Microsoft today released Windows 11 Dev channel build 22489 that adds a new Your Microsoft account page to the Accounts section in Settings. The rollout of this new section is currently limited, meaning only a small set of users will be able to see the addition added to their build. The page allows users to view and manage Microsoft account settings such as subscriptions, orders, and more.
The firm aims to improve the feature through Online Service Experience Packs that are similar to the Windows Feature Experience Packs, allowing the company to improve select features without major OS upgrades. Unlike Feature Experience Packs that bring improvements to components of the OS, the Online Service Experience Packs are "focused on delivering improvements for a specific experience", the firm adds. These packs will be served through Windows Update and are currently being tested for the new Microsoft account page in Settings but will be used for other features in the future.
In addition to the new MSA page, there are other improvements to Settings including the splitting of the Apps & Features page into two pages, the renaming of the Connect app into "Wireless Display", and more. The firm is also bringing improvement to the DNS over HTTPS feature by adding support for Discovery of Designated Resolvers. Here is the complete list of improvements in this build:
- We’ve added support for Discovery of Designated Resolvers which allows Windows to discover encrypted DNS configuration from a DNS resolver known only by its IP address. See this blog post for more details.
- To improve consistency, we’re updating the name of the Connect app to now be “Wireless Display”. This app is a feature-on-demand (FOD) and can be enabled by going to Settings > Apps > Optional features > Add an optional feature.
- We’re splitting up “Apps & Features” in Settings into two pages under Apps, “Installed Apps”, and “Advanced app settings”.
- In case you missed it last week, just a reminder that Windows Sandbox now works on ARM64 PCs!
The build also brings a long list of fixes, which is always welcome. As is the case with every build, the company is promising to bring many of these fixes to the publicly available version of Windows 11, but there is no timeline on when that will happen or which fixes will be included specifically. Here are all the fixes:
[Taskbar]
- App icons on secondary monitors should draw more reliably now instead of being blank.
- Stopped an explorer.exe crash that was happening sometimes when using the Desktops flyout context menu.
- Fixed an explorer.exe crash that was happening sometimes when dismissing the Desktops flyout.
[File Explorer]
- Pin to Quick Access is a top-level option now when right clicking a drive in File Explorer.
- We improved context menu launch performance.
- Made a few fixes to help improve explorer.exe reliability when using File Explorer.
[Windowing]
- Closing windows in Task View should look less jumpy now.
- Did some work to help address an issue that was causing flickering in the app window when resizing certain apps in recent Dev Channel builds.
[Settings]
- Addressed an issue that was causing Settings to crash in certain cases after going to Windows Update.
- Added a space that was missing in the search results when searching for Touch Keyboard settings.
- Fixed a Settings crash when trying to customize options in Wheel Settings.
- If animations are turned off, dismissing a notification using the X will no longer have an animation.
- Fixed an issue that was causing the media controls to not show up in Quick Settings sometimes when music was playing recently. Also believed to have impacted hardware media key usage.
- The tooltip for the Wi-Fi option in Quick Settings should no longer fly to the top of the screen.
[Other]
- Mitigated an underlying issue that was causing the Processes tab in Task Manager to be blank sometimes. This is also believed to be the same root cause causing UAC to open very slowly recently.
- Addressed an issue Xbox Game Pass games are failing to install with error 0x00000001.
- Fixed an issue where get-winevent in PowerShell was failing with an InvalidOperationException (Issue #60740).
- Mitigated a high hitting mousocoreworker.exe crash in the last few flights.
- Did some work to try and improve the layout of the text in notification buttons in cases where there’s both an icon and text.
- The Get Started app will no longer crash if the Tips app has been uninstalled.
- Fixed an issue causing some devices to bugcheck with SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCPTION when updating on previous builds.
- Made an underlying change to help fix an issue causing some users to see an unexpected “bad image” error message dialog on boot.
Lastly, there are a bunch of known issues, including one with the Windows Update settings page that the company says will impact how users check for updates. It is best for users to note the known issue and go ahead with installing this build, especially for those upgrading from a flavor of build 22000.
Here are all the known issues:
[General]
- In this build, you will notice links to Windows Update, Recovery and For developers under the main Windows Update Settings page. You will need to click on Windows Update a second time to check for updates. The Recovery and For developers links should not appear under Windows Update in settings. These issues will be fixed in a future build.
- Users updating from Builds 22000.xxx, or earlier, to newer Dev Channel builds using the latest Dev Channel ISO, may receive the following warning message: The build you are trying to install is Flight Signed. To continue installing, enable flight signing. If you receive this message, press the Enable button, reboot the PC, and retry the update.
- Some users may experience their screen and sleep timeouts being reduced. We’re investigating the potential impact that shorter screen and sleep timeouts could have on energy consumption.
[Start]
- In some cases, you might be unable to enter text when using Search from Start or the Taskbar. If you experience the issue, press WIN + R on the keyboard to launch the Run dialog box, then close it.
[File Explorer]
- Trying to rename items on the desktop isn’t working properly in this build. It should work if you open File Explorer, navigate to the Desktop folder, and try to rename from there.
[Taskbar]
- The Taskbar will sometimes flicker when switching input methods.
- We’re working on the fix for an issue causing tooltips to appear in an unexpected location after hovering over the Taskbar corner.
[Search]
- After clicking the Search icon on the Taskbar, the Search panel may not open. If this occurs, restart the “Windows Explorer” process, and open the search panel again.
[Quick Settings]
- We’re investigating reports from Insiders that the volume and brightness sliders aren’t displaying properly in Quick Settings.
The firm has also made available the SDK preview for this build and NuGet packages for those interested. Additionally, the firm is also reminding users that Windows Sandbox now works with ARM64 PCs, a capability that was added last week. As usual, build 22489 should be available for Dev channel users via Windows Update.