop] We’re beginning to roll out some changes to the Desktop Spotlight icon interaction model for Windows Insiders. You can now quickly and easily discover more information about your background image by simply hovering over or clicking on the “Learn about this picture” icon on your desktop. Fixes [General] We fixed the issue causing Insiders to see an error trying to install Build 27788 (0x8007000d) along with a failed .NET update (0x80073712). This issue should not occur with Build 27802. [File Explorer] Fixed an issue where if you opened a File Explorer window and minimized it, it might not be rendered correctly when you restore it. [Taskbar & System Tray] Fixed an issue when using multiple monitors, where the distance between the date and time and edge of the screen wasn’t consistent. [Input] Fixed an issue where if you were using a non-default mouse color (enabled in Settings > Accessibility > Mouse pointer and touch), it may unexpectedly revert back to white when you encountered a UAC dialog. [Lock Screen] Fixed an issue which was causing the login screen to crash when clicking the “sign-in options” link for some Insiders. [Administrator Protection] Fixed a rare issue when Administrator Protection was enabled, which could cause you to see a resource loader cache error loading the MUI file on sign in. Removed extraneous space between Dynamic Lock and Administrator Protection under Account Protection in Windows Security. Fixed an issue where Administrator Protection wasn’t showing in the results if you searched from the taskbar. [Audio] Fixed an issue causing a small percentage of Insiders to not be able to hear audio in the last couple builds due to a background audio crash. [Remote Desktop] Fixed an issue in the last two Canary Channel builds where if you used remote desktop to connect to your PC and then tried to sign into the computer locally, it would sit at a black screen. [Other] Fixed an underlying issue causing some Insiders to see a bugcheck with WIN32K_CRITICAL_FAILURE in recent builds. Fixed an underlying issue causing some Insiders to see a bugcheck with KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE in recent builds. Fixed an issue where SFC /scannow is showing errors every time it was run. Known issues [General] [IMPORTANT NOTE FOR COPILOT+ PCs] If you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel or retail, you will lose Windows Hello pin and biometrics to sign into your PC with error 0xd0000225 and error message “Something went wrong, and your PIN isn’t available”. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking “Set up my PIN”. [Gaming] [NEW] Some popular games like Roblox may cause a bugcheck (green screen) on this build. We're working on a fix for the next Canary Channel flight. You can pause updates and skip taking this build until we release a new build with the fix. [Printing] [NEW] Printing from some apps may cause a bugcheck (green screen). [Power and Battery] [NEW] The colors in the new battery icon aren’t displayed correctly when you have your mode in Personalization > Colors set to certain options with Custom. [Search] [NEW] We’re working on the fix for an issue causing the search window to be blank for some Insiders recently when searching from the taskbar, due to a background crash. [Hyper-V] We’re investigating reports where Hyper-V, and other features which rely on Hyper-V (such as WSL) don’t work properly. Reminders for Windows Insiders in the Canary Channel The builds we release to the Canary Channel represent the latest platform changes early in the development cycle and should not be seen as matched to any specific release of Windows and features and experiences included in these builds may never get released as we try out different concepts and get feedback. Features may change over time, be removed, or replaced and never get released beyond Windows Insiders. Some of these features and experiences could show up in future Windows releases when they’re ready. Many features in the Canary Channel are rolled out using Control Feature Rollout technology, starting with a subset of Insiders and ramping up over time as we monitor feedback to see how they land before pushing them out to everyone in this channel. Some features may show up in the Dev and Beta Channels first before showing up in the Canary Channel. Some features in active development we preview with Windows Insiders may not be fully localized and localization will happen over time as features are finalized. As you see issues with localization in your language, please report those issues to us via Feedback Hub. To get off the Canary Channel, a clean install of Windows 11 will be required. As a reminder - Insiders can’t switch to a channel that is receiving builds with lower build numbers without doing a clean installation of Windows 11 due to technical setup requirements. The desktop watermark shown at the lower right corner of the desktop is normal for these pre-release builds. Check out Flight Hub for a complete look at what build is in which Insider channel. Thanks, Amanda & BrandonView the full article

World of Warcraft has long been a favorite amongst PC gamers. Now they can explore a new zone that went live this week: the goblin city of Undermine. Mark Kelada, assistant lead quest designer for Blizzard Entertainment, writes about what to expect in this experience, including the D.R.I.V.E. feature. That stands for Dynamic and Revolutionary Improvement to Vehicular Experiences and with it, players can travel in “a mechanically intriguing G-99 Breakneck – otherwise known as WoW’s take on a hot rod.” This car “has exaggerated features—like massive flames shooting from the scoop—which fit perfectly within the chaotic streets of Undermine.” Find out more over on Xbox Wire.View the full article

One of the key issues we hear from extension developers is the time that Microsoft takes to review their extensions. We're implementing several measures to improve this process. This will allow developers to iterate faster, bringing more innovation to their users, and making the extensions more reliable, robust, and secure. To support this, we have implemented an expedited review process for high-quality and high-value extensions. Select extensions will enjoy a priority queue with faster review times. These extensions are automatically chosen based on a broad set of parameters, including: User value, as indicated by user adoption of the extension, user feedback, and other metrics. Quality of submissions in Partner Center, high quality submissions over time with zero submission failure by ensuring completeness, accuracy, and adherence to guidelines. Robustness, demonstrated by regular updates of the extension. Security, the extension meets our stringent security standards. Our expedited review process selection is criteria-driven and periodically refreshed. Extensions that meet the criteria are added, while those that no longer meet the criteria are automatically excluded. We recommend that every developer strive to provide extensions that meet the above criteria and be part of the expedited experience. To learn more about developing high-quality and secure extensions, see Developer policies for the Microsoft Edge Add-ons store. By doing so, developers can deliver innovations to their users more quickly. We believe this initiative will not only enhance the overall user experience but also foster a thriving community of developers who are dedicated to excellence. We're eager to hear your feedback and suggestions to help us further improve your experience with Edge Add-ons. Your input is essential to help us make Edge a great browser for users and developers.View the full article

Craig Duncan, head of Xbox Game Studios, is the featured guest on the latest Official Xbox Podcast. Host Tina Amini interviews Duncan, who shares updates on several games, including Avowed, South of Midnight and Doom: The Dark Ages. Head over to Xbox Wire to watch his interview.View the full article

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4950 (KB5052078) to the Beta Channel. Please note this build will only be provided to Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel who did not upgrade to receiving updates based on Windows 11, version 24H2. Changes in Beta Channel builds and updates are documented in two buckets: new features, improvements, and fixes that are being gradually rolled out for Insiders who have turned on the toggle to get the latest updates as they are available (via Settings > Windows Update*) and then new features, improvements, and fixes rolling out to everyone in the Beta Channel. For more information, see the Reminders section at the bottom of this blog post. New features gradually being rolled out to the Beta Channel with toggle on* Making sharing files in Windows easier Sharing files in Windows is getting a lot easier and quicker with our new drag tray feature. When you start dragging a local file with mouse (or touch) from File Explorer or your desktop, a handy tray appears at the very top of your screen allowing you to drop the file into one of the displayed apps or choose “More…” to open the Windows share window. [caption id="attachment_177640" align="alignnone" width="1200"] New drag tray UI that appears at the top of your screen when dragging a local file from File Explorer or your desktop.[/caption] FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Files, Folders, and Online Storage > File sharing. Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out to the Beta Channel with toggle on* [Start menu] We’re introducing two new views to the “All” page in the Start menu: grid and category view. Grid and list view shows your apps in alphabetical order and category view groups all your apps into categories, ordered by usage. This change is gradually rolling out so you may not see it right away. We plan to begin rolling this out to Windows Insiders who are receiving updates based on Windows 11, version 24H2 in the Dev and Beta Channels soon. [caption id="attachment_177642" align="alignnone" width="630"] The All page in the Start menu with the new grid view.[/caption] [caption id="attachment_177643" align="alignnone" width="630"] The All page in the Start menu with the new category view.[/caption] Fixes gradually being rolled out to the Beta Channel with toggle on* [File Explorer] As part of our ongoing commitment to improving File Explorer accessibility, this update includes increased support for the text scaling (via Settings > Accessibility > Text size) across File Open/Save dialogs and Wizard dialogs. Fixed an issue where File Explorer Home might not load correctly and just show random floating text saying “Name”. [Taskbar] Fixed an issue with the taskbar app window previews, where the corners of the flyout weren’t drawn with the correct radius in certain cases. [Settings] Fixed an issue for Japanese users, where the name displayed at the top of Settings > Accounts showed First Name Last Name instead of the expected Last Name First Name format. Known issues [Start menu] The following are known issues for Windows Insiders with the new grid and category views on the All” page in the Start menu: [NEW] There's sometimes a delay in app icons showing in grid and category views after installing an app. [NEW] When right-clicking on an app, the "Start settings" context menu flashes before the app's context menu appears. [NEW] Windows Tools related apps are broken out into folders instead of being in one single app. [File Explorer] We’re working on the fix for an issue causing File Explorer to be very slow to close for some Insiders when closing using the X button. This may also impact the other title bar buttons. [Settings] There is a known issue where the two new enterprise-specific device info and accessibility preferences cards are showing up on non-managed PCs signed in with Microsoft accounts. Reminders for Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel will receive updates based on Windows 11, version 23H2 via an enablement package (Build 22635.xxxx). Many features in the Beta Channel are rolled out using Control Feature Rollout technology, starting with a subset of Insiders and ramping up over time as we monitor feedback to see how they land before pushing them out to everyone in this channel. For Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel who want to be the first to get features gradually rolled out to you, you can turn ON the toggle to get the latest updates as they are available via Settings > Windows Update*. Over time, we will increase the rollouts of features to everyone with the toggle turned on. Should you keep this toggle off, new features will gradually be rolled out to your PC over time once they are ready. Features and experiences included in these builds may never get released as we try out different concepts and get feedback. Features may change over time, be removed, or replaced and never get released beyond Windows Insiders. Some of these features and experiences could show up in future Windows releases when they’re ready. Some features in active development we preview with Windows Insiders may not be fully localized and localization will happen over time as features are finalized. As you see issues with localization in your language, please report those issues to us via Feedback Hub. Because the Dev and Beta Channels represent parallel development paths from our engineers, there may be cases where features and experiences show up in the Beta Channel first. Check out Flight Hub for a complete look at what build is in which Insider channel. Thanks, Amanda & BrandonView the full article