New Windows 11 Build 26120.3073 – Beta on 24H2, New System Tray Icon, New Paint App (Dev and Beta)

In this article, we will talk about the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview Build for the Beta and Dev Channels, which is Build 26120.3073.

Beta Channel on 24H2

Starting today, Microsoft is beginning to offer the same Dev Channel updates based on Windows 11, version 24H2 to Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel. These updates will be optional at first, so if you are in the Beta Channel today, you can upgrade when you are ready to do so.

You will eventually get upgraded to 24H2-based updates automatically if you are in the Beta Channel. Until that happens, the Beta Channel will continue to receive both updates based on Windows 11, version 24H2 AND Windows 11, version 23H2 (but sometimes not at the same time). Please note that if you choose to upgrade to receiving updates based on Windows 11, version 24H2 in the Beta Channel, you may lose some feature rollouts. 

If you are an Insider in the Dev Channel, you now have a window to switch from the Dev Channel to the Beta Channel if you would like. This window will only be open for as long as we’re releasing the same 24H2-based updates across both the Dev and Beta Channels. By the end of February, the Dev Channel will jump ahead to receiving updates with higher build numbers and once this happens, the opportunity to switch between these channels will close. When the Dev Channel jumps ahead, things might not be as stable as the Dev Channel is today, so we highly encourage you to evaluate which channel you would like to be in during the time in which the window to switch is open.

New Windows Search for Copilot+ PCs

Today, Microsoft is excited to announce support for also finding photos saved in the cloud with improved Windows Search. Just use your own words to find photos stored and saved in the cloud by describing what they are about like “European castles” or “summer picnics” in the search box at the top 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. In addition to searching for photos, exact matches for your keywords within the text of your cloud files will show in the search results.

New Settings Homepage

Microsoft is starting to roll out the Settings homepage 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 and school and Microsoft account types. We are starting the rollout of this gradually with managed commercial PCs who have both work and school, and Microsoft accounts presently seeing this experience first.

New Emoji Icons in the System Tray

Microsoft is testing 4 different icons for the emoji button in the System Tray.

Microsoft is testing 4 different icons for the emoji button in the system tray, not just one. Here they are as of Dev/Beta 26120.3073. pic.twitter.com/RNqIBBaQUk

— phantomofearth ⛄ (@phantomofearth) January 31, 2025

New Paint App Update

Microsoft is rolling out an update for Paint (version 11.2412.271.0 and higher) to Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels. In this update, we are introducing the Copilot menu to Paint where you can access all the intelligent features which help you complete your image generation and editing tasks faster. Clicking on the Copilot icon from the toolbar will expand into a drop-down menu where you can easily access the features Cocreator, Image Creator, Generative erase, and Remove background. Note that Cocreator is only available on Copilot+ PCs. Within the dropdown, each feature will also include a short description to help you choose the right tool.

Fixes in this Build

Taskbar and System Tray

• Fixed an issue which was causing the taskbar preview windows to not display sometimes when hovering over open apps in the taskbar.

File Explorer

• We did some work to help address an issue where File Explorer might hang when browsing a folder with lots of media in it.
• Fixed an issue where if you opened a File Explorer window and minimized it in, it might not be rendered correctly when you restored it.

Improved Windows Search

• Fixed the issue where in some rare cases, searching on Outlook while offline might result in some results not being found.

Live Captions

• Fixed an issue where live captions might show an icon in the taskbar, but the window wouldn’t display on the screen, after disconnecting a second monitor.

Remote Desktop

•  Fixed an issue which was causing Remote Desktop to show significant display / rendering issues when connecting to certain other computers.

Settings

• Fixed an issue which was causing Settings to crash when interacting with the Bluetooth & Devices page sometimes.

Other

• Fixed an issue where when using GDI+ to shrink an image, the colors may be wrong afterwards..
• Fixed an issue which could cause shutdown to be noticeably slower on certain devices when a controller was connected.
• Fixed an underlying issue causing the Windows Security pop up when signing into certain Wi-Fi networks to not be interactable. This may have also impacted interacting with this pop up for certain other options in Settings.
• Fixed an issue where the description for virtual NICs wasn’t displayed correctly in ncpa.cpl, it showed garbled characters.
• [Memory leak] Fixed: Leaks occur when predictive input ideas show.
• [High dynamic range (HDR)] Fixed: The display of some games appears oversaturated. This occurs when you use Auto HDR.
• [Remote Desktop Gateway] Fixed: You get errors or cannot sign when you connect to Windows 11 workstations. This occurs when you enforce device redirection.
• [USB audio device drivers] Fixed: The code 10 error message, “This device cannot start” appears. This occurs when you connect to certain external audio management devices.

General

• We fixed the issue causing a 0xc0e90001 error to occur when booting into Windows Recovery (WinRE) on Arm64 PCs.

For more information about this Build, you can check this article from the Microsoft Blog.

For a more in-depth presentation of the New Build, you can watch the video below from the youtube channel.