Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25314

As a reminder, Windows Insiders who were previously in the Dev Channel on 25000 series builds are being moved to the new Canary Channel. This migration continues to happen in the background, but if you are on Build 25309 and haven't been moved to the Canary Channel yet, you can either wait to be moved or move yourself to the Canary Channel on your own via Settings > Windows Update > Windows Insider Program to receive Build 25314 today. If you would like to move back to the Dev Channel, you can follow these instructions to do a clean installation of Windows 11 and then re-join the Dev Channel to receive 23000 series builds in this channel going forward.

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.

What's new in Build 25314

Access Keys in File Explorer
We are adding access key shortcuts into the XAML context menu in File Explorer. An access key is a one keystroke shortcut that allows a keyboard user to quickly execute a command in context menu. Each access key will correspond with a letter in the display name. It's part of our effort to make File Explorer more accessible. To try this out, you can click on a file in File Explorer and press the menu key on your keyboard.

NOTE: If you see the "pizza" icon on the command bar in File Explorer that denotes you are previewing the Windows App SDK version of File Explorer, you will not see this feature yet.

[We are beginning to roll this out, so the experience isn't available to all Insiders in the Canary Channel just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.]

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Files, Folders, and Online Storage > File Explorer.

File Recommendations in File Explorer
File Recommendations are coming to File Explorer Home to bring users the most relevant file content right to their fingertips. This feature (as pictured below) will be available to users signed into Windows with an Azure Active Directory (AAD) account. Files that are recommended will be cloud files associated with that account, either owned by the user, or shared with the user.

[We are beginning to roll this out, so the experience isn't available to all Insiders in the Canary Channel just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.]

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Files, Folders, and Online Storage > File Explorer.

]Introducing LSA Protection Enablement on Upgrade
Local Security Authority (LSA) protection helps protect against theft of secrets and credentials used for logon by preventing unauthorized code from running in the LSA process and by preventing dumping of process memory. Starting with on upgrade, we will audit for a period of time to check for incompatibilities with LSA protection. If we do not detect any incompatibilities, we will automatically turn on LSA Protection. You can check and change the enablement state of LSA protection in the Windows Security application under the Device Security > Core Isolation page.

LSA protection records whether programs are blocked from loading into LSA in the event log. If you would like to check if something has been blocked, information on the logs recorded is available here.

Feedback: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN+F) under Security and Privacy > Logging Into Your PC.

Narrator Outlook Support
Narrator will now retrieve updates to its Outlook support when Narrator is started. You can learn more about the work we did for Outlook in Chapter 5 of the Narrator User Guide. We have not added any additional functionality to our Outlook support, but this work will allow updates to the Outlook experience to be made through the Microsoft Store. You will receive a notification after the download is completed to inform you that the update has been retrieved. With this change, Narrator's Outlook support is limited to U.S. English only. Other languages will be supported in a future flight.

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

Changes and Improvements

[General]
To increase security in Windows 11, starting with this build and later we are disabling the Remote Mailslot Protocol by default. The legacy Remote Mailslot Protocol is a simple, unreliable, insecure, and unidirectional inter-process communications protocol between a client and server and was introduced in Windows NT 3.1 and will be deprecated in a future Windows release. If an application attempts to open a Remote Mailslot session over the SMB protocol, you may see one or more of the following errors:

• 3025 ERROR_REMOTE_MAILSLOTS_DEPRECATED
• "The requested operation failed. Remote mailslots have been deprecated."

If your application still uses Remote Mailslot, contact your vendor about updating their software. The legacy Remote Mailslot is not secure and should not be used under any circumstances. If you need to temporarily enable Remote Mailslot, run the following command in an elevated PowerShell console:

PS C:\> Set-SmbClientConfiguration -EnableMailslots $true

About the Canary Channel
The Canary Channel is going to be 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 will be "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.

Via Twitter:

Cumulative Update Build 25314.1010 (KB5025135) is rolling out to #WindowsInsiders in the Canary Channel. This update does not include anything new and is designed to test our servicing pipeline.

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25324

ISOs can be downloaded here.

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.

What's new in Build 25324

Evolved Widgets Board
We are beginning to preview a revamp of the widgets board experience with a larger canvas (3-columns if supported by the device) and dedicated sections for widgets and feed content with a clear separation between them. This will provide users with quick access to glanceable content from their apps and services as well as enable users to take a high-value break with personalized news content.

[We are beginning to roll this out, so the experience isn't available to all Insiders in the Canary Channel just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.]

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Desktop Environment > Widgets.

USB4 Settings Page
We are adding a USB4 hubs and devices Settings page for users under Settings > Bluetooth & devices > USB > USB4 Hubs and Devices. USB4 enables new productivity scenarios for docking, high performance peripherals, displays and charging. The USB4 settings page provides information about the system's USB4 capabilities and attached peripherals on a USB4 capable system. These insights are meant to assist with troubleshooting in case users need support from their device manufacturer (OEM) or system administrator. The features provided by this page are:

• View the tree of connected USB4 hubs and devices.
• View attributes and capabilities associated with the USB4 domain.
• Copy the details into the clipboard so it can be shared with customer support or system administrators for troubleshooting.

To confirm whether your system is USB4 capable or not, check for "USB4 Host Router" populating in the Device Manager.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Devices and Drivers > Buses.

Unsafe password copy and paste warnings
Starting in Windows 11, version 22H2, Enhanced Phishing Protection in Microsoft Defender SmartScreen helps protect Microsoft school or work passwords against phishing and unsafe usage on sites and apps. We are trying out a change starting with this build where users who have enabled warning options for Windows Security under App & browser control > Reputation-based protection > Phishing protection will see a UI warning on unsafe password copy and paste, just as they currently see when they type in their password.

[We are beginning to roll this out, so the experience isn't available to all Insiders in the Canary Channel just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.]

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Security and Privacy > Microsoft Defender SmartScreen.

Introducing SHA-3 Support
Starting with this build, we are adding support for the SHA-3 family of hash functions and SHA-3 derived functions (SHAKE, cSHAKE, KMAC). The SHA-3 family of algorithms are the latest standardized hash functions by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Support for these functions has been enabled through the Windows CNG library.

• Supported SHA-3 hash functions: SHA3-256, SHA3-384, SHA3-512 (SHA3-224 is not supported)
• Supported SHA-3 HMAC algorithms: HMAC-SHA3-256, HMAC-SHA3-384, HMAC-SHA3-512
• Supported SHA-3 derived algorithms: extendable-output functions (XOF) (SHAKE128, SHAKE256), customizable XOFs (cSHAKE128, cSHAKE256), and KMAC (KMAC128, KMAC256, KMACXOF128, KMACXOF256).

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Developer Platform > API Feedback.

Changes and Improvements

[Widgets]

• We are beginning to roll out animated icons for Widgets on the taskbar. The animation triggers when you hover or click on the Widgets taskbar entry-point or when a new widget announcement is displayed on your taskbar. Currently, only a few weather and finance icons are supported.

[Search on the Taskbar]

• Once you have access to the new Bing, the search box on the taskbar will include a button that opens the Bing chat experience in Edge. If you don't have access to the new Bing, the search box on the taskbar will feature a dynamic search highlight button. We're beginning to roll this out to Insiders, not everyone will see it right away.
  

[Input]

• We have updated several simplified Chinese fonts and the Microsoft Pinyin IME to support GB18030-2022.  With this update, you can enter and display characters from conformance level 1 or 2 via the additions to Microsoft Yahei, Simsun and Dengxian. Unicode Extensions E and F are now supported in our Simsun Ext-B font to meet the requirements for level 3.

[Settings]

• As part of the deprecation of Microsoft Support Diagnostic Tool (MSDT) and MSDT Troubleshooters, we have begun redirecting some of the troubleshooters found under Settings > System > Troubleshoot and in other areas of the OS to the new Get Help troubleshooting platform.
  
• If you have multiple cameras that support Windows Hello, you can now select your preferred camera under Settings > Accounts > Sign-in Options.

[File Explorer]

• Made some changes which should noticeably help improve the performance of the "calculating" phase when sending a large number of files at once in File Explorer to the recycle bin.

Via Twitter by the Windows Insider Program:

Cumulative Update Build 25314.1011 (KB5025849) is rolling out to #WindowsInsiders in the Canary Channel. This update does not include any new content and is designed to test our servicing pipeline.

Build number corrected via Twitter.  Correct Build is 25324.1011.

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25330

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.

Changes and Improvements

[Settings]

• Pressing the print screen key will now open Snipping Tool by default. This setting can be turned off via Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard. If you have previously modified this setting yourself, your preference will be preserved.
• The settings page for wheel devices such as the Surface Dial has been updated to better match the Windows 11 design principles.

[Windows Sandbox]

• If you have changed your primary mouse button under Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Mouse, Windows Sandbox will now follow that setting.

[Remote Desktop]

• We updated the Remote Desktop Connection setup window (mstsc.exe) so that it now follows the text scaling settings under Settings > Accessibility > Text Size. In cases where the text scaling is very large, it will show a scrollbar.

[Bitlocker]

• When encrypting a drive using Bitlocker, you can now minimize the encryption progress dialog.

[Inbox apps]

• You can now uninstall the Camera app if you need to.

Microsoft Store Update
Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels running version 22303.1401.x of the Microsoft Store and higher will see the following improvements rolling out:

• Install free apps and games from search results: We've introduced a new way to install free apps and games. Hovering over a free product on the search results page opens a new expanded card experience, where you can find a convenient install button. This will trigger the installation without having to navigate into the product page.
  
• New design when purchasing apps and games in the Store: Discover a new and redesigned experience when purchasing apps and games inside the Microsoft Store! The purchase dialog's styles align better with Windows 11 to bring you a more pleasant checkout experience.
  
• New UX for in-app ratings dialog: Developers of your favorite apps and games often use a Microsoft Store feature that requests ratings from within the app or game. We've updated this in-app ratings experiences to be faster, more reliable, and to better align with Windows 11 styling.
  

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

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25336

Changes and Improvements

[Settings]

• Improved the performance of search within Settings.
• Customers with 2 or more discrete graphics adapters with no integrated graphics can now choose which of the discrete graphics adapters is considered high-performance. Navigate to Settings > System > Display > Graphics > Default graphics settings and select which of the discrete graphics adapters you would like to be designated as the Default high performance GPU.
• A limit of 20 most recent tabs has been introduced under Settings > Multitasking to show tabs in ALT + TAB and Snap Assist. This change rolled out with Build 25330 last week.
  

For developers

You can download the latest Windows Insider SDK at aka.ms/windowsinsidersdk.  See the blog post for additional information.

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25346

ISOs for this build – they can be downloaded here.

What's new in Build 25346

Content Adaptive Brightness Control (CABC) on plugged in devices including desktop PCs
Content Adaptive Brightness Control (CABC) is already a feature that users are familiar with. This feature in Windows 11 will dim or brighten areas of a display or monitor based on the content being displayed with the goal of striking a balance between reduced power consumption with visual experience to save battery life. Starting with this build, we are allowing this feature to run on devices such as laptops and 2-in-1's that are plugged into a charger. For most users, this change won't be noticeable and should reduce energy consumption.

This feature can be adjusted via Settings > System > Display under "Brightness & color" and through a drop-down menu with 3 options: Off, Always, and "On Battery Only". For battery powered devices such as laptops and 2-in-1's, the default is "On Battery Only".  We encourage Insiders across laptops, 2-in1's, to try the  "Always" option and give us feedback on the visual quality of CABC so we can ensure it is properly tuned.

Please note: Content Adaptive Brightness Control (CABC) needs to be enabled by the OEM (the manufacturer of the device). As a result, this feature is not available on all laptop or 2-in-1 devices.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Display and Graphics > Adaptive Brightness.

Changes and Improvements

[Remote Desktop]

• Redesigned the connection bar for remote desktop sessions to a new refreshed light / dark mode design that aligns with our Windows 11 design principles.
• When sharing a local file in File Explorer to Outlook contacts – you will now see the option to quickly email the file to yourself. In addition, we've made improvements in loading your contacts from Outlook. This capability is not available for files stored in OneDrive folders as OneDrive has its own share experience.

[Settings]

• We are introducing new presence sensor privacy settings and APIs. If you have a device with compatible presence sensors, you can now manage your privacy and block/allow certain apps from accessing these sensors. No images or metadata is collected by Microsoft and all processing is done locally on the device hardware to maximize privacy. You will find these settings under Settings > Privacy & security > Presence sensing here if your device supports it. App developers with devices with compatible presence sensors can target apps to request and read user presence information after requesting a human presence capability. Learn more about the API here.
  

[Windows Security]

• After fixing some issues based off Insider feedback, we are re-introducing the updated Windows Security (firewall) notification dialogs that match the Windows 11 visuals.

[Narrator]

• Narrator users who interact with Traditional Chinese characters are now able to do this with confidence while using Narrator and the IME candidate window in Windows. This was accomplished by creating a Traditional Chinese dictionary for detail reading. Narrator now consumes the dictionary to disambiguate each Traditional Chinese word. Users should be aware that Narrator detailed reading is only supported for the Taiwan language pack. The Hong-Kong language pack is not supported with Narrator.

[Graphics]

• It's now easier to configure the state of HDR when running on battery! Simply go to Settings > System > Display > HDR and choose whether you want HDR (or HDR video streaming) to remain turned on when your PC is running on battery.

Developers: Refer to the information at the referenced blog post.

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25352

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.

Changes and Improvements

[Widgets]

• 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.
  

Developers: Refer to the information at the referenced blog post.

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25357

What's new in Build 25357

New Widget: Facebook
Facebook is rolling out a preview version of their widget. To give it a try, download the Facebook app from the Microsoft Store or update to the latest version of the app. Then open the widgets board and navigate to the widgets picker by clicking the "+" button at the top-right of the board to pin your widget.

As you give this and other new widgets a try, please let us know what you think through the Widgets feedback link in the widgets picker. You should expect to see additional new widgets as more developers create and release widgets for their apps.

Changes and Improvements

[General]

• The new volume mixer experience in Quick Settings mentioned here is now available for all Insiders in the Canary Channel.
  

Developers: Refer to the information at the referenced blog post.

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25370

What's new in Build 25370

Support for vTPM in Hyper-V on Windows on Arm (Arm64) builds
After upgrading your host OS to the latest flighted build (Build 25370 and higher), you will now be able to upgrade guest Windows on Arm VM's to Windows 11 Insider Preview builds as it will detect the TPM 2.0 requirement.

Changes and Improvements

[Networking]

• Added support for bridging adapters via command line via netsh.
  
• Passpoint Wi-Fi networks will now support enhanced connection performance and will display a URL in Quick Settings to provide information to users about the venue or event.
• We added WPA3 support to the Phone Link instant hotspot feature for more secure connections to a phone's hotspot. Also made fixes to respect metered connection settings, reduce duplicate profiles, and show the phone's display name in the network list.

[Settings]

• We have added links to advanced properties for network adapters and internet properties under Settings > Network & internet > Advanced network settings.

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25375

What's new in Build 25375

Support for Microsoft Endpoint DLP on Windows on Arm (Arm64) builds
You can now extend Microsoft Endpoint Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies and actions to endpoints running Windows on Arm (Arm64) which allows you to detect and protect sensitive data in files part of your digital ecosystem. This enables you to introduce policy controls for scenarios such as when an information worker using a Windows endpoint powered by Arm chipset from accessing sensitive files and trying an egress action such as copying to a USB, or copy to clipboard, notepad, etc.

As part of your DLP Policy definition, you can leverage the current conditions and actions that are already available for use and there is no additional setting involved.

Ensure your ARM64 endpoints are onboarded to Microsoft Endpoint DLP by using any of our supported onboarding methods.

See the blog post for developer information.

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25381

What's new in Build 25381

SMB signing requirement changes
Beginning with Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25381 Enterprise editions, SMB signing is now required by default for all connections. This changes legacy behavior, where Windows 10 and 11 required SMB signing by default only when connecting to shares named SYSVOL and NETLOGON and where Active Directory domain controllers required SMB signing when any client connected to them. This is part of a campaign to improve the security of Windows and Windows Server for the modern landscape.

All versions of Windows and Windows Server support SMB signing. But a third-party might disable or not support it. If you attempt to connect to a remote share on a third-party SMB server that that does not allow SMB signing, you may receive the one of following error messages:

• 0xc000a000
• -1073700864
• STATUS_INVALID_SIGNATURE
• The cryptographic signature is invalid.

To resolve this issue, configure your third-party SMB server to support SMB signing. This is Microsoft's official recommended guidance. Do not disable SMB signing in Windows or use SMB1 to work around this behavior (SMB1 supports signing but does not enforce it). An SMB device that does not support signing allows interception and relay attacks from malicious parties.

SMB signing can reduce the performance of SMB copy operations. You can mitigate this with more physical CPU cores or virtual CPUs as well as newer, faster CPUs.

To see the current SMB signing settings, run the following PowerShell commands:
Get-SmbServerConfiguration | fl requiresecuritysignature
Get-SmbClientConfiguration | fl requiresecuritysignature

To disable the requirement for SMB signing in client (outbound to other device) connections, run the following PowerShell command as an elevated administrator: Set-SmbClientConfiguration -RequireSecuritySignature $false

To disable the requirement for SMB signing in server (on Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25381 and higher with Enterprise edition devices), run the following PowerShell command as an elevated administrator:
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -RequireSecuritySignature $false

See the blog post for developer information.

No reboot is required but existing SMB connections will still use signing until they are closed.

For more information on this change, visit https://aka.ms/SMBSigningOBD.

Changes and Improvements

[General]

• If a camera streaming issue is detected such as a camera failing to start or a closed camera shutter, a pop-up dialog will appear with the recommendation to launch the automated Get Help troubleshooter to resolve the issue.

Update to Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25381:

Cumulative Update Build 25381.1200 (KB5027849) is starting to roll out. This update does not include anything new and is designed to test the servicing pipeline for builds in the Canary Channel.

No blog post but Build Canary Build 25387 has been released to the Canary Channel.