Sometimes a feature so small, so seemingly innocuous, arrives in Windows 11 that it manages to perfectly capture the peculiar dance of progress—one step forward for usability, a sidestep for decency, and one wild twirl for IT administrators everywhere. The latest Windows 11 preview build KB5055632 does exactly this, delivering to Dev Channel Insiders a set of incremental changes and bug fixes, but with a highlight nobody saw coming: the ability to turn off the profanity filter for voice typing. Yes, after years of suppressing our inner sailors, Windows will finally let you type out your expletives without so much as a scolding asterisk.
In an unexpected turn of events, Microsoft now lets you speak frankly—literally. Until now, Windows would politely convert any verbal slip of the tongue into a wall of asterisks, ensuring your dictation remained safe for work, kindergarten, or your prudish Aunt Mildred. But with build 26200.5570 (KB5055632), users can finally control whether those spoken profanities are filtered or faithfully transcribed in all their colorful glory.
A quick hop over to voice typing (Win + H), a click on the settings icon, and you’ll spot a simple toggle: “Filter profanity.” Switch it off, and Windows stops censoring your speech. Now, whether you're dictating a stormy email or just testing the limits, your words are truly your own.
Of course, this tiny switch has implications far beyond satisfying the Kevin Hart in all of us. For professionals and power users—especially those in creative, legal, or medical fields who often need exact transcriptions—removing overzealous filtering means far less frustration and fewer comically garbled notes. After all, “that was [expletive] frustrating” is not nearly the same as “that was [asterisk] frustrating.” Accuracy matters, context matters, and, sometimes, so does a little uncensored honesty.
But let’s be real—for IT departments, this change is a source of both relief and newfound dread. On the one hand, no more user complaints about undetectable voice commands. On the other, brace for the day unsuspecting junior staff discovers unfiltered voice typing and fills a compliance report with enough profanity to make even chatbots blush.
Moving beyond linguistic liberty, KB5055632 stretches its innovation to the realm of stylus enthusiasts. The new “Click to Do” feature, in preview for Copilot+ PCs on Windows 11 24H2, empowers users to assign actions to the shortcut button on supported pens. You can configure it to open the Click to Do app with a single-click, double-click, or even long-press through Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Pen & Windows Ink.
The pen menu, which supports up to four customizable app slots, can now include Click to Do—though, in an act of cruel prioritization, you may need to swap out one of your existing pen apps. It’s a Sophie’s Choice of inking: do you sacrifice sticky notes, or ditch Paint? The struggle is real.
For productivity aficionados and digital artists alike, such customization is a welcome nudge toward efficiency. No more “fat finger” moments or frantic searches for the right app—your stylus goes from mere writing tool to instant launcher. For IT admins, though, expect a fresh batch of helpdesk tickets: accidental clicks, unwanted launches, and users discovering they have a pen menu at all.
This focused approach is not all rainbows. For enterprises keen to monitor data compliance and limit accidental exposure of sensitive images through casual searches, this change is a godsend. Conversely, digital packrats with OneDrive folders full of visual notes may need some time—and likely, a few dozen IT tickets—to figure out where their beloved screenshots disappeared.
It’s a small adjustment with large implications for information retrieval, data privacy, and, not least, for the company trivia champion whose only record of winning the holiday bake-off was filed under “Q2_best_muffin.JPG.”
On the surface, this sounds like basic interface housekeeping—sorting tools so they’re easier to find. Dig a little deeper, though, and you see the ongoing commitment to making Windows more approachable for all users, regardless of ability. For users with accessibility needs, less hunting means more self-sufficiency; for support teams, fewer panicked calls about “the thing for my eyes” being lost in the interface jungle.
And for the rest of us? It’s a timely reminder that real innovation often comes not from sleek animations or AI-powered widgets, but from making daily essentials more reachable, understandable, and—dare we say—humane.
Meanwhile, text actions in Click to Do are now locally moderated, replacing the previous cloud-based system. This means improved safety and privacy, along with snappier performance—though also, potentially, a few new classes of locally-triggered headaches for IT teams managing hundreds of slightly different PC configurations.
Windows Search, too, now asks Copilot+ users to keep their machines plugged in for initial search indexing. IT pros, add this to your onboarding checklists unless you enjoy mysterious support tickets titled “Search isn’t finding my stuff.”
Over in Task Manager, the newly-added CPU Utility column apparently always shows the System Idle Process as zero. Meanwhile, the CPU Performance graphs use an old calculation. “CPU Utility” sounds delightfully vague—ideal for IT folks who enjoy explaining why “100%” doesn’t always mean what it says.
When you stare into the Task Manager, the Task Manager stares back—sometimes with old math, sometimes with new, but always with just enough ambiguity to keep IT trainers busy for another decade.
Enhanced stylus button customization—and all things “Click to Do”—could drive productivity gains for digital artists, note-takers, and anyone who prefers pens to trackpads. But it also means new device management headaches, configuration complexity, and a probable uptick in “why did my pen suddenly open a to-do list?” tickets.
The cumulative weight of bug fixes, known issues, and interface tweaks will, as always, fall squarely on IT pros tasked with testing, documentation, and crisis management. Yet there’s cause for optimism: with every new build, Microsoft shows signs of listening more closely to community feedback and surfacing incremental, meaningful quality-of-life improvements.
Still, there’s never a dull moment for those who live on the bleeding edge of Dev Channel builds. If nothing else, KB5055632 is proof that even small, quirky features can generate big discussions—and bigger laughs. Swearing during voice dictation, after all, isn’t just a freedom; it’s practically an IT tradition. Now, at least, Windows is in on the joke.
For administrators, this means a constant tug of war between enabling productivity and enforcing compliance. For end users, the landscape grows both more empowering and more perilous—each toggle a Pandora’s box of possibilities and pitfalls.
As features like Click to Do, Recall, and improved search mature, the blending of local intelligence and cloud moderation pushes new boundaries for privacy and usability. Microsoft’s cautious messaging—reminding users how to disable, uninstall, and safeguard—reflects wider cultural shifts in digital trust and user control.
For power users, administrators, and the rest of us who occasionally drop our laptops on our toes, the takeaway is clear: progress isn’t always revolutionary. Sometimes, it’s just a cuss word away.
Source: Neowin Windows 11 KB5055632 now lets you type bad words without any filters
Windows 11’s New Freedom of Expression: Free to Swear, or Swear to Free?
In an unexpected turn of events, Microsoft now lets you speak frankly—literally. Until now, Windows would politely convert any verbal slip of the tongue into a wall of asterisks, ensuring your dictation remained safe for work, kindergarten, or your prudish Aunt Mildred. But with build 26200.5570 (KB5055632), users can finally control whether those spoken profanities are filtered or faithfully transcribed in all their colorful glory.A quick hop over to voice typing (Win + H), a click on the settings icon, and you’ll spot a simple toggle: “Filter profanity.” Switch it off, and Windows stops censoring your speech. Now, whether you're dictating a stormy email or just testing the limits, your words are truly your own.
Of course, this tiny switch has implications far beyond satisfying the Kevin Hart in all of us. For professionals and power users—especially those in creative, legal, or medical fields who often need exact transcriptions—removing overzealous filtering means far less frustration and fewer comically garbled notes. After all, “that was [expletive] frustrating” is not nearly the same as “that was [asterisk] frustrating.” Accuracy matters, context matters, and, sometimes, so does a little uncensored honesty.
But let’s be real—for IT departments, this change is a source of both relief and newfound dread. On the one hand, no more user complaints about undetectable voice commands. On the other, brace for the day unsuspecting junior staff discovers unfiltered voice typing and fills a compliance report with enough profanity to make even chatbots blush.
Click to Do: Because Stylus Buttons Deserve a Mission
Moving beyond linguistic liberty, KB5055632 stretches its innovation to the realm of stylus enthusiasts. The new “Click to Do” feature, in preview for Copilot+ PCs on Windows 11 24H2, empowers users to assign actions to the shortcut button on supported pens. You can configure it to open the Click to Do app with a single-click, double-click, or even long-press through Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Pen & Windows Ink.
The pen menu, which supports up to four customizable app slots, can now include Click to Do—though, in an act of cruel prioritization, you may need to swap out one of your existing pen apps. It’s a Sophie’s Choice of inking: do you sacrifice sticky notes, or ditch Paint? The struggle is real.
For productivity aficionados and digital artists alike, such customization is a welcome nudge toward efficiency. No more “fat finger” moments or frantic searches for the right app—your stylus goes from mere writing tool to instant launcher. For IT admins, though, expect a fresh batch of helpdesk tickets: accidental clicks, unwanted launches, and users discovering they have a pen menu at all.
Search Gets Smarter (and a Bit Pickier): Improved Windows Search
If Cortana’s search history is anything to go by, the word “improved” in combination with “search” is likely to elicit skepticism among veteran Windows users. This time, though, there might be genuine cause for a tiny, reserved cheer. In this build, Windows Search, for those signed into OneDrive with a work or school (Entra ID) account, will only serve up matches for keywords found within text documents stored in your OneDrive—not photos. That means no more PowerPoint presentations popping up when you search for “Q3,” only to find a vacation selfie with an unfortunately named filename.This focused approach is not all rainbows. For enterprises keen to monitor data compliance and limit accidental exposure of sensitive images through casual searches, this change is a godsend. Conversely, digital packrats with OneDrive folders full of visual notes may need some time—and likely, a few dozen IT tickets—to figure out where their beloved screenshots disappeared.
It’s a small adjustment with large implications for information retrieval, data privacy, and, not least, for the company trivia champion whose only record of winning the holiday bake-off was filed under “Q2_best_muffin.JPG.”
Accessibility Flyout: Group Therapy for Assistive Tech
In this release, Microsoft is giving a little UX love to accessibility features, notably by regrouping assistive technologies within Quick Settings. Features are now organized by vision, hearing, and motor/mobility, with easier identification for users seeking the right accessibility support.On the surface, this sounds like basic interface housekeeping—sorting tools so they’re easier to find. Dig a little deeper, though, and you see the ongoing commitment to making Windows more approachable for all users, regardless of ability. For users with accessibility needs, less hunting means more self-sufficiency; for support teams, fewer panicked calls about “the thing for my eyes” being lost in the interface jungle.
And for the rest of us? It’s a timely reminder that real innovation often comes not from sleek animations or AI-powered widgets, but from making daily essentials more reachable, understandable, and—dare we say—humane.
A Quick Fix Here, a Temp Folder There: Bug-Busting in Build 26200.5570
With each new build comes a parade of squashed bugs and minor annoyances laid to rest. This one is no exception:- General: Solved a bug that caused some apps to show up blank after updates—a fix sure to please both end users and those IT folks who’ve fielded more than their fair share of “everything disappeared!” tickets.
- Click to Do: Fixed image action bugs that stranded images in temporary folders—finally saving us from another archeological dig through C:\Temp every month.
- Login and Lock: Windows Hello facial recognition issues are sorted. Hopefully, that means fewer users locked out by poor lighting or bad hair days.
- Input: Touch keyboard misbehavior and Japanese layout blockages have both been addressed. Password fields everywhere breathe a sigh of relief.
- Settings: That oddly sharp-edge hover issue in System > About cards has been smoothed out for visual consistency—perhaps not earth-shattering, but certainly less jarring for the style conscious.
- Other: Quick Assist now works for non-admin users, app loading errors (“The application was unable to load a required virtual machine component”) have been patched, and USB devices should no longer play hide-and-seek after sleep.
Under the Hood: The Recurring Cycle of Known Issues
No Windows release would be complete without its catalog of “known issues”—that wonderful caveat section warning you that, yes, something important may in fact still be broken. Noteworthy this time:- Updating to this build from certain Windows versions is a two-step (“2-hop”) affair, not ideal for smooth onboarding. Don’t worry, Microsoft assures us, it’s only temporary—famous last words.
- Fresh after a PC reset, your build version may lie about being Build 26100 instead of 26200, though you’ll keep getting future Beta updates.
- Windows Sandbox may fail to launch (0x800705b4 error). The prescribed fix? Classic “turn it off and on again”—uninstall, reboot, reinstall, reboot. It’s almost soothing how some Windows traditions endure.
- Safe Mode troubles in core surfaces: File Explorer, Start menu, and others may not load if you run into last flight’s gremlins. Safe Mode, not quite as safe as advertised.
- Xbox controller woes: Some users report that Bluetooth-connected Xbox controllers lead to system bugchecks (crashes). The fix is a scavenger hunt through Device Manager to uninstall a particular driver. Gamers, your patience and perseverance remain legendary.
Recall, Click to Do, and the Ever-Evolving Cloud-Local Balancing Act
Microsoft continues to refine its clever “Recall” feature, reiterating that users can fully uninstall it via Windows Features and that removing Recall deletes all entry points and binaries (though some temp files may linger “for serviceability”). Security teams, take note: this is an olive branch to privacy-minded users wary of automatic recording or data retention.Meanwhile, text actions in Click to Do are now locally moderated, replacing the previous cloud-based system. This means improved safety and privacy, along with snappier performance—though also, potentially, a few new classes of locally-triggered headaches for IT teams managing hundreds of slightly different PC configurations.
Windows Search, too, now asks Copilot+ users to keep their machines plugged in for initial search indexing. IT pros, add this to your onboarding checklists unless you enjoy mysterious support tickets titled “Search isn’t finding my stuff.”
The Start Menu, Task Manager, and UI Oddities: Adventures in Cosmetic Consistency
The Start menu is under investigation again—reports suggest clicking one’s profile picture sometimes fails to open the Account Manager. It’s a minor annoyance, sure, but in the bizarre hierarchy of Windows bugs, a broken profile button ranks just high enough to frustrate users without actually destroying anything critical.Over in Task Manager, the newly-added CPU Utility column apparently always shows the System Idle Process as zero. Meanwhile, the CPU Performance graphs use an old calculation. “CPU Utility” sounds delightfully vague—ideal for IT folks who enjoy explaining why “100%” doesn’t always mean what it says.
When you stare into the Task Manager, the Task Manager stares back—sometimes with old math, sometimes with new, but always with just enough ambiguity to keep IT trainers busy for another decade.
Real-World Implications: IT Pros Gird Their Loins (and Policies)
For every quirky feature (looking at you, profanity toggle), there’s a ripple effect in real-world IT. Allowing uncensored voice typing is a double-edged sword for organizations: on one hand, greater transcription accuracy; on the other, a compelling new reason to update Acceptable Use Policies and retrain staff on digital etiquette.Enhanced stylus button customization—and all things “Click to Do”—could drive productivity gains for digital artists, note-takers, and anyone who prefers pens to trackpads. But it also means new device management headaches, configuration complexity, and a probable uptick in “why did my pen suddenly open a to-do list?” tickets.
The cumulative weight of bug fixes, known issues, and interface tweaks will, as always, fall squarely on IT pros tasked with testing, documentation, and crisis management. Yet there’s cause for optimism: with every new build, Microsoft shows signs of listening more closely to community feedback and surfacing incremental, meaningful quality-of-life improvements.
Still, there’s never a dull moment for those who live on the bleeding edge of Dev Channel builds. If nothing else, KB5055632 is proof that even small, quirky features can generate big discussions—and bigger laughs. Swearing during voice dictation, after all, isn’t just a freedom; it’s practically an IT tradition. Now, at least, Windows is in on the joke.
Why It Matters: Beyond the Changelog
It would be easy to dismiss a profanity filter toggle as a novelty, but it signals something deeper about modern software design: the ongoing migration from rigid, one-size-fits-all defaults toward genuine user autonomy. Whether it’s how you talk, click, or search, Windows 11 is putting increasingly sophisticated choices (and risks) into user hands.For administrators, this means a constant tug of war between enabling productivity and enforcing compliance. For end users, the landscape grows both more empowering and more perilous—each toggle a Pandora’s box of possibilities and pitfalls.
As features like Click to Do, Recall, and improved search mature, the blending of local intelligence and cloud moderation pushes new boundaries for privacy and usability. Microsoft’s cautious messaging—reminding users how to disable, uninstall, and safeguard—reflects wider cultural shifts in digital trust and user control.
Final Thoughts: Cussing, Clicking, and the Copilot Age
You can tell a lot about a software’s maturity by what its updates celebrate. In KB5055632, the uncensored profanity toggle and stylus customizations share equal billing with core bug fixes and compliance nudges. It’s a sign that Windows 11 is evolving not only as a platform but also as a living, breathing tapestry of user demand, corporate responsibility, and—inevitably—a little bit of chaos.For power users, administrators, and the rest of us who occasionally drop our laptops on our toes, the takeaway is clear: progress isn’t always revolutionary. Sometimes, it’s just a cuss word away.
Source: Neowin Windows 11 KB5055632 now lets you type bad words without any filters
Last edited:
