New File Explorer Homepage in the Beta Channel (Build 22635.3640)

In this article, we will talk about the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview Build for the Beta Channel, which is Build 22635.3640.

Microsoft is making some changes to the Beta Channel:

• They will no longer release 2 different builds for the Beta Channel, and everyone will now be on the same build
• Insiders who want all the new features will need to toggle on the get the latest updates as they are available setting in Windows Update
• Features will be tested in 2 different ways: new features, improvements, and fixes that are being gradually rolled out for Insiders who have turned ON the toggle to get the latest updates as they are available and then new features, improvements, and fixes gradually rolling out to everyone in the Beta Channel. 

New File Explorer Homepage

Microsoft is changing the File Explorer Homepage, by adding more sections with new designs and animations.

File Explorer's Home page will be getting some updates soon! The way sections appear is being updated (complete with fancy visuals if there is nothing in them) and a new "Shared" section is being added. (disabled by default, Beta 22635.3640.) pic.twitter.com/kamy1T4sSN

— PhantomOcean3 🌳 (@PhantomOfEarth) May 17, 2024

New Archive Support in File Explorer

Microsoft added support for creating 7-zip and TAR archives in addition to ZIP via the context menu in File Explorer. We have also added a new compression wizard that lets you choose even more formats and specify even more details. You can compress individual files with gzip/bzip2 (and more,) or add multiple files to archives in different tar formats with different types of compression. You can also change the compression level and what types of data are stored in each archive.

Emoji 15.1 Support

adding support for Emoji 15.1 which introduces a small number of brand-new emoji such as head shaking horizontally and vertically, phoenix, lime, brown mushroom and broken chain. Other changes for Emoji 15.1 include Unicode’s decision to revert family combinations to symbol-like shapes.

Fixes in this Build

File Explorer

• Fixed a few accessibility issues in the Common File Dialog.

Input

• Fixed an underlying ctfmon.exe crash which could impact the ability to input text.

Windowing

• Fixed an issue related to showing tabs in Alt + Tab, which could lead to frequent explorer.exe crashes if you had a very large number of tabs.

Start Menu

• We fixed an issue believed to be the underlying cause for Start menu crashing on launch or the All apps list not displaying in the previous Beta Channel flight.

Other Fixes

• This update addresses an issue that might affect domain controllers (DC). NTLM authentication traffic might increase.
• This update addresses an issue that might affect Virtual Secure Mode (VSM) scenarios. They might fail. These scenarios include VPN, Windows Hello, Credential Guard, and Key Guard.

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.