Windows Insider Canary Channel

[Corrine]

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27858 (Canary Channel)

Changes and Improvements

[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.
  

Fixes

[General]

• Fixed an issue which was causing some Insiders to see a black screen when upgrading to the previous flight.
• Fixed an issue causing text to disappear in places across the system after the previous flight.

[File Explorer]

• As part of our ongoing commitment to improving File Explorer accessibility, this release includes increased support for the text scaling (via Settings > Accessibility > Text size) across File Explorer, File Open/Save dialogs and the copy dialogs.

[Desktop icons]

• Updated the logic for apps pinned to the desktop, so that packaged apps no longer show an accent colored backplate (for example, if you were to drag and drop Snipping Tool from the apps list in Start to the desktop). In doing this, the icons should be bigger and easier to see now. Please note, you may need to create new shortcuts for this to take effect, if you already have something on your desktop.
  

[Input]

• Fixed an issue where voice typing wouldn't start from the touch keyboard when using the Chinese (Simplified) narrow layout.
• Fixed a high hitting ctmon.exe crash, which could impact the ability to type.

[Windowing]

• Fixed an explorer.exe crash related to snap layouts which could happen when dragging a window or hovering over the maximize button in a window.

[Taskbar]

• Fixed an issue where the taskbar icons weren't increasing in size as they should when using your PC in a tablet posture.
• Fixed an issue where when using Hebrew or Arabic as your display language, if you pressed WIN + T then arrow keys, focus through the taskbar icons would move in the opposite direction.

[Graphics]

• Fixed an issue causing night light to not work for some Insiders after the latest flights.
• Fixed an issue which was causing unexpected FPS caps for some Insiders in the previous flight.

[Network]

• Mitigated an issue believed to be the cause of reports that wi-fi stopped working for some Insiders after the previous flight.

[Audio]

• Fixed an underlying issue which could lead to MIDI devices not being recognized in recent Canary flights.

[Other]

• Fixed an issue causing some Insiders to see a bugcheck with KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE after the previous flight.
• Fixed an issue causing some Insiders to see a bugcheck with SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED after the previous flight.
• Fixed an issue where setting your desktop background to a JXR HDR wallpaper wasn't working for extra wide format (21×9).

[Corrine]

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27863 (Canary Channel)

Changes and Improvements

[Post-Quantum Cryptography]

• As announced this week at the Build conference, we are adding support for post-quantum signature algorithm ML-DSA in NCrypt and BCrypt cryptography API surfaces, as well as Crypt32 certificate APIs. Three variants are supported, ML-DSA 44, 65, and 87. In Build 27858 and higher, we encourage you to try out using and validating ML-DSA certificates with these changes.
  

Fixes

[Windows Sandbox]

• Fixed an issue causing Windows Sandbox to not work and show error 0xc0370106 on launch in the previous flight.

[Other][

• Fixed an issue where core Windows surfaces were not able to load in safe mode (File Explorer, Start menu, and others) after the previous flight.
• Fixed an issue with msftedit.dll which was causing apps like Sticky Notes and Dxdiag to crash in certain cases for people using Hebrew or Arabic display languages.

[Corrine]

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27868 (Canary Channel)

Changes and Improvements

[Voice access]

• Voice access will now support an immersive in-product experience to announce new features and improvements. It will help you quickly discover and learn more about new features in voice access to try out. You can launch or dismiss this new experience from the settings menu.

Fixes

[Input]

• Fixed an issue which was causing pen input to be non-responsive on some PCs that support pen for inking. This issue may have also impacted some scenarios interacting with touch.

[Other]

• Mitigated an underlying issue in the previous flight resulting in some apps like Spotify failing to launch and failing to install from the Microsoft Store with an 0x80070032 error.
• Fixed an issue which was causing Group Policy Editor to not render correctly for some display languages like Chinese in recent Canary builds, causing big blank areas.
• Fixed another underlying issue which was causing some Insiders to see a SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED bugcheck in recent Canary builds.

[Corrine]

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27871 (Canary Channel)

What's new with Build 27871

Energy saver now available in Microsoft Intune
We are bringing the ability to manage energy saver in Windows 11 to Microsoft Intune to allow IT administrators to control the energy saver settings on Windows 11 PCs through group policies and Mobile Device Management (MDM) configurations.

This feature, when enabled, intelligently balances your battery use, so it can last longer between charges. It extends battery life by managing power usage efficiently. It limits background activity and reduces screen brightness, ensuring that devices consume less power while maintaining optimal performance. By automatically managing system processes and power usage, the energy saver group policy helps reduce overall energy consumption. This not only saves costs but also contributes to environmental sustainability.

IT administrators can activate the policy by using either method below:

• Local Group Policy Editor in Windows 11
• Microsoft Intune Admin Center

The path for the new policy configuration can be found at in Local Group Policy Editor by navigating to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Power Management > Energy Saver Settings and "Enable Energy Saver to Always Be On".

Changes and Improvements

[Phone Link]
Phone companion for the Start menu is rolling out (again) for Windows Insiders in the Canary Channel along with the following improvements:

• Instantly see notifications from your mobile device apps — grouped by app for easy catch-up, right from your Start menu.
• Mirror your Android device's screen with a single click from your Start menu. Simply click on your device's icon or access the option from the footer menu to quickly launch device screen mirroring.
• Your iPhone© memories are now accessible from the Start menu. Windows iCloud app users can see recently synced photos and quickly access their iCloud photos all within the Start menu.
  

Note: Screen mirroring is only supported on certain Android devices. See Setting up and using phone screen in the Phone Link – Microsoft Support for more details on device support.
[Taskbar & System Tray]

• We have adjusted the needy state pill under apps on the taskbar that need attention to be wider and more visible.

Fixes

[General]

• We have mitigated the issue where if Virtualization Based Security is enabled, applications dependent on virtualization, such as VMware Workstation, would lose the ability to run unless the "Windows Hypervisor Platform" Windows optional component is installed on the system.

[File Explorer]

• Fixed an issue where if you had disconnected network drives when doing a search from Home it might prevent searches from executing and you'd remain on Home.
• Fixed an issue where tapping the View button in File Explorer with touch would crash File Explorer.

[Taskbar]

• Fixed an issue where WIN + CTRL + Number wasn't working anymore for switching windows in the taskbar.
• Fixed an underlying issue which was causing keyboard focus to get set to widgets in the taskbar on login, which could make widgets unexpectedly invoke.
• Fixed an issue when using Tab and Shift + Tab to move keyboard focus around the taskbar, where if keyboard focus went backwards at least once you could get keyboard focus stuck on the taskbar frame, causing some screen readers to just say "pane".

[Settings]

• Fixed an issue where hovering over the cards at the top of Settings > System > About wasn't showing the correct corner radius.
• Fixed an issue where the storage card in Settings > System > About showed a garbage character instead of the proper disk size.

[Administrator Protection]

• Fixed an issue where when using Administrator Protection, some apps might not follow your preference if it was set to dark mode.

[Task Manager]

• Fixed the issue causing search and other options such as filtering in Task Manager to not work.

[Audio]

• Fixed an issue in the last few Canary flights where audio devices with high sampling (like 192Hz) and multiple channels weren't producing sound.
• Fixed an issue which could cause the startup sound not to play, though it was enabled.

[Input]

• Fixed an issue where voice typing wouldn't start from the touch keyboard when using the Chinese (Simplified) narrow layout.
• Fixed an issue where when using the Symbols section of the touch keyboard, pressing the key to change pages might unexpectedly insert a character into password fields.

[Graphics]

• Fixed an issue which could cause unexpected scaling and window position changes after sleep/resume for some devices.

[Voice access]

• Fixed an issue which could voice access to freeze with error "working on it" when dictating.

[Other]

• Fixed an issue causing an Administrative Templates error message when opening Group Policy Editor.
• Fixed an issue where some of the commands when using xml to setup were unexpectedly not being run.
  
• Fixed an issue when installing Windows from installation media, where if you changed your keyboard layout from the default, it may still use the default when entering the product key.
• Fixed an issue when installing Windows from installation media, where certain partitions may show an extremely large erroneous size.

[Corrine]

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27881 (Canary Channel)

What's new with Build 27881

New profanity filter setting for voice typing
We're excited to address the top customer feedback for voice typing by starting to roll out a new setting that lets you control the profanity filter. With this setting on, voice typing will continue to filter out profanity, masking it with asterisks, like it already did. With this setting off, it will type out your profanity like any other words.

To adjust this setting, open voice typing (Win + H), select the settings icon, and use the Filter profanity toggle in the settings menu.
FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Input and Language > Voice Typing (Windows key plus H).

Introducing speech recap in Narrator 
We are always working to make Narrator more intuitive, efficient, and helpful for users who rely on it every day. With that in mind, we are introducing a new feature—speech recap —designed to help you keep track of what Narrator has spoken and access it for quick reference.  With speech recap, you can quickly access spoken content, follow along with live transcription, and copy what Narrator last said—all with simple keyboard shortcuts.

You can open the speech recap window with Narrator key + Alt + X and can find the last 500 strings Narrator had spoken. Note that we refresh the text in this window every time Narrator starts. You can use standard reading commands and arrow keys to read the contents in speech recap window and copy text required for reference.

Need to save or share something Narrator just said last? You can copy it instantly without opening the speech recap window. Use Narrator key + Control + X to copy the last spoken phrase to your clipboard.

Few scenarios where you can use speech recap and related shortcuts include referring to a hint you heard when opening a new window, copying an error code that was spoken or adding Narrator speech to training materials.

Live transcription of Narrator speech is useful for Assistive Technology (AT) trainers, teacher of students with visual impairments (TSVI) who support students in class and for professionals who are hard of hearing and want to use Narrator. To see live transcription of Narrator audio, use the same command Narrator key + Alt + X to open the speech recap window and snap it to the portion of the screen you want to view it. As you do tasks, you can see real-time transcriptions of Narrator speech.

These keyboard shortcuts follow a simple patten making it easy to learn:

• Control + Windows key + Enter = Turn Narrator on/Off
  
• Narrator key + X = Re-hear what Narrator said last
  
• Narrator key + control + X = Copy what Narrator said last
  
• Narrator key + Alt + X = Open Speech recap window for history and live transcriptions
  

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

Changes and Improvements

[General]

• To stay secure and up to date, Insider Preview builds in the Canary Channel are signed with security certificates, which we renew annually. This year, we've made the change early. If you have a PC in the Canary Channel, we encourage you to install the latest build to avoid expiry notifications and to stay secure. Take note the new expiration is now 8/11/2026.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• We have adjusted the needy state pill under apps on the taskbar that need attention to be wider and more visible.

• We are improving Accessibility flyout in quick settings by grouping the assistive technologies by vision, hearing, motor and mobility for easy identification to help you find the right accessibility feature based on your needs. Voice access is now also included in the flyout.
  

[Search on the Taskbar]

• Improved support for web search providers in Windows Search for the EEA, including with increased discoverability.

[Windows Share]

• In the Windows share window, we are adding the ability to quickly edit and enhance images while sharing. This includes in-line image editing capabilities, such as cropping, rotating, and applying filters, as well as the ability to compress images to reduce file size for easier sharing. This ability works only for local images stored on your PC. Supported image formats: .jpg, .jpeg, .dib, .png, .tif, .tiff, and .bmp.

• 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.

[Settings]

• We're making it easy to find answers to common questions about your PC and Windows 11 with a dedicated FAQs section on the Settings > System > About page, providing quick and helpful insights for using your PC all in one place. Whether you're curious about system configuration, performance, or compatibility, this experience ensures you get the information you need for the frequently asked questions for those topics. We hope these FAQs will help you make informed decisions about your PC with ease.
  

• We've updated the dialog when renaming your printer under Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Printers & scanners to match the Windows 11 visuals.
  

[Input]

• We're trying out a small change to the design of the touch visual when dragging your finger on the screen, as part of some underlying work on rendering. The new design looks like animating bubbles. If you have a touch PC, we welcome you to try it out and share feedback under Input and Language > Touch Input and Gestures in the Feedback Hub.

[Other]

• When running the pnputil /enum-drivers command, we're adding a new field that enumerates driver package catalog attributes, indicating the driver type and if the driver is attestation-signed.
  

Fixes

[General]

• Fixed an issue for Insiders on the previous build causing some of the text in Windows to not be using the correct characters, causing nonsense to display in places like Task Manager and more. This impacted characters outside of A-Z – including Chinese and accented characters in German and Polish.
• Fixed an issue where booting into safe mode wasn't working, with a message saying "Something happened and your PIN isn't available" for some people.

[File Explorer]

• Fixed an issue where File Explorer would crash when tapping the View button with touch.

[Start menu]

• Fixed an issue which was causing Start menu to crash on launch for some Insiders in the last few flights.

[Taskbar]

• Fixed an underlying issue which was causing keyboard focus to get set to widgets in the taskbar on login, which could make widgets unexpectedly invoke.
• Fixed an issue which could cause the media controls in the preview windows for apps in the taskbar (that support it) to flicker.
• Fixed an issue where when using Tab and Shift + Tab to move keyboard focus around the taskbar, if you went backwards at least once you could get keyboard focus stuck on the taskbar frame, leading some screen readers to just say "pane".
• Fixed an issue where WIN + CTRL + wasn't working to cycle between windows of open apps for that position on the taskbar.

[Input]

• Fixed an issue where typing Japanese with the touch keyboard might stop working after switching to typing with an English keyboard and back.
• Fixed an issue where voice typing wouldn't start from the touch keyboard when using the Chinese (Simplified) narrow layout.
• Fixed an issue where when using the Symbols section of the touch keyboard, pressing the key to change pages might unexpectedly insert a character into password fields.

[Settings]

• Fixed an issue where you couldn't switch active hours from manually to automatic in Windows Update.
• Adjusted the location of the intensity and color boost sliders under Settings > Accessibility > Color Filters, so the color previews at the top of the page are visible while adjusting the sliders.

[Voice access][/B]

• Fixed an issue which was causing voice access crashes when using Spanish.

[Other]

• Fixed an issue where if you clean installed Windows using the installation media, it would unexpectedly generate an empty Windows.old folder when you were done.
• Made another fix for Insiders unexpectedly seeing an Administrative Templates error message when opening Group Policy Editor.

[Corrine]

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27891 (Canary Channel)

Changes and Improvements

[Other]

• Windows PowerShell 2.0 is deprecated and in the most current Insider Preview builds flighted to the Canary Channel, is removed. More information will be shared in the coming months on the removal of Windows PowerShell 2.0 in an upcoming update for Windows 11.
  

Fixes

[General]

• We fixed the issue causing the "Reset this PC" option under Settings > System > Recovery to not work after upgrading the last few Canary Channel builds.
• Fixed the underlying issue which was causing the taskbar to unexpectedly not showing acrylic material after upgrading to the latest Canary builds. This also impacted a few other scenarios, leading to unexpected black or white in some UI.
• Fixed an underlying issue believed to be the cause of some Insiders seeing Windows update downloads to get stuck at 2% recently.
• Fixed a few more languages including Vietnamese and Arabic that were still having issues with certain characters not rendering correctly for Insiders after the latest builds, causing nonsense to display in places like Task Manager and more. This impacted characters outside of A-Z.

[File Explorer]

• Fixed an issue where if you opened the "..." menu in the File Explorer address bar to show the full list of folders for the current path, the dropdown might be cut off and the bottom of it inaccessible.

[Settings]

• Fixed an issue in the previous build which could cause Settings to crash when opening microphone properties under Settings > System > Sound.
• Fixed an underlying issue related to Bluetooth which could cause Settings or Quick Settings to crash on launch for some people.

[Windowing]

• Fixed an issue which was causing the window minimizing animation to not display correctly in the previous flight.

[Task Manager]

• Fixed an issue where the CPU graphs in the Performance page were still using the old CPU utility calculations.
• Fixed an issue where after adding the new CPU Utility column, you might notice that System Idle Process always showed as 0.

[Audio]

• Fixed an issue which could cause all system sounds to stop working (for example notification alert sound and the sound that plays when clicking the volume slider in quick settings), although audio in general was working on your PC.

[Other]

• Fixed an underlying issue which was causing fonts in certain app menu items to unexpectedly appear corrupted or overlapped for some people. This also impacted typing in Word – where when using Hebrew a period may unexpectedly show as a 3, and in Thai typing space may show a 2.
• Fixed an underlying issue which could cause the playback controls in Media Player to become distorted in the latest Canary flights.
• Fixed an underlying issue believed to be the cause of LDAP queries from apps to take an unexpectedly long time in the previous flight.
• Fixed an issue which could cause print previews to appear slightly blurry in recent Canary flights.

[Corrine]

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27898 (Canary Channel)

What's new in Build 27898

Taskbar icon scaling
We are starting to roll out taskbar icon scaling to Windows Insiders in the Canary Channel – an improvement to the Windows taskbar that ensures that you have quick access to more of your favorite apps, even when your taskbar is full. With taskbar icon scaling, when your taskbar starts to get crowded with pinned or open apps, the icons will automatically scale down to a smaller size. This means you can keep more apps visible and accessible without the need to dive into a secondary menu. It's all about making your workflow smoother and more efficient.

We understand that everyone has their own preferences, so we've included settings to tailor this feature to your liking. You can choose when Windows will show smaller taskbar buttons:

• When taskbar is full: By default, taskbar icons will automatically turn smaller when the taskbar is full. This helps you maintain access to more apps without any extra effort.
  
• Never: For users who prefer their icons to remain the same size as before, regardless of how many apps are open, there's an option to prevent the icons from scaling down.
  
• Always: If you love the look of smaller icons and want them to stay that way all the time, you can set your taskbar icons to always be small.
  

To customize your taskbar icon scaling settings, simply right-click an empty region of your taskbar and select "Taskbar settings", expand "Taskbar behaviors" section, and make your selection for the setting "Show smaller taskbar buttons".

As always, we value your feedback, so let us know what you think!

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

Introducing quick machine recovery
Quick machine recovery, a feature introduced as part of the Windows Resiliency Initiative at Ignite 2024 – is available for Windows Insiders in the Canary Channel. When enabled, it automatically detects and fixes widespread issues on Windows 11 devices using the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). This reduces downtime and avoids the need for manual fixes. If a device experiences a widespread boot issue, it enters WinRE, connects to the internet, and Microsoft can deliver a targeted fix through Windows Update. IT admins can enable or customize this experience for their organization through the Intune Settings Catalog UI using the RemoteRemediationCSP. There is also a dedicated quick machine recovery settings page available under System > Recovery > Quick machine recovery. Today, it's enabled by default for home users.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Recovery and Uninstall > Quick Machine Recovery.

Add custom words to the dictionary in voice access
We are introducing the ability for you to add your own words to the dictionary in voice access. Adding your own words, including difficult to pronounce words, to the dictionary in voice access will help improve dictation accuracy. It increases the probability of recognizing these words more accurately by creating a bias that helps voice access become more context aware and proactively understanding your specific vocabulary. The feature will be available in all the currently supported voice access languages i.e. English, French, German, Spanish and Chinese.

You can add your own words to the dictionary in voice access in a few ways:

• After spelling a word using "Spell that" command or making a correction using "Correct that"
  
• Anywhere when you want to manually add a word by using "Add to Vocabulary"
  
• Directly through the settings menu in voice access.

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

Screen Curtain in Narrator
The Screen Curtain feature in Narrator is designed to enhance privacy and focus for users who rely on screen reading. When activated, Screen Curtain completely blacks out the display, ensuring that only the user hears what's on the screen through Narrator, while the visual content remains hidden from view. This is especially useful in public spaces or shared environments, allowing users to read and work with sensitive information without revealing it to others nearby.

How to enable/disable Screen Curtain:

• Turn On Narrator using Ctrl + Win + Enter.
• Press Caps + Ctrl + C to enable Screen Curtain.
  
• Try using Narrator, while your Screen Curtain is turned on.
• Press Caps + Ctrl + C to disable Screen Curtain.
  

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

Changes and Improvements

[General]

• We're updating the design of the privacy dialogs for app permissions. When an app requests permission to access location, camera, mic, etc., it is now a system modal dialog. When one of these dialogs appears from an app requesting permission, the screen will slightly darken now, and the privacy dialog will take focus in center screen.
  

• We are rolling out a change where Microsoft Entra ID authentication requests will be rendered using WebView2 instead of WebView1.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• In addition to the new grouping of the Accessibility flyout in quick settings, we are adding text descriptions for the assistive technologies like Narrator, Voice access, etc. for easy identification and learning by the users.
  

• Admins can now allow users to unpin specific pinned apps, ensuring they are not pinned again during the next policy refresh cycle. To enable this feature, use the new PinGeneration option. Learn more about configuring pinned apps on the taskbar.
  

[File Explorer]

• We have added dividers to the top-level icons that show at the top (or bottom) of the File Explorer context menu.

[Energy Saver]

• We are beginning to preview adaptive energy saver. Adaptive energy saver is an opt-in feature that automatically enables and disables energy saver, without changing screen brightness, based on the power state of the device and the current system load. This will only be available on devices with a battery. As we try this experience out in the Canary Channel, some Insiders may see this experience get enabled – you can manage your energy saver settings under Settings > System > Power & battery.
  

[Windows Share]

• When you share links or web content using the Windows share window, you will see a visual preview for that content.

• In the Windows share window, as part of the ability to quickly edit and enhance images while sharing, we have adjusted the UI so that now you can now select their compression scale from High, Medium, or Low Quality, instead of choosing from an entire scale ranging from 0-100.
  

[Voice access]

• We are introducing Chinese and Japanese support for voice access. You can now use Voice access to navigate, dictate, and interact with Windows using voice commands in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Japanese. Japanese support is still a work-in-progress and may have some issues.

[Snipping Tool]

• With this build, we're making it easier to jump directly into text extractor in Snipping Tool via Win + Shift + T. You can learn more about using text extractor here.
  

[Settings]

• We have added the country or region selected during device setup under Settings > Time & language > Language & region.
  

We are rolling out some small changes for your setting your browser defaults in Windows 11 via Settings > Apps > Default apps:

• For Add new link/file types of 'Set Default' button, we have added additional types for the "Set Default" button. You can now set more types.
  
• For one-click button of PDF for browser sets, we have added a new button for making your default browser also the default app for PDF files.
  
• The new default browser will be pinned to the Taskbar and Start menu unless you choose not to pin it by clearing the checkboxes.

Fixes

[File Explorer]

• We've done some more work to improve the performance of extracting archive files – this will particularly help in the case of copy pasting large numbers of files out of large 7z or .rar archives.

[Input]

• Fixed an issue where typing Japanese with the touch keyboard might stop working after switching to typing with an English keyboard and back.

[Settings]

• Fixed an issue which could cause Settings to crash when changing mouse cursor.
• Fixed an underlying issue which could lead to the Settings window hanging and no longer responding to input or resizing unless you closed and reopened it.

[Other]

• Fixed an underlying issue in the previous flight which could lead to Math.Pow() not outputting the correct result, which could lead to unexpected behavior in apps and games.
• Adjusted the error text if a Windows Update fails due to the system reserved partition not having enough free space, to make it clearer that that's the issue.

[Corrine]

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27902 (Canary Channel)

Changes and Improvements

[General]

• This update includes a small set of general improvements and fixes that improve the overall experience for Insiders running this build on their PCs.

Fixes

[File Explorer]

• Fixed an issue in the previous build where File Explorer might fail to persist any view changes. This also impacted desktop icons, which could unexpectedly move or change size back to default. Jen is happy this bug is fixed.

[Camera]

• Fixed an issue which could cause the Camera app to get stuck on some PCs in the last couple builds after switching between front and back camera.

[Corrine]

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27909 (Canary Channel)

Changes and Improvements

[General]

• This update includes a small set of general improvements and fixes that improve the overall experience for Insiders running this build on their PCs.

Fixes

[Administrator Protection]

• Fixed an underlying issue where the Xbox app wouldn't launch when administrator protection was enabled. This may have also impacted other apps too, showing error  0xC0000142 or 0xC0000045.

[Settings]

• Fixed an issue where the battery percentage was unexpectedly missing from the top of System > Power & Battery in the last few builds.

[Remote desktop]

• Fixed an issue causing extreme graphical distortion and rendering issues using remote desktop on Arm64 PCs in the last couple builds.

[Other]

• Fixed a high hitting pcasvc.dll crash in the previous build.
• Fixed an underlying issue where if you disconnected the device you were casting to from outside of Media Player, Media Player would still show an option to disconnect from the device.
• Fixed an issue which was causing Remote Credential Guard scenarios between the latest Windows 11 builds and Server 2022 (and below) to fail.

[Corrine]

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27913 (Canary Channel)

Changes and Improvements

[General]

• This update includes a small set of general improvements and fixes that improve the overall experience for Insiders running this build on their PCs.

[Settings]

• The search box in Settings will now be located at the top center to deliver a more consistent and better search experience.

Fixes

[General]

• Fixed an issue where the Windows Vista boot sound was unexpectedly being used instead of the Windows 11 boot sound.

[Desktop background]

• Did some underlying work to help address issues which could result in the desktop background unexpectedly becoming black rather than displaying the expected wallpaper image. If you continue experiencing issues, please don't hesitate to report them in the Feedback Hub under Desktop Environment > Background and Wallpaper.

[Settings]

• Fixed an issue in the latest builds which could cause Settings to crash when interacting with the options under Settings > System > Power & Battery.
• Fixed an underlying issue where some of the apostrophes across text in Settings and settings-related dialogs were not displaying correctly and were showing random characters.

[Audio]

• Fixed an issue which could result in audio not working a few seconds after casting to a TV.

[Other]

• Fixed an issue in the latest builds causing a small number of Insiders to experience repeated bugchecks with KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE after upgrading. This may occur when connecting to VPN.
• Fixed an underlying issue which could result in acrylic in certain apps unexpectedly being transparent.
  
• Made another fix for the issue causing Group Policy Editor to not display correctly in certain languages (like Chinese), showing large blank areas.

[Corrine]

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27919 (Canary Channel)

Changes and Improvements

[Windows Search]

• Today, we rationalize and organize Windows Search settings under Settings > Privacy & security under a "Search permissions" settings page and a "Searching Windows" settings page. We are beginning to roll out a change that brings those two settings pages together so you can easily access to all the Windows Search settings under a single settings page via Settings > Privacy & security > Search. The page is refreshed with a new modern visual for you to clearly browse the settings and control your experiences inside Windows Search, with the items listed in a better order.
  

Fixes

[File Explorer]

• Fixed an issue where File Explorer might crash when trying to view the digital signatures tab in the properties for a file.

[Input]

• Fixed an issue which was causing the Microsoft Changjie Input method to not work properly in the previous build.
• Fixed an issue which was causing phonetic keyboards, such as the Hindi Phonetic Input keyboard and the Marathi Phonetic keyboard, to not work properly in the previous build.

[Corrine]

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27924 (Canary Channel)

What's new in Build 27924

Copilot+ PC experiences
We are beginning to enable many of the Copilot+ PC experiences* for Windows Insiders in the Canary Channel on Copilot+ PCs such as:

• Recall (Preview)
  
• Click to Do (Preview)
  
• Improved Windows Search
  
• Live captions with real-time translation
  
• Agent in Settings

Note that some features are gradually rolling out such as Improved Windows Search and agent in Settings. And we're still working to enable some features like image descriptions in Narrator – so if you don't see something right away on your Copilot+ PC after updating to this build, that's expected. We're working hard to get everything enabled across the board over for the Canary Channel.

As is normal for the Canary Channel, the quality of these features will not match the quality of the same features in the Dev or Beta Channels. Expect some of these features to not work quite right. We will try to document known issues for the most impactful issues for these features and one such issue regarding Click to Do is documented in the known issues below. As always, please file feedback on any issues you see when using these Copilot+ experiences via Feedback Hub.

Advanced Settings
Advanced settings are now available via Settings > System > Advanced with some new features. The Advanced page is a redesign of the For Developers page, intending to make its settings easier to find for a broader audience. With the redesign of this page, we've added additional settings: Enable long paths, Virtual workspaces, and File Explorer + version control.

Enable long paths allows you to remove MAX_PATH limitations from common Win32 file and directory functions. Virtual workspaces allow you to enable/disable virtual environments such as Hyper-V, Windows Sandbox, and more. File Explorer + version control provides the ability to display Git information directly inside File Explorer. Simply select your repository folder and File Explorer will display information such as your branch, diff count, last commit message, and more.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback on GitHub at microsoft/WindowsAdvancedSettings.

Changes and Improvements

[Input]

• Adjusted the pointer indicator to be a little more transparent, so it's easier to see what's under the crosshairs when it's enabled.
  
• For the time being we have changed the keyboard shortcut for the new pointer indicator from CTRL + WIN + X to CTRL + WIN + ALT + X, to help reduce accidental invocations.

[Windows MIDI Services]

• The inbox preview MIDI Service and API has a feedback-driven breaking change to optionally allow for waiting for messages to be completely sent before returning from function calls. Any apps written against previous versions of the Windows MIDI Services MIDI 2.0 SDK will need to update to the latest preview available at https://aka.ms/midireleases and be recompiled to continue working properly. For more discussion and feedback, please join our discord server at https://aka.ms/mididiscord.
  

Fixes

[General]

• Fixed an issue where the progress wheel might show as a rectangle glyph instead of rendering correctly when upgrading to the latest builds.

[Widgets]

• Fixed an issue causing widgets to disappear or not work for some Insiders after the previous flight.

[Remote desktop]

• Fixed an issue in the latest flights where remote desktop only used your primary monitor even if it was configured to use multiple monitors.

[Other]

• Fixed an underlying webauth.dll crash in the previous flight which may have impacted the ability to use passkeys.

[Corrine]

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27928 (Canary Channel)

Changes and Improvements

[Genera]

• The updated battery iconography we began rolling out in the Canary Channel with Build 27802 is disabled in this build. This is only temporary, and we will re-enable this in a future Canary Channel flight.
  

[Settings]

We're moving more time and language settings from Control Panel to Settings:

• You can now add additional clocks from Settings > Time & language > Date & time under the collapsed section which can be expanded for "Show time and date in the system tray". For those unfamiliar with the feature, these additional clocks display in Notification Center, as well as the tooltip when hovering over the clock in the taskbar.
• You can now change your time server from Settings > Time & language > Date & time, under "Additional settings".
• The formatting settings for date and time have moved from Settings > Time & language > Language & region to Settings > Time & language > Date & time, and you can now change your AM/PM symbol from here as well (along with other existing formatting settings).
• You can now change number and currency format from Settings > Time & language > Language & region, under the "Region" section.
• If you'd like to enable Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support, there is now a toggle for this under Settings > Time & language > Language & region, under the "Language" section.
• If needed, you can now copy current user language and region settings to welcome screen and system account, as well as new user accounts, from Settings > Time & language > Language & region, under "Additional settings".

Fixes

[General]

• Fixed an underlying issue with dao360.dll in the latest builds which could result in some apps crashing.

[Click to Do (Preview)]

• Fixed the issue causing text and image actions in Click to Do to not work correctly and Click to Do to crash.

[File Explorer]

• Fixed an issue where File Explorer preview windows might appear when hovering over unrelated app icons in the taskbar.
• Fixed an issue where if you tried to use the unblock open in Properties for a file, it still shows as blocked when you open Properties the next time.

[Taskbar]

• Fixed an issue where If you accidentally clicked down and slid your mouse on the taskbar preview thumbnail, clicking it would stop working.

[Input]

• Fixed an underlying issue related to textinputframework.dll could result in certain apps like Sticky Notes and Notepad crashing.
• Fixed an issue where if you attempted to type Chinese with an IME after copying something with CTRL + C, it could result in the first character getting dropped.

[Login and Lock screen]

• Did some work to address underlying cases which could lead to you seeing a blank white screen, or a screen saying, "just a moment", for a few minutes when logging in to your PC.
• Did some work to address an underlying issue which could lead to the taskbar being slow to load when unlocking your PC after coming out of sleep. This issue could also have led to the password field and other login screen contents not rendering when transitioning from lock screen to login screen after sleep. If you continue experiencing issues, please report them in the Feedback Hub under Install and Update > Logon hangs.

[Live captions]

• Fixed an issue where if you changed the opacity of live captions in Settings > Accessibility > Captions > Caption Style, it had no effect.

[Settings]

• Fixed an issue where Settings might crash if you attempt to add a security key under Settings > Account > Sign-in options.

[Other]

• Fixed an issue in the previous build where you might see multiple error pop ups about unexpected elements when opening Group Policy Editor.

[Corrine]

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27934 (Canary Channel)

Changes and Improvements

[General]

• This update includes a small set of general improvements and fixes that improve the overall experience for Insiders running this build on their PCs.

Fixes

[Windowing]

• Fixed an issue causing an increase in DWM crashes in the previous build (which could lead to you seeing a black flash).

[Other]

• Fixed an issue in the last few builds where if you launched cmd non-elevated from the Run dialog, it might open in Windows Console Host rather than Windows Terminal even if Windows Terminal was your default terminal app.
• Fixed an underlying issue which could lead to certain UWP apps crashing when scrolling in the previous build.

[Corrine]

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27938 (Canary Channel)

What's new in Build 27938

Introducing AI actions in File Explorer
With AI actions in File Explorer, you can interact more deeply with your files by right-clicking to quickly take actions like editing images or summarizing documents. Like with Click to Do, AI actions in File Explorer allow you to stay in your flow while leveraging the power of AI to take advantage of editing tools in apps or Copilot functionality without having to open your file. AI actions in File Explorer are easily accessible – to try out AI actions in File Explorer, just right-click on a file and you will see a new AI actions entry on the content menu that allows you to choose from available options for your file.

Today, you can try one of four image actions for seamless editing or web searches with images:

• Bing Visual Search: Allows you to search the web using an image instead of text. Find similar images and products, get details about sites using the image, and identify landmarks, plants, and famous faces. From searching what you see on your screen, to shopping your preferred style, getting help with that homework problem, or translating text, getting answers is more intuitive than ever.
  
• Blur Background: Opens the Photos app which automatically finds the background in the photo, and with a single click, instantly highlights your subject and blurs out the background. You can also customize the effect by adjusting the Blur Intensity or use the Brush Tool to modify the areas being blurred.
  
• Erase Objects: With Photos by selecting or highlighting an unwanted element in your photo and Generative Erase makes it disappear.  It allows you to fix and remove distractions from your photos.
  
• Remove Background: With Paint allows you to alter any image automatically in just one click leaving a smooth cutout of the subject. Background removal can detect the subject from the entire canvas or using the selection tool.
  

These four image actions currently support these file types: .jpg, .jpeg, and .png.

Let us know what you think of these new AI actions in File Explorer!

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

Bringing back the bigger clock with seconds option in notification center
We're starting to roll out a highly requested feature from Windows 10, the option to show a bigger clock with seconds above the date and calendar in notification center.

To turn this option on, go to Settings > Time & language > Date & time and flip the switch for Show time in the Notification Center.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Desktop Environment > Clock and Calendar Flyout.

Changes and Improvements

[Settings]

• You can now visit the Settings > Privacy & security > Text and image generation to see which third-party applications recently used generative AI models provided by Windows. This page gives you visibility into the specific apps leveraging local Windows provided generative AI models and allows you to control which apps are permitted to use them—putting you in charge of your device's AI experience.
  

Fixes

[Reset & Recovery]

• Fixed the issue causing the "Reset this PC" option under Settings > System > Recovery to not work on Build 27934.

[File Explorer]

• Fixed an issue where In dark mode, the red color used for a low space drive in This PC might be unexpectedly light colored in the latest builds. Some of the other colors might also have been incorrect, including that black is used for space remaining instead of a more visible color.
• Fixed an issue which was Fixed an issue where File Explorer was unexpectedly not showing thumbnails for video files containing certain EXIF metadata.

[Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI)]

• Performance improvements related to WMI Registry scanning.

[Login and Lock screen]

• Fixed an issue which was causing some of the sign in options to have a blank icon.

[Search]

• Did some work to help reduce instances where search may get stuck in a loading state.

[Input]

• Fixed an issue where if you typed on the touch keyboard with the Changjie, Bopomoji, or Japanese IME, it wouldn't work if you had switched to using the previous version of the IME.

[Task Manager]

• Fixed an issue which was causing Task Manager to freeze when going to the performance section recently for some Insiders.

[Other]

• Fixed an issue which was causing some Insiders to experience bugchecks (green screens) with error IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL citing an issue with ntoskrnl.exe in the latest Canary builds when attempting to enter safe mode.
• Fixed an issue causing some Insiders to experience bugchecks recently with error CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED.