Windows 11 Build 22631.2115 (Beta) improves Narrator and handwriting input

Windows 11 version 22H2 has received an update in the Beta channel. Insiders are receiving Builds 22621.2115 and 22631.2115 via KB5028251 with the latter build including new features. Here are the changes.

What's new in Windows 11 Build 22631.2115 (KB5028251)

Narrator users interacting with traditional Chinese characters can now work with them with confidence using Narrator and the Windows IME suggestion box. This was made possible by the creation of a Traditional Chinese dictionary for more accurate reading. Narrator now uses a dictionary to uniquely identify each Traditional Chinese word. This feature is only supported in the Taiwanese language pack. The Hong Kong language pack is not supported in Narrator.

Fixes in both builds

• [New] This update affects the handwriting panel, the handwriting recognition engine, and the built-in handwriting controller. They now support GB18030-2022 with Level 2 Compliance. They also meet Level 3 requirements.
• Fixed an issue resulting in XAML text editing controls becoming uneditable after switching to read-only mode. This affected users of the new Microsoft Input Method Editor for Japanese, Chinese, and Korean.
• Updated block list of vulnerable Windows kernel drivers, DriverSiPolicy.p7b. The list includes drivers that can be used by attackers to carry out Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) attacks.
• Fixed an issue resulting in incorrect L2 cache size information being displayed for some processors.
• Fixed an issue that caused some wireless wide area network (WWAN) devices to continually prompt to switch to an embedded SIM (eSIM) card after every restart, even if the user declined.
• Fixed an issue that caused user-mode printer drivers to be unexpectedly unloaded when printing from multiple print queues to the same printer driver.
• Fixed an issue that prevented hybrid devices from signing in without Internet access. This was for Windows Hello for Business users or biometric credentials in a cloud trust environment.
• Addresses an issue that causes Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) to copy unsigned WDAC policies to the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) disk partition dedicated to signed policies.
• Fixed an issue where the "Disabled: Script Enforcement" option was generating redundant audit events.
• Fixed an issue that could cause a print job to stop unexpectedly when switching Internet Printing Protocol (IPP) mode. This was happening when using an Independent Hardware Vendor (IHV) driver.
• Fixed an issue that caused some display and audio devices to disappear after the system resumed from sleep.
• Improved tooltips for some letters in the Verdana Pro font family.
• Fixed an issue where the MPSSV service caused the system to restart multiple times. The stop error code is 0xEF.
• Improved brightness settings.
• Improved Windows Autopilot policy loading process for profiles. This improves boot stability over unstable network connections and increases the number of retries when trying to load a Windows Autopilot profile.
• Fixed an issue where Server Message Block (SMB) I/O could fail when using the LZ77+Huffman compression algorithm.
• Narrator will now announce "Change product key".
• Improved connection reliability between Windows Push Notification Services (WNS) client and server.
• Fixed an issue where the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) repository was causing an installation error. This happened when the device was turned off incorrectly.
• Fixed an issue where Windows Notification Platform was causing high power consumption.
• Fixed an issue where the Windows Firewall profile would not automatically switch from a trusted LAN to a public network.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Widgets button to unexpectedly unpin from the taskbar.
• Addresses an issue that causes virtual private networks (VPNs) in a mesh wireless network to overburden the network gateway due to excessive Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) requests.
• Fixed an issue that caused servers with Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) rules to freeze and become unresponsive. This applied to both virtual and physical servers.
• Fixed an issue that caused Event Forwarding Subscriptions to forward irrelevant events when adding an event feed to a subscription.
• Updated Country and Operator Settings Asset (COSA) profiles.
• Fixed an issue that caused the fastfat file system driver to hang.

Known Issues

General

[New] Investigated reports that explorer.exe crashes (with an error popup) in safe mode when trying to login to a profile on the system.

File Explorer

• [New] Working on a fix for an issue that causes File Explorer to crash when going to the home page. If you encounter this problem when trying to open File Explorer, then use Search or the Run dialog box to open File Explorer with the desired folder (for example, the C: drive).
• [New] In some cases, the context menu background in File Explorer can be transparent.
• [New] In some cases, all icons on the desktop may be empty. In this case, right-click on the desktop and select the Refresh option.

Taskbar

• Investigating reports that the system tray icon is not showing the safe removal of hardware icon.
• [New] Microsoft reminds that there is an option under Settings -> Personalization -> Taskbar -> Taskbar Behavior to disable grouping of items on the taskbar, however this setting does not work at this time. The issue will be fixed in future builds for the Beta channel.

Input

[New] Investigating reports that Japanese and Chinese IME text input is not working correctly on the system since the previous build.

Narrator

You may notice that some strings are NOT translated into your chosen language. This issue will be fixed in a future build for the Beta channel.

Source