Windows 11 Canary Build 27938: AI Actions in Explorer, Seconds Clock, and AI Activity

Background / Overview​

What’s reportedly new in Build 27938​

• AI actions in File Explorer: A new AI actions entry appears in the File Explorer context menu for supported image files, surfacing quick image edits and web visual search without opening an app. Initial image actions include:
• Bing Visual Search — use an image as a search input to find similar images, shopping results, landmarks, faces, or extract text.
• Blur Background — opens Photos and applies an automated background blur with controls for intensity and a brush tool for manual adjustments.
• Erase Objects — invokes a generative erase flow in Photos to remove distracting elements.
• Remove Background — routes to Paint’s automatic background removal for a one‑click subject cutout.
  Supported file types at launch are .jpg, .jpeg, and .png. (blogs.windows.com, pureinfotech.com)
• Bigger Notification Center clock with seconds: A toggle in Settings (Settings > Time & language > Date & time > Show time in the Notification Center) restores a larger clock display with seconds above the date and calendar in the Notification Center flyout — a usability tweak many Windows 10 users wanted back. The option is being reintroduced gradually. (blogs.windows.com, pureinfotech.com)
• Settings: Text & image generation activity: A new Settings page (Privacy & security > Text and image generation) surfaces recent app activity that used Windows‑provided generative models and allows users to control which apps can access those on‑device models. This aims to provide greater visibility into on‑device AI invocations.
• Bug fixes and stability work: The build reportedly includes fixes for File Explorer thumbnail generation, WMI scanning performance, Task Manager freezes, and several other issues — plus a list of known issues (installation rollbacks with specific error codes, audio driver issues in Device Manager showing yellow exclamation marks, and PIX GPU capture playback problems). These are typical of Canary flights that include both polish and newly discovered regressions.

Deep dive — AI actions in File Explorer​

How the feature is designed to work​

Supported formats and current limitations​

• Supported formats at introduction: .jpg, .jpeg, .png. If you work with RAW, PSD, or other professional formats you should expect additional limitations; advanced workflows will still require a dedicated editor.
• Actions are shortcuts into existing app capabilities — they don’t necessarily represent new editing engines inside Explorer itself. That design conserves system complexity but means the actions’ exact behavior depends on the Photos and Paint app versions installed on your device. Keep your Store apps updated. (pureinfotech.com)

Licensing and hardware gating to expect​

Productivity benefits — real, but incremental​

• Speed: Micro‑edits that previously required opening an app, waiting for it to load, and navigating menus can now be started in one or two clicks.
• Flow: Keeping the action in File Explorer reduces context switching, which helps iterative tasks such as cleaning up many photos before a bulk upload.
• Discoverability: Surfacing AI-capabilities in a familiar surface increases adoption among less technical users who may not otherwise experiment with Photos’ or Paint’s AI tools.

The clock with seconds: small change, big reception​

• Open Settings (Win + I).
• Go to Time & language > Date & time.
• Toggle Show time in the Notification Center to On.

Privacy, telemetry and the new “Text and image generation” visibility page​

• On‑device AI still involves metadata and control-plane signals. Administrators will want to know what is logged, retention periods, and whether activity metadata leaves the device.
• Visibility without controls is incomplete. Microsoft’s approach combines a visibility pane plus toggles; enterprise management (Group Policy/MDM) controls for these features may lag the initial end‑user rollout, so organizations should plan pilot deployments and audits.

Fixes, regressions and known issues — what to watch for​

• Installation rollbacks: Some Insiders report rollbacks with error codes like 0xC1900101-0x20017 or 0xC1900101-0x30017, where retrying the install can lead to repeated rollbacks. Microsoft is investigating. If you rely on Insider builds for daily work, don’t test on mission‑critical hardware.
• Audio device driver issues: A Canary‑channel audio problem has left Device Manager showing devices with yellow exclamation marks (for example, “ACPI Audio Compositor”) and the error “Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware.” The documented workaround is to manually update the driver via Device Manager and select the most recent compatible driver from the local list.
• PIX playback and GPU captures: Developers using PIX have reported playback issues on specific OS versions; Microsoft and the PIX team expect to ship a PIX update to resolve this. If GPU capture playback is critical to your workflow, consider holding on Canary or switching to a supported PIX build as advised by PIX support.
• Visual/graphics flicker and DWM instability: Some Insiders have reported screen flicker when browsing and other windowing regressions in Canary. Graphics drivers and DWM changes are common sources of instability in early flights. (blogs.windows.com)

Verification status and the build‑number question​

Practical guidance — for Insiders and IT admins​

• For hobbyists and enthusiasts:
• Use a non‑critical PC, VM or a spare device for Canary flights.
• Keep Photos and Paint updated via the Microsoft Store to ensure AI actions invoke the latest app flows.
• If you need the Notification Center seconds now and don’t see the toggle, be patient; feature flags are often ramped slowly.
• For power users and developers:
• Expect variability: a given machine on the same build might or might not receive a server‑side feature flag enabling AI actions.
• If you rely on GPU capture tooling (PIX) for development diagnostics, check PIX’s support channels and consider pausing Canary upgrades until a PIX‑compatible release is available. (windowscentral.com)
• For IT admins and enterprise pilots:
• Check Flight Hub and the Windows Insider Blog for authoritative build listings before approving pilot upgrades. (learn.microsoft.com)
• Start with a narrow pilot group that mirrors your hardware and licensing mix: Copilot+ hardware, Copilot subscriptions, and legacy machines should be represented.
• Audit the new Text and image generation activity page to understand which third‑party apps may be invoking the OS generative models.
• Update helpdesk runbooks with instructions for known audio device and install rollback workarounds; document driver‑update recovery steps for affected devices.

Risks, tradeoffs and unanswered questions​

• Fragmentation and support overhead: The two‑axis gating model (hardware + licensing) will increase variability across an organization’s fleet and complicate support and user expectations.
• Privacy and telemetry transparency: The Settings activity page helps, but precise retention windows, whether data leaves the device, and how activity metadata is stored or transmitted remain important governance questions for regulated environments.
• UI clutter vs. discoverability: Adding AI entries into an already dense context menu merits careful design: users who never want these actions may prefer a global toggle or granular controls to prevent menu bloat.
• Rollout stability: Canary builds intentionally take risk; widespread regression reports in a Canary build can presage painful troubleshooting for early adopters, so weigh the tradeoff between early access and platform stability. (theverge.com, blogs.windows.com)

• Community and news reports cite Build 27938 specifically for the Canary channel; at the time of reporting, the Windows Insider Blog/Flight Hub did not have a matching, standalone post explicitly labeled 27938 in the public build list. Treat community posts and secondary coverage as credible signals but follow Flight Hub for definitive confirmation before planning upgrades.

Final analysis — why this matters for Windows users​

Background / Overview​

What Microsoft shipped (what you will see in this flight)​

AI actions in File Explorer — what’s exposed today​

• Bing Visual Search — use an image as the query input to find visually similar images, shopping results, landmark identification, and face or object recognition powered by Bing Visual Search.
• Blur Background — opens Photos and automatically detects subject/background, letting you blur the background with adjustable intensity and a brush tool for manual correction.
• Erase Objects — invokes Photos’ generative erase to remove distracting elements by selecting or highlighting them.
• Remove Background — launches Paint’s automatic background removal to produce a one‑click subject cutout. (theverge.com)

Notification Center clock with seconds returns​

Privacy: Recent activity for text and image generation​

Verification and source cross-check​

• The File Explorer AI actions and the types of image edits listed above have been reported by mainstream tech outlets and by hands-on coverage in the Insider community. The Verge and Windows Insider community writeups describe the same set of context-menu actions and the Photos/Paint integrations. (theverge.com)
• The Notification Center “seconds” clock toggle is corroborated by multiple hands-on guides and walkthroughs (PureInfoTech, Windows Latest, and independent how‑to guides) showing the Settings location and alternate feature‑flag IDs commonly used with ViveTool. (pureinfotech.com, windowslatest.com)
• Microsoft’s Flight Hub and Windows Insider Blog remain the authoritative places to confirm official build listings. At the time of review, Flight Hub showed active Canary 27xxx-series activity but did not list every community‑reported build number in real time, so the particular numeric label (Build 27938) has community and press reporting behind it while official Flight Hub postings may lag. Treat the reported build number with cautious confirmation until it appears on Microsoft’s official flight records. (learn.microsoft.com)

Why this matters: practical benefits​

• Less context switching — quick, one‑click edits reduce the need to open an editor for routine tasks like background removal or small cleans. This saves time for social/media workflows, quick content cleanups, and pre‑share scrubbing.
• Faster research workflows — Visual Search turns screenshots and images into research queries without leaving Explorer.
• Lower friction for occasional creators — casual users get desktop-grade micro‑edits without learning a full editor.
• Visibility for compliance — the Recent activity page starts giving admins the signals they need to audit AI usage across apps.

Risks, unknowns, and enterprise considerations​

• Data locality and model execution path — Microsoft uses a hybrid model: some generative workloads are eligible to run locally on Copilot+ hardware (NPU-enabled devices) while others fall back to cloud endpoints. The current UI does not always indicate whether a given operation executed locally or in the cloud; that detail matters for sensitive data. Test before using with confidential content.
• Server-side gating and inconsistent availability — because Microsoft often ships code and gates features server-side, two devices on the same build may or may not show the new options. This makes validation and corporate pilot planning more challenging.
• Privacy vs. discoverability trade-offs — exposing AI actions in the shell increases the attack surface for accidental uploads. Without clear per-action indicators and tenant-level controls, admins may find it difficult to restrict specific AI uses while allowing others. The Recent activity page is helpful but not yet a full substitute for administrative policy controls.
• Licensing and feature gating for documents — document-level AI actions (summaries, FAQs) are likely to be initially limited to Microsoft 365 commercial customers with Copilot entitlements. Mixed environments may therefore see inconsistent behavior. (theverge.com)
• Regulatory and retention concerns — if images or documents are routed to cloud services, organizations must know which endpoints are used, retention windows, and whether data is eligible for model training. The current UI does not provide exhaustive answers to these operational questions. Flag such use-cases for an explicit privacy review.

Known fixes and stability notes in this flight​

• Fix for “Reset this PC” failing on a previous Canary flight.
• File Explorer color and thumbnail rendering fixes (dark mode color correction and video thumbnails for certain EXIF metadata).
• WMI performance improvements focused on Registry scanning.
• Login/Lock screen icon fixes and search loading improvements.
• Input fixes for specific IME and touch keyboard scenarios.
• Task Manager freeze fixes in the Performance section.
• Fixes addressing green-screen bugchecks (IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL and CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED) that some Insiders experienced under specific conditions.

How to test safely (step-by-step checks and checklist)​

• Confirm channel and build
• Open Settings > Windows Update > Windows Insider Program and verify you are enrolled in the Canary Channel and that your device shows the build reported by community posts or Flight Hub.
• Cross‑check Flight Hub (Windows Insider Flight Hub) for official build listings before wide testing. (learn.microsoft.com)
• Validate app versions
• Update Microsoft Store apps: open the Microsoft Store and ensure Photos and Paint are at their latest versions; Explorer actions often hand off to these apps.
• Try the File Explorer actions on a non‑sensitive image
• Right‑click a .jpg/.jpeg/.png file and look for AI actions or a similar submenu.
• Test Bing Visual Search, Blur Background, Erase Objects, and Remove Background flows to see whether the operation runs locally or opens the app with a staged edit.
• Check Recent activity
• Open Settings > Privacy & security > Text and image generation > Recent activity and confirm which apps appear after performing actions. This is the primary immediate audit surface for generative calls.
• Audit network and telemetry
• Use a packet capture or endpoint monitoring tool during a test run if your organization needs to verify whether content leaves the device and which endpoints are contacted.
• If network egress is unacceptable, avoid using the features until clearer enterprise controls exist.
• If the UI is missing (advanced)
• For power users who understand the risk, community-maintained utilities like ViVeTool have been used to toggle hidden feature flags on Insider builds. Several reporting guides show the internal feature IDs used to enable the Notification Center seconds clock and Explorer AI actions, but this is unofficial, unsupported, and may break updates. Use extreme caution and only on test devices. (guidingtech.com, pureinfotech.com)

Recommendations for IT and power users​

• Treat Canary as an experimentation ring: deploy only to test hardware or VMs and avoid production enrollment.
• Build a short audit playbook: test the Recent activity page, verify local vs. cloud execution, and document endpoints and retention characteristics for any generative calls you plan to allow.
• Request admin controls from Microsoft: visibility is a start, but enterprises will need blocking and allow-lists at the platform level. Start engaging with Microsoft support channels or your account team if you require granular MDM/Group Policy controls.
• Communicate with end users: if you pilot AI actions in File Explorer, warn employees not to process PII or regulated content through these flows until the data handling model is fully documented and compliant.
• Back up before enrolling: Canary bugs can cause regressions that are non-trivial to recover from; ensure system images are taken prior to experiments.

Technical caveats and unverifiable claims​

• The numeric build label 27938 appears in multiple community posts and press writeups as the Canary flight carrying these features, but Microsoft’s Flight Hub and official Windows Insider Blog posts did not list that specific number at the time of community reporting. Until Flight Hub or the Windows Insider Blog documents the build number and release notes, treat the reported build identifier as likely but not officially confirmed. Always check Flight Hub before enrollment.
• Whether a given AI action executes fully on-device or routes to cloud inference may vary by action, file size, device hardware (Copilot+ vs. standard), and licensing. The current UI does not clearly label the execution path for every action; validate this in your environment if data sovereignty is required.

The bigger picture — what this reveals about Windows’ AI strategy​

• Move AI to the places users already work. Surfacing AI actions in File Explorer and bringing Click To Do / Copilot-like experiences into the shell reduces friction for micro-tasks and integrates assistive features into natural workflows. This is an evolution from app-first to OS-first AI design.
• Incremental visibility and governance. Adding a Recent activity view suggests Microsoft recognizes privacy and compliance questions are central to broad adoption. Visibility is the first step; the next must be control, consisting of policy-level toggles, enterprise telemetry exports, and clear documentation on data handling and retention.

Conclusion​