Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23531 (Dev Channel)

[Brandon LeBlanc]

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23531 to the Dev Channel.

Changes and Improvements​

[General]​

• [REMINDER] Insider Preview Build Expiration: The expiration date for Insider Preview builds flighted to the Dev Channel has been updated to 9/15/2024 starting with Build 23526. Please make sure you are updated to the latest build in the Dev Channel.
• In the European Economic Area (EEA), Windows system components use the default browser to open links.

[Search on the Taskbar]​

• We're re-introducing the search experience for invoking the search flyout when you hover over the search box gleam. This behavior can be adjusted by right-clicking on the taskbar, choosing “Taskbar settings” and adjusting your preferred search box experience.

Fixes​

[General]​

• Fixed an issue which was causing explorer.exe to not work in safe mode.

[File Explorer]​

• Fixed an issue which could cause explorer.exe to crash when closing File Explorer.
• Fixed an issue which was causing File Explorer to crash when navigating to Gallery if you had a large number of images.
• Fixed an issue where “Automatically type into the Search Box” wasn’t working when File Explorer was open to Home.
• Fixed an issue where if you tried to copy and paste, a file out of a compressed folder and into a OneDrive folder might fail with an error code.

[HDR Backgrounds]​

• Fixed an issue which could cause HDR wallpapers to appear washed out when HDR was enabled.

[Task Manager]​

• Fixed an issue where it wasn’t possible to move the Task Manager window with touch or pen.
• Fixed an issue where Task Manager was crashing when using the reset to default button in Settings.
• Fixed an issue which was causing sporadic crashes when using Task Manager, including when ending tasks.
• Fixed an issue where if you did a search and then cleared it, the view would still be filtered even though there was no search anymore.
• Fixed an issue where the search icon would become overlapped with the Task Manager text in the title bar.
• Did some work to help improve the performance when switching between different pages in Task Manager.
• Updated the summary view for the Performance page (that you see when double clicking the graphs in the navigation pane) to make the window smaller.

NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11.

Known issues​

[Start menu]​

• Some apps under All apps on the Start menu, such as PWA apps installed via Microsoft Edge, may incorrectly be labeled as a system component.

[Search on the Taskbar]​

• Sometimes the tooltip when mousing over the search box does not match the current search highlight.

[Windows Copilot]​

• You can use Alt + Tab to switch out of Windows Copilot, but not back into it. Windows + C will move focus back to Windows Copilot
• When first launching or after refreshing Copilot while using voice access you'll need to use "Show grid" commands to click in the "Ask me anything" box for the first time.

For developers​

You can download the latest Windows Insider SDK at aka.ms/windowsinsidersdk. SDK NuGet packages are now also flighting at NuGet Gallery | WindowsSDK which include:

• .NET TFM packages for use in .NET apps as described at aka.ms/windowsinsidersdk
• C++ packages for Win32 headers and libs per architecture
• BuildTools package when you just need tools like MakeAppx.exe, MakePri.exe, and SignTool.exe

These NuGet packages provide more granular access to the SDK and better integration in CI/CD pipelines. SDK flights are now published for both the Canary and Dev Channels, so be sure to choose the right version for your Insider Channel. Remember to use adaptive code when targeting new APIs to make sure your app runs on all customer machines, particularly when building against the Dev Channel SDK. Feature detection is recommended over OS version checks, as OS version checks are unreliable and will not work as expected in all cases.

About the Dev Channel​

REMINDER: The Dev Channel has been rebooted. Windows Insiders who were in the Dev Channel on 25000 series builds have been moved to the new Canary Channel. Going forward, the Dev Channel will receive 23000 series builds. Insiders who were moved to the Canary Channel and want to move back to the Dev Channel can follow these instructions to do a clean installation of Windows 11 and then re-join the Dev Channel to receive 23000 series builds. The Dev Channel receives builds that represent long lead work from our engineers with features and experiences that may never get released as we try out different concepts and get feedback. It is important to remember that the builds we release to the Dev Channel should not be seen as matched to any specific release of Windows and the features included may change over time, be removed, or replaced in Insider builds or may never be released beyond Windows Insiders to general customers. For more information, please read this blog post about how we plan to use the Dev Channel to incubate new ideas, work on long lead items, and control the states of individual features. In some cases, features and experiences may go out to the Canary Channel first before going out to the Dev Channel however the Dev Channel will provide better platform stability. As we get closer to shipping, some features and experiences will also make their way to the Beta Channel when they are ready. The desktop watermark you see at the lower right corner of your desktop is normal for these pre-release builds.

Important Insider Links​

• You can check out our Windows Insider Program documentation here.
• Check out Flight Hub for a complete look at what build is in which Insider channel.

Thanks, Amanda & Brandon

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