Microsoft has released a new Windows 11 Insider build 25115 to the Dev Channel. This marks the start of the Sun Valley 3 development for Windows Insiders, which will eventually become the version that is released in 2023. The firm highlighted a few things with this build, firstly, that it will not be available for ARM64 PCs, and that it only contains one new feature, called "Suggested Actions".
Interestingly, the Sound Recorder preview also moved from the Beta Channel to this build, indicating that its new features may not be released along with Windows 11 22H2. And for those keeping tabs, this build is not far off on what Windows Server vNext build 25110 is using for its kernel.
Here are the highlights for build 25115:
This build will not be offered to ARM64 PCs. We hope to be able to offer a new build for Insiders on ARM64 PCs soon.
This build includes one new feature for Windows Insiders to try out called Suggested Actions.
We have a good set of general improvements and fixes in this build too.
We’re now previewing the new Sound Recorder with Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel.
Here is what"s new in build 25115:
[Suggested Actions]
On copying a phone number, Windows will pop up an inline light dismissible UI that suggests ways to call the phone number using Teams or other installed apps that offer click-to-dial call functions.
Inline suggested actions after copying a phone number.
On copying a date and/or time, Windows will pop up an inline light dismissible UI that suggests creating the event using supported calendar apps. Upon user selection of preference, the app is launched with its corresponding calendar event creation page with auto filled date and/or time.
Inline suggested actions after copying a date or time.
FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Desktop Environment > Suggested actions on copy.
Here is the one change and improvement in this build:
[General]
We updated the icons in the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) on this build.
Here are all the fixes in build 25115:
[General]
Updated the underlying speech platform to improve voice activity detection for voice access, live captions, and voice typing, as well as address some issues with how punctuation is recognized.
[Taskbar]
Fixed an issue related to loading the system tray icons in Settings > Personalization > Taskbar which could cause Settings to crash when opening that page recently. This issue may have also led to some explorer.exe crashes for impacted Insiders.
[File Explorer]
Fixed an issue leading to Insiders seeing error 0x800703E6 when copying files from Google Drive.
We made another change to help improve the performance of loading Home.
Fixed an issue where if you had ever opened the context menu, doing CTRL + ALT + DEL and cancelling would lead to explorer.exe crashing.
Fixed a sporadic explorer.exe crash when closing File Explorer windows.
[Settings]
Fixed an issue where if Settings suspended, it could lock up explorer.exe in certain cases.
Improved how Narrator reads out remaining space available in System > Storage.
[Task Manager]
Fixed some issues related to access key use in Task Manager, including that you weren’t able to directly press ALT + without first releasing the ALT key, and that displaying the access keys wouldn’t work after having used and dismissed them.
If the CPU reaches 100%, the CPU column header should no longer unexpectedly become unreadable in dark mode.
[Windows Security]
Fixed an issue which could result in Smart App Control unexpectedly blocking correctly signed applications.
[Other]
Addressed an issue which was leading to Memory Integrity unexpectedly getting turned off in some cases after rebooting.
Fixed an issue causing the Update Stack Package to show install error 0xc4800010.
There"s only a couple of known issues to be aware of in build 25115:
[General]
[NEW] Some games that use Easy Anti-Cheat may crash or cause your PC to bugcheck.
[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.
Microsoft also noted that Windows Insiders should be aware that features released in Dev builds may never make it to the Beta and stable builds of Windows 11 as the Dev Channel is a place to test features. You can read the full statement below:
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.
Microsoft also noted that the desktop watermark is back in this build:
The desktop watermark you see at the lower right corner of your desktop is normal for these pre-release builds.
