What you need to know
- Windows 11 build 22621.440 & 22622.440 rolls out to the Beta Channel.
- It features a handful of UI updates and Taskbar improvements.
- UI updates include a more dynamic widgets button and a new “open with” dialog window.
Microsoft has rolled out new Windows 11 preview builds for Insiders in the Beta Channel, with the 22622 build gaining several new user interface updates and the new taskbar overflow menu. The new overflow menu for the taskbar appears when there’s no more space on the taskbar for more app icons.
Other taskbar improvements include the widgets button now being more dynamic, showing sports and finance info in addition to the current weather. Regarding UI updates, Microsoft has introduced a new design for the “open with” menu, which appears when the user changes the program in which Windows attempts to open file types with.
All of these features are now being tested on the version 22H2 build of Windows 11, which is expected to begin rolling out later this year. Windows Central understands that some of these new features will roll out in a series of feature drops starting in 2023.
Here’s the changelog:
- We’re reintroducing taskbar overflow, with a newly designed experience for Windows 11. This taskbar experience has been thoughtfully crafted to offer you a more productive switching and launching experience when space is constrained. Your taskbar will automatically transition into this new overflow state when it has hit its maximum capacity. In this state, taskbar will offer an entry point to an overflow menu that allows you to view all your overflowed apps in one space.
- We’re trying out some changes to bring more dynamic Widgets content to your taskbar. In addition to seeing live content from the weather widget, you’ll also start to see live updates from the sports and finance widgets, along with breaking news alerts.
- We are beginning to roll out the updated “Open with” dialog box again to align with Windows 11 design principles. The updated dialog box honors light and dark theme. We have also simplified the experience by making it possible to update your default app with just one click. Since reverting this change back in March, we’ve made performance improvements based on Insider feedback.
- We have updated the U.S. English (EN-US) handwriting model to be faster and more accurate. Use the updated Handwriting Panel for ink-to-text and let us know what you think.
- Settings now supports managing apps which were earlier only supported from Control Panel. This includes uninstallation of apps which have inter-dependencies (e.g., Steam and gaming apps running on Steam), repair and modifying of Win32 apps.
- Fixed an issue leading to some Insiders experiencing explorer.exe crashes when docking and undocking monitors in Build 22622.436.
- Did some work to fix a memory leak when using tabs with File Explorer.
- Fixed an issue where Narrator wasn’t reading out the titles of tabs as focus moved through them.
- Fixed an issue where Narrator wasn’t reading out the titles of tabs as focus moved through them.
- The add new tab button shouldn’t overlap with the minimize button in the title bar when using text scaling with a lot of tabs open anymore.
- Fixed an issue which was leading to certain apps freezing after a copy action if Suggested Actions was enabled.
- Fixed a high hitting crash impacting Suggested Actions reliability.
