In this article, we will talk about the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview Builds for the Canary Channel, which are the Builds 27965, 27959 and 27954.
Things that you need to keep in mind in the Canary Channel:
- The builds that Microsoft releases to the Canary Channel represent the latest platform changes early in the development cycle and should not be seen as matched to any specific release of Windows and features and experiences included in these builds may never get released as they try out different concepts and get feedback. Features may change over time, be removed, or replaced and never get released beyond Windows Insiders. Some of these features and experiences could show up in future Windows releases when they’re ready.
- Many features in the Canary Channel are rolled out using Control Feature Rollout technology, starting with a small subset of Insiders.
- Some features may show up in the Dev and Beta Channels first before showing up in the Canary Channel.
- To get off the Canary Channel, a clean install of Windows 11 will be required. As a reminder – Insiders can’t switch to a channel that is receiving builds with lower build numbers without doing a clean installation of Windows 11 due to technical setup requirements.
- The desktop watermark shown at the lower right corner of the desktop is normal for these pre-release builds.
New Hardware Indicators Location Change Setting
Microsoft is adding the option to move the hardware indicators for brightness, volume, airplane mode, and virtual desktops to different positions on your screen. We’ll support the current bottom position and new top left and top center positions on your screen.
To change the position of your flyouts, go to Settings > System > Notifications and use the dropdown for Position of the onscreen pop-up.
New Keyboard Shortcut
Insert dashes with new keyboard shortcuts. You can quickly insert an en dash (–) or em dash (—) while typing. Press Windows logo key+Minus (-) to insert an en dash, and Windows logo key+Shift+Minus (-) to insert an em dash. If Magnifier is running, Windows logo key+hyphen (-) will zoom out Magnifier instead of inserting an en dash.
New Windows Share Feature
Microsoft will try out the ability to pin your favorite apps in the Windows share window.
New Dialog for when an App Can’t Open
This feature offers a modern interface that aligns with Windows 11 visuals across several dialogs, including the one shown when an app fails to open.
New Start Menu UI and Phone Sidebar
In Windows 11 25H2, Microsoft will release a New Start Menu Layout which combines the Old Start Menu Layout with the All Apps Section.
The Pinned Section is now limited to 2 rows, but can be expanded. Also in Start Settings, you can enable the Pinned Section to be always expanded.
The Recommended Section in Start can also be disabled if you Disable Show recently added apps, Show most used apps and Show recommended files in Start.
Alongside with that, Microsoft is also redesigning the Phone Link Sidebar in Windows 11 25H2.
.NET Framework 3.5 Change
Starting with Build 27965, .NET Framework 3.5 is no longer a Windows Feature on Demand optional component. We encourage customers relying on the legacy framework to move to modern versions of .NET. Customers running business-critical applications that still depend on .NET Framework 3.5 can access a .NET Framework 3.5 standalone installer located here: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2337635. More information about .NET Framework products’ lifecycle can be found here: Lifecycle FAQ – .NET Framework | Microsoft Learn.
New Command Line
Edit, a command line text editor, is now delivered with Windows! You can quickly edit a file while in the Terminal app by typing edit followed by the file name. Edit is open source on GitHub and for a full list of its features, check out its docs.
Fixes in these Builds
Networking
- Fixed an issue where you might not be able to connect to shared files and folders if you were using the Server Message Block (SMB) v1 protocol on NetBIOS over TCP/IP NetBIOS (NetBT) after the latest updates.
General
- Fixed an issue causing some Insiders with Arm64 PCs to experience an increase in bugchecks (green screens) with error IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL in the latest Canary builds.
File Explorer
- The File Explorer context menu has been updated to remove the accent colored backplate behind packaged appicons in the Open With list when right clicking a file (for example, Snipping Tool). This change makes icons easier to see.
- Made some underlying changes to help improve the performance of launching cloud files from File Explorer and loading context menus.
- Fixed an issue which could lead to icons and text might becoming overlapping on the desktop when using increased text scaling.
- Fixed an issue where icons in the details, preview, and navigation panes of File Explorer weren’t properly mirrored when using an Arabic or Hebrew display language.
Taskbar and System Tray
- Fixed an issue in the latest builds where the battery icon could get out of sync with the actual charging state (for example, it would show that you weren’t plugged in when you were).
- Fixed a focus related issue when clicking on an app preview thumbnail which could result on it dismissing but the app window not actually coming to the foreground.
- If you were having issues with the taskbar not autohiding correctly in the previous flight, that should be resolved now.
Start Menu
- Fixed an underlying issue which was causing Start menu to dismiss if you tried to use WIN + Shift + S to take a screenshot of it.
Display and Graphics
- Fixed an issue where apps and browsers could have partially stuck onscreen content when other maximized / full screen apps were updating in the background. This may have been noticeable particularly when trying to scroll the window content, as only some parts would update.
Windows Hello
- Fixed an issue where Windows Hello Pin setup might fail with error 0x80090010 on Entra-domain joined devices after the latest updates.
Voice Access
- Fixed an issue which could result in Voice Access not working, showing error 9001.
For Developers
- There was an issue where PIX on Windows was unable to play back GPU captures on the latest OS versions. This has been addressed by a new PIX release.
Windows Security
- Fixed an issue where the apostrophes in some of the text in the app weren’t displaying correctly.
Video Playback
- Fixed a recent issue which was causing some videos and games to be unexpectedly red.
- Fixed an issue that could affect playback of protected content in certain Blu-ray, DVD, and digital TV apps that used Enhanced Video Renderer with HDCP enforcement.
For more information about these Builds, you can check these articles (27965, 27959 and 27954) and 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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