insider preview

Microsoft is quietly testing a substantial redesign of the Windows 11 Start menu across Insider and preview builds — a change that blends the familiar pinned apps surface with an expanded, scrollable “All apps” area, adds multiple app-list views and tighter Copilot/Phone Link integrations, and...

Microsoft’s Windows Insider preview quietly added a small but welcome concession to a long‑running annoyance: during Out‑of‑Box Experience (OOBE) setup you can now instruct Windows to use a custom name for the profile folder created under C:\Users. That convenience comes packaged with a much...

Windows 11’s setup experience just reclaimed a small but persistent bit of dignity: Insider builds now let you pick the name of the C:\Users folder during Out‑of‑Box Experience (OOBE), while Microsoft simultaneously tightened the setup path by removing several local‑account workarounds that many...

Microsoft’s ongoing Insider churn is delivering a steady stream of small, practical refinements that add polish to everyday Windows 11 workflows — from a staged roll‑out of Emoji 16.0 to direct pan/tilt camera controls in Settings and subtle Windows Setup improvements that affect OOBE and...

Microsoft's product teams have quietly begun answering years of user frustration: internal reports and multiple preview-traces now indicate Microsoft is prototyping the return of classic, user‑requested taskbar behaviors in Windows 11 — including a movable, resizable taskbar and restored...

Microsoft’s quiet design nudge to File Explorer is small, but it matters: the address bar and the search box in Windows 11’s File Explorer now sport subtly larger rounded corners in Insider preview builds, bringing that long-sought visual consistency between Explorer and other modern Windows...

Microsoft has quietly begun testing two of the most requested Quick Settings improvements in Windows 11: a built‑in dark mode toggle tucked into the Power/Energy Saver area of Quick Settings, and the ability to remove or reorganize unused Quick Settings tiles directly from the panel. Background...

Microsoft’s recent moves to restore long-missed Taskbar capabilities mark a notable course correction for Windows 11 — the company is quietly returning features many users considered essential, from a restored Agenda view in the Taskbar calendar to prototypes that reintroduce movement, resizing...

Microsoft’s quiet, iterative refresh of File Explorer in Windows 11 pairs small visual polish — including the return of rounded corners on key UI elements — with a pragmatic set of reliability fixes and an experimental performance tweak designed to make Explorer feel faster, but not without...

Microsoft has quietly closed one of the most visible and irritating UX regressions to hit Windows 11 in recent months: the jarring white “flash” that could momentarily blank a dark-themed File Explorer window. After weeks of community outcry, Microsoft has documented fixes in its Insider release...

Microsoft’s Dev‑channel preview build has quietly rekindled a small but persistent user demand: the ability to remove unwanted items from Windows 11’s Quick Settings panel. What arrived in Build 26300.7965 (KB5079385) is not yet a finished feature, but the hidden UI elements and code paths...

Microsoft’s long-running battle over who controls the Windows desktop may be tilting back toward users: recent Insider previews suggest Microsoft is quietly restoring two small-but-important customization freedoms that were stripped from Windows 11 early in its life. One change — a fix that...

Microsoft appears to be quietly testing a restoration of a much‑requested customization option in Windows 11: the ability to remove unwanted quick‑action tiles from the Quick Settings panel. The change was first observed in the Dev‑channel preview build 26300.7965 and has been attributed to work...

Windows 11’s File Explorer is getting another quiet round of refinement — a mix of incremental design polish and a long‑running rendering bug fix — and both moves tell a larger story about how Microsoft balances visual modernization with the hard work of stability across a decades‑old platform...

Microsoft's preview builds have quietly tucked a one‑click dark mode switch inside a new Energy saver quick‑settings panel — a discovery that underlines two simultaneous trends in Windows development: Microsoft finally closing the long‑running "incomplete dark mode" gap, and the company...

Microsoft today pushed a small but noteworthy Canary-channel build to Insiders: Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 28020.1685 (KB 5079381), published March 6, 2026, with two narrowly focused user-facing changes—improved Storage cleanup reliability and the ability to use voice typing when renaming...

Microsoft’s quiet Friday drop of three Windows 11 Insider preview builds is a reminder that progress in the Windows ecosystem is often evolutionary rather than headline-grabbing: the Canary Channel received Build 28020.1685 with small but practical fixes, while matched Dev and Beta Channel...

Microsoft has pushed Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.7961 (KB 5079382) to the Beta Channel, a small but focused enablement-stage update that stitches together security work, File Explorer polish, and incremental UX tweaks — all of which are being gradually rolled out to Insiders who have...

Microsoft is quietly reshaping how Copilot and the web interact on Windows 11: in the latest Insider preview the Copilot app can open web links in a docked side pane next to your conversation, save per‑conversation tabs, and — if you opt in — surface saved passwords and form data so the...

Microsoft's Copilot App for Windows is now offering an optional password and form-data sync inside its built-in browser for Windows Insiders — a convenience feature that folds autofill into the Copilot sidepane but also changes the threat model for anyone who stores credentials on their PC...