Hi all, Yesterday Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 28020.1743 to the Canary Channel. (KB 5081339)

Canary Builds are getting lots of features that earlier showed up in Dev builds

Smooth and fast upgrades on my devices, Happy Upgrades!

What’s new in Canary Build 28020.1743

Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out with toggle on*

[Shared audio (preview) gets more control]

• Shared audio (preview) was first announced last fall, and allows 2 people to share audio between their two capable Bluetooth LE Audio headphones, speakers, earbuds, or hearing aids. With this update Windows now provides individual sliders for each listener which adjusts their volume without affecting the other. You can continue to adjust volume for both listeners at the same time through the main volume controls available through Quick Settings or on-device and keyboard controls.
• You’ll also see a new taskbar indicator while you’re sharing, giving a quick reminder that audio is still being shared. Clicking the indicator is a fast path to open sharing settings to change volume or stop sharing.
• The LE Audio accessory ecosystem also continues to grow. In addition to the accessories announced before, we’re excited to share that the Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 and Buds 4 Pro, Sony WF‑1000XM6, and Xbox Wireless Headset all have support for shared audio!

• Feedback: Share your thoughts in Feedback Hub (WIN + F)under Devices and Drivers > Bluetooth – Audio quality, glitches, choppiness and stuttering.

[Context Menu]

• When right clicking on a .exe, .bat, or .cmd file, the context menu’s “Open” verb will now match the icon associated with the file’s default app.

• Feedback: Share your thoughts in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under File Folders and Online Storage > File Explorer.

[File Explorer]

• Improved reliability of unblocking files downloaded from the internet in order to preview them in File Explorer.

[Feedback Hub]

Introducing the new Feedback Hub, bringing a refreshed, modernized experience available as an app update today for Insiders in Dev and Canary.

What’s new in Feedback Hub

• Simpler feedback submission flow: Feedback is now submitted using a single unified template, with the added ability to search categories. The feedback form itself has been modernized enabling for faster iteration and future improvements.
• Simpler navigation: My Feedback now lives directly in the navigation pane, and Community feedback (formerly All feedback) makes it easier to discover and engage with feedback from others. The Announcements page has been removed to focus more on giving and exploring feedback. You can still find announcements on the Windows Insider Blog.
• New compliment feedback type: Call out what’s working well.
• Private or public feedback: Choose whether your feedback is visible to the Insider community.
• New focused feedback experience: a new smaller Feedback Hub surface, making it easier to provide quick, in-the-moment feedback. You can expand to the full Feedback Hub experience by pressing the button in the upper right corner.

• Improved screenshot capture and review tooling: making it easier to capture and include visuals when sharing feedback.

Feedback: Your feedback helps shape what comes next, so try out the new experience and share your thoughts in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Apps > Feedback Hub.

source: Windows Blogs

Hi all, yesterday Microsoft released Windows Insider Preview Build 29550.1000 to the Windows 11 Insider Canary Channel on the optional 29500 build series.

A few glitches spotted on my Surface 13inch for Business:

• Wifi disappearing caused by the ‘WLAN AutoConfig’ service crashing, causing wifi to disappear from the action center if you run into this just start the service again to restore wifi for now (Feedback Hub: https://aka.ms/AA108g1p)
  

One of my favorite features on Copilot+, Recall is having a hard time to get started after a reboot, patience is key here it does start after a while of showing ‘something went wrong, please try again later’ (Feedback Hub: https://aka.ms/AA1088m1)

Happy Upgrades! Don’t forget to file any issues using the Feedback Hub!

What’s new in Canary Build 29550.1000

Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out with toggle on*

• This update includes platform changes in moving to a new active development build.

[Emoji]

• The Emoji 16.0 release introduces a small thoughtfully curated set of new emojis, one from each major category. Each emoji carries timeless symbolism and practical versatility. These new emojis now appear in the emoji panel.

[Camera Settings]

• You can control pan and tilt for supported cameras in the Settings app. The controls appear under Settings> Bluetooth & devices > Cameras, in the “Basic settings” section for your selected camera.

[Power]

• Changes to global power settings (for example, Display, Sleep, Hibernate timeouts, Power/Sleep button, and lid close actions) from Settings are now applied to all power plans. This should help improve persistence of chosen settings.

[File Explorer]

• You can now use voice typing (Windows key plus H) when renaming files in File Explorer.

[Settings]

• Improved performance of loading Settings Home.
• Improved Settings reliability when navigating to Privacy & Security.
• Improved reliability of updating necessary components when prompted under System > Advanced > File Explorer.
• Improved reliability of configuring custom tools in Bluetooth & Devices > Wheel.

[Nearby Sharing]

• Improved the reliability of sending larger files using nearby sharing.

[Other]

• Improved reliability of running sfc /scannow.

source: Windows Blogs

Hi all, yesterday Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 28020.1737 to the Canary Channel. (KB 5079452)

A quick and smooth update for the Canary Channel devices on the 28020 builds

What’s new in Canary Build 28020.1737

Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out with toggle on*

[Input]

• Pen settings: we have made refinements to the Pen settings page including small changes to the options for the pen tail button. A new option, “Same as Copilot key”, enables the pen tail button to launch the same app as the Copilot key.

Feedback: Share your thoughts in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Devices and Drivers > Bluetooth – Keyboards, Mice, and Pens.

source: Windows Blogs

Hi all, last Friday Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 28020.1673 to the Canary Channel. (KB 5077240)

QMR (Quick Machine Recovery) is here, I was in the private preview for this feature, one of the great new resiliency features.

What’s new in Canary Build 28020.1673

Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out with toggle on*

[Emoji]

• The Emoji 16.0 release introduces a small thoughtfully curated set of new emojis, one from each major category. Each emoji carries timeless symbolism and practical versatility. These new emojis now appear in the emoji panel.

[Backup & Restore]

• The first sign-in restore experience is now part of Windows Backup for Organizations, bringing this restore capability to more device types. This experience restores user settings and Microsoft Store apps automatically at first sign-in on Microsoft Entra hybrid joined devices, Cloud PCs, and multi‑user environments. This capability helps create a consistent setup process during device refreshes, upgrades, or migrations.

[Quick Machine Recovery]

• Quick Machine Recovery (QMR) now turns on automatically for enterprise managed Windows Professional devices, as well as Windows Professional devices that are not domain-joined. These devices receive the same recovery features available to Windows Home users. For domain-joined devices, QMR stays off unless it is enabled by the organization.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• A built‑in network speed test is now available from the taskbar. You can open it from the Wi‑Fi or Cellular Quick Settings, or by right-clicking the network icon in the system tray. The speed test opens in the default browser and measures Ethernet, Wi‑Fi, and cellular connections. This feature helps check network performance and troubleshoot issues.

[Accounts]

• The account menu on the Start menu now includes a new option that directs you to the benefits page, making it easier to explore and manage your Microsoft account benefits.

[Camera Settings]

• You can control pan and tilt for supported cameras in the Settings app. The controls appear under Settings> Bluetooth & devices > Cameras, in the “Basic settings” section for your selected camera.

[Widgets]

• Widget Settings now open as a full‑page experience in the Widgets app instead of opening in a dialog.

[Search on Taskbar]

• Group headers now show the number of results, so you can quickly see when more results are available. Select a group header to see all results for that group and hide results from other groups.
• You can preview search results by hovering over a result and selecting Preview to see the content without opening it.

[Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT)]

• This update adds support for Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) on Windows 11 Arm64 devices. IT administrators can now install and use tools such as Active Directory Domain Services and Lightweight Directory Services Tools, Active Directory Certificate Services Tools, Server Manager, Group Policy Management Tools, DNS Server Tools, and DHCP Server Tools. These tools are available as optional features and can be installed through Settings > System > Optional Features or from Control Panel > Programs > Turn Windows features on or off.

[File Explorer]

• We’re continuing to make improvements to the dark mode experience in File Explorer. You will now see a consistent dark mode experience in the Folder Options dialog.

• Addressed an issue where all File Explorer open windows and tabs might unexpectedly jump to Desktop or Home.

[Settings]

• Improved reliability of configuring options in Settings > Bluetooth & Devices > Wheel.

[Nearby Sharing]

• Improved the reliability of sending larger files using nearby sharing.

source: Windows Blogs