In this article, we will talk about the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview Build for the Canary Channel, which is Build 25977.
Improved Accessibility with Bluetooth LE Audio
Microsoft is announcing that Windows has taken a significant step forward in accessibility by supporting the use of hearing aids equipped with the latest Bluetooth® Low Energy Audio (LE Audio) technology. Customers who use these new hearing aids are now able to directly pair, stream audio, and take calls on their Windows PCs with LE Audio support.
Windows Location Improvements
Microsoft is adding new controls to help you manage which apps have access to the list of Wi-Fi networks around you, which could be used to determine your location. You can view and modify which apps can access the list of Wi-Fi networks by navigating to Settings > Privacy & security > Location.
To simplify the process of sharing your location with trusted apps, Microsoft also added a new prompt that will appear the first time an app attempts to access your location or Wi-Fi information. This prompt will enable location services and allow the app to access your location, helping you complete tasks such as finding directions or checking the weather without navigating to Settings. Additionally, the prompt will notify when an app unexpectedly requests access to location services so that you can deny it. If you never want apps to access your location, you can turn off ‘Notify when apps request location’ on the Location Settings page to hide these prompts when location has been turned off.
In addition to the documented location improvements in Canary, there’s also a confirmation dialog in Settings when turning off location services.
SMB News
Starting with this build (Build 25977), SMB over QUIC now supports additional access control options for clients. This improves the existing SMB over QUIC feature, which introduced an alternative to the TCP network transport, providing secure, reliable connectivity to edge file servers over untrusted networks like the Internet.
With this new option, administrators can restrict which clients can access SMB over QUIC servers. This option gives organizations additional SMB over QUIC connection protections but does not change the Windows authentication used to make the SMB connection or the end user experience.
This new feature requires both the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25977 as well as a Windows Server Insider Preview Build 25967 or higher running in a VM.
For more information on configuring SMB over QUIC client access control, review https://aka.ms/SmbOverQuicCAC.
Mail and Calendar Changes
Starting with this build, Mail and Calendar will no longer be installed after doing a clean install using the provided ISOs here. This ONLY applies for clean installs of Build 25977 and higher in the Canary Channel today. Mail and Calendar will not be removed on upgrade for Insiders in the Canary Channel. You can click here to learn more about the future of Mail and Calendar in Windows.
Xbox Game Bar
The Xbox Game Bar will now show as just Game Bar under the Start menu and also under Settings > System > System Components. This change will come through a Game Bar update via the Microsoft Store.
Taskbar and System Tray
The network icon in the system tray now animates when a connection is in progress. This animation replaces the disconnected globe when a network is taking time to establish internet.
Input
Microsoft is including two new keyboard layouts in this flight. These keyboards implement the two new German extended layout standards (E1 and E2).
Settings Improvements
In Settings, when looking at your Wi-Fi password under the Wi-Fi properties, Microsoft will now show a QR code so you can more easily share it with others. They also show a QR code when you set up a mobile hotspot to share your network connection.
New Button in OOBE
Build 25977 adds an Install Driver Button to the OOBE’s Network Connection page.
Thanks to PhantomOcean3 for discovering this.
Fixes in this Build
- Fixed an underlying issue believed to be the root cause of various games having issues launching (citing graphics issues) or changing resolution in Build 25967.
- Did some work to help improve performance when expanding the navigation pane in Task Manager.
- Fixed an issue where certain .rar files would open blank or with an unexpected message saying there was insufficient memory to open the file.
For more information about Known Issues in 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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