Windows 11 build 25227 brings Start and Widgets visual changes

Windows 11 build 25227 is now rolling out in the Dev Channel.
The update introduces Start menu badging and new Widgets navigation.
The flight also ships updates for various features, including accessibility settings syncing.

Microsoft is making available the Windows 11 build 25227 for devices enrolled in the Dev Channel of the Windows Insider Program with updates to existing features, various enhancements, and some issues.

Build 25227 for Windows 11, according to the official changes, tries out the position of a new navigation pane for the Widgets board, adds badging alerts for the user profile menu in the Start menu, and introduces policies changes to improve the predictability of restarts for Windows Update. This flight also brings other improvements and several fixes.

Windows 11 build 25227 changes

Here are all the new features and improvements for the latest release of Windows 11 in the Dev Channel:

Widgets

Starting with build 25227, Microsoft is experimenting with different positions for the Widgets board navigation page, which includes new icons to access different features.

Start menu

In this release, Windows 11 brings badging alerts for the user profile menu in the Start menu to alert users that certain actions need to be taken.

Windows Update policies

The Windows team is also doing changes to the “Update Stack Orchestrator” service to improve the predictability of restarts of Windows updates.

The Deadline calculation for quality and feature updates is now based on the time the client’s update scan initially discovered the update. In the past, the Deadline was based on the update’s release date for quality updates and the reboot pending date for feature updates.

The “Specify deadlines for automatic updates and restarts” policy setting has been divided into two separate settings to align with the existing configuration service provider (CSP) policies. The options in the Group Policy settings are the same for both feature and quality updates. Also, the settings have a “Don’t auto-restart until end of grace period” option. The new Group Policy settings include “Specify deadlines for automatic updates and restarts for quality updates” and “Specify deadlines for automatic updates and restarts for feature updates.”

Finally, to minimize the impact of the Deadline calculation change, the defaults values for feature updates were changed to 2 (previously 7) for the “Update/ConfigureDeadlineForFeatureUpdates” setting and 7 (previously 2) for the “Update/ConfigureDeadlineGracePeriodForFeatureUpdate” setting.

Input

The ability to use the Clipboard history on password fields is now rolling out to everyone in the Dev Channel.

Also, Microsoft changed to allow you to contribute your voice clips to the company again, even if on-device speech recognition is used.

Voice Typing

On build 25227 and higher releases will sync your voice typing (and launcher) and automatic punctuation settings across all devices signed in using the same Microsoft account. You can adjust this behavior from Settings > Accounts > Windows backup > Remember my preferences > Accessibility.

Settings app

The Disk Properties page in the “Disks & Volumes” section will now alert users of potential data loss if they elect to change the partition style of their storage drive.

Also, the Ethernet and Wi-Fi property pages will now show the gateway (router) address information in the network details summary.

Fixes and improvements

In addition, this flight includes various fixes for File Explorer, Taskbar, Settings, Task Manager, and more.

Taskbar for tablets

Fixed an issue that was causing explorer.exe to crash while switching between apps on the tablet-optimized taskbar.

Start’s touch gesture should now follow your finger correctly with the tablet-optimized taskbar.

Improved how touch gestures and their animations with the tablet-optimized taskbar work with the touch keyboard.

You can now swipe up from within the taskbar with a pen to expand the tablet-optimized taskbar.

System Tray

Fixed an issue causing explorer.exe to crash when dragging icons in the system tray.

Right-clicking system tray icons should no longer cause the auto-hidden taskbar to hide incorrectly.

The show hidden icons panel in the system tray should no longer block context menus opened after it.

Fixed an issue where the first time you tried to open Quick Settings from the system tray it wouldn’t work.

Fixed an issue that was preventing system tray icons from updating in real time.

File Explorer

When you scroll to the bottom of the navigation pane using a mouse wheel and try to scroll back up it should no longer get stuck at the bottom.

Fixed an issue which could cause certain apps to hang when opening the Open File Dialog or Save File Dialog.

Made another fix for a case which could lead to people seeing divider lines overlapping entries in the navigation pane.

Start menu

Fixed an issue where dragging content across an open Start menu folder could cause a crash.

Search

Made a fix to help address an issue where Search might not respond when clicking on the search icon in the taskbar.

Opening images from search should no longer unexpectedly open them in Print.

Input

Fixed an issue where over time you might lose the ability to interact with certain games using the mouse.

Fixed an issue where the multiplication sign (×, U+00D7) wasn’t displaying correctly in the Yu Gothic font family for people with high resolution screens.

Settings

The size of UWP app icons under Apps > Startup shouldn’t be so small now.

Task Manager

Dragging Task Manager from the bottom area of the title bar to move the window should work now.

Other changes

Fixed a couple of issues causing certain apps to crash in recent builds, including OneNote. We are continuing to investigate feedback in this space.

Made a change to address an issue that could lead to performance degradation when using performance monitoring tools that leveraged the Microsoft-Windows-DxgKrnl ETW provider. This also impacted the performance for Windows Mixed Reality.

Fixed an issue where recording devices with “Listen to this device” enabled might not show in the volume mixer when they were playing sound.

If you reset your PC, the screen displayed while resetting will now be black, so it’s consistent with the upgrade screens.

If you were experiencing Gaming Services crashes while trying to play certain games in the previous Dev Channel flight, please check the Microsoft Store for Gaming Servicing updates, it should be resolved now.

Fixed an issue that was causing certain PCs to unexpectedly bugcheck on upgrade to the latest builds, with the error message saying “MULTIPROCESSOR_CONFIGURATION_NOT_SUPPORTED”.

Fixed an issue from the previous flight, which could cause Miracast to unexpectedly not be able to connect.

Fixed an issue which was causing some Insiders to not be able to upgrade to recent Dev Channel builds, with error 0xC1900101.

This release also has some known issues with the Tablet-optimized Taskbar, Widgets, and more.

Install build 25227

If you want to download and install the Windows 11 build 25227, enroll your device in the Dev Channel using the “Windows Insider Program” settings from the “Windows Update” section.

Once you enroll the computer in the program, you can download build 25227 from the “Windows Update” settings by clicking the Check for Updates button. However, you will need a device that meets the minimum system requirements to receive the update if you are new to the Windows Insider Program.

Update October 21, 2022: Microsoft is now rolling out build 25227.1010 as update KB5020539. However, the update does not include anything new, this is only another test for the update mechanism service.