Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25352

[Guest Brandon LeBlanc]

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25352 to the Canary Channel. Starting with today’s build, Windows Insiders in the Canary Channel will notice that the name of the branch shown in the desktop watermark has changed to ZN_RELEASE. Just like we have done in the past, we can change which branch we flight builds from. As our engineers work in development cycles internally, we may prioritize work being done in a specific branch and may need to move Insiders between branches. We are treating these builds the same as we would treat builds from the RS_PRERELEASE branch. As a result of this change, Insiders will notice that some features have been removed temporarily. We look to bring these features back to Insiders in the future. And builds from the ZN_RELEASE branch should not be viewed as being matched to a specific Windows 11 release. REMINDER: As builds released to the Canary Channel are “hot off the presses,” we will offer limited documentation for builds flighted to the Canary Channel (no known issues for example), but we will not publish a blog post for every flight – only when new features are available in a build. And like the previous Canary Channel build, this build has a few new features and changes to document.

[HEADING=1]Changes and Improvements[/HEADING]

[HEADING=2][Widgets][/HEADING]

• We are beginning to roll out a new widget picker experience to Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels with an image that gives a visual preview of the widget before pinning, a deep linking ability that allows users to jump directly to the picker from the provider app/service as well as a link to the widgets Store collection page where users can discover more apps with widgets.
  

[caption id=attachment_176231" align="alignnone" width="497] Updated widgets picker.[/caption]

[HEADING=1]For developers[/HEADING]

You can download the latest Windows Insider SDK at aka.ms/windowsinsidersdk. SDK NuGet packages are now also flighting at NuGet Gallery | WindowsSDK which include:

• .NET TFM packages for use in .NET apps as described at aka.ms/windowsinsidersdk
  
• C++ packages for Win32 headers and libs per architecture
  
• BuildTools package when you just need tools like MakeAppx.exe, MakePri.exe, and SignTool.exe
  

These NuGet packages provide more granular access to the SDK and better integration in CI/CD pipelines. SDK flights are now published for both the Canary and Dev Channels, so be sure to choose the right version for your Insider Channel. Remember to use adaptive code when targeting new APIs to make sure your app runs on all customer machines, particularly when building against the Dev Channel SDK. Feature detection is recommended over OS version checks, as OS version checks are unreliable and will not work as expected in all cases.

[HEADING=1]About the Canary Channel[/HEADING]

The Canary Channel is the place to preview platform changes that require longer-lead time before getting released to customers. Some examples of this include major changes to the Windows kernel, new APIs, etc. Builds that we release to the Canary Channel should not be seen as matched to any specific release of Windows and some of the changes we try out in the Canary Channel will never ship, and others could show up in future Windows releases when they’re ready. The builds that will be flighted to the Canary Channel are “hot off the presses,” flighting very soon after they are built, which means very little validation and documentation will be done before they are offered to Insiders. These builds could include major issues that could result in not being able to use your PC correctly or even in some rare cases require you to reinstall Windows. We will offer limited documentation for the Canary Channel, but we will not publish a blog post for every flight – only when new features are available in a build. Our Canary Channel won’t receive daily builds; however, we may ramp up releasing builds more frequently in the future. The desktop watermark you see at the lower right corner of your desktop is normal for these pre-release builds.

[HEADING=1]Important Insider Links[/HEADING]

• You can check out our Windows Insider Program documentation here.
  
• Check out Flight Hub for a complete look at what build is in which Insider channel.
  

Thanks, Amanda & Brandon

 

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