Windows 11 Beta Build 22000.346 fixes many printer issues, File Explorer problems, and more

Printing and printer problems it seems have become the norm for Windows updates in the last year or so. First, there was the PrintNightmare saga which was then followed by many general printer-related issues.

The latest Windows 11 Beta and Release Preview Insider channel build 22000.346 (KB5007262), however, brings some very good news in this aspect. Microsoft says that the new build has fixed several of these reported problems. Aside from resolving printing issues, the update also fixes problems related to the File Explorer. And there's more. The full list, which is very long as is generally the case with these Beta builds, has been given below:

• We fixed an issue that affects the Appx PowerShell cmdlet functionality on PowerShell 7.1 and later.

• We fixed an issue that causes some users to see an unexpected “bad image” error message dialog at startup.

• We fixed an issue that causes searchindexer.exe to stop responding during a dismount operation in the remote desktop environment.

• We fixed an issue that affects the opening of the SearchFilterHost.exe process.

• We added support for the cancellation of daylight savings time for the Republic of Fiji for 2021.

• We fixed an issue that causes devices that have certain processors to stop responding when waking from hibernation.

• We fixed a COM initialization issue in dll that might cause the calling process to stop working.

• We fixed an issue in the Hyper-V virtual machine bus (VMBus) that causes the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) VM to occasionally time out when attaching disks. This issue also prevents the utility from starting.

• We fixed an issue that affects the System Memory Management Unit’s (SMMU) fault handling after hibernation.

• We fixed an issue that causes the system to stop working after you enable Hyper-V.

• We fixed an issue that fails to apply machine Group Policy objects automatically at startup or in the background to devices on a domain that have certain processors.

• We fixed an issue that causes the Server Manager cmdlet to return a failure. As a result, many Software Defined Data Center (SDDC) validations fail during the installation of optional features.

• We added the option to configure an Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) maximum transmission unit (MTU) that is less than 576 bytes on an interface.

• We fixed an issue that causes get-winevent to fail, and the error is an InvalidOperationException.

• We fixed an issue that incorrectly renders some variable fonts.

• We fixed an issue that displays glyphs at the wrong angle when you use the Meiryo UI font and other vertical fonts. These fonts are frequently used in Japan, China, or other countries in Asia.

• We added a feature to facilitate certain cross-browser data transfers.

• We fixed an issue that occurs when a dialog opens within Internet Explorer.

• We fixed an issue in CLSID_InternetExplorer.

• We fixed an issue that causes Internet Explorer to stop working when you copy and paste text while using the Input Method Editor (IME).

• We fixed an issue that causes certain apps to stop responding to input. This issue occurs on devices that have a touchpad.

• We fixed a touch keyboard deployment issue that affects WebView2 controls in Windows UI Library 3.0 (WinUI 3) applications.

• We fixed a memory leak in ctfmon.exe that occurs when you switch between different edit clients.

• We updated the phone number for Windows Activation for locales that have the wrong phone number.

• We fixed a known issue that causes error codes 0x000006e4, 0x0000007c, or 0x00000709 when connecting to a remote printer that is shared on a Windows print server.

• We fixed an issue that affects USB Print devices that support Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) Over USB. This issue prevents these USB Print devices from completing installation.

• We fixed an issue that causes certain USB Print installers to report that they don’t detect the printer after you plug it in.

• We fixed an issue where OS functionality could be improperly redirected when microsoft-edge: links are invoked.

• We fixed an issue in the Windows audio system that might cause the audiodg.exe process to stop working, which results in a temporary loss of audio.

• We fixed an issue that prevents Software-Defined Networking (SDN) virtual machines from working when you configure the Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE) VPN bandwidth limitation.

• We fixed an issue that might cause the return value of GetCommandLineA() to be lowercase in some developer scenarios.

• We fixed a Primary Refresh Token (PRT) update issue that occurs when VPN users sign in using Windows Hello for Business when the VPN connection is offline. Users receive unexpected authentication prompts for online resources that are configured for user sign-in frequency (SIF) in Azure Active Directory-Conditional Access.

• We added the message that indicates that an organization’s policy manages the user’s location privacy settings. This message appears when the privacy settings are controlled by the Group Policy documented in Manage connections from Windows 10 and Windows 11 operating system components to Microsoft services.

• We fixed an issue that affects the Fast Identity Online 2.0 (FIDO2) credential provider and prevents the display of the PIN entry box.

• We fixed an issue that causes Windows Defender Application Control to incorrectly compare two file version numbers.

• We enhanced Microsoft Defender for Endpoint’s ability to identify and intercept ransomware and advanced attacks.

• We fixed an issue that might cause Windows Mixed Reality to start when you put on a headset. This issue occurs even when you’ve turned off the option “Start Mixed Reality Portal when my headset’s presence sensor detects that I’m wearing it”.

• We fixed an audio distortion issue that affects Xbox One and Xbox Series Audio peripherals and occurs when you use them with spatial audio.

• We fixed an issue that causes the AltGr key to stop working if a remote desktop client is running or if RemoteApp was disconnected.

• We fixed an issue that causes the edit button and the battery icon in Quick Settings to intermittently disappear.

• We fixed an issue that affects the Focus Assist button in the notification area, and we provided an accessible name for screen readers.

• We updated several aspects of Windows emoji. As part of an iterative and ongoing work, we have made the following improvements for this release:

• Updated all emoji in the Segoe UI Emoji font to the Fluent 2D emoji style

• Included support for Emoji 13.1, which:

  • Updated the emoji dictionary

  • Added the ability to search for Emoji 13.1 in all supported languages

  • Updated the Emoji and more panel so you can enter emoji in your applications

• We fixed an issue that affects the display of the number of unread notifications; some numbers don’t appear in the center of the circle in the notification area.

• We fixed an issue that affects the Start menu when you install a large number of apps and change the screen resolution. The app names appear on the Start menu, but the app icons are missing. This update might also improve the reliability of the Start menu when you use secondary monitors in mixed resolution scenarios.

• We fixed an issue that causes flickering when you hover over icons on the taskbar; this issue occurs if you’ve applied a high contrast theme.

• We updated the Start menu’s Ease of Access folder name to “Accessibility” to match our naming standard across Windows 11 (original release).

• We fixed an issue that affects Microsoft Narrator users when they select Braille options in Settings.

• We changed the screen color to blue when a device stops working or a stop error occurs as in previous versions of Windows.

• We fixed an issue that causes some app icons in the Start’s All apps list to be cut off on the bottom after you change the screen resolution.

• We fixed an issue that, under certain conditions, prevents the keyboard focus rectangle from being visible when you use Task View, Alt-Tab, or Snap Assist.

• We fixed an issue that affects apps that provide context (shortcut) menu items in File Explorer and desktop context menus. This issue occurs if these apps utilize Directory or Directory\Background registrations.

• We fixed an issue that automatically removes the Serbian (Latin) Windows display language from a device .

• We fixed an issue that displays the incorrect background for the iFLY Simplified Chinese IME icon in the notification area.

• We fixed an issue that displays a blank space on the bottom of the Touch keyboard when you close the keyboard while the Suggestion UI is expanded.

• We fixed reliability issues that prevent the display of File Explorer and desktop shortcut menus. This issue often occurs when you choose to use a single click to open an item.

• We added an option for you to choose whether to automatically turn on Focus Assist for the first hour after a Windows feature update.

• We improved the animation performance of icons on the taskbar.

• We fixed a reliability issue on the lock screen that affects the rendering of the network status text.

• We fixed volume control issues that affect Bluetooth audio devices.

• We fixed an issue that causes File Explorer to stop working after you close a File Explorer window.

• We fixed an issue that displays incorrect closed-caption shadows for some videos.

• We fixed an issue that causes the Windows Update History page in the Settings app to display a summary count of zero (0) updates per category when there are updates listed.

• We fixed an issue that occurs when you run a 32-bit application on a 64-bit version of Windows 11. If you call NetServerEnum(), it might return error 87 or error 1231.

• We fixed an issue that prevents your device from starting up, and it becomes unresponsive because of licensing API calls.

• We fixed an issue in the Windows Network File System (NFS) client that might prevent you from renaming a file after mounting an NFS share. This issue occurs if you rename the file using File Explorer but does not occur if you rename the file using command line.

• We fixed an issue that prevents flash drives, such SD cards and certain USB drives, from appearing in the Defragment and Optimize Drives UI.

• We fixed an issue that might cause a stop error in volmgr.sys when you delete a volume.

• We fixed an issue that affects NTFS when you enable the update sequence number (USN) journal. NTFS performs unnecessary actions each time it performs a write operation, which affects I/O performance.

• We enabled onunload events to create pop-up windows in Microsoft Edge Internet Explorer mode.

The official press release can be found here.