Microsoft finishes this week with two new preview builds, one for the Beta Channel and one for the Dev Channel. The latter received 26120.220 (KB5044376) with a new Windows Studio Effects indicator, dynamic lighting changes, and various fixes for the Start menu, taskbar, and Settings.
Here is the complete changelog:
Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out to the Dev Channel with toggle on
[Windows Studio Effects]
Windows Studio Effects delivers AI-based camera and audio enhancements on devices equipped with a Neural Processing Unit (NPU). Today, you can access Studio Effects in Quick Settings from the system tray of the taskbar. To further streamline your experience, an icon will now appear in the system tray when using any application with a Studio Effects-enabled camera. Simply click on this icon to launch the Studio Effects page in Quick Settings. Additionally, hovering over the icon will display a tooltip indicating which application is utilizing the camera.
New Studio Effects icon shown in system tray when using any application with a Studio Effects-enabled camera.
[Dynamic Lighting]
When no compatible devices are attached, the Dynamic Lighting settings page will now show a placeholder message and Brightness and Effects controls are disabled.
On the Dynamic Lighting settings page, we have added Forward, Backward, Outward and Inward direction options to the Wave effect, and added the Forward direction option to the Gradient effect.
Fixes gradually being rolled out to the Dev Channel with toggle on
[Start menu]
Fixed an issue where if you clicked or tapped on a letter on Start menu’s All apps list, the All apps list may break.
[Taskbar]
Fixed an issue where explorer.exe was crashing for some Insiders when hovering over certain open apps in the taskbar.
[Settings]
Fixed an issue where there was a blank entry in Privacy & Security and clicking it would crash Settings.
[Input]
Updated the mouse option “Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key”, so that the circles displayed are now DPI-aware, and aren’t really small on high DPI monitors.
Fixes for everyone in the Dev Channel
[Other]
[Windows Kernel Vulnerable Driver Blocklist file (DriverSiPolicy.p7b)] Fixed: This update adds to the list of drivers that are at risk for Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) attacks.
[HTML Applications (HTA)] Fixed: HTA optional components (OC) are now in ARM64 Windows PE.
[Live kernel debug files (dumps)] Fixed: sys creates live kernel debug files when it should not.
[User interface (UI)] Fixed: You cannot view some parts of the UI when you run certain apps.
[Winlogon] Fixed: A stop error occurs during shutdown.
[sfc /scannow command] Fixed: You get errors every time you run the command.
[Windows Disk Cleanup app] Fixed: This update addresses some of the causes for the wrong free space estimates and improves its accuracy.
Here is the list of known bugs:
[Start menu]
[NEW] You may see there is an unexpected amount of spacing between items in the Start menu apps list.
[Dev Drive]
[NEW] We’re working on the fix for an underlying issue leading to Dev Drives potentially not being accessible within WSL.
