New Windows 11 Build 25352 – Big Changes in the Canary Channel, New Widgets Picker, and more

In this article, we will talk about the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview Build for the Canary Channel, which is Build 25352.

Starting with today’s build, Windows Insiders in the Canary Channel will notice that the name of the branch shown in the desktop watermark has changed to ZN_RELEASE. Just like Microsoft have done in the past, we can change which branch we flight builds from. As their engineers work in development cycles internally, they may prioritize work being done in a specific branch and may need to move Insiders between branches. They are treating these builds the same as we would treat builds from the RS_PRERELEASE branch. As a result of this change, Insiders will notice that some features have been removed temporarily. We look to bring these features back to Insiders in the future. And builds from the ZN_RELEASE branch should not be viewed as being matched to a specific Windows 11 release.

New Widgets Picker

• Microsoft is beginning to roll out a new widget picker experience to Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels with an image that gives a visual preview of the widget before pinning, a deep linking ability that allows users to jump directly to the picker from the provider app/service as well as a link to the widgets Store collection page where users can discover more apps with widgets.

To enable this manually, just enable this command, using Vivetool:

vivetool /enable /id:43040593

This also works on older Builds, but you need to be on the 523.11500.0.0 Widgets Version.

The ID for this feature was provided by Albacore on Twitter. Make sure to follow him, if you want to learn more about hidden features like this one.

Features that were removed in this Build

– Everything tied to MTestUx15 (WASDK File Explorer, Gallery, new Home, new details pane, hide system tray date/time feature, start menu browsing history recommendations)

– Access keys in XAML File Explorer context menus

– Updated Simplified Chinese IME cloud suggestions

– Ambient device lighting (RGB?) settings

– Windows 365 Switch (to some extent?) (the files have been removed)

– Early Emoji 15 support

– Network diagnostics on system tray network icon right click

– Rejuvenated Settings wheel devices page

– Smart opt out toasts

– Smart snap assist suggestions

– Graphics cards in About page of Settings (not new)

Thanks to PhantomOcean3 for discovering this, follow him for more.

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.