A new Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22509 has been released to Dev Channel after the U.S. holiday on December 2, 2021. This Build bring changes to the Start menu and among other minor improvements.
Browsing the web in Microsoft Edge with Narrator is now easier
Microsoft made some improvements to web browsing with Microsoft Edge and Narrator. Specifically, make typing in edit fields be more faster, when you navigating around the web more useful information is provided, and you will have a more consistent navigation experience with Narrator.
And type in edit fields, such as the address bar become more easier, because the Narrator scan mode will now turn off faster. So, when you press “Ctrl + L” to jump to the address bar on the Microsoft Edge, you should be able to start typing immediately because scan mode will turn off sooner. This improvement will also help when filling in form fields such as typing your name and address in different edit boxes. In addition to making it easier to type into edit fields, they also made it easier to delete in edit fields. Narrator will now read the character that cursor position is at after a character has been deleted. In other words, if the cursor is on the “h” of “hello” and you press delete, Narrator will speck “e”.
You will also get more contextual information when navigating around the web. For example, required radio buttons and edit fields will now be read out as required, and more information about lists including levels and accurate list indices will now be read out.
In addition to getting more information read out, you will have a more consistent navigation experience with Narrator. This includes improvements in heading navigation, a more consistent scan mode navigation experience where scan mode is less likely to loop between items, and a more consistent hyperlink reading experience when navigating forwards and backwards.
The Start menu support three layout
Starting with this Build 22509, you can right-click on Start menu to quickly access Start settings and choose the “More pins” or “Default” and “More recommendations” layout option to show an extra row of either pins or recommendations respectively.
Secondary monitor can show clock and date on Taskbar
When a secondary monitor is connected, your clock and date will now also be displayed on the taskbar of the secondary monitor or monitors for glanceability. (As per MS announcement, this feature it not available to all Insider yet.)
High priority notification will now be shown as stacked
For apps that send notifications for calls, reminders, or alarms that leverage Windows notifications in the OS, 3 high priority notifications will not be shown as stacked and shown at the same time. Means at any given time, you might see up to 4 notifications at the same time – and 3 high priority notification and 1 normal priority notification. (Still, this feature is not available to all Insider yet at the moment.)
Some settings from Control Panel being merged into Settings app
- The “advanced sharing settings” such as Network discovery, File and printer sharing, and public folder sharing to a new page in Settings app under Advanced Network Settings.
2. The device specific pages under Printer & Scanners in Settings to show more information about your printer or scanner directly in Settings when available.
3. Some of the entry points for network and devices settings in Control Panel will now redirect to the corresponding pages in Settings.
4. Added a new option to the Installed Apps page in Settings to sort the list from Name (Z to A), and accordingly, update the previously “Alphabetically” option to now be called Name (A to Z).
Other changes
- If you turn on Bluetooth or Wi-Fi in airplane mode it will remembered. So next time you use airplane more, the radios will reflect your preference and stay on to make it easier to keep listening to headphones and remain connected while travelling.
- Windows Sandbox now supports reboot inside of its virtualized environment (e.g. if you were to click the Restart option under the Power button in Start).
Fixes
[Taskbar]
- The Start, Search, Task View, Widgets, and Chat icons in the Taskbar should no longer be unexpectedly large when the system scaling is set to 125%.
- Pressing the Windows key plus (the number corresponding to an app icon’s position in the Taskbar) should cycle now through the app’s windows if you repeatedly press the number instead of stopping at the last window.
- When Narrator focus is set to the Task View button and the Desktops flyout appears, Narrator will now let you know information about the Desktops.
- Fixed an explorer.exe crash some Insiders were experiencing in recent flights related to updating badges in the Taskbar.
[Input]
- Handwriting should be working again now when the language is set to Chinese.
- Mitigated an issue related to the mouse that was causing some Insiders to experience a bugcheck during hibernation sometimes in recent flights (making it appear as if the computer had rebooted).
- Updated the Chinese Simplified IME candidates to be center aligned with the candidate window height has been customized.
- Fixed touch keyboard invocation in PowerShell so it should work now.
[Windowing]
- Hovering your mouse back and forth between different desktops in Task View will no longer result in the displayed thumbnails and content area unexpectedly shrinking.
- CompactOverlay should be working again in this build (aka the option that some apps use to create a small always on top window).
- Fixed a race condition that was causing explorer.exe to crash sometimes when closing a snap group of 3 or more windows in Task View.
- Removed the unexpected tilt animation when clicking down on a corner of the New Desktop button.
- Made a tweak to address an underlying issue that was causing the context menu to animation down to the mouse instead of away from the mouse when right clicking a Desktop in Task View.
- Fixed a high hitting DWM crash in recent flights.
[Settings]
- Fixed some overlapping text for certain languages on the Installed Apps page in Settings.
- Clicking the Uninstall button when using the Installed Apps page in grid view will now show a confirmation dialog.
- Changed the new ms-settings:installed-apps URI to now be ms-settings:appsfeatures, to address scenarios where existing links expect the latter to lead to the list of installed apps, for example, when selecting the App Settings option after right clicking a UWP app in Start.
[Other]
- Fixed an issue that was causing some Insiders to see error 0x8007001f when trying to upgrade to recent Dev Channel builds.
- Fixed an issue where some PCs are unable to install new builds, or other updates with an error code 0x80070002.
- Fixed an issue causing some devices to roll back with error code 0xc1900101-0x4001c when installing new builds.
- Did some work to help address an issue leading to the Wi-Fi connection getting lost after resuming from sleep.
Known issues
[General]
- Users updating from Builds 22000.xxx, or earlier, to newer Dev Channel builds using the latest Dev Channel ISO, may receive the following warning message: The build you are trying to install is Flight Signed. To continue installing, enable flight signing. If you receive this message, press the Enable button, reboot the PC, and retry the update.
[Start]
- In some cases, you might be unable to enter text when using Search from Start or the Taskbar. If you experience the issue, press WIN + R on the keyboard to launch the Run dialog box, then close it.
[Taskbar]
- The Taskbar will sometimes flicker when switching input methods.
[Search]
- After clicking the Search icon on the Taskbar, the Search panel may not open. If this occurs, restart the “Windows Explorer” process, and open the search panel again.
