By Delia / Last update December 10, 2024

Microsoft today pushed out the Windows 11 Dev Insider Preview Build 22572 update, which covers some of the feature updates. This release adds Microsoft Family and Clipchamp as native apps.

Starting next week, Microsoft will begin rolling out an update to the search feature in Windows 11 called Search Focus, which highlights interesting moments in the world around you and in your company/organization.

The new version also has some general bug improvements and fixes. Notably, Preview users can now try the new Microsoft Defender Preview (English and US only).

Also, users have found that the new version adds support for Explorer tabs (vivetool addconfig 34370472 2), which will show up as "▶" after too many tabs cause the menu bar to overflow.

Microsoft Family will now be a new native app

Starting with this version of Microsoft Family, the family safety features you've used on the web and mobile will now be available on Windows 11, and this version will be available with the Microsoft Family app.

You can also set up parental controls for Microsoft Edge to filter inappropriate apps and games and browse only kid-friendly sites, help kids balance their time on Windows, Xbox, and Android, and use activity reports to better understand family activities, as well as support tracking by family location to stay connected even when you're not around.

The Microsoft Family app is only available as a native app for Windows 11 Home Edition and can be updated through the Microsoft Store.

Windows Preview Experience members using Windows 11 Professional can go to Settings > Accounts > Family and download the Microsoft Family app from the App Store.

Clipchamp will now be a native application.

Clipchamp is Microsoft's newest video editor designed to make video creation easy, fast, and fun.

Clipchamp is described as being equipped with all the basic tools users expect, such as editing and splitting, plus more professional features. For users who broadcast live, it also has a built-in webcam and screen recording capabilities.

The most unique feature of Clipchamp, worth mentioning, is its timeline. It offers more control (and complexity) than everyday editors can handle, allowing for more flexibility, the ability to fine-tune details, and eliminating the rest of it for anyone who wants to enjoy a new and simple video editing experience.

The highlights don't stop there - in Clipchamp, users will find even more unique offerings, such as a library of over a million copyright-free videos, audio tracks and images that can be added to videos. There's even an Azure-based text-to-speech generator that enables you to create voiceovers in more than 70 languages.

Also, speaking of Microsoft, Clipchamp supports connectivity with OneDrive, which helps you import files and save videos quickly and securely.

To start creating your own videos, look for Clipchamp in the Start menu of your PC.

Microsoft Defender Preview Edition (US only)

Windows Preview users can now download and try (the new Microsoft Defender). It's a new Windows, Android, and iOS app that helps protect you and your family's data and devices from threats.

Key to the new version of Microsoft Defender is the ability to view and manage security features in one console, regardless of your devices and family members.

In addition, Microsoft offers additional "malware" and "phishing" protection on your mobile devices, but the ability to view family devices is currently only available in the Windows app.

Features coming soon – search highlights

Starting next week, Microsoft will begin rolling out a search update in Windows 11 that highlights interesting content in the taskbar just in time. You can discover what's trending online, in the world, and in your filings. And of course, you can still search for your apps, files, settings and answers by typing in keywords.

In addition, the search boxes in Start and Search are regularly updated with interesting illustrations and more to help you discover more, and these tips in the search box give you a preview of what's on the search home page.

The search highlights will present you with content that is noteworthy and interesting, such as holidays, anniversaries, and other important moments in your area. You'll find that bold content on the search home page to remember what makes your day special.

To dig even deeper, you can explore additional content related to today's moments and everyday content in the search home page, such as Word of the Day, Microsoft Rewards, Trending Search, and more. There's something different to learn every day. In addition, the left side of the Search home page shows an expanded list of recently launched applications, files, settings, and websites to help you quickly cut back to the last thing you did.

Sign in with your work or school account to make Search your one-stop shop for organizational documents and contacts.

Search highlights will show you the latest updates and suggestions for people, documents and more for your organization. Explore documents that may be of interest to you or browse your organization's membership form. Of course you can also type as usual and then you will find everything related to your organization.

If you don't want to see this feature, you can turn it off or on in Settings > Privacy and Security > Search Settings and toggle "Show search highlights". For organization administrators, you can also use other controls in the M365 Admin Center.

In addition, search highlights will also appear in the Windows 10 search box, and you can get the same updates in the search box and search home. The Windows 10 Preview Channel will need to wait for a subsequent update, though.

This feature will start rolling out early next week, but Microsoft won't be opening it up directly to all internal testers for you-know-why.

Changes and improvements in Windows 11 build 22572

General

  • The new Print Queue has an updated design to comply with Windows 11 design principles, allowing you to easily identify the print jobs you need, view their status, and manage them. The feature is designed with simplicity in mind, giving you better access to your print jobs. To get started, simply click Print and watch the print queue pop up.

  • Print jobs in the new print queue are displayed in a dark theme.
  • Quick Assist now has a new Fluent style icon.

Focus

  • Building on the focus changes announced in Build 22557, we have updated the Do not disturb setting to be the icon in the Notification Center when it is turned on.

File Explorer

  • Shift + right click in File Explorer, the desktop will now open the "Show more options" context menu.

Narrator

  • Narrator natural voice is now available for all English languages.

Terminal

  • Windows Terminal is now called Terminal under Start.

Settings

  • WMIC is now available as an optional feature and can be uninstalled or reinstalled via Settings > Apps > Optional Features.
  • The Touch Keyboard icon option under Settings > Personalization > Taskbar has been switched from a toggle switch to a drop-down menu where you can select "Never", "Always", or "When no keyboard is connected".

Windows Sandbox

  • Windows Sandbox now has a new Fluent style icon.

Other

  • Older versions of Windows Media Player available in Windows Tools have been renamed to Older Windows Media Player.

Fixes in Windows 11 build 22572

General

  • Fixed an issue with the first attempt to skip the network add screen when setting up the experience (OOBE) through Enterprise Edition devices.
  • Addresses an issue that caused some insiders to see error checking and a CRITICAL_PROCESS_DIED error in the last release when trying to perform various actions, including logging in, opening Outlook, and accessing network shares in File Explorer.
  • Mitigated an underlying issue that caused audio stuttering and touchpad issues in the last flight.
  • Addressed an explorer.exe crash seen in recent releases by insiders when trying to use Windows Mixed Reality.
  • Fixed an issue where scrollbars were not rendering correctly on some Win32 applications.
  • Fixed another issue where users could not hear the startup sound.
  • When using a lock screen slideshow with an Arabic or Hebrew display language, the image should no longer be displayed backwards.

Taskbar

  • We fixed an issue that caused explorer.exe to crash if you right-click the Start button or use WIN + X.
  • Alleviated the explorer.exe hang that could occur in the last few versions related to the visual indicator in the taskbar when sharing windows in Microsoft Teams.
  • Adjusted sensitivity so that quickly sliding the mouse over the widget icon to the path of an open pop-up window or menu will no longer make it disappear.
  • Made changes to help resolve a memory leak in Shell Experience Host when repeatedly opening and closing the Notification Center.
  • Resolved a situation where the Notification Center might not close when opened on top of some applications.
  • Fixed a potential issue that caused drag-and-drop in the taskbar to unexpectedly show that it was not available when the display scaling was greater than 100%.

Tablet-optimized taskbar

Note: These fixes will only show up if you have the tablet-optimized taskbar enabled on your device, which is starting to roll out to Windows Preview Experience members, but is not yet available to everyone.

  • As we addressed several new touch gestures announced as part of Build 22557 on non-tablet devices, we addressed touch gestures for all device types.
  • Improved the reliability of the taskbar automatically collapsing after launching an app.
  • Fixed several bugs related to taskbar state changes when disconnecting or reconnecting the keyboard.
  • Resolved a positioning issue with hidden icon buttons and popup buttons when using Arabic or Hebrew display language.

Start Menu

  • Improved the presentation of "fixed" title names in the Arabic display language.

File Manager

  • Additional improvements have been made to help improve context menu recall performance.
  • Using the filter option in Quick Access should now apply to images.
  • Fixed a potential issue that caused the title bar in File Explorer to not visually occupy the entire area it should when maximized in the File Explorer window when colored.
  • Fixed an issue where if you selected a folder in the Navigation Pane and right-clicked on another folder, an option like Open in Windows Terminal would accidentally open the first folder.
  • "Pin to Quick Access" is now available in the command bar when a file in Recent Files in Quick Access is selected.

Pin to Quick Access

  • Resolved an issue where clicking a hyperlink in RichTextBlocks did not work when executed with touch or pen.
  • Resolved an issue where the custom mouse pointer may revert to the default Windows pointer after a restart.
  • Fixed an issue where voice input might show "There is a connection problem" instead of the reason for the error.
  • Fixes an issue where voice input may not start after unlocking the PC.
  • Fixes a touch keyboard crash that could occur on the login screen when there are multiple accounts on the PC.
  • Mitigated an issue in Recent Visits that affected pen sensitivity.
  • Fixed a rendering issue that caused the screen to freeze slightly on recent flights when attempting to ink in certain applications.
  • Made several improvements to help improve detection of pinch-to-zoom gestures on the touchpad.
  • Resolved an issue that caused the IME toolbar options to be unresponsive to Chinese (Simplified) IME in some cases.

Search

  • Some work has been done to resolve the high hit rate search crash issue.

Settings

  • Fixed an issue that caused a hang when trying to access Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar Behavior.
  • Resolved an issue where the font preview under Personalization > Fonts may not be visible when Contrast Mode is enabled.
  • Improved performance when switching between different available views on Apps > Installed apps.
  • Uninstalling updates via Windows Update > Update History > Uninstall Updates should show a confirmation before proceeding.

Open Screen

  • If you press WIN + D while interacting with the snap layout at the top of the screen, the hairy glass display area no longer gets stuck on the screen.
  • Fixes an issue where if you use Capture Assist to capture a minimized window, it may not fill up the entire available space.
  • Fixed some animation jams when using three-finger gestures on the screen.
  • Resolved an explorer.exe crash that could occur when you try to use a three-finger gesture on the screen and there is no window visible on the screen.
  • Addressed a potential issue that could affect animation and performance when invoking the task view.
  • Mitigated a potential issue that caused you to accidentally see an X when trying to rearrange the desktop in Task View under certain circumstances.
  • Adjusted logic to help further reduce the number of sounds heard when connecting and disconnecting monitors and docking stations.
  • Mitigated a recent issue where minimized application windows were not launching on the expected monitor when undocking and redocking.
  • The title bar should no longer peek at the secondary monitor when maximizing certain applications.
  • Fixed an issue that caused some windows to display an unexpected white rectangle sticking out from below across the top of the window.
  • Updated the new full-screen grabber for edge gestures to use the hairy glass.

Narrator

  • Fixed an issue that prevented narrators from correctly reading the Run dialog in scan mode.
  • Narrators in scan mode will now correctly read error messages in the error list in Visual Studio.
  • The narrator will now read errors that occur when setting the PIN in the device setup (OOBE).
  • The pitch range of the narrator's natural voice has been adjusted to provide more levels of control.
  • Resolved a potential issue that caused the pitch to remain constant when adjusting the Narrator's speed to the 0 to 5 and 15 to 20 ranges in the Narrator settings.

Task Manager

  • Improved visibility of content when contrast mode is enabled.
  • Fixed an issue where critical system processes were unexpectedly displayed as background processes.
  • Resolved an issue that caused random lines in the process list to be written in black text unexpectedly when using dark mode.
  • Right-clicking the Task Manager icon in the system tray should now actually display the context menu instead of a blank box.
  • Pressing Esc should no longer accidentally close Task Manager.
  • Note: Some of the fixes mentioned here in the Insider Preview release from the active development branch may make their way into the service updates for the released version of Windows 11, which became generally available on October 5, 2021.

Known issues of Windows 11 build 22572

General

  • Users running Windows 10 attempting to upgrade directly to build 22563 or later in Dev Channel may experience installation failure with error code 0x8007007f. To bypass, join the Beta channel, install the provided version of Windows 11 there, and then switch to the Dev Channel to receive the current Dev Channel update. This issue is understood and will be fixed in an upcoming release.

Tablet-optimized taskbar

  • The taskbar does not always automatically collapse after launching an app or clicking outside of the extended taskbar on a 2-in-1 device.
  • Some areas of the OS do not yet track the height of the expanded taskbar on 2-in-1 devices, so you may see overlapping components, such as widgets that overlap with the taskbar.

File Explorer

  • The suggested results that open when entering a search term in the search box of File Explorer may not work.
  • We are fixing issues related to icon size, visual errors, and displaying text clips in OneDrive's stored floating controls.

Widgets

  • Sometimes, when pinned from the Feed, the pinned widget is placed at the top instead of below the other pinned widgets. If this happens, this will be automatically corrected within 30 minutes by moving the most recently pinned widget to the expected default position. Alternatively, you can log out of the widget board and log back in immediately to resolve the issue.
  • After rearranging widgets in the widget board, some users may experience incorrect rendering of widgets in the fixed section. If this happens, exiting the widget board and immediately logging back in should resolve the issue.

Focus

  • The Clock app has not yet updated the Windows focus state when the focus session is configured within the app. This will be addressed in a future application update.

Narrator

  • The narrator's natural voice sounds garbled and does not read the text accurately. This happens when doing quick navigation, typing, or pitch changes. As a workaround, you can switch back to an older voice, such as Microsoft David, Mark, or Zira.

Live Captioning

  • Some full-screen applications (such as video players) prevent live captions from being displayed.
  • Some applications that are located near the top of the screen and closed before running live captions will restart behind the live caption window located at the top. Use the system menu (ALT + Spacebar) to move the application window further down when the application has focus.
  • Maximizing the topmost part of an application cannot be reached by touch when the live caption is at the top (e.g., the title bar window management button).

Task Manager

  • Some tooltips do not accurately display the preferred visual settings when the Task Manager is configured in dark mode.

For developers

  • You can download the latest Windows Insider SDK at aka.ms/ windowsinsidersdk.
  • The SDK NuGet package is now also available in the NuGet Gallery | WindowsSDK which includes.
  • NET TFM package for .NET applications, as described in ms / windowsinsidersdk
  • C++ packages for Win32 headers and libraries for each architecture
  • BuildTools packages when you only need tools such as MakeAppx.exe, MakePri.exe, and SignTool.exe
  • These NuGet packages provide more granular access to the SDK and better integration into the CI/CD pipeline.