Build 26052 hidden gems: New voice options, updated taskbar thumbnails, and more

The recently released Windows 11 Build 26052 (Dev & Canary) comes with a number of hidden features that aren't mentioned in the release notes, and not exposed anywhere in the UI. One of the new features allows Windows 11 to synthesize your voice and response on your behalf when you are away. Another one reveals new taskbar thumbnails with advanced information about the running apps, and new animations.

Speak for me accessibility feature in Windows 11

Microsoft is working on a new accessibility feature called "Speak for me". With the help of Speak for me, you can create your own voice avatar or preserve your own voice to communicate with others, whether in online meetings or in-person conversations.

Just type a message, and the new feature will synthesize your voice to say it on your behalf.

The settings page for it is hidden in build 26052, but nothing works as of this writing. If you still want to enable the thing, here are the steps.

Enable Speak for me in Windows 11 Build 26052

1. Download ViVeTool from here.
2. Place its files to the c:\vivetool folder.
3. Press Win + X and select Terminal(Admin)
4. In Terminal, type the following command: c:\vivetool\vivetool /enable /id:47123936
5. Now, open Settings (Win + I) and go to Accessibility. Under Speech, you will find the new Speak to me entry.
6. Clicking the item opens its dedicated page.

New taskbar thumbnails

In addition, Windows 11 Build 26052 updates the appearance of taskbar thumbnails. They now appear with a slightly different slide-out animation effect. Also, they are now capable to display extra details for the apps.

Specially, for File Explorer each thumbnail now has the " - File Explorer" addition in the title. Moreover, they provide the information about the number of open tabs. The thumbnail can now say "Documents and 2 more tabs - File Explorer".

Here's how to enable the updated thumbnails.

Enable New Taskbar Thumbnails in Windows 11 Build 26052

1. Download ViVeTool from here.
2. Place its files to the c:\vivetool folder.
3. Press Win + X and select Terminal(Admin)
4. In Terminal, type the following command: c:\vivetool\vivetool /enable /id:29532725.
5. Restart the PC.

New Colipot animations

Another hidden thing in Build 26052 are the new animations and quick actions for the Copilot icon in the taskbar corner. The menu itself is the same across all of them, but the hover experience in build 26052 has three different types. It may not have an animation, or include a pencil animation or an animated Copilot icon with a badge.

The following videos showcase each of the animation types.

Here's how to enable the new animations.

Enable Copilot animations with quick actions

1. Download ViVeTool from here.
2. Place its files to the c:\vivetool folder.
3. Press Win + X and select Terminal(Admin)
4. In Terminal, type the following command:c:\vivetool\vivetool /enable /id:44776738
5. Restart the PC.
6. Navigate in the Registry (regedit.exe) to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Copilot key.
7. Right-click the Copilot key on the left, select New > Dword 32bit Value, and name it IsCopilotAvailable.
8. Double click the IsCopilotAvailable value and set its data to 1.
9. Now, go to the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell\Copilot\BingChat key.
10. Similarly, create here a new IsUserEligible 32-bit DWORD value and set it to 1 too.
11. Now, open again Terminal as Administrator, and type the following command: vivetool /enable /id:45596742 /variant:X Replace X with:
    • 3 = for the variant with the pencil animation
      
    • 1 = for the variant with the badge
    • 2 = for the variant with no animation
12. Restart the computer one more time.
13. Copy some text to the clipboard and hover over the Copilot icon in the taskbar's right corner. You should now have new animations.

AI Super Resolution

In addition, the new release of Windows 11 Insider Preview includes an AI-powered "Automatic Super Resolution" option. It resides under System > Display > Graphics in the Settings app. Here's what it supposed to do.

With the assistance of AI upscaling tools (such as NVidia DLSS or AMD FSR) graphics card performance can be enhanced by initially rendering images at lower resolutions and subsequently upscaling them to higher resolutions. This technology have undergone various advancements, and the use of new GPUs with their aid can produce remarkably impressive outcomes.

Currently, the feature is hidden.  Anyway, enabling the feature doesn't change anything in both desktop mode and graphic rendering. However, this may change in the near future. There's also a chance that it requires some specific hardware to work, e.g. an NPU, which is missing in my case. You can try your luck by enabling it as follows.

Enable AI Super Resolution in Windows 11 Build 26052

1. Download ViVeTool from here.
2. Place its files to the c:\vivetool folder.
3. Press Win + X and select Terminal(Admin)
4. In Terminal, type the following command: c:\vivetool\vivetool /enable /id:39695921 /variant 3.
5. Restart the PC.

Kudos to @PhantomOfEarth and @thebookisclosed for their findings.