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Available on this website, on YouTube, and wherever you find your podcasts, First Person is the show where we meet the most interesting people in IT, and learn from them what makes them tick by focusing only on their firsts. First job, first great boss, first time they realized IT was the industry for them – first failure or first pet. It’s amazing what we can learn from interesting people talking about serious things in a not-too-serious way.

To get you started we are launching with no fewer than five great episodes, available to watch below, as a video series, on YouTube, and as a podcast.

New episodes drop every Monday, so subscribe now on your preferred platform. And if you are one of the most interesting people in IT, let us know by signing up for the Computerworld Contributor Network, or emailing me at [email protected].

(And if you like unvarnished truths and real-world lived experience from IT professionals and leaders, check out our First Person blog on CIO.com).

First Person: Dr CJ Meadows – Executive Chairman – The Tiger Centre

We meet Dr CJ Meadows – from the US, based in Singapore, having worked around the world from Japan to India and beyond. An accountant by training and IT pro by practice, CJ is an entrepreneur, consultant, and educator who runs a not-for-profit using tech to bring access to education to excluded folks. We spoke about how her career (and life) path has never been linear or conventional. We discussed how the future of work will require leaders who can use design thinking to focus on solving new and real problems rather than building the shiniest tech. She explained how her best bosses showed empathy and support, and that those same skills are useful in family and personal life make for great business success. CJ ends with some great lessons for life: follow your own path, and try not to kill each other. Words to live by.

First Person meets Dr CJ Meadows First Person Meets… Paul Preiss – CEO and Founder of the Iasa

We meet Paul Preiss, the CEO and founder of the IASA, the not-for-profit professional association for all business technology architects. In our conversation Paul describes himself as unbelievably passionate person about everything he does, personal and professional, and how that helped him steer and build a storied career in technology. He describes how he went from doing a degree in Japanese, to what he describes as his calling: IT. His first roles in development, moving to become an architect with Dell, and on to great success. Paul tells us some of the things he learnt along the way, outlines his failures and what he learnt from them, as well as introducing us to some of the great leaders who helped shape him and his career.

First Person meets Paul Preiss First Person Meets… Jim Wilt – CTO | Chief Architect | Distinguished Architect – WVE

We meet Jim Wilt, a voraciously curious CTO, distinguished chief architect and engineering advocate. Jim’s enjoying a stellar career with roles as CTO, CDO and chief architect across a multitude of enterprise organizations. In this conversation we learn about his success and failures, and how he may have learnt more from the latter. He takes us from being inspired by a Disney movie to learn to code on paper because he couldn’t afford access to a computer, to working in medical research and winning prestigious awards for huge organizations. He describes a great boss in McDonalds who taught him the value of giving your best to everything you do, including the story of the janitor at NASA who sent a man to the Moon. Jim shares how he needed to be convinced of his own expertise, and shares the view that material success follows passion and focus – don’t waste your time being safe.

First Person meets Jim Wilt First Person Meets… Arno Schilperoord – Director Global Architecture & Digital Innovation at The HEINEKEN Company

We meet Arno Schilperoord, a global leader for Heineken who believes that coding is magic and poetry, offering the opportunity to create something from nothing and infinite possibility. Arno tells us how studying physics and using computer models and writing computer code to help in the analysis was his way into IT. He says that in IT everybody was learning things for the first time, and explains how designing resilient high-performance solutions was just a small step from his current practice of architecture. Arno tells us that great bosses are able to spot and resolve problems early, and that great leadership isn’t just about technical expertise, it’s about awareness, timing, and creating a culture of high performance and creating an environment where people feel safe and feel supported.

First Person meets Arno Schilperoord First Person: David Jones – Chief Architect – WVE

We meet David Jones – a chief architect, CTO and CIO who describes his work as elevating business technology strategy through architectural excellence. David introduces himself as someone who loves collaborating, doesn’t do politics and is always honest. He tells us how he got started by choosing to study electrical engineering inspired by his brother and a French pen pal, and espouses the value of practical, in-industry training over academic learning (although he returned to his own school to teach). David tells us how he was supported to accelerate his career by studying bleeding edge tech whilst he was working in an operational business, and how that taught him a valuable architectural lesson: the best solution for the organization you are in may not always be the most current technical solution. David’s message to those starting out is to follow your passions, learn, and be open and curious – you never know where life will take you.

First Person meets David Jones

Windows 11 24H2 has been released, but behind the scenes, Microsoft is constantly working to improve the newest version of Windows. The company frequently rolls out public preview builds to members of its Windows Insider Program, allowing them to test out — and even help shape — upcoming features.

Skip to the latest builds

The Windows Insider program is divided into four channels:

• The Canary Channel is where platform changes (such as major updates to the Windows kernel and new APIs) are previewed. These changes are not tied to a particular Windows release and may never ship at all. Little documentation is provided, and builds are likely to be very unstable. This channel is best for highly technical users.
• The Dev Channel is where new features are introduced for initial testing, regardless of which Windows release they’ll eventually end up in. This channel is best for technical users and developers and builds in it may be unstable and buggy.
• In the Beta Channel, you’ll get more polished features that will be deployed in the next major Windows release. This channel is best for early adopters, and Microsoft says your feedback in this channel will have the most impact.
• The Release Preview Channel typically doesn’t see action until shortly before a new feature update is rolled out. It’s meant for final testing of an upcoming release and is best for those who want the most stable builds.

The Beta and Release Preview Channels also receive bug-fix builds for the currently shipping version of Windows 11. See “How to preview and deploy Windows 10 and 11 updates” for more details about the four channels and how to switch to a different channel.

Not everyone can participate in the Windows 11 Insider program, because the new operating system has more stringent system requirements than Windows 10. If your PC fails to meet the minimum hardware requirements for Windows 11, you cannot join the Windows 11 Insider Program. (See “How to check if your PC can run Windows 11.”)

Below you’ll find information about the Windows 11 preview builds that have been announced by Microsoft in the past six months. (For the Release Preview Channel, we cover builds released for the current version of Windows 11, not for earlier versions.) For each build, we’ve included the date of its release, which Insider channel it was released to, a summary of what’s in the build, and a link to Microsoft’s announcement about it.

Note: If you’re looking for information about updates being rolled out to all Windows 11 users, not previews for Windows Insiders, see “Windows 11: A guide to the updates.”

The latest Windows 11 Insider preview builds Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.4520

Release date: June 27, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get new features being rolled out gradually, including 1Password passkey integration in beta.

The same group also gets a variety of bug fixes rolled out gradually, including one for a bug in which File Explorer Home crashed, potentially also making File Explorer crash on launch, since Home is the default section for File Explorer.

There are seven known issues in this build, including one in which using touch to navigate the new Start menu may not work reliably. For example, it currently does not support the swipe-up gesture.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.4520.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5670

Release date: June 27, 2025

Released to: Dev Channel

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get new features being rolled out gradually, including 1Password passkey integration in beta.

The same group also gets a variety of bug fixes rolled out gradually, including one for a bug in which File Explorer Home crashed, potentially also making File Explorer crash on launch, since Home is the default section for File Explorer.

Everyone in the Dev Channel gets two bug fixes, including one that addresses the Windows Vista boot sound playing instead of the Windows 11 boot sound.

There are seven known issues in this build, including one in which using touch to navigate the new Start menu may not work reliably. For example, it currently does not support the swipe-up gesture.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5670.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.4452

Release date: June 23, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, Copilot+ PCs get a new Windows Recall homepage, which shows you your most recent snapshots so you can quickly return to what you were previously doing, and also displays the top three apps and websites you have spent the most time on in the past 24 hours.

In addition, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get new features being rolled out gradually, including the option to move the hardware indicators for brightness, volume, airplane mode, and virtual desktops to different positions on your screen.

Some additional improvements are being gradually rolled out to the same group, including the addition of a Boolean to the Configure Start Pins policy to allow admins to apply Start menu pins once. This means that a user will receive admin pins on day 0 but can then make any changes to their Start pinned layout and have those safeguarded. These changes can be optionally applied through the existing configuration service provider (CSP).

A handful of bug fixes are rolling out to the same group, including one that addresses an issue in which File Explorer Home only showed a single folder (like Desktop) and nothing else for some people.

Several bugs have been fixed for everyone in the Beta Channel, including one in which the Windows Vista boot sound played instead of the Windows 11 boot sound.

There are 10 known issues in this build, including one in which after you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not prevent you from getting future Beta Channel updates, which will resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.4452.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5661

Release date: June 23, 2025

Released to: Dev Channel

In this build, Copilot+ PCs get a new Windows Recall homepage, which shows you your most recent snapshots so you can quickly return to what you were previously doing, and also displays the top three apps and websites you have spent the most time on in the past 24 hours.

In addition, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get new features being rolled out gradually, including the option to move the hardware indicators for brightness, volume, airplane mode, and virtual desktops to different positions on your screen.

The same group also gets a variety of bug fixes rolled out gradually, including one for a bug in which the File Explorer Home only showed a single folder (like Desktop) and nothing else for some people.

Everyone in the Dev Channel gets several bug fixes, including for one in which the Windows Vista boot sound played instead of the Windows 11 boot sound.

There are 10 known issues in this build, including one in which after you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26200. This will not prevent you from getting future Dev Channel updates, which will resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5661.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27881 

Release date: June 19, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

This build introduces speech recapto Narrator. It lets you keep track of what Narrator has said and offers access to it for quick reference. With it, you can quickly access spoken content, follow along with live transcription, and copy what Narrator last said, using keyboard shortcuts.

A number of bugs have also been fixed, including one in which File Explorer crashed when the user tapped the View button using touch.

There are four known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27881.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.4482 (KB5060829)

Release date: June 19, 2025

Released to: Release Preview Channel

This build gradually rolls out a number of new features, including automatic icon resizing in the taskbar to fit more apps, and a new Screen Curtain feature that blacks out the screen while Narrator reads content aloud. Also new is the ability add custom words to the dictionary in voice access.

In addition, several bug fixes are being immediately rolled out, including one that improves the Copilot key’s reliability and resolves an issue that prevented users from restarting Copilot after using the key.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.4482.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.4441

Release date: June 13, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those with Copilot+ PCs in the European Economic area get the option to export their Recall snapshots to be shared with third-party apps and websites. When they open Recall for the first time and opt into saving snapshots, they will be shown their unique Recall export code. The Recall export code will be needed if they ever choose to export their Recall snapshots to share with a trusted app or website in the future.

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get a variety of new features being gradually rolled out, including a bigger clock with seconds in the notification center.

The same group also gets a variety of bug fixes rolled out gradually, including one for an issue in which folders opened outside of File Explorer would open it in a new File Explorer tab, but the tab wasn’t put in focus.

There are nine known issues in this build, including one in which after you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not prevent you from getting future Beta Channel updates, which will resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.4441.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5651

Release date: June 13, 2025

Released to: Dev Channel

In this build, Copilot+ PCs get agents that can help make it easier to find and change settings on PCs. Rather than dig through settings, you’ll be able to simply describe what you need help with like, “how to control my PC by voice” or “my mouse pointer is too small” and an agent will recommend the right steps you can take to address the issue.

In addition, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get a variety of new features being gradually rolled out, including a bigger clock with seconds in the notification center.

The same group also gets a variety of bug fixes rolled out gradually, including one for an issue in which folders opened outside of File Explorer would open it in a new File Explorer tab, but the tab wasn’t put in focus.

There are 13 known issues in this build, including one in which after you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26200. This will not prevent you from getting future Dev Channel updates, which will resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5651.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.4250 

Release date: June 9, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get a variety of new features being gradually rolled out, including a larger scrollable Start menu. The menu automatically resizes itself according to the size of your screen, and offers two views, category and grid. In addition, the “Search permissions” and “Searching Windows” settings pages have been combined so you can access all the Windows Search settings under a single page via Settings > Privacy & security > Search.

The same group also gets a variety of bug fixes rolled out gradually, including one for a bug in which input did not work for some Insiders, including when typing into Search, and with the Chinese pinyin IME candidate window, clipboard history, and the emoji panel.

For everyone in the Beta Channel, the build fixes a bug in which some people might have seen severe discoloration when connecting their PC to some older Dolby Vision displays.

There are nine known issues in this build, including one in which after you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not prevent you from getting future Beta Channel updates, which will resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.4250.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5641

Release date: June 9, 2025

Released to: Dev Channel

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get a variety of new features being gradually rolled out, including a larger scrollable Start menu. The menu automatically resizes itself according to the size of your screen, and offers two views, category and grid. In addition, the “Search permissions” and “Searching Windows” settings pages have been combined so you can access all the Windows Search settings under a single page via Settings > Privacy & security > Search.

The same group also gets a variety of bug fixes rolled out gradually, including one for a bug in which input did not work for some Insiders, including when typing into Search, and with the Chinese pinyin IME candidate window, clipboard history, and the emoji panel.

For everyone in the Dev Channel, the build fixes a bug in which some people might have seen severe discoloration when connecting their PC to some older Dolby Vision displays.

There are 12 known issues in this build, including one in which after you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26200. This will not prevent you from getting future Dev Channel updates, which will resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5641.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27871 

Release date: June 4, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

In this build, IT administrators can use Microsoft Intune to control the energy saver settings on Windows 11 PCs through group policies and MDM configurations.

A number of bugs have also been fixed, including one in which when Virtualization Based Security was enabled, applications dependent on virtualization, such as VMware Workstation, lost the ability to run unless the “Windows Hypervisor Platform” Windows optional component was installed on the system.

There are two known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27871.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.4230 

Release date: June 2, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get a new dedicated settings page for quick machine recovery, which can be found under System > Recovery > Quick machine recovery. This makes it easier to manage recovery options directly from Settings. This is being gradually rolled out.

A variety of bug fixes are being rolled out gradually to the same group, including one addressing a bug that caused File Explorer to crash performing various actions, such as when deleting files. 

For everyone in the Beta Channel, a bug is fixed in which when Virtualization Based Security was enabled, applications dependent on virtualization, such as VMware Workstation, would lose the ability to run unless the “Windows Hypervisor Platform” Windows optional component is installed on the system.

There are nine known issues in this build, including one in which after you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not prevent you from getting future Beta Channel updates, which will resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.4230.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5622 

Release date: June 2, 2025

Released to: Dev Channel

In this build, those with Copilot+ PCs get a new action in Click to Do, Draft with Copilot in Word. Select text, press the Windows key and click simultaneously, and choose Draft with Copilot in Word. Copilot will create an initial draft based on the text.

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get new features being rolled out gradually, including quick machine recovery, designed to help Windows 11 devices recover from widespread boot issues by applying remediations through the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE).

The same group also gets several bug fixes, including for an issue in which File Explorer crashed when performing various actions, such as deleting files.

There are eight known issues in this build, including one in which taskbar icons may appear small even though the setting to show smaller taskbar buttons is configured as “never.”

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5622.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27868 

Release date: May 29, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

In this build, voice access has been redesigned to help you more easily discover and learn about new features. You can launch or dismiss this new experience from the settings menu.

Several bugs have been fixed, including one that was causing pen input to be non-responsive on some PCs.

There are six known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27868.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.4161 

Release date: May 23, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

This build begins the rollout of a new Click-to-Do action that uses Microsoft’s Copilot AI assistant to rewrite or elaborate on selected text. To get started, select text, then press the Windows key and click, then choose the Draft with Copilot in Word action. (This feature requires a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.)

In addition, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several new features, including the ability to add, remove, and rearrange lock screen widgets such as Weather, Watchlist, Sports, Traffic, and more. Any widget that supports the small sizing option can be added here. To customize your lock screen widgets, navigate to Settings > Personalization > Lock screen. Note that these features are being rolled out gradually.

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates also get a variety of bug fixes rolled out gradually, including one for a bug in which the Describe image feature of narrator wasn’t working.

There are nine known issues in this build, including one in which after you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not prevent you from getting future Beta Channel updates, which will resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.4161.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27863 

Release date: May 23, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

This build adds support for post-quantum signature algorithm ML-DSA in NCrypt and BCrypt cryptography API surfaces, as well as Crypt32 certificate APIs. Three variants are supported, ML-DSA 44, 65, and 87. 

Several bugs have been fixed, including one in which Windows Sandbox was not working and showed error 0xc0370106 on launch.

There are six known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27863.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.4151

Release date: May 19, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several new features, including AI actions in File Explorer, which offers a set of AI-related tools when you right-click a file. For now, the only AI tools available are for image files, including Bing Visual Search for searching the web using an image instead of text, as well as several AI-related image-editing capabilities. Eventually, other features will be added, such as summarizing documents using Copilot. These features, including the ones related to images, are being rolled out gradually.

The same group also gets a variety of bug fixes being rolled out gradually, including one that addresses a bug in which if File Explorer was maximized and you clicked the new tab button, it would unmaximize the window.

There are 12 known issues in this build, including one in which after you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not prevent you from getting future Beta Channel updates, which will resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.4151.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5603

Release date: May 19, 2025

Released to: Dev Channel

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several new features, including AI actions in File Explorer, which offers a set of AI-related tools when you right-click a file. For now, the only AI tools available are for image files, including Bing Visual Search for searching the web using an image instead of text, as well as several AI-related image-editing capabilities. Eventually, other features will be added, such as summarizing documents using Copilot. These features, including the ones related to images, are being rolled out gradually.

The same group also gets a variety of bug fixes being rolled out gradually, including one that addresses a bug in which if File Explorer was maximized and you clicked the new tab button, it would unmaximize the window.

There are 13 known issues in this build, including one in which after you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26200. This will not prevent you from getting future Dev Channel updates, which will resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5603.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.4188 (KB5058499)

Release date: May 19, 2025

Released to: Release Preview Channel

This build gradually rolls out a wide variety of new features, including a new Copilot action in Click to Do. When you highlight text or an image, Click to Do offers an Ask Copilot option. Selecting it opens Microsoft Copilot with your content in the prompt box. You can send the selected text or image directly to the Copilot app to complete your prompt.

In addition, IT admins can manage energy saver settings on Windows 11 PCs through group policies and MDM configurations using Microsoft Intune. This feature helps extend battery life by limiting background activity, dimming the screen, and contributing to environmental sustainability. To configure the policy, go to the Local Group Policy under Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > Power Management > Energy Saver Settingsand select Enable Energy Saver to Always Be On.

A number of bug fixes are also being gradually rolled out, including one for a bug in which Settings crashed at times when loading information about Bluetooth devices.

Several bugs are being fixed immediately, including one in which some devices with BitLocker on removable drives encountered a blue screen error after resuming from sleep or hybrid-booting.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.4188.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27858

Release date: May 16, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

This build includes a new system tray icon on the taskbar that makes it easier to find and use emojis, GIFs, Kaomoji, etc. It also fixes a variety of bugs, including an explorer.exe crash related to snap layouts, which happened when dragging a window or hovering over the maximize button in a window.

There are four known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27858.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3964

Release date: May 12, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

This build introduces a new agent in Settings on Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCS. Using it, you can describe what you need help with, such as “how to control my PC by voice” or “my mouse pointer is too small,” and the agent will recommend steps you can take to address the issue. Support for AMD- and Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs is coming soon.

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get new features being rolled out gradually, including a new FAQs section on the Settings > System > Aboutpage to provide help with using your PC.

The same group also gets a variety of bug fixes being rolled out gradually, including for an issue that caused live captions to crash and another that could make some apps like Word hang when trying to print.

There are 12 known issues in this build, including one in which after you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not prevent you from getting future Beta Channel updates, which will resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3964.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5600

Release date: May 12, 2025

Released to: Dev Channel

This build introduces a new set of intelligent text actions using Click to Do on AMD- and Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs. You can Use Win key + mouse-click or Win key + Q to select a text block and drag to select the text that you want. You’ll see options to summarize, create a bulleted list, or to help you rewrite your text so it sounds more causal, more formal, or more polished.

A wide variety of bug fixes are being rolled out gradually to those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates, including for an issue that caused File Explorer Home to hang when loading and another that caused live captions to crash.

There are 10 known issues in this build, including one in which after you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26200. This will not prevent you from getting future Dev Channel updates, which will resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5600.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3950

Release date: May 5, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get new features being rolled out gradually, including one that gives IT administrators the ability to use Microsoft Intune to control energy savings on Windows 11 PCs through group policies and MDM configurations.

The same group also gets a variety of bug fixes, including for a bug in which Windows’ startup sound would not play, even though it was enabled.

There are nine known issues in this build, including one in which after you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not prevent you from getting future Beta Channel updates, which will resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3950.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5581

Release date: May 5, 2025

Released to: Dev Channel

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get new features being rolled out gradually, including one that gives IT administrators the ability to use Microsoft Intune to control energy savings on Windows 11 PCs through group policies and MDM configurations.

The same group gets several new bug fixes, including for a bug in which Windows’ startup sound would not play, even though it was enabled.

There are seven known issues in this build, including one in which live captions have been crashing.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5570.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3941

Release date: April 25, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several new features and minor improvements, including a new profanity filter setting for voice typing. This group will also have several bugs fixed, including one that caused apps to appear blank, and another in which Windows Hello facial recognition would not work for login for some Insiders. The new feature and bug fixes are gradually rolling out.

Everyone in the Beta Channel gets a fix for a bug that caused Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) to not work and the option “Fix problems using Windows Update” option under Settings > Recovery to also not work.

There are 13 known issues in this build, including one in which after you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not prevent you from getting future Beta Channel updates, which will resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3941.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5570

Release date: April 25, 2025

Released to: Dev Channel

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several new features and minor improvements, including a new profanity filter setting for voice typing. This group will also have several bugs fixed, including one that caused apps to appear blank, and another in which Windows Hello facial recognition would not work for login for some Insiders.

Everyone in the Dev Channel  gets a fix for a bug that caused Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) to not work and the option “Fix problems using Windows Update” option under Settings > Recovery to also not work.

There are six known issues in this build, including one in which Windows Sandbox may fail to launch with a 0x800705b4 error. If this occurs, try reinstalling Sandbox by unchecking Sandbox under “Turn Windows features on or off” to uninstall it, then reboot, go back to “Turn Windows features on or off” and check Sandbox to reinstall it and reboot again.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5570.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27842

Release date: April 23, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

This build previews a new UI that is used when a PC unexpectedly restarts. It also fixes a variety of bugs, including one in which the Smart App Control icon wasn’t displaying correctly in the Windows Security app.

There are four known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27842.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5562

Release date: April 21, 2025

Released to: Dev Channel

In this build, those with Copilot+ PCs get two new text actions in Click to Do, including the “Practice in Reading Coach” Click to Do action that can increase fluency and pronunciation.

In addition, those in the Dev Channel who have turned a toggle on to receive the latest updates get new features being rolled out gradually, including several improvements in voice access and to the notification widgets settings page, so that they can control the number of notifications per feed or dashboard. 

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned a toggle on to receive the latest updates get several bugs fixed, including one that was causing Start menu to crash when creating folders. Everyone in the Dev Channel gets additional bug fixes, including for a bug that didn’t allow some apps like Spotify to install from the Microsoft Store.

There are 14 known issues in this build, including one in which Windows Recall is unable to automatically save snapshots, and the setting can’t be turned on in Settings.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5562.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3872

Release date: April 21, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those with Copilot+ PCs get two new text actions in Click to Do, including the “Practice in Reading Coach” Click to Do action that can increase fluency and pronunciation.

In addition, those in the Beta Channel who have turned a toggle on to receive the latest updates get new features being rolled out gradually, including several improvements in voice access.

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned a toggle on to receive the latest updates get several bug fixes, including one that was causing Start menu to crash when creating folders. Everyone in the Beta Channel gets one bug fix, for a bug that didn’t allow some apps like Spotify to install from the Microsoft Store

There are 13 known issues in this build, including one in which after you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not prevent you from getting future Beta Channel updates, which will resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3872.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5551

Release date: April 11, 2025

Released to: Dev Channel

This build begins the rollout of natural language search for settings in the Windows search box on the taskbar for users with Copilot+ PCs. For example, you can use your own words to find settings like “change my theme” or “about my PC.” You no longer need to remember the exact setting name you are looking for.

In addition, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get new features being rolled out gradually, including one in which you can read content such as full articles, slideshows, and videos directly within your MSN feed in the widgets board.

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several bug fixes, including for a bug that caused File Explorer Home to crash for some Insiders. Everyone in the Dev Channel gets a fix for Windows Sandbox, which was not working.

There are 12 known issues in this build, including one in which Windows Recall is unable to automatically save snapshots, and the setting can’t be turned on in Settings.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5551.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3863

Release date: April 11, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

This build begins the rollout of natural language search for settings in the Windows search box on the taskbar for users with Copilot+ PCs. For example, you can use your own words to find settings like “change my theme” or “about my PC.” You no longer need to remember the exact setting name you are looking for.

In addition, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get new features being rolled out gradually, including one in which you can read content such as full articles, slideshows, and videos directly within your MSN feed in the widgets board.

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned a toggle on to receive the latest updates get several bug fixes, including for a bug that caused File Explorer Home to crash for some Insiders. Everyone in the Beta Channel gets a fix for Windows Sandbox, which was not working.

There are 14 known issues in this build, including one in which after you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not prevent you from getting future Beta Channel updates, which will resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3863.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.3902 (KB5055627)

Release date: April 10, 2025

Released to: Release Preview Channel

This build gradually rolls out several new features for Copilot+ PCs, including Windows Recall (preview) in which you can quickly find and get back to any app, website, image, or document by describing its content. To use Recall, you need to opt in to saving snapshots, which are images of your activity, and enroll in Windows Hello to confirm your presence so only you can access them. Those with Copilot+ PCs can also search by describing what they’re looking for, without having to remember file names, exact words in file content, or settings names. 

A number of new features are being rolled out immediately for all PCs, not just Copilot+ PCs, including one in which you get an estimated time for how long your PC will be offline to install updates from Windows Update. Several bugs are also being fixed, including one in which some content pages with JPEG images were not displaying.

There is one known issue in this build, in which Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) may not work, and you may not be able to use the “Fix problems using Windows Update” option under Settings > Recovery.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.3902.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5518

Release date: April 3, 2025

Released to: Dev Channel

Those in the Dev Channel who have opted to receive the latest updates get several new features that are being rolled out gradually, including taskbar icon scaling — when your taskbar starts to get crowded with pinned or open apps, the icons automatically scale down to a smaller size. This lets you keep more apps visible and accessible without having to use a secondary menu.

Dev Channel users who have opted to receive the latest updates get three bug fixes, one in which external graphics cards connected over Thunderbolt were unexpectedly not discoverable in some cases; another in which Hyper-V Manager erroneously reported 0% CPU usage for VMs in some scenarios; and another for those with Copilot+ PCs who saw semantic search stop working until their PCs were rebooted.

There are 11 known issues in this build, including one in which Recall is unable to automatically save snapshots, and the setting can’t be turned on in Settings.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5518.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3671

Release date: April 3, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

Those in the Beta Channel who agreed to receive the latest updates get several new features being rolled out gradually, including taskbar icon scaling — when your taskbar starts to get crowded with pinned or open apps, the icons automatically scale down to a smaller size. This lets you keep more apps visible and accessible without having to use a secondary menu.

Those in the Beta Channel who get the latest updates get two bug fixes, one in which external graphics cards connected over Thunderbolt were unexpectedly not discoverable in some cases, and another in which Hyper-V Manager erroneously reported 0% CPU usage for VMs in some scenarios.

There are 12 known issues in this build, including one in which after you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not prevent you from getting future Beta Channel updates, which will resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3671.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5516

Release date: March 28, 2025

Released to: Dev Channel

This build includes improved search tools for AMD and Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs. When searching in File Explorer, the Windows search box on the taskbar, or in Settings, you can type plain-English searches without having to remember file names, exact words in file content, or settings names. In addition, those with AMD and Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs can find photos in the cloud by using plain-English searches.

Those who have turned on the toggle to receive changes as soon as they come out get a speech recap in Narrator which keeps track of what Narrator has spoken and access it for quick reference. They also get a variety of changes and improvements, including one in which on Copilot+ PCs, they can now access Click to Do from the Start menu and can pin it to Start and the taskbar.

They also receive a variety of bug fixes, including one in which File Explorer was very slow to close for some Insiders when closing it using the X button.

Everyone in the Dev Channel gets a bug fixed in which the toggle to get the latest updates as soon they are available via Settings > Windows Update didn’t render correctly and turned itself off.

There are 13 known issues in this build, including one in which Windows Recall is unable to automatically save snapshots, and the setting can’t be turned on in Settings.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5516.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3653

Release date: March 28, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned a toggle on to receive the latest updates get several new features being rolled out gradually, including a speech recap feature in Narrator that keeps track of what Narrator has spoken and lets you access it for quick reference. There are also a variety of changes and improvements, including one in which on Copilot+ PCs, users can now access Click to Do from the Start menu and can pin it to Start and the taskbar.

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned a toggle on to receive the latest updates get several bug fixes, including for a bug in which the taskbar icons weren’t increasing in size as they should when using your PC in a tablet posture.

Two bugs are fixed for everyone in the Beta Channel, including one in which the toggle to get the latest updates as soon they are available via Settings > Windows Update did not render correctly and automatically turned itself off.

There are 13 known issues in this build, including one in which after you do a PC reset under Settings > System > Recovery, your build version may incorrectly show as Build 26100 instead of Build 26120. This will not prevent you from getting future Beta Channel updates that will resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3653.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27823

Release date: March 26, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

This update, in the words of Microsoft, “includes a small set of general improvements and fixes that improve the overall experience” of using Windows. It also includes new “top cards” under Settings > System > About. Top cards provide an easy way to view your PC’s key specifications—processor, RAM, storage, and GPU.

The build fixes a variety of bugs, including one in which Settings could crash when interacting with Bluetooth & Devices > Cameras.

There are three known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27823.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3585

Release date: March 24, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

This build includes improved search tools for AMD and Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs. When searching in File Explorer, the Windows search box on the taskbar, or in Settings, you can type plain-English searches without having to remember file names, exact words in file content, or settings names. In addition, those with AMD and Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs can find photos in the cloud by using plain-English searches.

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several bug fixes, including for a bug in which File Explorer was very slow to close via the X button.

Two bugs are fixed for everyone in the Beta Channel, including one in which the toggle to get the latest updates as they are available via Settings > Windows Update did not render correctly and automatically turned itself off.

There are 16 known issues in this build, including one in which Windows Recall is unable to automatically save snapshots.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3585.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5510

Release date: March 24, 2025

Released to: Dev Channel

In this build the Dev Channel is jumping ahead to receive 26200 series builds. This means that once you install it, you cannot switch to the Beta Channel. If you are in the Dev Channel and want to switch to the Beta Channel, don’t install this build. Instead, pause updates in Windows Update, switch your channel to the Beta Channel and then un-pause updates.

There are 11 known issues in this build, including one in which Windows Recall is unable to automatically save snapshots, and the setting can’t be turned on in Settings.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5510.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.3624 (KB5053656)

Release date: March 24, 2025

Released to: Release Preview Channel

This build gradually rolls out several new features for Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs, including natural-language search in Windows Search. Just describe what you’re looking for without having to remember specific file names, exact words in file content, or settings names.

In addition, the build includes the same set of improvements and bug fixes as a previous build, Build 26100.3613, such as Natural Language Commanding in voice access, available initially on Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.3624.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27818

Release date: March 19, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

This update, in the words of Microsoft, “includes a small set of general improvements and fixes that improve the overall experience” of using Windows.

The build also fixes a variety of bugs, including one in which Remote Desktop sometimes froze when connecting.

There are two known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27818.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.3613 (KB5053656)

Release date: March 18, 2025

Released to: Release Preview Channel

This build gradually rolls out a number of new features, including Natural Language Commanding in voice access, which lets users speak commands naturally, using filler words and synonyms, rather than rigid, predefined commands. It is available initially on Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs.

Several bug fixes are also being rolled out gradually, including one in which the “see more” (…) menu in the File Explorer command bar opened in the wrong direction in some cases.

A variety of new bug fixes are being rolled out immediately, including one for a bug in which critical PowerShell modules required for device configuration were not executed under Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) policies.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.3613.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3576 

Release date: March 17, 2025

Released to: Dev and Beta Channels

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several new features, including one in which on Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs, you can use natural language commands during voice access, rather than having to remember specific voice commands.

The same group gets several bug fixes, including one addressing a bug for users in managed environments, in which your Windows Recall snapshots would get deleted after installing Build 26120.3380 and after each reboot on that build.

There are 16 known issues in this build, including one in which Recall is unable to automatically save snapshots and the setting can’t be turned on in Settings, and another in which Recall is no longer able to save new snapshots or modify settings.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3576.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27813

Release date: March 12, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

This update, in the words of Microsoft, “includes a small set of general improvements and fixes that improve the overall experience” of using Windows.

The build also fixes two bugs, one which the WDMAud system driver was causing some app crashes, and the other in which Settings > System > Display > Color Management did not always display the expected color profile list for the selected monitor.

There are two known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27813.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3380 

Release date: March 10, 2025

Released to: Dev and Beta Channels

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several new features, including one in which File Explorer displays a new Recommended section that is displayed as a carousel with thumbnail previews. This includes content such as files you frequently use, have recently downloaded, or added to your File Explorer Gallery. Users with a work/school account (Entra ID) will have additional types of recommendations available with this update.

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several bug fixes, including for a bug in which windows.storage.dll led caused some apps to crash when files were opened in them.

There are 10 known issues in this build, including one in which Windows Recall is unable to automatically save snapshots, and the setting can’t be turned on in Settings.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3380.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27808

Release date: March 7, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

In this update, a change is being rolled out in the way Task Manager calculates CPU utilization for the Processes, Performance, and Users pages. Task Manager will now use the standard metrics to display CPU workload consistently across all pages and aligning with industry standards and third-party tools. For backward compatibility, a new optional column called CPU Utility is available (hidden by default) on the Details tab showing the previous CPU value used on the Processes page.

The build also fixes a number of bugs, including one that caused the search window to go blank for some Insiders when searching from the taskbar, due to a background crash.

There are two known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN. In the other, a d3d9.dll crash is causing multiple apps to fail to launch starting with Build 27802 for some Insiders.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27808.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.5015

Release date: February 28, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates will see a new system tray icon on the taskbar, which lets you use emojis, GIFs, Kaomoji, etc. across all apps and surfaces in Windows in addition to using the Win + . keyboard shortcut. This new system tray icon can be changed by right-clicking on the icon to go to taskbar settings page.

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get a number of new bug fixes, including for a bug in which File Explorer Home crashed for some Insiders.

There are four known issues in this build, including one in which File Explorer is very slow to close for some Insiders when closing using the X button. This may also affect the other title bar buttons.

Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.5015.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3360 

Release date: February 28, 2025

Released to: Dev and Beta Channels

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get two new features being gradually rolled out, including one in which Task Manager changes the way it calculates CPU utilization for the Processes, Performance, and Users pages. Task Manager will now use the standard metrics to display CPU workload consistently across all pages and aligning with industry standards and third-party tools. Also being added is the ability to share directly to apps that support sharing in Windows when right-clicking on local files in File Explorer or the desktop.

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several bug fixes, including for a bug which some people experienced Remote Desktop freezes on login, or frequent disconnect.

There are 11 known issues in this build, including one in which Windows Recall is unable to automatically save snapshots, and the setting can’t be turned on in Settings.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3360.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27802

Release date: February 28, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

In this update, new battery icons in Windows 11 communicate the battery status of your PC with a quick glance. Key changes include colored icons to indicate charging states, simplified overlays that don’t block the progress bar, and an option to turn on battery percentage.

The build also fixes several bugs, including one that was causing the login screen to crash when clicking the “sign-in options” link for some Insiders.

There are six known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27802.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3291

Release date: February 21, 2025

Released to: Dev and Beta Channels

In this build, those with Copilot+ PCs can search photos saved in the cloud by using your own words to describe what you’re looking for in the Windows search box on the taskbar.

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several bugs fixed, including one in which switching languages crashed live captions if audio was playing or the microphone was enabled.

There are 11 known issues in this build, including one in the Recall feature in which some users may see a message to “Make sure Recall is saving snapshots,” while the Settings page for Recall shows saving snapshots is enabled. Reboot your device to resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3291.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.3321 (KB5052093)

Release date: February 18, 2025

Released to: Release Preview Channel

This build gradually rolls out a number of new features, including one in which you can share files directly from a jump list on the taskbar, and another in which you can find out more information about a background image by hovering over the image or clicking the “Learn about this picture” icon.

A variety of bug fixes are also being gradually rolled out, including one in which when you enter a URL in the File Explorer address bar, it might not go to the location.

The build also immediately fixes a number of bugs, including one in which Remote Desktop stopped working.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.3321.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3281

Release date: February 14, 2025

Released to: Dev and Beta Channels

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates have the ability to resume working on OneDrive files from your phone (iOS and Android) on your Windows 11 PC with a single click. In addition, when “Restore previous folder windows at logon” is enabled in File Explorer, you can now restore all the extra tabs that you previously had open in each File Explorer window. 

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several bug fixes, including for a bug in which if you tried to reset your password from the login screen, it wouldn’t work due to an underlying crash. Another fix addresses a bug for users who have a Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PC, in which File Explorer search was unresponsive and required a reboot to start working.

There are 12 known issues in this build, including one in the Recall feature in which some users may see a message to “Make sure Recall is saving snapshots,” while the Settings page for Recall shows saving snapshots is enabled. Reboot your device to resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3281.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27788

Release date: February 5, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

This update includes the first in-box public preview of Windows MIDI Services, a complete rewrite of MIDI on Windows for musicians. Windows MIDI Services handles MIDI 2.0 and improves MIDI 1.0 implementation, with automatic translation between the two. It works on 64-bit operating systems on all supported processors, including Arm64.

The build also gradually rolls out the ability to resume working on OneDrive files from your phone (iOS or Android) on your Windows 11 PC with a single click.

The build also fixes several bugs, including one that prevented scanning apps from detecting a connected scanner.

There are six known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27788.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4870

Release date: February 3, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, IT administrators in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as they are available get a new group policy called “Disable Widgets On Lock Screen,” which allows them to disable lock screen widgets without disabling widgets elsewhere on PCs they manage. 

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get several bug fixes, including for a bug in which the Start menu crashed for some Insiders when they interacted with the letters in the apps list.

Several bugs have been fixed for everyone in the Beta Channel, including one in which PCs did not recognize that USB cameras were on after installing the January 2025 security update.

There are three known issues in this build, including one in which the home page of Settings may crash. If you are impacted by this, you should still be able to open specific Settings pages directly by searching for them from the taskbar.

Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4870.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3073

Release date: January 31, 2025

Released to: Dev and Beta Channels

In this build, those who have Copilot+ PCs get a new feature in Windows Search, in which you can use your own words to find photos stored and saved in the cloud by describing what they are, such as “European castles” or “summer picnics.” In addition to photos stored locally on your Copilot+ PC, photos from the cloud will now show up in the search results as well. Exact matches for your keywords within the text of your cloud files will show in the search results.

The build also includes changes being gradually rolled out for all Windows 11 PCs. Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates will see a Settings home page for commercial customers on PCs managed by an IT administrator. The feature will show some existing cards relevant to enterprise-managed PCs like “Recommended settings” and “Bluetooth devices,” as well as two new enterprise-specific device info and accessibility preferences cards. For commercial customers who also use their Microsoft account on their managed PC, there will also be a new accounts card indicating the presence of both work/school and Microsoft account types. 

Those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates also get several bug fixes, including for a bug in which minimized File Explorer windows might not have rendered correctly when restored.

Everyone in the Dev Channel gets several bug fixes, including for one in which the display of some games appeared oversaturated when you used Auto HDR.

There are 18 known issues in this build, including one in the Recall feature in which some users may see a “Make sure Recall is saving snapshots” message while the Settings page for Recall shows saving snapshots is enabled. Reboot your device to resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3073.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27783

Release date: January 29, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

In this update, users signed into Windows with a Microsoft account will be able to view files that have been shared with the account, such as email, Teams chat, etc., in File Explorer. Commercial customers signed in with a Microsoft Entra ID account will also be able to view files that they have shared with others. You can access this feature by launching File Explorer Home and clicking on the ‘Shared’ tab item.

The build also fixes several bugs, including one in which taskbar preview windows sometimes didn’t display when hovering over open apps in the taskbar.

There are four known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27783.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4805

Release date: January 24, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as they are available get a change to Snap in Windows 11 in which inline messaging will now appear when you accidentally invoke the Snap Bar when dragging an app to the top middle of your desktop or Snap Flyout when hovering over the Minimize or Maximize button of an app. This is designed to provide guidance on snapping app windows and educating users on the keyboard shortcuts for quickly snapping app windows in the future.

This group also gets new keyboard shortcuts in Narrator scan mode for quickly jumping to list items and to the beginning or end of large elements such as tables or lists. These changes are gradually rolling out.

There are five known issues in this build, including one in which the Home page of Settings may crash. If you are impacted by this, you should still be able to open specific Settings pages directly by searching for them from the taskbar.

Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4805.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3000

Release date: January 24, 2024

Released to: Dev Channel

In this build, those in the Dev Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get new battery icons, including colored icons to indicate charging states, simplified overlays that don’t block the progress bar, and an option to turn on battery percentage. The same group also gets several bug fixes, including for a bug in File Explorer in which you sometimes would be unable to navigate by entering a path in the address bar. These changes are gradually rolling out.

There are 18 known issues in this build, including one in the Recall feature in which some users may see a message to “Make sure Recall is saving snapshots” while the Settings page for Recall shows saving snapshots is enabled. Reboot your device to resolve this issue.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3000.)

Windows 11 Build 26100.3025 (KB5050094)

Release date: January 21, 2025

Released to: Release Preview Channel

This build gradually rolls out a number of new features, including one in which an icon will appear in the system tray when you use an app that supports Windows Studio Effects. This only occurs on a device that has a neural processing unit (NPU). Select the icon to open the Studio Effects page in Quick Settings.

The update also improves the previews that show when your cursor hovers over apps on the taskbar. In addition, the Windows Mobile Hotspot now supports 6 GHz connections. This new band requires chips that support the feature and updated drivers. 

A variety of bug fixes are also being rolled out, including for a bug in which the Snipping Tool screenshots were distorted when you used two or more monitors that have different display scaling.

The build also immediately rolls out a change in which you will now have a standard Windows 11 taskbar after restoring from a backup via the Windows Setup experience (OOBE) on a new Windows PC.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26100.3025.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4800

Release date: January 17, 2025

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as they are available get a standard Windows 11 taskbar after restoring from a backup via the Windows Setup experience (OOBE) on a new Windows PC. You can still find your apps in the Start menu and Search, and you can pin apps to your taskbar. In addition, the build starts the rollout of the Settings home page for commercial customers on PCs managed by an IT administrator. 

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates get one bug fix, which includes increased support for text scaling in File Explorer, File Open/Save dialogs, and copy dialogs.

There are three known issues in this build, including one in which the Home page of Settings may crash. If you are impacted by this, you should still be able to open specific Settings pages directly by searching for them from the taskbar.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4800.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27774

Release date: January 16, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

This update includes a small set of tweaks that Microsoft says improves the overall experience of Windows 11. In addition, the Administrator protection can now be enabled from Windows Security settings under the Account Protection tab, which allows users to enable the feature without requiring help from IT admins.

The build also fixes several bugs, including one in which accent colored window borders were not displayed when enabled, shadows around windows were not displaying when enabled, and window launching (and other) animations were not showing.

There are three known issues in this build, including one in which Insiders joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into the PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27774.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27768

Release date: January 9, 2025

Released to: Canary Channel

This update includes a small set of general changes that Microsoft says improve the overall experience of Windows 11. It also fixes several bugs, including one in which File Explorer sometimes lost focus on the search box while typing.

There are three known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking “Set up my PIN.”

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27768.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4660

Release date: January 3, 2024

Released to: Beta Channel

In this build, those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates as soon as they are available get labels added to previously unlabeled actions on File Explorer’s context menu such as cut, copy, paste, rename, share, and delete.

Those in the Beta Channel who have turned the toggle on to receive the latest updates also get several bug fixes for issues that impacted File Explorer’s performance and reliability.

Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.4660.)

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27766

Release date: January 3, 2024

Released to: Canary Channel

This update includes a small set of general improvements and fixes that Microsoft says improve the overall experience of Windows 11. It also fixes several bugs, including one in which some Insiders experienced frequent explorer.exe crashes after they clean-installed or reset their PC.

There are two known issues in this build, including one in which if you are joining the Canary Channel on a new Copilot+ PC from the Dev Channel, Release Preview Channel, or retail, you will lose Windows Hello PIN and biometrics to sign into your PC. You should be able to re-create your PIN by clicking Set up my PIN.

(Get more info about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27766.)

Can’t get the staff

Recently we reported on a global Microsoft 365 outage that disrupted Teams and Exchange services. We said that aggressive traffic rerouting was blamed for service failures; with experts warning of architectural brittleness and rising cloud fragility.  

It was that fragility that caught the attention of Computerworld readers, who rushed to ask Smart Answers about one potential cause. We know that IT skills are in short supply even as lots of IT pros are being laid off. But the chat tends to focus on AI skills: we don’t often hear about how hard it is to get data center staff. But it’s a real factor, both in the public cloud sector, and maybe especially for those who are repatriating data back to their own data centers. We hear reports of understaffing in areas such as operations, electrical engineering, and cloud architecture.  

And it’s a problem. According to Smart Answers, being short staffed increases the risk of human error. It leads to maintenance being delayed, less effective remote monitoring, and longer response times when things do go wrong.  

Find out: How can insufficient data center staff contribute to cloud outages?  

Remind me…?

This week Computerworld broke the stunning news that – alongside all the generative-AI silliness – Google’s Gemini has some genuinely practical purposes on Android — if you know what to ask. Our readers latched on to one in particular. Now which one was it..?  

Oh yes: ‘Remember that’. 

‘Remember that’ is a genuinely useful feature, and Smart Answers has an outline of how to use it. Activation, Information Storage, Information Retrieval, and Note Creation. But you don’t need to remember that list – just ask our own useful AI assistant. 

Find out: How do I use Gemini’s “remember that” feature?  

Danger in the shadows

Recently we reported that SAP and IBM were slammed for their roles in a Quebec auto insurance board ERP overhaul fiasco. We said that a Quebec anti-corruption squad raided the organization that commissioned the over-budget ERP overhaul – (SAAQ) the provincial auto insurance board. Investigation into the project continues. 

Of interest to readers of CIO.com was one risk factor for all operators of large scale IT projects: shadow IT. They asked Smart Answers how shadow IT introduces risks such as vulnerabilities to be exploited by bad actors. There are more – but you’ll have to ask Smart Answers to find out.  

Find out: What risks does shadow IT pose to enterprise infrastructure?  

About Smart Answers 

Smart Answers is an AI-based chatbot tool designed to help you discover content, answer questions, and go deep on the topics that matter to you. Each week we send you the three most popular questions asked by our readers, and the answers Smart Answers provides.  

Developed in partnership with Miso.ai, Smart Answers draws only on editorial content from our network of trusted media brands—CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World—and was trained on questions that a savvy enterprise IT audience would ask. The result is a fast, efficient way for you to get more value from our content. 

Google is rolling out Veo 3 to everyone using Vertex AI, which is an ML-testing platform provided by Google Cloud. [...]

Vulnerabilities affecting a Bluetooth chipset present in more than two dozen audio devices from ten vendors can be exploited for eavesdropping or stealing sensitive information. [...]

Cloudflare has implemented end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to its video calling app Orange Meets and open-sourced the solution for transparency. [...]

Recent years have demonstrated a notable shift in the cybersecurity landscape, with Linux systems increasingly targeted by adversaries. Once considered relatively immune to malware threats , Linux servers have seen the emergence of sophisticated attack vectors, including high-profile Linux malware strains such as Cloud Snooper, HiddenWasp, and Tycoon.

Let's Encrypt has announced it will no longer notify users about imminent certificate expirations via email due to high costs, privacy concerns, and unnecessary complexities. [...]

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has revealed that it has observed the notorious cybercrime group Scattered Spider broadening its targeting footprint to strike the airline sector. To that end, the agency said it's actively working with aviation and industry partners to combat the activity and help victims. "These actors rely on social engineering techniques, often impersonating Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

The threat actor behind the GIFTEDCROOK malware has made significant updates to turn the malicious program from a basic browser data stealer to a potent intelligence-gathering tool. "Recent campaigns in June 2025 demonstrate GIFTEDCROOK's enhanced ability to exfiltrate a broad range of sensitive documents from the devices of targeted individuals, including potentially proprietary files and Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

Facebook, the social network platform owned by Meta, is asking for users to upload pictures from their phones to suggest collages, recaps, and other ideas using artificial intelligence (AI), including those that have not been directly uploaded to the service. According to TechCrunch, which first reported the feature, users are being served a new pop-up message asking for permission to "allow Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

If you've ever set up or maintained a multimedia pipeline on Linux, you already know the stakes. Your system needs to decode, encode, stream, and sync diverse media formats flawlessly, often under significant workload. GStreamer has been the workhorse of open-source multimedia for years, but it's not unbreakable. That's why version 1.26.3 matters.

The fireworks that could soon go off across the US have nothing to do with July 4 celebrations, but are reaction to a double hit that every state in the union may soon face relating to a potential reduction of connectivity capabilities and a proposed 10-year ban on its ability to regulate AI.

Drastic legislative changes around both issues are contained in the Trump administration’s Reconciliation Tax Bill, which is now before the Senate.

In early June, 260 state lawmakers from both parties in all 50 states sent a letter to Congress voicing strong opposition to the AI regulation ban. The letter, which was spearheaded by Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI), a nonprofit policy advocacy organization, stated, “the proposed 10-year freeze of state and local regulation of AI and automated decision systems would cut short democratic discussion of AI policy in the states with a sweeping moratorium that threatens to halt a broad array of laws and restrict policymakers from responding to emerging issues.”

ARI president Brad Carson said, “lawmakers from every state in the country are sending a clear message that the proposed ban on state AI laws would freeze a whole range of common-sense laws that voters depend on.”

There is, he said, “room for a debate on pre-emption of a targeted set of state AI laws with the passage of a federal framework for AI governance. But this proposal fails on all counts, with an overbroad scope and nothing to offer when it comes to federal governance.”

Moratorium would be ‘a historic mistake’

On Thursday, lawmakers from Utah, South Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Montana held a press conference organized by the ARI to ask Congress to remove the moratorium. There has also been a major new twist since Trump’s so-called One Big Beautiful Bill moved to the Senate for final approval, in that Senator Ted Cruz, chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, inserted a clause that would preclude any state receiving funding under the Broadband, Equity, Access and Deployment (BEAD) program if they refused to introduce an AI law moratorium.

Satya Thallam, senior advisor with ARI, said in a release following the press conference, “state lawmakers are sending a clear message to Congress: the moratorium threatens a range of state laws, from kids’ online safety to pro-innovation measures, and it needs to be struck from the bill.”

He added, “preventing lawmakers back home from doing the hard work of legislating on AI issues for the next decade would be a historic mistake. Congress shouldn’t be working in opposition to state lawmakers, but hand-in-hand with state legislators to get AI policy right.”

Amba Kak, co-executive director of AI Now Institute, said Thursday in an email to Computerworld, “simply put, this ban on state AI law would leave American consumers and workers with even less protections than we have today against some of the worst forms of AI-related abuse and exploitation. The moratorium rolls back the clock on the protections that are in place, and prevents new rules from coming into place. Essentially [it’s] forcing state lawmakers to turn a deaf ear to their constituents.”

‘AI being used on us, not just by us’

Who might be most at risk? “It’s all of us, any of us, that will be at the receiving end of AI mediating our life and work, whether we choose to opt in or not,” she said. “AI is routinely being used on us, not just by us. But it is most unconscionable to unleash these risks on those least well positioned to fend for ourselves — children, seniors more susceptible to AI scams and manipulation, low income people subject to faulty and error ridden AI-mediated social services systems, and those working jobs that are being aggressively devalued or replaced.” 

Kak added, “I’d also flip that question to say: who has most to gain here? Big Tech: The same industry that, by increasingly bipartisan consensus, has gotten too big for its boots. And have proven themselves to be reckless custodians of this power. This moratorium drives that impunity further, in ways that send a truly dangerous message to the Big Tech AI firms: they’re in charge, no questions asked.”

On Wednesday, Cruz issued a release which said that he had published updated text for the Commerce Committee’s portion of the budget reconciliation bill.

A backgrounder accompanying the release states that the update involves the appropriation of  “$500 million to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to support deployment of AI models or systems and underlying infrastructure. The proposal uses the administrative structure of the Broadband, Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program to streamline allocation of new funding.”

It goes on to say that, in order to receive “a portion of this new $500 million federal investment to deploy AI,” states must agree to several conditions, one of which is the temporary pause of “any enforcement of any state restrictions, as specified, related to AI models, AI systems, or automated decision systems for 10 years.”

US Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat and Ranking Member of the committee, reacted by saying, “the newly released language by Chair Cruz continues to hold $42 billion in BEAD funding hostage, forcing states to choose between protecting consumers and expanding critical broadband infrastructure to rural communities.”

Cementing the digital divide

Drew Garner, director of policy engagement at Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, a nonprofit organization whose focus is ensuring all people in the US have access to competitive, high-performance broadband, sided with Cantwell, saying, “[it] sounds insane even not tied to BEAD, but tied to BEAD is doubly insane.”

The Trump administration and Cruz, he said, are “treating [BEAD] like a piñata right now and it’s crazy. It is an awful time to be in a state broadband office.”

This new threat worsens an already bad situation. In March, US Department of Commerce secretary Howard Lutnick announced that he had launched a “rigorous review of the BEAD program. The Department is ripping out the Biden administration’s pointless requirements. It is revamping the BEAD program to take a tech-neutral approach that is rigorously driven by outcomes, so states can provide internet access for the lowest cost.”

And following the release of revised rules earlier this month, Garner wrote, “[Lutnick’s] actions will cement the digital divide for decades. He is hurting our economic competitiveness, our healthcare and education … Secretary Lutnick wants to invest in the ‘cheapest’ broadband infrastructure, not the best infrastructure. It’s a self-inflicted wound to American competitiveness.”

Hackers associated with Scattered Spider tactics have expanded their targeting to the aviation and transportation industries after previously attacking insurance and retail sectors [...]

Over the next few years, agentic AI is expected to bring not only rapid technological breakthroughs, but a societal transformation, redefining how we live, work and interact with the world. And this shift is happening quickly.

“By 2028, 33% of enterprise software applications will include agentic AI, up from less than 1% in 2024, enabling 15% of day-to-day work decisions to be made autonomously,” according to research firm Gartner.

Unlike traditional AI, which typically follows preset rules or algorithms, agentic AI adapts to new situations, learns from experiences, and operates independently to pursue goals without human intervention. In short, agentic AI empowers systems to act autonomously, making decisions and executing tasks — even communicating directly with other AI agents — with little or no human involvement.

One key driver is the growing sophistication of large language models (LLMs), which provide the “brains” for these agents. Agentic AI will enable machines to interact with the physical world with unprecedented intelligence, allowing them to perform complex tasks in dynamic environments, which could be especially useful for industries facing labor shortages or hazardous conditions.

The rise of agentic AI also brings security and ethical concerns. Ensuring these autonomous systems operate safely, transparently and responsibly will require governance frameworks and testing. Preventing the law of unintended consequences will also require human vigilance.

Because job displacement is a potential outcome, strategies for retraining and upskilling workers will be needed as the technology necessitate a shift in how people approach work, emphasizing collaboration between humans and intelligent machines.

To stay on top of this evolving technology, follow this page for ongoing agentic AI coverage from Computerworld and Foundry’s other publications.

Agentic AI news and insights IFS rolls TheLoops agentic AI into industrial ERP

June 27, 2025: IFS is adding AI agent development and management capabilities to its ERP platform with the acquisition of software startup The acquisition brings TheLoops’ full Agent Development life cycle (ADLC) platform into IFS, enabling enterprises to design, test, deploy, monitor, and fine-tune AI agents with built-in support for versioning, compliance, and performance optimization.

How AI agents and agentic AI differ from each other

June 12, 2025: With agentic AI in its infancy and organizations rushing to adopt AI agents, there seems to be confusion about the difference between “agentic AI” and “AI agents” technologies, but experts say there’s growing understanding that the two are separate, but related, tools.

The future of RPA ties to AI agents

June 10, 2025: RPA is accelerating toward a crossroads, with IT leaders and experts debating its future. Some IT leaders say that more powerful and autonomous AI agents will replace the two-decade-old AI precursor technology, while others predict that AI agents and RPA will work hand-in-hand.

MCP is enabling agentic AI, but how secure is it?

June 2, 2025: Model context protocol (MCP) is becoming the plug-and-play standard for agentic AI apps to pull in data in real time from multiple sources. However, this also makes it more attractive for malicious actors looking to exploit weaknesses in how MCP has been deployed. 

The agentic AI assist Stanford University cancer care staff needed

May 30, 2025: At Microsoft Build 2025 earlier this month, Nigam Shah, CDO for Stanford Health Care, discussed agentic AI’s ability to redefine healthcare, especially in oncology, as physicians get overloaded with the administrative tasks of medicine, he said, which lead to burnout.

Agentic AI, LLMs and standards big focus of Red Hat Summit

May 26, 2025: Red Hat, announced a number of improvements in its core enterprise Linux product, including better security, better support for containers, better support for edge devices. But the one topic that dominated the conversation was AI.

Putting agentic AI to work in Firebase Studio

May 21, 2025: Putting agentic AI to work in software engineering can be done in a variety of ways. Some agents work independently of the developer’s environment, working essentially like a remote developer. Other agents directly within a developer’s own environment. Google’s Firebase Studio is an example of the latter, drawing on Google’s Gemini LLM o help developers prototype and build applications .

Why is Microsoft offering to turn websites into AI apps with NLWeb?

May 20. 2025: NLWeb, short for Natural Language Web, is designed to help enterprises build a natural language interface for their websites using the model of their choice and data to answer user queries about the contents of the website. Microsoft hopes to stake its claim on the agentic web before rivals Google and Amazon do.

Databricks to acquire open-source database startup Neon to build the next wave of AI agents

May 14, 2025: Agentic AI requires a new type of architecture because traditional workflows create gridlock, dragging down speed and performance. To get ahead in this next generation of app building, Databricks announced it will purchase Neon, an open-source serverless Postgres company.

Agentic mesh: The future of enterprise agent ecosystems

May 13, 2025: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang predicts we’ll soon see “a couple of hundred million digital agents” inside the enterprise. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella takes it even further: “Agents will replace all software.”

Google to unveil AI agent for developers at I/O, expand Gemini integration

May 13, 2025: Google is expected to unveil a new AI agent aimed at helping software developers manage tasks across the coding lifecycle, including task execution and documentation. The tool has reportedly been demonstrated to employees and select external developers ahead of the company’s annual I/O conference.

Nvidia, ServiceNow engineer open-source model to create AI agents

May 6, 2025: Nvidia and ServiceNow have created an AI model that can help companies create learning AI agents to automate corporate workloads. The open-source Apriel model, available generally in the second quarter on HuggingFace, will help create AI agents that can make decisions around IT, human resources and customer-service functions.

How IT leaders use agentic AI for business workflows

April 30, 2025: Jay Upchurch, CIO at SAS, backs agentic AI to enhance sales, marketing, IT, and HR motions. “Agentic AI can make sales more effective by handling lead scoring, assisting with customer segmentation, and optimizing targeted outreach,” he says.

Microsoft sees AI agents shaking up org charts, eliminating traditional functions

April 28, 2025: As companies increasingly automate work processes using agents, traditional functions such as finance, marketing, and engineering may fall away, giving rise to an ‘agent boss’ era of delegation and orchestration of myriad bots.

Cisco automates AI-driven security across enterprise networks

April 28, 2025: Cisco announced a range of AI-driven security enhancements, including improved threat detection and response capabilities in Cisco XDR and Splunk Security, new AI agents, and integration between Cisco’s AI Defense platform and ServiceNow SecOps.

Hype versus execution in agentic AI

April 25, 2025: Agentic AI promises autonomous systems capable of reasoning, making decisions, and dynamically adapting to changing conditions. The allure lies in machines operating independently, free of human intervention, streamlining processes and enhancing efficiency at unprecedented scales. But David Linthicum writes, don’t be swept up by ambitious promises. 

Agents are here — but can you see what they’re doing?

April 23, 2025: As the agentic AI models powering individual agents get smarter, the use cases for agentic AI systems get more ambitious — and the risks posed by these systems increase exponentially.A multicloud experiment in agentic AI: Lessons learned

Agentic AI might soon get into cryptocurrency trading — what could possibly go wron

April 15, 2025: Agentic AI promises to simplify complex tasks such as crypto trading or managing digital assets by automating decisions, enhancing accessibility, and masking technical complexity.

Agentic AI is both boon and bane for security pros

April 15, 2025: Cybersecurity is at a crossroads with agentic AI. It’s a powerful tool that can create reams of code in a blink of an eye, find and defuse threats, and be used so decisively and defensively. This has proved to be a huge force multiplier and productivity boon. But while powerful, agentic AI isn’t dependable, and that is the conundrum. 

AI agents vs. agentic AI: What do enterprises want?

April 15, 2025:  Now that this AI agent story has morphed into “agentic AI,” it seems to have taken on the same big-cloud-AI flavor that enteriprise already rejected. What do they want from AI agents, why is “agentic” thinking wrong, and where is this all headed?

A multicloud experiment in agentic AI: Lessons learned

April 11, 2025: Turns out you really can build a decentralized AI system that operates successfully across multiple public cloud providers. It’s both challenging and costly.

Google adds open source framework for building agents to Vertex AI

April 9, 2025: Google is adding a new open source framework for building agents to its AI and machine learning platform Vertex AI, along with other updates to help deploy and maintain these agents. The open source Agent Development Kit (ADK) will make it possible to build an AI agent in under 100 lines of Python code. It expects to add support for more languages later this year.

Google’s Agent2Agent open protocol aims to connect disparate agents

April 9, 2025: Google has taken the covers off a new open protocol — Agent2Agent (A2A) — that aims to connect agents across disparate ecosystems.. At its annual Cloud Next conference, Google said that the A2A protocol will enable enterprises to adopt agents more readily as it bypasses the challenge of agents that are built on different vendor ecosystems not being able to communicate with each other.

Riverbed bolsters AIOps platform with predictive and agentic AI

April 8, 2025: Riverbed unveiled updates to its AIOps and observability platform that the company says will transform how IT organizations manage complex distributed infrastructure and data more efficiently. Expanded AI capabilities are aimed at making it easier to manage AIOps and enabling IT organizations to transition from reactive to predictive IT operations.

Microsoft’s newest AI agents can detail how they reason

March 26, 2025: If you’re wondering how AI agents work, Microsoft’s new Copilot AI agents provide real-time answers on how data is being analyzed and sourced to reach results. The Researcher and Analyst agents take a deeper look at data sources such as email, chat or databases within an organization to produce research reports, analyze strategies, or convert raw information into meaningful data.

Microsoft launches AI agents to automate cybersecurity amid rising threats

March 26, 2025: Microsoft has introduced a new set of AI agents for its Security Copilot platform, designed to automate key cybersecurity functions as organizations face increasingly complex and fast-moving digital threats. The new tools focus on tasks such as phishing detection, data protection, and identity management.

How AI agents work

March 24, 2025: By leveraging technologies such as machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), and contextual understanding, AI agents can operate independently, even partnering with other agents to perform complex tasks.

5 top business use cases for AI agents

March 19, 2025: AI agents are poised to transform the enterprise, from automating mundane tasks to driving customer service and innovation. But having strong guardrails in place will be key to success.

Nvidia launches AgentIQ toolkit to connect disparate AI agents

March 21, 2025: As enterprises look to adopt agents and agentic AI to boost the efficiency of their applications, Nvidia this week introduced a new open-source software library — AgentIQ toolkit — to help developers connect disparate agents and agent frameworks..

Deloitte unveils agentic AI platform

March 18, 2025: At Nvidia GTC 2025 in San Jose, Deloitte announced Zora AI, a new agentic AI platform that offers a portfolio of AI agents for finance, human capital, supply chain, procurement, sales and marketing, and customer service.The platform draws on Deloitte’s experience from its technology, risk, tax, and audit businesses, and is integrated with all major enterprise software platforms. 

The dawn of agentic AI: Are we ready for autonomous technology?

March 15, 2025: Much of the AI work prior has focused on large language models (LLMs) with a goal to give prompts to get knowledge out of the unstructured data. So it’s a question-and-answer process. Agentic AI goes beyond that. You can give it a task that might involve a complex set of steps that can change each time.

How to know a business process is ripe for agentic AI

March 11, 2025: Deloitte predicts that in 2025, 25% of companies that use generative AI will launch agentic AI pilots or proofs of concept, growing to 50% in 2027. The firm says some agentic AI applications, in some industries and for some use cases, could see actual adoption into existing workflows this year.

With new division, AWS bets big on agentic AI automation

March 6, 2025: Amazon Web Services customers can expect to hear a lot more about agentic AI from AWS in future with the news that the company is setting up a dedicated unit to promote the technology on its platform.

How agentic AI makes decisions and solves problems

March 6, 2025: GenAI’s latest big step forward has been the arrival of autonomous AI agents. Agentic AI is based on AI-enabled applications capable of perceiving their environment, making decisions, and taking actions to achieve specific goals. 

CIOs are bullish on AI agents. IT employees? Not so much

Feb. 4, 2025: Most CIOs and CTOs are bullish on agentic AI, believing the emerging technology will soon become essential to their enterprises, but lower-level IT pros who will be tasked with implementing agents have serious doubts.

The next AI wave — agents — should come with warning labels. Is now the right time to invest in them?

Jan.13, 2025: The next wave of artificial intelligence (AI) adoption is already under way, as AI agents — AI applications that can function independently and execute complex workflows with minimal or limited direct human oversight — are being rolled out across the tech industry.

AI agents are unlike any technology ever

Dec. 1, 2024: The agents are coming, and they represent a fundamental shift in the role artificial intelligence plays in businesses, governments, and our lives.

AI agents are coming to work — here’s what businesses need to know

Nov. 21, 2024: AI agents will soon be everywhere, automating complex business processes and taking care of mundane tasks for workers — at least that’s the claim of various software vendors that are quickly adding intelligent bots to a wide range of work apps.

Agentic AI swarms are headed your way

November 1, 2024: OpenAI launched an experimental framework called Swarm. It’s a “lightweight” system for the development of agentic AI swarms, which are networks of autonomous AI agents able to work together to handle complex tasks without human intervention, according to OpenAI. 

Is now the right time to invest in implementing agentic AI?

October 31, 2024: While software vendors say their current agentic AI-based offerings are easy to implement, analysts say that’s far from the truth.

Threat hunters have discovered a network of more than 1,000 compromised small office and home office (SOHO) devices that have been used to facilitate a prolonged cyber espionage infrastructure campaign for China-nexus hacking groups. The Operational Relay Box (ORB) network has been codenamed LapDogs by SecurityScorecard's STRIKE team. "The LapDogs network has a high concentration of victims Ravie Lakshmananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]

Starting June 9, 2025, Russian internet service providers (ISPs) have begun throttling access to websites and services protected by Cloudflare, an American internet giant. [...]

A Windows launch isn’t the end a process — it’s really just the beginning. Microsoft continually works on improving Windows 11 by fixing bugs, releasing security patches, and occasionally adding new features.

In this story we summarize what you need to know about each update released to the public for the most recent version of Windows 11 — currently version 24H2. For each build, we’ve included the date of its release and a link to Microsoft’s announcement about it. The most recent updates appear first.

The easiest way to install updates is via Windows Update. Not sure how? See “How to handle Windows 10 and 11 updates” for full instructions. Note that Windows 11 version 24H2 is being released as a phased rollout and may not be available to you in Windows Update yet.

If you’re still using Windows 10, see “Windows 10: A guide to the updates.” And if you’re looking for information about Insider Program previews for upcoming feature releases of Windows 11, see “Windows 11 Insider Previews: What’s in the latest build?”

Updates for Windows 11 24H2 KB5060829 (OS Build 26100.4484) Preview

Release date: June 26, 2025

A wide variety of new features are being gradually rolled out in this build, including a new Settings home page that includes enterprise-specific device info cards for commercial customers on PCs managed by an IT administrator. The taskbar also now resizes icons to fit more apps when space runs low.

Users in the European Economic Area will see several small changes related to default browsers, such as mapping additional file and link types to the default browser and pinning it to the taskbar and Start menu.

A variety of bugs have also been fixed, including one that prevented the automatic renewal of expiring certificates in Windows Hello for Business.

There is one known issue in this build, in which blurry or unclear CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) text appears when displayed at 96 DPI (100% scaling) in Chromium-based browsers such as Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome. 

(Get more info about KB5060829 Preview.)

KB5063060 (OS Build 26100.4351) Out-of-band

Release date: June 11, 2025

This out-of-band update replaces the KB5060842 Patch Tuesday release, fixing a bug in which Windows sometimes restarted unexpectedly when users opened games that use the Easy Anti-Cheat service. Easy Anti-Cheat automatically installs with certain games to enhance security and prevent cheating in multiplayer online PC games. 

Note: In this build there are reports of blurry or unclear CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) text when displayed at 96 DPI (100% scaling) in Chromium-based browsers such as Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome. The issue is due to limited pixel density at 96 DPI, which can reduce the clarity and alignment of CJK characters. Increasing the display scaling improves clarity by enhancing text rendering.

(Get more info about KB5063060 Out-of-band.)

KB5060842 (OS Build 26100.4349)

Release date: June 10, 2025

After installing this update, Windows will retain system restore points for 60 days only. Restore points older than 60 days are not available. This 60-day limit will also apply to future versions of Windows 11, version 24H2.

The build fixes a bug that prevented users from signing in with self-signed certificates when using Windows Hello for Business with the Key Trust model.​​​​​​​ It also has a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and June 2025 Security Updates.

Note: In this build there are reports of blurry or unclear CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) text when displayed at 96 DPI (100% scaling) in Chromium-based browsers such as Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome. The issue is due to limited pixel density at 96 DPI, which can reduce the clarity and alignment of CJK characters. Increasing the display scaling improves clarity by enhancing text rendering.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

(Get more info about KB5060842.)

KB5058499 (OS Build 26100.4202) Preview

Release date: May 27, 2025

A wide variety of new features are being gradually rolled out in this build, including one in which Click to Do gets the new Ask Copilot action. When you highlight text or an image, Click to Do offers the Ask Copilot option. Selecting it opens Microsoft Copilot with your content in the prompt box. You can send the selected text or image directly to the Copilot app to complete your prompt.

A variety of bugs have also been fixed, including one in which devices with BitLocker on removable drives could encounter a blue screen error after resuming from sleep or hybrid-booting.

(Get more info about KB5058499 Preview.)

KB5061977 (OS Build 26100.4066) 

Release date: May 27, 2025

This out-of-band update fixes a bug in the direct send path for a guest physical address (GPA). This issue caused confidential virtual machines running on Hyper-V with Windows Server 2022 to intermittently stop responding or restart unexpectedly. As a result, service availability was affected, and manual intervention was required. This problem primarily impacted Azure confidential VMs.

(Get more info about KB5061977.)

KB5058411 (OS Build 26100.4061)

Release date: May 13, 2025

This update fixes two bugs, one in which your microphone might have muted unexpectedly, and the other in which the eye controller app didn’t launch. It also has a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and May 2025 Security Updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

(Get more info about KB5058411.)

KB5055627 (OS Build 26100.3915) Preview

Release date: April 25, 2025

This build gradually rolls out several new features for Copilot+ PCs, including a preview of Windows Recall. When you opt in, Recall takes snapshots of your activity so you can quickly find and go back to what you have seen before on your PC. With it, you can use a timeline to find the content you remember seeing.

Copilot+ PCs also get a new natural-language Windows search in which you can search for anything on your PC without having to remember specific file names, exact words in file content, or settings names. Just describe what you’re looking for. On Copilot+ PCs, you can also more easily find photos stored and saved in the cloud by typing your own words (like “summer picnics”) in the search box at the upper-right corner of File Explorer. 

All PCs get a number of new features, including speech recap, in which you can keep track of what Narrator has spoken and access it for quick reference. With speech recap, you can quickly access spoken content, follow along with live transcription, and copy what Narrator last said using keyboard shortcuts.

A variety of bugs are being fixed, including one in which some devices experienced intermittent internet connections when resuming from sleep mode. Several AI components have also been updated.

There are two known issues in this build, including one in which players on Arm devices are unable to download and play Roblox from the Microsoft Store on Windows.

(Get more info about KB5055627 Preview.)

KB5055523 (OS Build 26100.3775)

Release date: April 8, 2025

This update includes a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and April 2025 Security Updates. 

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

There are two known issues in this build, including one in which players on Arm devices are unable to download and play Roblox via the Microsoft Store on Windows. 

(Get more info about KB5055523.)

KB5053656 (OS Build 26100.3624) Preview

Release date: March 27, 2025

This build gradually rolls out several new features for Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs, including one in which you can search for anything on your PC without having to remember specific file names, exact words in file content, or settings names. Just describe what you’re looking for.

On Copilot+ PCs you can also more easily find photos stored and saved in the cloud by typing your own words (like “summer picnics”) in the search box at the upper-right corner of File Explorer. In addition to photos stored locally on your Copilot+ PC, photos from the cloud will now show up in the search results together. 

Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs also will allow you to use natural-language processing in voice access, by using your own words rather than using rigid, predefined commands.

In addition, the build includes a variety of bugs being immediately fixed, including one in which some third-party apps rendered the graphics settings page unresponsive.

There are two known issues in this build, including one in which players on Arm devices are unable to download and play Roblox from the Microsoft Store on Windows.

(Get more info about KB5053656 Preview.)

KB5053598 (OS Build 26100.3476)

Release date: March 11, 2025

This update has a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and March 2025 Security Updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

There are two known issues in this build, including one in which players on Arm devices are unable to download and play Roblox via the Microsoft Store on Windows.

(Get more info about KB5053598.)

KB5052093 (OS Build 26100.3323) Preview

Release date: February 25, 2025

In this build, a variety of new features are being rolled out gradually, including one that lets you snooze or turn off the “Start backup” reminder in the File Explorer address bar. This only applies if you are not already backing up your files and folder. To view this new option, right-click Start backup.

A number of bug fixes are being rolled out gradually, including one for a bug in which the address bar overlapped files in File Explorer when you used the F11 full-screen mode. A variety of bug fixes take immediate effect, including for a bug in which there were display rendering issues when you tried to connect to certain PCs.

There are two known issues in this build, including one in which Arm devices are unable to download and play Roblox via the Microsoft Store on Windows. In addition, devices that have certain Citrix components installed might be unable to complete installation of the January 2025 Windows security update. This issue was observed on devices with Citrix Session Recording Agent (SRA) version 2411.

(Get more info about KB5052093 Preview.)

KB5051987 (OS Build 26100.3194)

Release date: February 11, 2025

This update has a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and February 2025 Security Updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

There are three known issues in this build, including one in which players on Arm devices are unable to download and play Roblox via the Microsoft Store on Windows.

(Get more info about KB5051987.)

KB5050094 (OS Build 26100.3037) Preview

Release date: January 28, 2025

In this build, a variety of new features are being rolled out gradually, including one in which an icon will appear in the system tray when you use an app that supports Windows Studio Effects. This only occurs on a device that has a neural processing unit (NPU). Select the icon to open the Studio Effects page in Quick Settings. To view the app that is using the camera, hover over the icon for a tooltip.

A number of bug fixes are being rolled out gradually, including one for a bug in which a search would sometimes repeat when you didn’t want it to. Other bug fixes are immediately available, including one in which the display of some games appears oversaturated when you use Auto HDR.

There are three known issues in this build, including one in which Arm devices are unable to download and play Roblox via the Microsoft Store on Windows. In addition, following the installation of the October 2024 security update, some customers report that the OpenSSH (Open Secure Shell) service fails to start, preventing SSH connections. And devices that have certain Citrix components installed might be unable to complete installation of the January 2025 Windows security update

(Get more info about KB5050094 Preview.)

KB5050009 (OS Build 26100.2894)

Release date: January 14, 2025

This update has a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and January 2025 Security Updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

There are three known issues in this build, including one in which players on Arm devices are unable to download and play Roblox via the Microsoft Store on Windows.

(Get more info about KB5050009.)

KB5048667 (OS Build 26100.2605)

Release date: December 10, 2024

This update has a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and December 2024 Security Updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

There is one known issue in this build, in which players on Arm devices are unable to download and play Roblox via the Microsoft Store on Windows.

(Get more info about KB5048667.)

KB5046740 (OS Build 26100.2454) Preview

Release date: November 21, 2024

This build adds a number of interface features are being rolled out gradually. The system tray shows a shortened date and time, and there’s a new section for touchscreen edge gestures in Settings. When you right-click an app on the Start menu, a jump list will appear (if the app has a jump list). And if you hold Ctrl + Shift down when you click a jump list item, you open the item as an admin.

A variety of bugs have been fixed in this build, including one in which the users page might have caused Task Manager to stop responding when you use the keyboard.

There is one known issue in this build, in which Arm devices are unable to download and play Roblox via the Microsoft Store on Windows.

(Get more info about KB5046740 Preview.)

KB5046617 (OS Build 26100.2314)

Release date: November 12, 2024

This update has a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and November 2024 Security Updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

(Get more info about KB5046617.)

KB5044384 (OS Build 26100.2161) Preview

Release date: October 24, 2024

In this build, you can now configure the Copilot key on the keyboard. On new devices, the key opens the Copilot app. If you sign in to your account using a Microsoft Entra ID, the key opens the M365 app. You can make the key open a different app or open Search. To do this, go to Settings > Personalization > Text input. 

In addition, a variety of features are being rolled out gradually, including one in which you can stop the suggestions to turn off notifications from certain apps. Select the ellipsis (…) in the notification and turn it off. You can also go to Settings > System > Notifications and turn it off from there. 

A variety of bugs have also been fixed, including one in which you were unable to view some parts of the UI when you run certain apps.

There is one known issue in this build, in which Arm devices are unable to download and play Roblox via the Microsoft Store on Windows.

(Get more info about KB5044384 Preview.)

Windows 11 24H2 KB5044284 (OS Build 26100.2033)

Release date: October 8, 2024

This update has a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and October 2024 Security Updates.

This build also fixes one bug in which the Remote Desktop Gateway Service stopped responding when a service used remote procedure calls (RPC) over HTTP.

There is one known issue in this build, in which Arm devices are unable to download and play Roblox via the Microsoft Store on Windows.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

(Get more info about KB5044284.)

Windows 11, version 24H2

Release date: October 1, 2024

The Windows 11 24H2 update (also called Windows 11 2024 Update) is now being gradually rolled out. It may take some months before it reaches everyone, so you may not have it yet. As with previous annual Windows updates, it’s not a major upgrade, but does include a variety of minor new features.

Following are the highlights for end users:

• File Explorer gets several new features, including support for TAR and 7z compression and the ability to add metadata to PNG files, so you can add information to your images.
• New privacy settings for Wi-Fi networks give more control over which applications can access the list of nearby Wi-Fi networks. Limiting the applications that can access that list can make it more difficult for others to pinpoint your location.
• You can now join Wi-Fi networks by scanning QR codes, and create a QR code to allow others to share your mobile hotspot with others.
• A new Energy Saver mode reduces electric consumption on desktop PCs as well as laptops, helping you reduce your carbon footprint and improving laptop battery life. It reduces energy consumption from background tasks as well as those running in the foreground.
• Copilot now runs as a separate app, and is movable and resizable like any other app, rather than running in a sidebar panel.
• Copilot+ PCs get several new features, including Cocreator in Paint, which uses AI to generate images; enhancing video calls with AI-powered noise cancellation and improved lighting; and what Microsoft calls Auto Super Resolution, which gives games higher resolution and offers smoother gameplay.

For IT admins, highlights include:

• Policy improvements and automatic account management for Windows Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS)
• Personal Data Encryption (PDE) for users’ Documents, Desktop, and Pictures folders
• App Control for Business
• Windows protected print mode
• Local Security Authority (LSA) protection
• Support for Wi-Fi 7
• SHA-3 support

See this blog post from Microsoft’s Harjit Dhaliwal for more information.

Prerelease updates for Windows 11 24H2 KB5043178 (OS Build 26100.1882) Preview

Release date: September 30, 2024

This build for Windows 11 24H2 offers a variety of new features, some of which will show up immediately and some of which are being rolled out gradually. Among the features that will roll out gradually is a new energy recommendation to turn off high dynamic range (HDR). This helps to conserve energy on devices that have HDR displays. Go to Settings > Power & battery > Energy recommendations.

Among the features available immediately is one that lets you manage your Copilot Pro subscription in Settings. Sign in to your Microsoft account and go to Settings > Accounts.

Several bugs have been fixed, including one in which Task Manager stopped responding when you switched from a high-contrast theme to a normal theme.

There is one known issue in this build, in which Arm devices are unable to download and play Roblox via the Microsoft Store on Windows.

(Get more info about KB5043178 Preview.)

KB5043080 (OS Build 26100.1742)

Release date: September 10, 2024

This update has a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and September 2024 Security Updates.

There is one known issue in this build, in which Arm devices are unable to download and play Roblox via the Microsoft Store on Windows.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

(Get more info about KB5043080.)

KB5041865 (OS Build 26100.1591) Preview

Release date: August 27, 2024

This build for Windows 11 24H2 offers a variety of new features that are being rolled out gradually, including one in which you can share content to your Android device from the Windows Share window.

Several bugs have been fixed, including one in which a deadlock occurred in the domain controller when it started up in the DNS client.

There is one known issue in this build, in which Arm devices are unable to download and play Roblox via the Microsoft Store on Windows.

(Get more info about KB5041865 Preview.)

KB5041571 (OS Build 26100.1457)

Release date: August 13, 2024

This update has a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and August 2024 Security Updates. It also fixes several bugs, including one in which the “Use my Windows user account” checkbox was not available on the lock screen to connect to Wi-Fi.

There is one known issue in this build, in which Arm devices are unable to download and play Roblox via the Microsoft Store on Windows.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

(Get more info about KB5041571.)

KB5040529 (OS Build 26100.1301) Preview

Release date: July 30, 2024

This build for Windows 11 24H2 offers a variety of new features that are being rolled out gradually, including the new account manager being on the Start menu. When you use a Microsoft account to sign in to Windows, you will get a glance at your account benefits. This feature also makes it easy to manage your account settings.

One feature is being rolled out immediately, in which Widgets icons on the taskbar are no longer pixelated or fuzzy. You also get a larger set of animated icons.

Several bugs have been fixed, including one in which devices that use certain WLAN cards stopped responding.

There is one known issue in this build, in which Arm devices are unable to download and play Roblox via the Microsoft Store on Windows.

(Get more info about KB5040529 Preview.)

KB5040435 (OS Build 26100.1150)

Release date: July 9, 2024

This update has a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and July 2024 Security Updates. It also This update adds PCR 4 to PCR 7 and 11 for the default Secure Boot validation profile.

There is one known issue in this build, in which Arm devices are unable to download and play Roblox via the Microsoft Store on Windows.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

(Get more info about KB5040435.)

KB50439304 (OS Build 26100.1000) Preview

Release date: June 28, 2024

This build fixes a variety of bugs, including one in which Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) failed to verify the policies of some apps.

There is one known issue in this build, in which Arm devices are unable to download and play Roblox via the Microsoft Store on Windows.

(Get more info about KB5041865 Preview.)

KB5039239 (OS Build 26100.863)

Release date: June 15, 2024

This build pins Copilot to the taskbar and makes it behave like a traditional app that can be resized and moved. The build also fixes several bugs, including one in which the volume of Bluetooth devices were automatically set to maximum when you connected to them.

There is one known issue in this build, in which Arm devices are unable to download and play Roblox via the Microsoft Store on Windows.

(Get more info about KB5039239.)

Updates to Windows 11 version 23H2 KB5043145 (OS Builds 22621.4249 and 22631.4249) Preview

Release date: September 24, 2024

This build, for both Windows 11 22H2 and 23H2, offers a variety of new features and bug fixes, some of which will show up immediately, and some of which are being rolled out gradually. Among the features that will roll out gradually is the ability to share local files directly from the search results that appear in the Search box on the taskbar. Among the bug fixes that roll out immediately are one that addresses an issue in which Task Manager stopped responding when you switched from a high contrast theme to a normal theme.

(Get more info about KB5043145 Preview.)

KB5043076 (OS Builds 22621.4169 and 22631.4169)

Release date: September 10, 2024

This update has a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and September 2024 Security Updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

There is one known issue in this build, in which you might face issues with booting Linux if you have enabled the dual-boot setup for Windows and Linux in your device. Your device might fail to boot Linux and show the error message “Verifying shim SBAT data failed: Security Policy Violation. Something has gone seriously wrong: SBAT self-check failed: Security Policy Violation.”

(Get more info about KB5043076.)

KB5041587 (OS Builds 22621.4112 and 22631.4112) Preview

Release date: August 27, 2024

This build, for both Windows 11 22H2 and 23H2, includes the ability to share content to your Android device from the Windows Share window. To do it, must pair your Android device to your Windows PC and use the Link to Windows app on your Android device and Phone Link on your PC.

In Voice Access, you can also now dictate the characters that you spell at a faster speed, and you have more editing options for the commands that select, delete, and move within text. The build also fixes several bugs, including one in which when you pressed Ctrl + F, sometimes the search did not start.

The new features and bug fixes will roll out to users gradually.

(Get more info about KB5041587 Preview.)

KB5041585 (OS Builds 22621.4037 and 22631.4037)

Release date: August 13, 2024

This update has a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and August 2024 Security Updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

(Get more info about KB5041585.)

KB5040527 (OS Builds 22621.3958 and 22631.3958) Preview

Release date: July 25, 2024

This build, for both Windows 11 22H2 and 23H2, offers a variety of new features and bug fixes, some of which will show up immediately and some of which are being rolled out gradually. Among the features that will roll out gradually is pinning apps to the taskbar by dragging them from the Pinned section of the Start menu, and right-clicking a tab in File Explorer to duplicate it. Among the bug fixes that will roll out gradually is a memory leak that occurred when you interacted with archive folders.

Among the bugs fixed immediately is one in which in Group Policy Preferences you could not choose a group from the target domain for ILT or choose an account from Local Users and Groups.

(Get more info about KB5040527 Preview.)

KB5040442 (OS Builds 22621.3880 and 22631.3880)

Release date: July 9, 2024

This update has a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and July 2024 Security Updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

There is one known issue in this update, in which enterprise users may face issues while upgrading from Windows Pro to a valid Windows Enterprise subscription. OS upgrade operations may fail, and this might be shown in the LicenseAcquisition scheduled task in Task Scheduler > Task Scheduler Library > Microsoft > Windows > Subscription as ‘Access denied error (error code 0x80070005)’ under ‘Last Run Result.’

(Get more info about KB5040442.)

KB5039302 (OS Builds 22621.3810 and 22631.3810) Preview

Release date: June 25, 2024

This build, for both Windows 11 22H2 and 23H2, offers a variety of new features and bug fixes, some of which will show up immediately and some of which are being rolled out gradually. Among the bug fixes that will show up immediately is one that addresses an issue in which ejecting USB devices using the Safely Remove Hardware option failed when Task Manager was open.

Among the features that will roll out gradually is a new account manager on the Start menu that makes it easier to manage your account settings and lets you see your account benefits. Also being rolled out gradually is support for Emoji 15.1.

(Get more info about KB5039302 Preview.)

KB5039212 (OS Builds 22621.3737 and 22631.3737)

Release date: June 11, 2024

This update fixes a variety of bugs, including one in which the taskbar might briefly glitch, not respond, or disappear and reappear.

In addition, it has a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and June 2024 Security Updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

(Get more info about KB5039212.)

KB5037853 (OS Builds 22621.3672 and 22631.3672) Preview

Release date: May 29, 2024

This build introduces a variety of minor feature updates, including one that lets you use your mouse to drag files between breadcrumbs in the File Explorer address bar and another that lets you create QR codes for webpage URLs and cloud files from the Windows share window.

The build also fixes a variety of bugs, including one in which File Explorer stopped responding when you swiped from a screen edge after turning off edge swiping, and another in which handwriting panels and touch keyboards did not appear when you used a pen.

(Get more info about KB5037853 Preview.)

KB5037771 (OS Builds 22621.3593 and 22631.3593)

Release date: May 14, 2024

This update fixes a bug that caused VPN connections to fail, and another in which Server Message Block (SMB) clients failed to make SMB Multichannel connections, making file transfers are slow.

In addition, it has a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and May 2024 Security Updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

(Get more info about KB5037771.)

KB506980 (OS Builds 22621.3527 and 22631.3527) Preview

Release date: April 23, 2024

In this build, the Recommended section of the Start menu will show some Microsoft Store apps. In addition, widgets icons on the taskbar are no longer pixelated or fuzzy, and Windows widgets on the lockscreen are more reliable.

The build also fixes a variety of bugs, including one in which Windows Local Administrator Password Solution’s Post Authentication Actions (PAAs) did not occur at the end of the grace period. Instead, they occurred at restart.

There is one known issue in this build, in which you might be unable to change your user account profile picture.

(Get more info about KB5036980 Preview.)

KB5036893 (OS Builds 22621.3447 and 22631.3447)

Release date: April 9, 2024

This build offers a wide variety of minor new features, including dedicated mode for Windows 365 Boot. When you sign in on your company-owned device, you also are signed into to your Windows 365 Cloud PC. This uses passwordless authentication, like Windows Hello for Business.

The update also adds suggestions to Snap Layouts. When you hover over the minimize or maximize button of an app to open the layout box, app icons will display various layout options. Use them to help you to choose the best layout option.

In addition, the update changes the apps that appear in the Windows share window. The account you use to sign in affects the apps that are in “Share using.” For example, if you use a Microsoft account (MSA) to sign in, you will see Microsoft Teams (free). When you use a Microsoft Entra ID account (formerly Azure Active Directory) to sign in, your Microsoft Teams (work or school) contacts show instead.

This build also has a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and April 2024 Security Updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

(Get more info about KB5036893.)

Windows 11 KB5035942 (OS Builds 22621.3374 and 22631.3374) Preview

Release date: March 26, 2024

In addition, in Windows Hello for Business admins can now use mobile device management to turn off the prompt that appears when users sign in to an Entra-joined machine. To do it, turn on the “DisablePostLogonProvisioning” policy setting. After a user signs in, provisioning is off for Windows 10 and Windows 11 devices.

There is one known issue in this build, in which Windows devices using more than one monitor might experience issues with desktop icons moving unexpectedly between monitors or other icon alignment issues when attempting to use Copilot in Windows.

(Get more info about KB5035942 Preview.)

KB5035853 (OS Builds 22621.3296 and 22631.3296)

Release date: March 12, 2024

This build fixes a bug that affected the February 2024 security and preview updates. They might not have installed, and your device might shave stopped responding at 96% with the error code “0x800F0922” and the error message, “Something did not go as planned. No need to worry – undoing changes. Please keep your computer on.”

This build also has a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and March 2024 Security Updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

(Get more info about KB5035853.)

KB5034848 (OS Builds 22621.3235 and 22631.3235) Preview

Release date: February 29, 2024

In this build, you can now use the Snipping Tool on your PC to edit the most recent photos and screenshots from your Android device. You will get an instant notification on your PC when your Android device captures a new photo or screenshot. To turn this on, go to Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Mobile devices. Choose Manage devices and allow your PC to access your Android device.

The build also adds support for the USB 80Gbps standard, the next generation of USB4 that has twice the bandwidth of USB 40Gbps. To use USB 80Gbps, you must have a compatible PC and USB4 or Thunderbolt peripheral.

The build also fixes several bugs, including one in which the Windows Settings Home page randomly stopped responding when you went to the page, and another in which devices failed to make the automatic switch from cellular to Wi-Fi when they could use Wi-Fi.

There is one known issue in this build, in which Windows 11 devices attempting to install the February 2024 security update, released February 13, 2024 (KB5034765), might face installation failures and the system might stop responding at 96%.

(Get more info about KB5034848 Preview.)

KB5034765 (OS Builds 22621.3155 and 22631.3155)

Release date: February 13, 2023

In this build, the Copilot in Windows icon now appears on the right side of the system tray on the taskbar. Also, the display of “Show desktop” at the rightmost corner of the taskbar will be off by default. To turn it back on, go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar. You can also right-click the taskbar and choose Taskbar settings. These changes will be gradually rolled out.

This build also has a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and February 2024 Security Updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

(Get more info about KB5034765.)

KB5034204 (OS Builds 22621.3085 and 22631.3085) Preview

Release date: January 23, 2024

This build fixes a variety of bugs, including one that stopped search from working on the Start menu for some users because of a deadlock, and another that that caused devices to intermittently stop responding after you installed a print support app.

There is one known issue in this build, in which Windows devices using more than one monitor might experience issues with desktop icons moving unexpectedly between monitors or other icon alignment issues when attempting to use Copilot in Windows (in preview).

(Get more info about KB5034204 Preview.)

KB5034123 (OS Builds 22621.3007 and 22631.3007)

Release date: January 9, 2024

This build fixes several bugs, including one in which devices shut down after 60 seconds when you used a smart card to authenticate on a remote system, and another in which some Wi-Fi adapters could not connect to some networks, particularly those that use 802.1x to authenticate.

It also has a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and January 2024 Security Updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

There are three known issues in this build, including one affecting ID admins, in which using the FixedDrivesEncryptionType or SystemDrivesEncryptionType policy settings in the BitLocker configuration service provider (CSP) node in mobile device management apps might incorrectly show a 65000 error in the “Require Device Encryption” setting for some devices in your environment. To mitigate the issue in Microsoft Intune, you can set the “Enforce drive encryption type on operating system drives” or “Enforce drive encryption on fixed drives” policies to not configured.

(Get more info about KB5034123.)

KB5033375 (OS Builds 22621.2861 and 22631.2861)

Release date: December 12, 2023

This build has a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and December 2023 Security Updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

There are four known issues in this build, including one which affects ID admins, in which using the FixedDrivesEncryptionType or SystemDrivesEncryptionType policy settings in the BitLocker configuration service provider (CSP) node in mobile device management (MDM) apps might incorrectly show a 65000 error in the “Require Device Encryption” setting for some devices in your environment. To mitigate the issue in Microsoft Intune, you can set the “Enforce drive encryption type on operating system drives” or “Enforce drive encryption on fixed drives” policies to not configured.

(Get more info about KB5033375.)

KB5032288 (OS Builds 22621.2792 and 22631.2792) Preview

Release date: December 4, 2023

In this update, Copilot in Windows (in preview) can be used across multiple displays, and it can be used with Alt+Tab. When you press Alt+Tab, the thumbnail preview for Copilot in Windows appears among other thumbnail previews of open windows. You can switch between them using the Tab keystroke. This is available to a small audience initially and will deploy more broadly in the months that follow.

The update also fixes a wide range of bugs, including one in which the Copilot icon did not show as being as active when it’s open on the taskbar.

There are four known issues in this update, one applicable to IT admins, in which using the FixedDrivesEncryptionType or SystemDrivesEncryptionType policy settings in the BitLocker configuration service provider (CSP) node in mobile device management (MDM) apps might incorrectly show a 65000 error in the “Require Device Encryption” setting for some devices in your environment.

(Get more info about KB5032288 Preview.)

KB5032190 (OS Builds 22621.2715 and 22631.2715)

Release date: November 14, 2023

This build introduces a preview of the Copilot for Windows AI assistant and a File Explorer with a new interface that includes new files displayed as a carousel, and that recognizes local and cloud folders. It also introduces the Windows Backup app that can be used to quickly get your current PC backed up and ready to move to a new PC. In addition, there are many other new features and interface changes throughout Windows, including for Settings, Windows Spotlight, security graphics, voice access, Narrator, and others.

It also includes a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and November 2023 Security Updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

There are three known issues in this build, including one that affects ID admins in which using the FixedDrivesEncryptionType or SystemDrivesEncryptionType policy settings in the BitLocker configuration service provider (CSP) node in MDM apps might incorrectly show a 65000 error in the “Require Device Encryption” setting for some devices in your environment. To mitigate the issue in Microsoft Intune, you can set the “Enforce drive encryption type on operating system drives” or “Enforce drive encryption on fixed drives” policies to not configured.

(Get more info about KB5032190.)

KB5031455 (OS Builds 22621.2506 and 22631.2506) Preview

Release date: Oct. 31, 2023

This update introduces a preview of the Copilot for Windows AI assistant and File Explorer with a new interface that includes new files displayed as a carousel, and that recognizes local and cloud folders. It also includes minor interface changes to many parts of the operating system, including taskbar, system tray, security notifications, and more.

There is one known issue, which applies to IT admins: using the FixedDrivesEncryptionType or SystemDrivesEncryptionType policy settings in the BitLocker configuration service provider (CSP) node in mobile device management (MDM) apps might incorrectly show a 65000 error in the “Require Device Encryption” setting for some devices in your environment.

(Get more info about KB5031455 Preview.)

KB5031455 (OS Build 22621.2506) Preview

Release date: Oct. 26, 2023

This build introduces a preview of the Copilot for Windows AI assistant and a File Explorer with a new interface that includes new files displayed as a carousel, and that recognizes local and cloud folders. It also introduces the Windows Backup app that can be used to quickly get your current PC backed up and ready to move to a new PC.

There is one known issue in this build that applies to IT admins: using the FixedDrivesEncryptionType or SystemDrivesEncryptionType policy settings in the BitLocker configuration service provider (CSP) node in mobile device management (MDM) apps might incorrectly show a 65000 error in the “Require Device Encryption” setting for some devices in your environment.

(Get more info about KB5031455 Preview.)

KB5031354 (OS Build 22621.2428)

Release date: October 10, 2023

This build includes a wide variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and October 2023 Security Updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

(Get more info about KB5031354.)

KB5030310 (OS Build 22621.2361) Preview

Release date: September 26, 2023

This update adds websites to the Recommended section of the Start menu. These websites come from your browsing history. You can remove any website URL from the Recommended section using the shortcut menu. To turn off the feature, go to Settings > Personalization > Start.

It also fixes a variety of bugs, including one in which the search box tooltip did not appear in the correct position, and another in which the search button disappeared when you interacted with the search flyout box.

In addition, if you want to use a variety of new features, such as the AI-driven Copilot for Windows and improvements to File Manager, Paint, and other apps, go to Settings > Windows Update, toggle on “Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available,” and then restart your PC. For more details, see Microsoft’s blog post.

(Get more info about KB5030310 Preview.)

KB5030219 (OS Build 22621.2283)

Release date: September 12, 2023

This build removes a blank menu item from the Sticky Keys menu and includes a variety of security updates. For details, see Microsoft’s Security Update Guide and September 2023 Security Updates.

What IT needs to know: Because this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Over the next few weeks, check for reports about problematic issues, and if all seems well, apply the update.

(Get more info about KB5030219.)

Brother Industries is grappling with a critical authentication bypass vulnerability affecting hundreds of different printer models, many of them used in enterprises, allowing unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE) on the devices when chained with another flaw.

The admin password bypass stems from a manufacturing issue and cannot be fixed through firmware according to Rapid7, the cybersecurity firm that discovered the vulnerability — along with seven others — affecting 689 different device models.

One of those vulnerabilities enables attackers to extract the serial number of a printer, and that’s at the root of Brother’s problems.

A critical NetScaler ADC and Gateway vulnerability dubbed "Citrix Bleed 2" (CVE-2025-5777) is now likely exploited in attacks, according to cybersecurity firm ReliaQuest, seeing an increase in suspicious sessions on Citrix devices. [...]