Windows Insiders on the Beta Channel, brace yourselves: Build 26120.3941 (KB5055634) has dropped, and like all "previews," it comes bearing a cornucopia of new features, stubborn bugs, and enough toggles to make even the most seasoned IT admin question their life choices. For those running Windows 11, version 24H2, Microsoft’s latest beta is a gentle reminder that you’re a guest at the table where Windows is being made—sometimes hastily, often experimentally, but always with at least one unexpected side effect for your trouble.
Meet the Features: Profanity, Pens, and the Quest for Search
Let’s start with the headliner for anyone prone to spirited conversation at their keyboard: a new profanity filter setting for voice typing. Rejoice (or, depending on your disposition, grumble)—Windows 11 now lets you decide whether your spoken expletives are masked with polite asterisks or printed verbatim. It’s an opt-in policy for digital muttering! The setting is nestled within voice typing (Win + H, for those playing along at home), but be warned: feedback should be delivered with decorum, as always, via the Feedback Hub. Even if you turn off the filter, Microsoft is still watching… respectfully, of course.If this sounds trivial, think again. The ability to turn off profanity-censoring is a small but telling nod to user autonomy and inclusiveness—a tacit acknowledgment that not all technical discourse is G-rated. That said, let’s hope IT support calls don’t start with, “Uncheck the box so I can hear what you really think about printer drivers.”
Moving on to more tactile matters: Click to Do is in preview for select Copilot+ PCs. Those fortunate enough to possess a stylus-enabled device can now launch this to-do/task management tool with the flick, click, or extended press of a pen button—a detail sure to produce envy among mouse-only mortals. If your pen’s menu is overcrowded, just swap an existing app for Click to Do and regain your sense of digital pencraft superiority.
Meanwhile, Windows Search is getting “improved”—a word that, in Windows land, often means “let’s try this again, but differently.” Those signed into OneDrive with a work or school (Entra ID) account will now see results restricted to the text of their cloud files, not their photos. Step aside, awkward vacation snapshot—you’re no longer clogging up search results for Very Important Documents (VIDs). Is it helpful? Marginally. Is it a low-key admission that enterprise search has been a perennial weak point since Vista? Absolutely.
And while we’re at it, accessibility flyouts in quick settings are becoming more logically grouped by vision, hearing, or motor/mobility needs. Clearly, someone at Redmond has run a usability study and realized that lumping things together under "Stuff You May Need" wasn’t winning any awards.
Subtle Fixes and Under-the-Hood Tweaks
A parade of fixes, barely glimpsed by most users until something breaks, arrives with this build. Here’s the greatest hits list for IT admins and QA folks:- A longstanding issue causing some apps to show up blank post-update is now resolved.
- Click to Do on Copilot+ PCs no longer traps images in your temp folder—a mercy for anyone who values disk space and order.
- Windows Hello facial recognition should stop playing hide-and-seek after an update, a boon to those who rely on their face (instead of ancient passwords) to access their digital domain.
Also notable: Quick Assist now works for non-admins (because even mere mortals need remote help), and certain apps will quit failing with cryptic VM component errors. The list ends with a resounding fix to USB device disconnect woes after sleep, a problem as old as "Plug and Play" itself.
The Festive Known Issues Parade
No preview build would be complete without a list of "known issues" so long it deserves musical accompaniment. These caveats are vital—they’re not just bugs; they're opportunities for growth (and a chance for IT pros to practice zen-like patience).- A two-hop process awaits those fresh to the Beta Channel: first, install Build 26120.3360, then receive the latest. It’s a temporary inconvenience, Microsoft swears, but don’t be surprised if it overstays its welcome like that uncle at Thanksgiving.
- Post-reset, your build version may misreport as 26100 instead of 26120. This, we’re promised, is just a cosmetic issue—it won’t block updates. Still, it’s one more reason admins double-check everything.
- Windows Sandbox may throw a 0x800705b4 error at launch. Solution? Uninstall and reinstall the feature. It’s the IT equivalent of, “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”
- Safe mode gets a rough hand this round. Some reports indicate that core Windows surfaces (Start menu, File Explorer) refuse to load after the previous flight. In other words, safe mode may be unsafe—oh, the irony.
Recall (Preview) and Click to Do (Preview) get another round of reminders: intelligent actions are now locally moderated instead of cloud-based, promising more privacy (but, presumably, less excitement for anyone hoping their to-do list would be processed on Azure). If your image actions vanish, update your Photos and Paint apps. Recall remains removable, if not always entirely vanquished—Microsoft admits that “temporary copies” of binaries stick around for serviceability, but insists they are not executable. Sleep better, privacy advocates!
Want improved Windows Search? Make sure your Copilot+ PC is plugged in for initial search indexing. That’s right: searching your stuff still siphons power, so add it to the growing pile of reasons to keep that laptop charger handy.
Smaller notes: clicking your profile picture in Start doesn’t open Account Manager for some folks. System Idle Process always shows “0” in Task Manager’s new CPU Utility column, but don’t worry—your CPU is still idling, even if Task Manager is pretending otherwise.
Controlled Feature Rollout: The Perpetual A/B Test
If you thought features in the Beta Channel were equally available to all, wake up and smell the telemetry. Controlled Feature Rollout (CFR) means that only some Insiders get new toys right away, while others wait, monitor, and gnash their teeth in anticipation (or relief, depending on how bleeding-edge they want to be).The toggle for “Get the Latest Updates” under Windows Update is the key to immediate gratification… or immediate uncertainty. Toggle it on and you’re riding at the front of the Windows rollercoaster; toggle it off and you might enjoy a less bumpy ride, but fewer stories to tell at the next user group meeting.
Microsoft reminds us, for the umpteenth time, that:
- Features shown off in these builds may never see daylight beyond the Insiders program.
- Concepts and UI elements can (and do) get quietly killed or mutated before launch.
- Localization lags behind feature development, so “Moose Knuckle AV” may still show up as “Felsen Arsch Antivirus” in German for a while. No, that’s not a real example, but you get the idea.
The Stakes for IT Pros and Power Users
Here’s the meat of it all: what does this round of Insider updates mean if your job is to keep chaos managed and users happy?The profanity toggle for voice typing might lead to more candid documentation (or support tickets). Click to Do’s pen integration empowers touchscreen evangelists but leaves mouse-and-keyboard holdouts out in the cold. Improved Search for OneDrive-using organizations meets steadily rising demands for fast, relevant, enterprise-grade results, but also raises questions around how boundaries between personal and work accounts are being enforced. And fixes to blank apps, facial recognition, and device disconnects will win hearts—but only if they stick.
Known issues are a double-edged sword: documenting them is good practice, but the sheer length of this list, and the arcane workarounds (Device Manager spelunking, anyone?) are a sobering reminder that for all its polish, Windows 11 is still a work in progress. For the IT professional crafting gold-standard images, every “known issue” is a call for yet another round of testing, documenting, and carefully-worded memos to stakeholders.
On the other hand, the ability to locally moderate “intelligent text actions” signals a trend away from cloud-dependency, which is welcome in secure or bandwidth-constrained environments. The continuing expansion of accessibility features earns applause—digital equality is a long road, but organizing by user need rather than arbitrary category is a firm step forward.
Humor in the Hiccup: The Windows Insider Way
There’s something charming, in a slightly exasperating way, about the relentless tide of preview builds. No enterprise OS better personifies “two steps forward, one step sideways, and one quantum leap somewhere else” than Windows in its Insider Channels.It’s easy to scoff at the quirks—a sandbox that cannot be launched, a safe mode made unsafe, or Task Manager statistics that live in an alternate reality. But the process remains one of genuine collaboration: testers get to break Windows in new, creative ways, and Microsoft learns just how inventive their power users truly are.
The controlled rollout means the agony (and fun) of new features is always shared among a brave few before cascading down. It also means you might find yourself at a user group comparing notes about a feature that half the room can see and half suspects is an elaborate prank.
For the rest of us? These builds offer a chance to peer behind the curtain at the world’s most widely-used desktop OS—to see the kitchen where the sausage is made, so to speak, and sometimes to realize that someone spilled the paprika into the oatmeal again.
Future-Proofing, Feedback, and the Frayed Nerves of Power Users
Feature previews, bug fixes, and experimental rollouts all hint at deeper trends:- Granular customization: From profanity filters to pen customization, Windows 11 is becoming more tailored to individual workflows. The challenge, of course, will be keeping all these controls discoverable and manageable as menus multiply. IT admins, gird your loins and update those training docs!
- Resilience and recovery: Fixes to Windows Recovery Environment, Quick Assist, and error-prone updates are more than cosmetic. As Windows increasingly serves as the backbone for hybrid work, rock-solid recovery is vital. Still, any build that can break safe mode and sandboxing is a sobering reminder: document your fallback plans.
- Local processing: Azure-powered everything is cool—until your WiFi stumbles. Lately, Microsoft is moving more AI and “intelligent” features on-premises, with new moderation and text actions handled locally. Expect this trend to accelerate.
- The “toggle economy”: There’s a growing industry around toggles controlling CFR, privacy, updates, indexing, and every flavor of feature. Perhaps Windows Update will soon include a toggle to control whether new toggles show up at all.
The Verdict: Worth the Risk?
So, brave Beta Channel dwellers, is this build worth a shot? If you enjoy living on the bleeding, sometimes bewildering, edge, absolutely. There’s meaningful progress for accessibility, more direct device control, and tantalizing hints of features to come. If you’re supporting others or running production systems, it’s probably still a spectator sport: watch, learn, and possibly chuckle as you count the days until these rollercoaster rides end up in GA builds (or quietly disappear).But don’t let the known issues list scare you off. Consider it an honest conversation: a relationship where one party admits, “I’m still working on myself.” And what more could you ask from your OS?
The Beta Channel is, ultimately, a call for partnership—a reminder that Windows is as much a community project as it is a product. Wayward toggles, candid “known issues,” and occasionally bizarre fixes are all invitations to join the dance. And if you find yourself shouting at your screen, relax: just toggle off the profanity filter and let your device know exactly how you feel. Windows will listen—and with a bit of luck, won’t bleep you out.
Source: Windows Blog Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3941 (Beta Channel)
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