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Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25120

Written By published May 18, 2022

UPDATE 5/20: We are starting to roll out Cumulative Update Build 25120.1010 (KB5015039). This update does not include anything new and is designed to test our servicing pipeline for builds in the Dev Channel.

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Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25120 to the Dev Channel.

TL;DR

  • ARM64 devices will be able to update to this build.
  • We are releasing ISOs for this build – they can be downloaded here.
  • This build includes some general improvements and fixes.

Changes and Improvements

[General]

As described in our in our blog post here, Windows Insiders who use the Dev Channel may get to try out new ideas, longer lead features, and experiences that are intended to help validate concepts. Starting with this preview build, some Insiders will see one of these conceptual features as we begin to explore exposing lightweight interactive content on the Windows desktop. Today, Windows exposes this type of content in the Widgets board. To begin assessing this general idea and interaction model, the first exploration in this area adds a search box displayed on the desktop that enables you to search the web.

Example of interactive content on the desktop.
Example of interactive content on the desktop.

If you would like to remove this search box, you can right-click on the desktop, choose “Show more options,” and toggle the “Show search” option.

We are excited to learn your feedback on this interaction model, so please use the Feedback Hub to provide feedback if you receive this experiment.

NOTE: A reboot is required after updating to this build to trigger this experience but please note that not all Windows Insiders will have this experience enabled even after reboot.

Fixes

[Suggested Actions]

  • Suggested actions should appear for more date and time formats now.
  • Addressed some issues with certain formats when copying a date and/or time.
  • Improved overall performance and reliability of the feature.

[Settings]

  • Fixed an issue that could crash Settings when opening and looking at the battery usage graph.
  • Improved performance of displaying Wi-Fi networks after enabling Wi-Fi from the Wi-Fi section of Quick Settings.

[Task Manager]

  • Addressed an issue leading to some unreadable text in the Performance page when a contrast theme was enabled.

[Other]

  • Fixed an issue which could cause Windows Update to stall and roll back updates for WSA users.
  • Did some work to address a stutter in the progress wheel animation when upgrading to a new build.

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

[General]

  • Some games that use Easy Anti-Cheat may crash or cause your PC to bugcheck.
  • [ADDED 5/20] We’re investigating reports that some Insiders are seeing a bugcheck with error DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL in pci.sys when attempting to upgrade to this build.
  • [ADDED 5/20] We’re investigating reports that Program Compatibility Assistant Service is using an unexpectedly large amount of CPU for some Insiders after upgrading to this build.

[Live captions]

  • Certain apps in full screen (e.g., video players) prevent live captions from being visible.
  • Certain apps positioned near the top of the screen and closed before live captions is run will re-launch behind the live captions window positioned at top. Use the system menu (ALT + Spacebar) while the app has focus to move the app’s window further down.

About the Dev

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.

These aren’t always stable builds, and sometimes you will see issues that block key activities or require workarounds. It is important to make sure you read the known issues listed in our blog posts as we document many of these issues with each flight.

Build numbers are higher in the Dev Channel than the Windows 11 preview builds in the Beta and Release Preview Channels. You will not be able to switch from the Dev Channel to the Beta or Release Preview Channels without doing a clean install back to the released version of Windows 11 currently.

The desktop watermark you see at the lower right corner of your desktop is normal for these pre-release builds.

Important Insider Links

Thanks,
Amanda & Brandon

Tags:
Windows Insider Program