In this article, we will talk about the latest Windows 11 25H2 Insider Preview Build for the Dev and the Beta Channels, which is the Build 26220.7523.
Windows 11 25H2
Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel will see the versioning updated under Settings > System > About (and winver) to version 25H2. This denotes that Windows 11, version 25H2 will be this year’s annual feature update. As mentioned here, Windows 11 will have an annual feature update cadence that releases in the second half of the calendar year. For more information, see this blog post here.
New Ask Copilot on the Taskbar with Microsoft 365 Copilot
Microsoft is starting to roll out a version tailored for commercial customers—first announced at Microsoft Ignite.
Ask Copilot on the taskbar provides a unified entry point that fluidly connects Microsoft 365 Copilot, agents, and search. This makes Copilot and agents feel like a natural part of how you use your PC, turning everyday interactions into moments of productivity and impact.
- One-click access to Copilot from your taskbar: This opt-in experience is the most integrated and natural way to engage with Copilot through voice or text in the way that works best for you. Commercial users will have all the power of their Work IQ as contextual information that they can reference in their Copilot chats and with Microsoft 365 AI Agents.
- Invoke agents: You’ll be able to invoke agents directly from Ask Copilot on the taskbar using the tools button or by typing “@.”
- Streamlined search experience: Lightning-fast results in a refreshed design makes finding apps, files and settings easier.
To get started go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Ask Copilot to enable the experience.
New AI Agents on the Taskbar
Windows is adding a new way to keep an eye on your Agents right from the taskbar.
Researcher in Microsoft 365 Copilot can dig into a topic and build a detailed report, and now you’ll be able to track its progress without breaking your flow. Give it a try by asking Researcher a question from within the Microsoft 365 Copilot App.
We’re also testing a hover experience—when you move your cursor over the Copilot or Researcher icon, you’ll see real‑time reasoning updates, so you always know how the task is progressing. Researcher will also let you know when it’s done. This opt‑in experience will roll out gradually in the coming weeks to commercial Windows Insider Program customers in the United States who have Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses.
When the report is complete, you will receive a notification as well as seeing a ‘completed’ state on the taskbar. Click either to go back to Microsoft 365 or review the report and turn your learnings into action.
New AI Agents Launchers in Windows
Microsoft is introducing Agent Launchers, a new framework that enables Windows apps to register AI agents and make them discoverable across the system. Agent Launchers provides a standardized way for apps to expose their interactive AI agents so they can be found and invoked by Windows and Applications. When launched, these agents open their chat experience so you can start working with them. Agents provide active, collaborative experiences, asking clarifying questions, maintaining context, and taking actions to get things done.
With Agent Launchers, developers can register their agents once, and those agents become available to all supporting experiences—including Ask Copilot on the taskbar with Microsoft 365 Copilot and other installed apps. Microsoft 365 Copilot is already using this framework to register agents like Analyst (for gaining insights from data) and Researcher (for creating detailed reports). Developers can register agents statically at install time or dynamically at runtime, giving flexibility to control availability based on authentication, subscriptions, or other conditions. Documentation is available at https://learn.microsoft.com/windows/ai/agent-launchers/.
New AI Agent in Settings Language Expansion
- Now, the languages supported by the Settings Agent continue to be expanded. The following locales and languages are supported with this release:
Current:
- English: en-gb, en-us
- French: fr-fr, fr-ca
New:
- German: de-de
- Portuguese: pt-br, pt-pt
- Spanish: es-es, es-mx
- Korean: ko-kr
- Japanese: ja-jp
- Hindi: hi-in
- Italian: it-it
- Chinese (Simplified): zh-cn
New Click to Do with Microsoft 365 Copilot Support
The Copilot prompt box in Click to Do now supports Microsoft 365 Copilot. Ask Microsoft 365 Copilot about what’s on your screen. Quickly type a custom prompt directly into a text box, which is then sent to Microsoft 365 Copilot along with your selected screen content. This change is not yet rolling out to Windows Insiders in the EEA (European Economic Area) or China. This feature previously rolled out last September to Dev and Beta channel outside of EEA.
New Modern Run Box
By default, the Old Run Box will still be present in the system, but you can replace it with the new one, from the Advanced Settings Section.
It also looks very good in Dark Mode, and it is larger, it contains New Icons and a History Section that has all the previous commands you run inside the Run Box.
New Narrator Personalize Option
Narrator now gives you more control over how information is spoken when you navigate UI elements in an app. Every app is made up of different control types—such as buttons, checkboxes, links, sliders, and text fields. Each control includes properties (like its name, role, or state) and values (for example, a slider set to “75%”). Narrator usually announces these in a fixed order, but you can now choose which properties are spoken and rearrange their order to match your preferences.
New Touch Keyboard for Voice Typing
Microsoft is updating the experience when you use voice typing with the touch keyboard to make it feel more streamlined and intuitive. The new design removes the previous full‑screen overlay and instead shows voice typing animations directly on the dictation key, helping you stay focused on what you’re doing without extra visual distractions.
New Discover Windows Widget
Microsoft is introducing a new Discover Windows widget on Windows 11. This widget helps you learn about Windows features with short, helpful tips that appear right when you need them.
What it shows:
- Quick, actionable tips from the Windows Tips website—covering things like shortcuts, productivity tricks, and security reminders.
- Tips update automatically throughout the day to match common usage moments.
How to add it:
- To Widgets Board: Open the Widgets Board, select Add widgets, then choose Discover.
- To Lock Screen: Go to Settings > Personalization > Lock screen, then add the Discover widget to your lock screen widgets.
You can add it, remove it, or ignore it at any time—it’s designed to be helpful without getting in the way. We’ll be trying out this experience with Insiders first to gather feedback before a wider rollout.
New Input Changes
The AltGr layer is now enabled for the Arabic 101 keyboard layout. The left Alt key continues to function as before, while the right Alt key acts as a modifier to access additional symbols. The first new symbol mapped to AltGr on the Arabic 101 layout is the Saudi Riyal currency symbol (AltGr + S). Users who switch languages with Alt + Shift can continue to use the left Alt + Shift or the general shortcut Windows logo key + Space. Arabic 102 and Arabic 102 AZERTY layouts are updated similarly.
New Voice Access Setup
Microsoft is introducing a more streamlined setup flow to make it even easier to get started with Voice Access. The redesigned flow helps download the right speech model for your language of choice; select your preferred input microphone & highlights what Voice Access can help you do on your PC.
New Animations on the Taskbar Temporarily Removed
Microsoft is temporarily stopping the rollout of the new animations when sliding between open apps on the taskbar to investigate some issues – appreciate your patience.
New File Explorer People Icons in the Activity Column
For Windows Insiders signed in with a Microsoft account (consumer cloud), File Explorer will now begin showing people icons under the “Activity” column on File Explorer Home and in areas like Recommended, Favorites, and Recent. When you hover or click on a people icon, File Explorer will display the new Windows People Card (WPC), giving you lightweight context about who recently interacted with the file and providing quick actions like starting a chat or a call through your preferred communication apps.
New Paint App Update with the Collapse Toolbar Feature
With Paint version 11.2511.281.0, we’re introducing the collapse toolbar feature in Paint. To get started, open Paint and click the chevron icon at the bottom-right of the ribbon to enable Automatically hide toolbar. Once the toolbar collapses, use the Show toolbarbutton to bring it back and switch tools. To hide it again, click the Hide toolbar button or anywhere outside the toolbar. When you’re ready to return to the default view, click the chevron icon and select Always show toolbar.
Fixes in this Build
Taskbar and System Tray Fixes
- When your taskbar is set to uncombined, if you have an app open with many windows, they will no longer all move as a set to the overflow area when there is not enough space on the taskbar, and instead only the ones specifically within the set that don’t have space. With this change, the overflow area should no longer appear to display with lots of available space.
- Fixed an issue where the label in the taskbar might not be displayed correctly if you had an app with multiple windows open.
File Explorer Fixes
- Fixed an issue causing File Explorer recently to show a white flash when navigating between pages after the latest flights.
- Made some improvements to File Explorer search performance by eliminating duplicate file indexing operations, which should result in faster searches and reduced system resource usage during file operations.
- Enhanced search reliability with improved handling of system and secondary drive locations, to help ensure more accurate search results across all your storage devices.
- Fixed an issue which could prevent OneDrive files from opening in RemoteApp sessions (showing error 0x80070057).
- Improved Voice Access support in File Explorer’s Gallery view, so you can now open photos by saying ‘click [number]’ instead of requiring ‘double click,’ streamlining voice-controlled navigation.
Login and Lock Screens Fix
- Fixed a few more issues which could lead to the login screen becoming unresponsive and not rendering.
Display and Graphics Fix
- Fixed an issue which could lead to Adaptive Brightness not working immediately after rebooting your PC.
Windows Update Fix
- Fixed an issue resulting in an increase in Insiders seeing error 0x800F0922 when trying to install the latest updates recently.
Other Fixes
- Fixed an issue where text might not display correctly in Windows Recovery when using the Japanese display language.
- Fixed an issue where in some cases valid Windows license migration might fail when upgrading because the device couldn’t register with the Windows Activation server for its CLIP / online entitlement, requiring using the troubleshooter to fix.
- Fixed an issue where external virtual switches might lose their physical network adapter (NIC) bindings after a host restart. When this happened, the switches would revert to internal mode, resulting in loss of network connectivity for virtual machines and blocking normal server operations.
- Fixed an issue where the Share dialog might unexpectedly show an option to share to Shell Experience Host.
- Updated the “Change Account Type” dialog in Settings > Accounts > Other accounts to better align with other modern dialogs in Settings.
- If you were seeing a message saying “There’s a newer build available” in Windows Insider Program Settings, but there wasn’t actually, that should be resolved now.
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.
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