Windows 11 Insider Beta Channel

[Corrine]

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.6982 (Beta Channel)

This Build is for Windows Insiders on Windows 11, version 24H2.

New features gradually being rolled out to the Beta Channel with toggle on

[Windows Search Box]

• In this update, we are introducing Copy & Search, a feature that allows you to search the text in your clipboard with a single click. When you copy text anywhere in Windows, a paste gleam will appear in your search box. Click on this gleam and your copied text will appear in the search field, allowing you to search instantly. To get started:
  
  • Copy text from a document, webpage, or app.
  • After copying text, the paste gleam will appear in the search box on the taskbar.
  • Click the paste gleam to search for the copied text.

[Voice Typing]

• For customers on Copilot+ PCs, we are introducing a new 'Wait time before acting' setting in Voice Typing, allowing users to configure the delay before a voice command is executed. This provides greater flexibility for users with varying speech patterns, enabling more accurate recognition whether speaking slowly or quickly.

[Proactive Memory Diagnostics]

• We're introducing a new feature that helps improve system reliability. If your PC experiences a bugcheck (unexpected restart), you may see a notification when signing in suggesting a quick memory scan. If you choose to run it, the system will schedule a Windows Memory Diagnostic scan to run during your next reboot (taking 5 minutes or less on average) and then continue to Windows. If a memory issue is found and mitigated, you will see a notification post-reboot. Please note:
• This early flight includes all bugcheck codes as triggers while we study the relationship between memory corruption and crashes. Future builds will refine targeting.
• Currently this is experience not supported on Arm64 devices, systems with Administrator Protection, or BitLocker without Secure Boot.

Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out to the Beta Channel with toggle on

[Settings]

• Device Cards in Settings has been updated to provide more clarity on information about your device for better readability and streamlined navigation for improved user experience.
  
• In Settings About, we've enhanced it to deliver a more structured and intuitive experience, empowering users with device insights, and seamless navigation to related device components – including quick access to Storage settings.
  
• Search: You can now scroll through all search results directly in the flyout, without needing to open a separate results page.
  

[Click to Do]

• We're helping users discover more actionsin Click to Do!
  
  • A helpful hint now appears as you launch Click to Do, assisting unfamiliar users in discovering powerful actions that help you work quickly and intuitively.
  • Known issue: When there are multiple monitors, the hint appears on every display, and closing one of them does not dismiss the others.

[Start menu]

• Windows Insiders with the larger Start menu flyout will now notice that the Windows Search flyout now matches in size. This update aims to create a smoother transition when searching. The feature relies on the updated Start menu rolled out to WIP earlier this year.

[File Explorer]

• File Explorer Home on-hover actions for faster file management (previously released to Insiders with MSA) is now available for enterprise customers.
  

[Taskbar]

• We're restarting the rollout of the new animations on taskbar– appreciate your patience.
  

[Windows Studio Effects]

• Windows Studio Effects now offers support on additional, alternative, cameras as a part of a gradual rollout to Windows Insiders on Snapdragon-powered and AMD Copilot+ PCs, previously only available to Intel®-powered Copilot+ PCs.
  

Fixes gradually being rolled out to the Beta Channel with toggle on

[General]

• Fixed an issue causing text actions that use Phi Silica in Click to Do and Recall to not work correctly on the previous build.

[Taskbar]

• Fixed an issue where hovering over the taskbar with a pen was making the taskbar prematurely hide for some Insiders recently.
• Fixed an issue where voice access wasn't working correctly when attempting to interact with the taskbar (calling out a number wasn't invoking that item).

[Input]

• Fixed an issue where if you used the touch keyboard to input your password on the login screen, it might not disappear after logging into your PC.

[File Explorer]

• Fixed an issue where the search icon in File Explorer might infinitely loop in an animation recently.

[Widgets]

• If you've been experiencing an issue recently with widgets not being able to log in, that should be resolved now.

[Administrator Protection]

• Fixed an issue when running an app as administrator where the text in the UAC prompt might be truncated.

[Task Manager]

• Fixed an issue which was causing some apps and their processes to not be grouped correctly.

[Other]

• Updated the buttons to have rounded corners when you're shutting down your PC and are prompted if you want to shut down anyway despite running apps.

[Corrine]

Starting today, the same Dev Channel updates based on Windows 11, version 25H2 are being offered to Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel as a recommended update.

If you are an Insider in the Dev Channel, you now have a window to switch from the Dev Channel to the Beta Channel if you would like. This window will only be open for as long as the same 25H2-based updates are being released across both the Dev and Beta Channels. After the Dev Channel is moved forward to a higher build number, the opportunity to switch between these channels will close. When the Dev Channel jumps ahead, things might not be as stable as the Dev Channel is today, so you are highly encouraged to evaluate which channel you would like to be in during the time in which the window to switch is open.

See Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.7051 (Dev & Beta Channels) for information about the Build.

[Corrine]

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.7051 (Dev & Beta Channels) updated.

Rolling out Quality Update 26220.7052 to Windows Insiders in the to test the servicing pipeline.

[Corrine]

See the Dev Channel post for the latest Beta Channel Build release.

[Corrine]

See the Dev Channel for the latest Beta Channel Build release.
 

[Corrine]

See the Dev Channel post for the latest Beta Channel release.

[Corrine]

See the Dev Channel post for the latest Beta Channel release.

[Corrine]

See the Dev Channel post for the latest Beta Channel release.

[Corrine]

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.7653 (Beta Channel)

Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out with toggle on

[Account Settings]
We're updating the design of dialogs in "Accounts > Other Users" based on modern WinUI framework with support for dark mode.

Please note that the visibility of the dialog option shown in the blog post depends on whether a domain joined work or school account is configured on the device.  Information is also provided on how to change the account time.

Feedback: Please share your feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under "Settings -> User Profile Account Settings.

[Click to Do]
The Copilot prompt suggestions in Click to Do will now load instantly. This change is not yet rolling out to Windows Insiders in the EEA (European Economic Area) or China.

[Desktop Background]

• You can now set .webp images for your desktop background in Settings > Personalization > Desktop Background.

Fixes gradually being rolled out with toggle on

[Taskbar and System Tray]

• Fixed an issue in the latest builds where, when the taskbar was set to autohide, it might invoke before interacting with the bottom of the screen, blocking the use of apps in that area.
• Fixed a recent issue which was causing the Start menu, notification center, and quick settings to not open on click sometimes, although using the keyboard shortcuts for each of these still worked.

[Start menu]

• Fixed a memory leak when opening the Start menu, which could lead to performance issues over time.
• Fixed an issue for Arabic and Hebrew users, where Start menu was opening on the wrong side of the screen when the taskbar icons weren't centered.
• Fixed an issue where if you opened a folder of pinned apps in Start menu and tried to pan it with touch, it would dismiss Start menu.

[Bluetooth]

• Fixed an issue causing Bluetooth device battery level to not show for some Insiders after the latest builds, even though the devices supported it.

[Xbox full screen experience for PC]

• This build fixes some unexpected app and game behavior when using FSE. We're continuing to validate scenarios and as such keeping the known issue active for now. Thank you Insiders that have been sharing feedback!

[Login and Lock Screens]

• Fixed an issue which could cause the password icon to appear blank on the login screen.

[Settings]

• Fixed an issue causing Settings to crash when interacting with audio devices in the last two builds.
• Fixed an issue where the keyboard character repeat delay in Settings > Bluetooth & Devices > Keyboard was backwards from how it was set in the backend.

[Other]

• Fixed a few issues with clipped text in msinfo32 when using a high display scaling.
• Fixed an issue impacting some Insiders where clicking on .appinstaller files to install MSIX packages was unexpectedly failing with an invalid argument error.
• Fixed an underlying issue which was causing Notepad to not display an underscore in text with certain fonts when your display was set to 125%.
• Fixed an underlying issue which could cause explorer.exe to hang when first logging into your PC, if certain apps were configured as startup apps. This could make the taskbar not appear.

[Corrine]

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.7670 (Beta Channel)

Fixes gradually being rolled out with toggle on

[File Explorer]

• Fixed an issue where the "Extract All" option would not appear in the command bar while browsing non-ZIP archive folders.

[Start menu]

• Fixed an issue for some Insiders where clicking the "hide this pane" button in the mobile device side panel might not lead to the setting to hide it.

[Search]

• Fixed an issue where the Search process was showing an icon with an X instead of a magnifying glass.

[Settings]

• We've made some underlying changes to help address cases where the Settings Home page might be very slow to load.

[Display & Graphics]

• Fixed an issue causing secondary monitors to not display correctly and show black screens after the latest updates for a small number of Insiders.

[Other]

• Fixed an underlying issue in the previous flight which could cause unexpected sign-in failures when using Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365.
• Fixed an issue causing some Insiders to see a bug check with error SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION after the last few flights.

[Corrine]

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.7752 (Beta Channel)

Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out with toggle on

[Built-in Sysmon]
Previously announced here, Windows now brings Sysmon functionality natively to Windows. Sysmon functionality allows you to capture system events that can help with threat detection, and you can use custom configuration files to filter the events you want to monitor. The captured events are written on the Windows event log, enabling them to be used with security applications and a wide range of use cases.

Built-in Sysmon is disabled by default and must be explicitly enabled.

• Go to Settings > System > Optional features > More Windows features > checking Sysmon or in PowerShell:
• Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Sysmon
  
• To complete the installation, from PowerShell or command prompt run:
• sysmon -i
  

Note: If you've already installed Sysmon from the website, it must be uninstalled before enabling the built-in Sysmon.

Documentation will be added to Windows soon. The functionality of Sysmon remains unchanged, learn more https://learn.microsoft.com/sysinternals/downloads/sysmon

Share feedback at syssite@microsoft.com.

[Voice Access]

• Support for the Netherlands locale has been added.

Fixes gradually being rolled out with toggle on

[File Explorer]

• We fixed a few issues in File Explorer, including accessibility improvements (keyboard navigation and access keys), folder renaming with custom names, and missing icons/tooltips for "Add to favorites".

[Other]

• We fixed an issue that caused apps to freeze when working with files on OneDrive or Dropbox. Some Outlook setups with PSTs on OneDrive could also hang or reload email data.

[Corrine]

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.7755 (Beta Channel)

New features gradually being rolled out with toggle on

[Emoji 16.0]
We're starting to roll Emoji 16.0 back to Insiders.

The Emoji 16.0 release introduces a small but thoughtfully curated set of new emojis—one from each major category—designed to resonate across cultures and contexts.  With this build, you will see these new emoji available in the emoji panel.

Feedback: Share your thoughts in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Input and Language > Emoji panel.

[Camera Settings]
We are adding the option to directly control pan and tilt for supported cameras in the Settings app. These new controls appear in the camera settings page (Settings > Devices & drivers > Cameras) under the "Basic settings" of your selected camera.

Feedback: Share your thoughts in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Devices and Drivers > Device Camera or Webcams.

Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out with toggle on

[General]

• Improved the visual experience and performance for several scenarios including at the bottom of the screen when the taskbar is set to autohide, desktop icons unexpected flashing (and decreased performance interacting with your PC), and Windows Security pop up for credentials.

[Corrine]

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.7859 (Beta Channel)

New features gradually being rolled out with toggle on

[Account Settings]
Microsoft 365 Family subscribers will find an option to upgrade to a different 365 plan on the Accounts page within the Settings app. Users can also remove the upgrade option by turning off suggested content in settings.

Feedback: Share your thoughts in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Settings > Settings Homepage.

Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out with toggle on

[Taskbar]

• Improved reliability of showing app icons in the system tray when the taskbar was set to autohide.

[File Explorer]

• Addressed an issue where all File Explorer open windows and tabs might unexpectedly jump to Desktop or Home.

[Nearby Sharing]

• Improved the reliability of sending larger files using nearby sharing.
  

[Settings]

• Improved reliability of configuring options in Settings > Bluetooth & Devices > Wheel.