Windows 11 Build 22468 is out to the Dev channel

Microsoft releases Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22468 to Insiders in the Dev channel. It comes from the RS_PRERELEASE branch, which is not tied to a specific Windows release. The builds from there have all the bleeding edge changes and also show a desktop watermark.

The features Microsoft introduce in these builds may or may not appear in the stable branch of Windows. They can be delivered with cumulative updates, or become part of major feature updates. It is up to the Redmond software giant to define whether they are ready or not.

Speaking of today's release, there are a few new features in this update. Microsoft has updated the build expiration for Dev Channel builds starting with Build 22468 to be 9/15/2022. Previous Dev Channel builds from the RS_PRERELEASE branch will expire on 10/31/2021. To avoid hitting this expiration, please update to Build 22468 today. The full build tag is 10.0.22468.1000.rs_prerelease.210924-1215. To successfully receive it, your device must be compliant with minimum hardware requirements of Windows 11.

Builds are released on the Dev channel that can contain some pretty annoying bugs. If you need more stability, but want to use builds of Windows 11, then you should switch to the Beta or Release Preview channels. Those builds represent the final release of Windows 11 coming on October 5. Dev channel builds are going ahead of the Windows 11 initial release.

What's new in Windows 10 build 22468

New features

• When you click a VPN connection in VPN Settings, you can now see some stats about the connection.
• Added an option to turn off showing recent searches when hovering over the Search icon in the Taskbar. The option is under Taskbar behaviors in Taskbar Settings.

Important fixes

[Taskbar]

• Mitigated a rare explorer.exe initialization hang related to loading the network icon.

[Search]

• Improved reliability of showing the flyout when hovering over the Search icon in the Taskbar.
• If you navigate to the Search icon in the Taskbar using the keyboard, navigating away will now dismiss the recent searches flyout.
• The options when right clicking recent files displayed when searching for certain apps like Word should work now when you select them.

[File Explorer]

• If you right click files in OneDrive locations in File Explorer, the context menu will no longer unexpectedly dismiss when you hover over entries that open sub-menus, like “Open with.”
• Double clicking a network folder to open it will no longer unexpectedly try to pin it to Quick Access instead of opening it.

[Input]

• Addressed an underlying font issue that was making the right hand of the shruggie kaomoji ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ not display in the correct position, as well as apostrophes in certain cases.

[Settings]

• Your preferred microphone input format setting (as configured in Sound Settings) should persist upgrade now.
• Addressed an issue where certain drives were unexpectedly not displaying in Defragment and Optimize Drives.

[Other]

• We’ve resolved the issue preventing MDM enrolled PCs from successfully updating to the previous build. These devices are now unblocked from updating to the latest build.
• Fixed an issue that could cause unexpected flickering in certain apps such as Microsoft Edge when using multiple monitors with different refresh rates.
• Mitigated a display related issue that was causing some Insiders to experience an increase in bug checks in recent flights.
• Did some work to address an issue where the Windows Update icon in the Taskbar might display but suddenly disappear when you hovered over it.
• Addressed a rare issue with certain devices after sleep where Wi-Fi would get stuck in an off state and trying to toggle it back on wouldn’t work.
• Mitigated an issue for certain devices that could cause the system to freeze in some scenarios.

You will find the full change log in the official announcement.

Download Windows 11 Build 22468

If you set your PC to get Dev Channel builds, open Settings (Win + I) - > Windows Update and click on the Check for Updates button on the right. This will install the latest available Windows Insider Preview for your device.  Note that due to strict minimum hardware requirements, there is a chance that your not-that-old device will be thrown out of the Dev channel. There is a workaround that you can use to join it, but receiving future updates will remain pretty tricky. You can also build a custom ISO for installing this build from scratch.