In this article, we will talk about the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview Build for the Dev Channel, which is Build 26120.3000.
There are some changes to the Dev Channel:
- this is just an Enablement Package, KB5037898, on top of 26100, not a full new build (26100 is still RTM)
- this will likely head to the Beta Channel at a future date, it comes from the
ge_release_svc_betaflt_prod1branch, packages refer to the Enablement Package as a Beta EKB and it shows up in update history with a title mentioning “Beta Channel” - the purpose of this EKB and CUs is to test the remaining features for the initial 24H2 release in September as well as features planned to come after GA
- Feature Drops will probably return under a new codename (not Moments anymore).
- For Insiders in the Dev Channel who want to be the first to get features gradually rolled out to you, you can turn ON the toggle (shown in the image below) to get the latest updates as they are available via Settings > Windows Update.
New Taskbar Battery Icon and Percentage
Introducing new and improved battery icons in Windows 11! These icons have been designed to communicate battery status of your PC with just a quick glance. Key changes include colored icons to indicate charging states, simplified overlays that don’t block the progress bar, and an option to turn on battery percentage.
When your battery icon is green, this shows that your PC is charging and in a good state. A yellow battery icon will let you know that your PC using battery in energy saving mode – this automatically happens when your battery is less than or equal to 20% to preserve power. When the battery icon is red, you have a critically low battery and should plug in your PC as soon as possible. You will see these new battery icons on the taskbar in the system tray, in the quick settings flyout, and in Settings. The new battery icons will begin showing on the Lock screen in a future flight.
As always, your PC’s battery status and more will also be available to you when you hover over the battery icon in the system tray and under Settings > System > Power & battery where you can also adjust the battery level percentage in which energy saver mode kicks on for your PC.
Along with the updates to the battery icon, we are also introducing the ability to show your battery percentage next to the battery icon in the system tray – a highly requested feature by Insiders and customers. To enable this, go to Settings > Power & battery and toggle on the “Battery Percentage” setting.
How to Enable this New Feature
Thanks to PhantomOcean3 for discovering this, follow them for more hidden features!
You will need to download ViveTool, which is a small app that will help us enable hidden features from Windows.
After you download ViveTool, you will need to extract the contents of the archive into a folder of your choice.
Right-click on the archive and then click on Extract all. Select Your Folder and then click on Extract. You will also need to provide some administrative privileges.
After you’ve done that, you will need to open CMD as administrator. Type the following command in CMD:
cd "your-location"Then copy and paste the following commands:
Enable New Taskbar Battery Icon and Percentage
vivetool /enable /id:48822452
vivetool /enable /id:48433719You will now need to restart your computer, for the changes to take effect.
After the restart, you will notice the New Taskbar Battery Icon and Percentage in Windows 11 26120.3000.
New Gamepad Keyboard Layout
After being temporarily disabled to address some issues with Build 26120.2213, we are beginning to roll out a new Gamepad keyboard layout for the touch keyboard in Windows 11 again. This change introduces the ability to use your Xbox controller to navigate and type. This includes button accelerators (example: X button for backspace, Y button for spacebar) additionally the keyboard keys have been vertically aligned for better controller navigation patterns.
Narrator Improvements
Microsoft have added new functionalities to Narrator scan mode. Jump to list item (I’) allows you to quickly access and jump to a list item on a page or a document. Beginning and end of element (Comma (,) and Period (.)) allow you to quickly jump to the beginning or end of large tables, lists or landmarks. This is most helpful when navigating through long emails, news articles, and wiki pages. To try these new features, you need to turn on Narrator first (Win key + Ctrl + Enter), then turn scan mode ON by pressing Caps Lock + Spacebar and finally use the new shortcuts – ‘I’, ‘,’ and ‘.’. Please note that scan mode is ‘ON’ by default on most web pages (like news articles, wiki pages, etc.).
Search on the Taskbar Changes
Improved support for web search providers in Windows Search for the EEA, including clearer provider attribution in tabs.
Suggested Actions Deprecated
Suggested actions that appear when you copy a phone number or future date in Windows 11 are now deprecated. With this build, we’re beginning to disable the feature.
Fixes in this Build
General
- Fixed an underlying issue which was causing significant performance degradation for a small population of Insiders in the previous flight due to repeated background crashes.
File Explorer
- Fixed an issue where sometimes you would be unable to navigate by entering a path in the address bar.
- Fixed an issue where the File Explorer address bar unexpectedly overlapped with content while in full screen (F11) view.
- Improved performance of context menu launches for people when right-clicking on cloud files.
- Made a change to help ensure thumbnails for cloud files are displayed more consistently in search results within File Explorer.
- Fixed an issue where searching might lose keyboard focus on the text box while you were typing.
Other
- Fixed an underlying issue which could lead to scanners not being detected by scanning apps, although the scanner was connected.
- Fixed an underlying issue which could result in 2 in 1 PCs unexpectedly changing screen orientation when coming out of sleep.
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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