Today, Microsoft released builds 22621.1095, and 22623.1095 to the Beta Channel for Windows Insiders, which is a pretty big jump from 226x.1037. This first build of 2023 includes more tweaking of the search functions in Windows 11, this time on the Start menu itself, and a good number of fixes.
The company writes in its blog post:
Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.1095 and Build 22623.1095 (KB5022364) to the Beta Channel.
Build 22623.1095= New features rolling out.
Build 22621.1095= New features off by default.
Here is the full list of changes and improvements, as well as bug fixes in the new Beta builds:
Changes and Improvements in Build 22621.1095 & 22623.1095
[Start]
Changes and Improvements in Build 22623.1095
[General]
Moved Quick Assist out of Windows Tools so it displays directly in the Start menu’s All apps list and is easier to find.
Here are the fixes in Build 22623.1095:
[Taskbar & System Tray]
Fixed a couple issues which could result in the top half of the taskbar getting clipped.
[Start]
Fixed an issue where the uninstall app dialog might not display correctly in the Start menu in certain cases, making the buttons inaccessible.
[Task Manager]
Fixed an issue causing filtering by publisher name to not match correctly on the Processes page.
Fixed an issue causing some services to not show in the Services page after filtering is applied.
Fixed an issue which resulted in new processes appearing in a filtered list if launched while a filter is set.
We fixed the issue where some dialogs were not rendering in the correct theme when applied from Task Manager Settings page.
The issue causing the data content area of the Processes page to flash once when theme changes are applied in the Task Manager Settings page is fixed.
The Startup apps page in Task manager will now list apps as expected.
Fixed an issue which could cause a black flash when opening Task Manager.
If there are no matching search results, Task Manager will now explicitly say that.
Fixed a Task Manager crash that could happen when attempting to end certain processes.
You can now set focus to the search box by pressing CTRL + F.
Fixes for BOTH Build 22621.1095 & Build 22623.1095
[Search on the Taskbar]
The following known issues only apply for Windows Insiders who received one of the different treatments for how search looks on the taskbar as mentioned here this blog post:
We’ve made improvements to reliability to fix some crashes and the performance of animations and transitions.
We fixed the issue causing the search box on taskbar to not render correctly and display visual artifacts.
We fixed the issue causing layout issues with right-to-left display languages like Arabic.
[Other fixes]
New! We changed the experience for preview .NET Framework updates. After you installed this update, all future preview (optional) .NET Framework updates would display on the Settings > Windows Update > Advanced options > Optional updates On that page, you could control which optional updates you wanted to install.
We fixed an issue that affected Windows Server 2022 domain controllers (DC). They stopped responding when they handled Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) requests.
We fixed an issue that might have occurred when the Input Method Editor (IME) was active. Applications might have stopped responding when you used the mouse and keyboard at the same time.
We fixed an issue that affected exe. It stopped responding.
We fixed an issue that affected how fast you could copy items from a network to a local computer. For some users, the copy speed was slower than expected.
We fixed an issue that affected certain systems that had firmware Trusted Platform Modules. (TPM). This issue stopped you from using AutoPilot to set up those systems.
We fixed a resource conflict issue between two or more threads (known as a deadlock). This deadlock affected COM+ applications.
We fixed an issue that affected devices that were subject to Microsoft Exploit Protection Export Address Filtering (EAF). Some applications stopped responding or did not open. These included Microsoft Office and Adobe Reader.
We fixed an issue that affected exe. It randomly stopped you from signing in or signing out.
We fixed an issue that might have occurred when you converted or reconverted Japanese Kanji using a multibyte character set (MBCS) app. The cursor might have moved to the wrong location when you typed.
We fixed an issue that affected exe. It stopped responding while connecting to a RemoteApp and Desktop Connection.
We fixed an issue that might have affected FindWindow() or FindWindowEx(). They might have returned the wrong window handle.
We fixed an issue that affected picture files you found using search on the taskbar. This issue stopped you from opening those pictures.
You can find the official blog post here.