Windows 11 KB5055634 Update: New Features, Fixes, and Privacy-Friendly AI Tweaks

Is it me, or does every new Windows 11 update these days promise to bring us one step closer to a future where our PCs read minds, predict needs, and maybe even brew a decent cup of coffee? With the rollout of KB5055634, build 26120.3941 for Windows 11 version 24H2 insiders in the Beta Channel, Microsoft once again unleashes a parade of improvements, features, bug fixes—plus a few quirks sure to baffle even the most patient IT pros. While the average user might scan changelogs with all the enthusiasm of a tax accountant browsing the IRS code, let’s dive in, dissect the nitty-gritty, and extract not just meaning—but maybe also a laugh—about how AI, accessibility, and those ever-mysterious “known issues” will shape your digital life.

Profanity-Filtered Voice Typing: Now You Control the Cussing​

Windows 11’s voice typing feature has been a godsend for busy typists, accessibility users, and anyone who’s tried to bang out an email while cradling a sandwich. Until now, colorful language got scrubbed by a profanity filter, offending only the most sensitive AI’s dignity. With KB5055634, you’re finally trusted to decide—should your digital dictation sound like Sunday school or late-night cable?
Toggle the setting on, and the AI censors all bad words, replacing them with gentle asterisks. Flip it off, and all your “@$%!” glory is preserved for the written record. Adjust the setting in voice typing (Win + H), then settings, then the profanity toggle. Yes, it’s that simple.
How does this land in the real world? If you’re in a corporate office, you now face the ultimate IT trust exercise: will users let loose during a client call, or will the profanity filter remain your only bulwark against workplace HR nightmares? On the positive side, those working in accessibility advocacy can now more authentically dictate speech—warts, swears, and all.
Is this a revolutionary leap forward for productivity? Perhaps not. But it’s a fascinating case study in software democratization: Minnesota nice meets IT admin’s worst nightmare.

Click to Do (Preview): Stylus Meets Super Productivity​

Digital pen fans, rejoice! The new “Click to Do” app is now available for preview in the Dev and Beta Channels, and promises to turn your stylus from a glorified pizza-pointer into a true productivity scepter. If you’re packing a Copilot+ PC that’s stylus-enabled, you can configure the shortcut button—tail click, double-click, or press/hold—to launch Click to Do and jump straight into your digital tasks.
Customizability abounds: assign Click to Do to one of four coveted Pen Menu slots, making the battle for precious pen real estate as cutthroat as ever. If you’re maxed out, swap an app for Click to Do in Settings.
This has huge implications for accessibility, creative work, and multitasking. Think of it: less hunting through submenus, more jumping into actual work… or at least, actual meetings. For IT departments supporting hybrid and remote users, every shortcut matters.
Of course, this new feature also comes with all the attendant risks. Will users remember which click combo does what? Will there be a rash of support tickets when Click to Do replaces someone’s beloved OneNote shortcut? Still, for the right user, it’s a slick upgrade that shortens the drag-and-drop journey between idea and digital ink.

Improved Windows Search: OneDrive Gets Smarter (Sort Of)​

If you’re signed into OneDrive with a work or school account—even those rebranded as Entra ID—Windows Search now promises a more focused experience. Search results will prioritize actual keywords from your cloud files, not just random photo metadata.
Let’s be real: for IT professionals slogging through the sea of compliance policies, legal briefs, or meeting notes, searching “budget” and finding your kid’s soccer pictures was not a feature—it was a bug. With this build, searching within text yields only pertinent files, not photo noise.
Before you get too excited, note this magic only works if you’ve plugged in your Copilot+ PC for full search indexing—otherwise, Windows might just shrug and return your files at random. There’s also the oft-ignored search indexing status under Settings > Privacy & Security > Searching Windows. Go ahead and take a peek—if you dare.
Is it perfect? Not yet. But it does harken to a future where corporate knowledge is finally at our fingertips, minus the “dog eating birthday cake.jpg” in the results. For now, IT admins everywhere can postpone that rant about “search not working” tickets… by maybe a week.

Accessibility Flyout: Features That Make Sense​

Windows 11 continues its accessibility improvements, this time tidying up Quick Settings’ Accessibility flyout. Assistive technologies are now grouped by vision, hearing, motor, and mobility. The idea is, you’ll actually be able to find the feature you need, when you need it.
Imagine a user with low vision fumbling through menus, only to finally find Narrator hiding under “Miscellaneous.” No more! Grouped features mean less hunting and, possibly, less cursing. (See: previous section regarding profanity filter.)
For IT support, this eliminates the dreaded, “But where is Magnifier?” query during urgent support calls. In an era where accessibility isn’t just the right thing to do but a legal requirement, this smart, simple tweak makes Windows look downright thoughtful.
Will every user appreciate the curation? Probably not. But for those who need these features, it’s evidence Microsoft is still paying attention to real-world accessibility feedback—a heartening sight that, frankly, should be standard.

Under the Hood Fixes: The Secret Work That Keeps You Sane​

Every update claims to squash bugs, but KB5055634 is especially vocal about its behind-the-scenes heroics. Among the most notable:

• Apps appearing blank after installing recent builds? That’s fixed.
• Click to Do images clogging up your temp folder? Resolved.
• Windows Hello facial recognition breaking after the last two flights? Hello again, face unlock.
• Touch keyboard randomly flinging symbols into password fields, or blocking Japanese input? Keyboard chaos, tamed.
• System > About not showing proper corner radiuses? The design police can rest easy.
• Quick Assist breaking for non-admins (error 1002)? Non-admins now get assistance, too.
• USB devices vanishing after sleep, until a reboot? To sleep, perchance to… keep your mouse connected.
• Windows Recovery Environment and “Fix problems using Windows Update” now work—finally.

On the surface, it’s the kind of patchwork that keeps the IT world humming. But beneath lies the truth: each one of these “fixes” is a mini-story of user pain, tech support frustration, and possibly a few broken keyboards. This patch might not get a standing ovation, but collectively, it’s a small mercy in the endless war against Windows weirdness.

Known Issues: A Friendly Reminder That Perfection is Overrated​

No Windows update would be complete without a hearty helping of “known issues”—a genre Microsoft has perfected to the point of performance art. Here are the choicest morsels from the KB5055634 smörgåsbord:

• Joining Beta Channel? Expect a two-hop update process. It’s only temporary, we’re assured—just like our patience.
• Post-reset, your build version may report incorrectly. But don’t worry! You’ll still get updates, and the version number will eventually catch up to reality. Eventually.
• Windows Sandbox may fail to launch (error 0x800705b4). The fix involves uninstalling, rebooting, reinstalling… and reciting the Windows admin’s creed: “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”
• Core Windows surfaces fail to load in Safe Mode for some. If File Explorer and Start Menu make like Houdini, know that a fix is “under investigation.”
• Xbox controller over Bluetooth? Enjoy a free bugcheck (crash), plus a complex workaround involving Device Manager and “( )” drivers, where even Microsoft hedges on what that really means.
• Recall (Preview): Reminder, you can always uninstall it, which deletes “entry points and binaries”—don’t forget those temporary non-executable binaries, which vanish… eventually.
• Click to Do intelligent actions now moderated locally (no more cloud endpoint), which is great for privacy, but who guards the guards?
• Photos and Paint apps need updates for in-image actions to work reliably. Keep that Store icon handy!
• Improved Windows Search indexing needs your PC plugged in—no mention if your mouse must also be facing magnetic north.
• Start menu profile picture not opening Account Manager. Sometimes it just… doesn’t.
• Task Manager’s new CPU Utility column always shows System Idle Process at zero. Because apparently, perfection has been postponed to the next update.

For IT professionals, “known issues” are less a warning and more a rite of passage—like passing a test where the only correct answer is “Why me?” But, true to form, most workarounds are documented, and with each build the community crowd-sources new rituals to keep Windows chugging.

AI Features and Recall: Local Moderation, Global Doubts​

AI now permeates Windows from recall to voice typing to intelligent image actions. With KB5055634, Microsoft shifts some of this intelligence to the local device. “Click to Do” text actions are moderated locally, meaning your offhand notes and hasty to-dos are not instantly beamed to Redmond for analysis.
On one hand, this is a step forward for privacy and trust. On the other, we’re all left quietly wondering—how smart is local moderation, really? And, if something does slip through, does it end up in a hidden telemetry log somewhere anyway?
Recall, Microsoft’s controversial new retrieval tool, gets its own set of reminders about deletion, binaries, and control. Skeptics might say: “If I uninstall a feature but binaries linger, did I really uninstall it?” An existential puzzle for the digital age, best pondered over a cup of update-delayed coffee.
Meanwhile, enterprises wary of data leaks and local storage bloat should monitor these developments closely. Today, AI features are optional, tunable, and occasionally removable. Tomorrow, who knows? At least IT can now point local moderation as an additional line in the privacy PowerPoint.

Taskbar, System Tray, and Start Menu: It’s the Little Things​

Changes to the Accessibility flyout are front and center, but smaller tweaks also pepper the taskbar and Start menu. Clicking your profile picture to open Account Manager… sometimes doesn’t. Task Manager’s CPU Utility column lives in a parallel universe where System Idle Process essentially ceases to exist. Futurists, take note: quantum computing may already be here, at least in Task Manager.
Are these earth-shaking? No. But together, these little details add (or subtract) from the kind of polish that gives users confidence—or leaves them looking longingly at their old Windows 7 machine gathering dust in the corner.

Real-World Implications for IT Pros​

So, what does all this mean for those on the frontlines—admins, consultants, and the unsung heroes of Windows updates?

• More Control, More Complexity: Every new toggle—whether for a profanity filter or AI moderation—adds flexibility but also presents yet another setting to configure, document, and explain. The phrase “it’s in Settings, somewhere” gains frightening new power.
• Changed Defaults, Changed Habits: Features like Click to Do and improved search force users (and IT) to revisit entrenched workflows. For every user made 12% more productive, there’s another who rues the day their muscle-memory shortcut was replaced by “something new.”
• Beta Builds Bring Adventure: Running a Beta Channel build is, as always, an act of hope—and sometimes, folly. Known bugs can upend critical workflows, even as they bring cool features to the adventurous.
• AI and Privacy: The Endless Dance: Local moderation is a welcome step for privacy-conscious admins, but the ever-present tension between new AI features and enterprise control will keep this area perennially spicy.
• Bug Fixes = User Happiness: Small fixes—be they for temp folders, login routines, or USB devices going walkabout—can have outsized impact on day-to-day happiness and support ticket volume.
• Documentation Matters: Each new feature—and each known issue—should trigger an update to internal wikis, onboarding guides, and that half-remembered IT checklist.

The State of the Windows Union​

KB5055634 doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it adds a few sensible hubcaps and tries very hard to address the perennial potholes. Voice typing actually listens to your settings; Click to Do turbocharges a niche but vital subset of users; and search gets more serious for business. Humbler improvements to accessibility and the flyout show Microsoft isn’t just chasing flashy AI headlines—they really are listening to feedback (at least some of it).
Of course, with every forward step, a new parade of “known issues” marches along behind, ensuring that IT departments still have job security. Some bugs require arcane rituals; others demand faith in Microsoft’s promise to “fix in a future flight.” And through it all, the ever-present dance: users want flexibility, IT wants predictability, and Windows 11 straddles the line with all the grace of a caffeinated tightrope walker.
So, if you’re patching your fleet this week, take heart: the profanity toggle might save you from a few awkward emails, Click to Do gives stylus diehards a reason to smile, and accessibility keeps improving, one grouped feature at a time. The bugs? Well, they’ll keep you humble—and perhaps a little busier than you planned.
But as every seasoned pro knows, in the Windows world, evolution isn’t just a feature—it’s the whole operating system.

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Source: Neowin Windows 11 KB5055634 makes it easier to use AI and accessibility features