insider

Microsoft has quietly repurposed the Xbox button on gamepads when used with Windows 11 Insiders: a long press now opens Task View while a short press still launches the Game Bar, and a press-and-hold continues to power down the controller — a small but practical tweak rolling out to Dev and Beta...

Microsoft is quietly testing a small but notable convenience feature in Windows 11: a one‑click internet speed test shortcut embedded directly in the network flyout and taskbar context menu — a shortcut that, for now, simply launches Bing’s online speed‑test widget rather than running a native...

Microsoft pushed a busy week of changes across Windows 11 and the broader Windows ecosystem: September’s Patch Tuesday landed with a handful of quality fixes and a long-requested calendar clock return, Microsoft released ISOs for Windows 11 version 25H2 to Insiders, the SSD “bricking” saga...

Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 Insider Preview update, rolled out as KB5065782 to Dev and Beta channel testers on September 12, 2025, repurposes the SCOOBE (Second‑Chance Out‑of‑Box Experience) flow to display a full‑screen Microsoft 365 “needs attention” renewal prompt that occupies the display...

Microsoft’s latest Canary‑channel flight tightens the long-running migration of legacy Control Panel features into the modern Settings app, moving several time, date, language and regional controls into Settings in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27928 and reinforcing the message that Microsoft...

Microsoft’s Windows week delivered a heavy mix of stabilization, incremental feature rollouts, and operational housekeeping: official ISOs for Windows 11 version 25H2 are now available to Windows Insiders, Patch Tuesday delivered several quality fixes (including a restored clock in the calendar...

Microsoft’s latest Windows 11 Insider builds are shipping a new, full-screen renewal prompt aimed at lapsed Microsoft 365 subscriptions — an eye-catching SCOOBE (Second‑Chance Out‑of‑Box Experience) screen that insiders and early reports describe as a full‑screen nag to renew rather than a...

Microsoft’s Windows 11 Insider builds are now experimenting with a full‑screen “Second Chance Out‑of‑Box Experience” (SCOOBE) page that can surface a Microsoft 365 billing alert — a blocking renewal prompt shown when a subscription “needs attention” such as when a renewal payment failed — and...

Microsoft’s latest Insider builds repurpose the SCOOBE (Second‑Chance Out‑of‑Box Experience) screen into a full‑screen, blocking renewal prompt that reminds users a Microsoft 365 subscription “needs attention” — a test that has reignited debates about whether Windows should be used as a sales...

Microsoft’s latest Insider flights deliver a compact but meaningful set of refinements — from a new Copilot prompt box inside Click to Do to a curated Emoji 16 rollout and deep accessibility fixes for Narrator — packaged in Dev build 26220.6682 (and matching Beta build 26120.6682), signaling...

Microsoft has pushed a small but notable maintenance update for Windows 10 Insiders in the Release Preview Channel — Build 19045.6388 (KB5066198) — marking another effort to squeeze extra stability and reliability out of Windows 10 as its lifecycle winds down. (windowsreport.com) Background...

Microsoft’s October deadline for Windows 10 support has arrived like a ringing bell for an industry that—by several measures—wasn’t ready: large numbers of consumer and corporate endpoints still run Windows 10, many organisations face compatibility and budget constraints, and the safety net...

Microsoft has pushed another Canary‑channel preview for Windows 11 — build 27943 — that stitches up a cluster of user‑visible annoyances while leaving two serious deployment blockers on the books. The flight addresses a persistent Settings > System > Storage > Temporary files scanning hang...

Microsoft today shipped a small but targeted cumulative update to Windows Insiders in the Release Preview Channel: Windows 11 Build 22631.5982 (KB5065790) for devices running Windows 11, version 23H2 (Build 22631). The release is a focused quality update that addresses several practical...

Windows 11’s 24H2 is now shipping support for Emoji 16.0 — but there’s a catch: the system emoji panel doesn’t yet expose the new icons, and rendering remains inconsistent across apps and web services. What looks like a late-but-welcome Unicode update has instead exposed a long-standing Windows...

Microsoft’s latest Insider whispers fold AI deeper into the Windows shell: right‑click a picture in File Explorer and you may now see an “AI actions” submenu offering Bing Visual Search, background blur, object erase, and background removal — a small set of micro‑workflows that signal a broader...

Microsoft’s latest Dev‑Channel flight, Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.5790 (KB5065779), brings a focused set of Copilot+ features—most notably Fluid Dictation in Voice Access—along with wider Windows Studio Effects support for additional cameras, new Copilot‑driven File Explorer hover...

Microsoft’s latest Insider experiments have restored a small but widely requested convenience: the Notification Center can once again show a larger clock with seconds—and that option is appearing alongside a broader set of AI-focused trials in the Canary channel. (blogs.windows.com) Background /...

Microsoft appears to be preparing a generational Windows refresh that places artificial intelligence at the center of the user experience, with multiple leak streams and community archives pointing to an AI-first platform (codenames such as Germanium and Hudson Valley) and a modular base...

Windows 11’s keyboard ergonomics just picked up a quiet but genuinely useful polish: Insider builds now include system-level shortcuts that insert the en dash (–, U+2013) and em dash (—, U+2014) directly from the keyboard, removing the need for Alt-codes, app-specific autoformatting, or the...