Microsoft has released a new Windows 11 Insider build 25120 to the Dev Channel. This is 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, unlike the previous build, it"s now available for ARM64 PCs, and there are also ISOs that can be downloaded.
Update, May 20: There"s a newer build 25120.1010 available, but it"s just a servicing pipeline update that introduces no new features, you can view that announcement here.
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.
Here is the one change and improvement in this build:
[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.
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.
Here are all the fixes in build 25120:
[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.
There"s only a couple of known issues to be aware of in build 25120:
[General]
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 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.
