Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.1028 and 22623.1028 (Beta Channel)

Good evening friends! Microsoft has released new preview builds of Windows 11 (version 22H2) numbered 22621.1028 and 22623.1028 (KB5021866) for members of the Windows Insider Beta Program.

• Assembly 22623.1028 – testing of new functions is available.
• Assembly 22621.1028 – new features are disabled by default.

Reminder. Insiders who were previously on Build 22622 will be automatically upgraded to Build 22623 via the Service Pack. This package artificially increments the build number to make it easier for Microsoft engineers to distinguish between enabled and disabled devices by default.

If you are in a group with features disabled by default (build 22621.xxx), then check for updates and agree to install an optional update that will make these features available (build 22623.xxx).

Full build numbers:

• 10.0.22621.1028.ni_release_svc_prod2.221122-1644
• 10.0.22623.1028.ni_release_svc_prod2.221122-1644

Important! Recently, builds under the Windows Insider program have become unavailable to users from Russia and the Republic of Belarus, probably due to geo-blocking. If you are affected by this problem, then enable the VPN by selecting any European country, check for updates in Windows Update, wait for the download to begin, and disable the VPN. You can read more about this situation in our article.

The Community team recommends using AdGuard VPN or Windscribe.

December Bug Bash

Insiders in the Dev and Beta channels will notice that the Feedback Hub app has new quests with different scenarios that Microsoft wants to collect feedback on. Try new features and share your opinion. Bug Bash will end on December 13 at 11:00 am Moscow time. Insiders who participate in the event (by leaving feedback or completing quests on the latest builds for their channel) will receive a corresponding badge in the Feedback Hub.

Fixes in build 22623.1028

• General:
  • Implemented another hotfix to resolve explorer.exe cycling in safe mode.
• Taskbar and system tray:
  • We fixed an issue resulting in the taskbar auto-hide feature not working after interacting with the Show Hidden Icons menu.
  • We’ve made a small improvement for tablet-optimized taskbar users to make it slightly easier to open the taskbar without opening the start menu.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in Taskbar Jump Lists and App Thumbnails not displaying correctly on Insiders using 2-in-1 hybrid devices.
  • Improved transition animation between minimized and maximized taskbar optimized for tablets.
  • The tablet-optimized taskbar should now minimize correctly after launching an app from the Start menu.
  • Fixed explorer.exe crashing when using ALT + F4 while the “Show Hidden Icons” popup menu on the taskbar is open.
  • Updated the tooltip for the battery icon to let you know if your device is charging slowly.
  • We fixed an issue where the top half of the media controls in the Quick Actions menu were sometimes missing.
  • Fixed a memory leak in the GDI handle that occurred when certain types of notifications were received. This could lead to graphical issues and explorer.exe crashing after a while if you get a lot of notifications.
  • We fixed an issue that caused the NVIDIA system tray icon to display blank notifications.
• Search:
  • We fixed an issue where search was not working on ARM64 devices in a previous build.
• Options:
  • We fixed an issue where the recommendations on the Energy Saving Recommendations and Power & Battery pages sometimes did not match.
• Task Manager:
  • Task Manager now correctly displays light and dark content when a custom accent color is selected in the system settings.

Fixes in both builds

• We fixed an issue that caused some games and apps to experience slow performance. This issue is related to GPU performance debugging features.

Known Issues

• General:
  • Based on feedback, Microsoft is removing the audio playback issue from its list of known issues. If you are still experiencing issues, please send good review of this.
• Taskbar optimized for tablets:
  • Switching the taskbar to the touch version is taking longer than expected. This will be noticeable when switching between desktop mode and tablet mode.
• Task Manager:
  • [New] When using the search field in the title bar of the Task Manager window, it may become unresponsive.
  • Search by publisher name on the Processes page does not work correctly.
  • Some services may not appear on the Services page after applying a filter.
  • If a new process is launched during filter installation, it may appear in the filtered list for a fraction of a second.
  • Some dialog boxes may use the wrong theme if the theme is set in the Task Manager preferences.
  • The content area on the Processes page may flash once when changing the theme in the Task Manager settings.
  • Some Insiders may be missing items on the Startup Apps page. If you encounter this problem, then use the “Settings” -\u003e “Applications” -\u003e “Startup” section.

We wish you a successful update!