Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.1465 and 22624.1465 (Beta Channel)

Good evening friends! Microsoft has released new preview builds of Windows 11 (version 22H2) under the numbers 22621.1465 And 22624.1465 (KB5023775) for members of the Windows Insider Beta Program.

• Assembly 22624.1465 – testing of new functions is available.
• Assembly 22621.1465 – new features are disabled by default.

Reminder! Insiders who were previously on Build 22623 will automatically be upgraded to Build 22624 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 22624.xxx).

Full build numbers:

• 10.0.22621.1465.ni_release_svc_betaflt_prod1.230306-1204
• 10.0.22624.1465.ni_release_svc_betaflt_prod1.230306-1204

New in build 22624.1465

Live Captioning is available in more languages

The Live Captioning feature helps all people, including those who are deaf and hard of hearing, read subtitles in their own language. Windows 11 2022 Update only supported English (US) subtitles. Starting with this build, the feature will also support Chinese (simplified and traditional), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazil), Spanish, and other dialects of English. The list of languages ​​will be expanded in the future.

Live subtitles can be enabled with keyboard shortcuts WIN + Ctrl + L or from the Quick Actions pop-up menu on the taskbar. At the first start, the function will prompt you to download the necessary components for speech recognition on the device. If speech recognition support is not available in your Windows language of choice, or if you need another language, you can download speech recognition components for the Live captions feature under Settings > Time & Language > Language & Region.

Updated touch keyboard settings

Microsoft has made some fixes and is back testing a new touch keyboard setting that replaces the “Show touch keyboard when no keyboard is connected” checkbox in the “Settings” -> “Time and language” -> “Input” -> “Touch keyboard”. The new drop-down menu includes three options to define when you want the touch keyboard to launch when you click on an editable field:

• “Never” – disables the touch keyboard, even if a hardware keyboard is not connected to the device.
• “If no keyboard is connected” – the touch keyboard will only appear if the device is used as a tablet without a hardware keyboard.
• Always – The touch keyboard will always appear, even if a hardware keyboard is connected to the device.

Word prediction cloud for Simplified Chinese IME

Microsoft is testing some changes that will make it easy to type modern and popular words in Simplified Chinese. For this, an improved cloud-based word prediction feature has been added. This feature will add the most relevant word from the Bing search engine to the IME suggestion box. The logic has also been updated so that the system can offer you better results.

Search suggestions are also integrated, which are similar to what you see when you type a search term in Bing. You can either paste the suggestion as text or search for it in Bing.

To enable these features, you must click on the chevron button in the upper right corner of the IME suggestion window.

Kiosk mode with multiple apps

Multi-app kiosk mode is a feature that allows IT administrators to define which apps are allowed to run and block all other features. Thus, it is possible to create several different applications and access configurations for different types of users on the same device.

Some of the available settings:

• Restrict access to “Settings”, except for selected pages (for example, Wi-Fi and screen brightness).
• Restrict the start menu to only show allowed apps.
• Block pop-up notifications and windows that cause unwanted user interface.

The multi-app kiosk mode is ideal for scenarios where multiple people need to use the same device. This may include HR and retail scenarios, training and testing.

Currently, multi-app kiosk mode can be enabled using PowerShell and WMI Bridge, with support for Intune/MDM and provisioning package configuration coming soon.

To configure using WMI, follow the instructions on the Microsoft website. Using the Windows 10 sample XML will enable the feature, but will result in a blank start menu. To populate the Start menu with your apps, run these instructions to create a list of pinned apps, and then add it to the XML file after closing the StartLayout section, as shown below:

<win11:StartPins><!(CDATA( <em>Your JSON here </em>))></win11:StartPins>

Don’t forget to update the namespace by replacing the AssignedAccessConfiguration tag with the following:

<AssignedAccessConfiguration xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/AssignedAccess/2017/config” xmlns:win11=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/AssignedAccess/2022/config”>

Changes and improvements in build 22624.1465

• Taskbar and system tray:
  • Added the ability to monitor VPN status in the system tray when connected to a recognized VPN profile. A small shield with a system accent color will be overlaid on top of the network connection icon.
• Voice control:
  • The updated help page in the voice control configuration application, introduced in build 22624.1391, now contains all available commands and additional information for them.

Fixes in both builds

• This update implements the third part of the Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) security enhancements. Details in the description KB5004442. After you install this update, you will not be able to disable changes using a registry key.
• This update fixes an issue that affects local and domain (Active Directory) accounts. When reusing an existing account on a computer to join an Active Directory domain, the process failed. This issue occurs on devices that have Windows Updates October 11, 2022 or newer installed. Error message: “Error 0xaac (2732): NERR_AccountReuseBlockedByPolicy: ‘An account with the same name exists in Active Directory. Account reuse has been blocked by security policy'”. Details in the description KB5020276.

Known Issues

• Live captions:
  • On ARM64 devices, enhanced speech recognition support set on the Language and Region page will require restarting live captioning after changing the language in the subtitle menu.
  • “Live subtitles” for Traditional Chinese do not work on ARM64 devices.
  • Some languages ​​displayed on the Language and Region page support speech recognition (such as Korean), but do not yet support live captioning.
  • When adding a language using the Language and Region page, the installation progress of language features may be hidden, and you will not see when the installation of Enhanced Speech Recognition (required for Live Captions) is completed. You can use “Language Options” to track progress. If this happens, there may be an unexpected delay before the Live Captions setup system detects the new language and allows you to continue.
  • Subtitle display speed may be slower when using languages ​​other than English. There is also no detection of languages ​​other than English (United States), which means that incorrect subtitles may be displayed for speech other than the subtitle language.

We wish you a successful update!