Windows 11 Build 23440 (Dev) introduces a new Spotlight icon, Start menu and taskbar improvements

Changes and improvements

• Start menu
  • A new item will now appear in the Recommended section of the Start menu, providing quick access to information about changes in the current Windows Insider Build. It is a link to a web page, so that clicking it will open the official Microsoft blog page, for example for build 23440. This will let you know about all the changes and improvements present in this build. You can customize the content displayed in the "Recommended" block in the "Settings" -> "Personalization" -> "Start" section.
• Taskbar and system tray
  • Now you can hide the date and time display in the system tray. To do this, right-click on the clock on the taskbar and select "Adjust date and time".
  • Now in the context menu for the "Network" icon on the taskbar there is an item "Diagnose network problems".
• Search on the taskbar:
  • Microsoft is testing a new "Search" behavior that opens the search pane when hovering over a search box. It was a hidden feature in Build 23435. The company believes that this interaction model can be more convenient, as the "Search" pop-up will appear on mouse hover. The feature can be disabled by right-clicking on the taskbar, selecting "Taskbar Options" and setting the preferred mode for "Search".
• Windows Spotlight:
  • The updated Windows Spotlight icon displayed on the desktop. To enable this feature, you need to right-click on the desktop, select "Personalization", and then turn on the Windows Spotlight theme.
    

Fixes

• Taskbar and system tray:
  • Fixed several crashes in explorer.exe that affected the stability of the taskbar.
• Widgets:
  • The logic for calling the Widgets panel has been updated. This reduced the chance of accidentally opening the panel if you quickly swiped the mouse over the Widgets icon on the taskbar. If you prefer not to open the Widgets panel on hover, you can disable this feature in the settings.
• Explorer:
  • The following issues have been fixed in the version of File Explorer based on the Windows App SDK:
    • Fixed an issue that caused the context menu to appear away from where you right-clicked.
    • Fixed an issue resulting in some icons in File Explorer and the context menu becoming blurry after changing DPI settings.
    • Fixed an issue resulting in some items missing from the dropdown menu of the New button on the toolbar.
  • The following issues with the Gallery section have been fixed:
    • Ctrl + <mouse wheel> should now resize thumbnails.
  • Fixed issues with the recommended files section:
    • Changes have been made to ensure that Narrator reads files more correctly.
  • Fixed the following issues with keyboard shortcut hints:
    • Shift+right-clicking a file or folder again opens the "Show advanced options" menu.
    • Changes have been made so that Narrator announces keyboard shortcut information more clearly when you press a context menu key.
• Search:
  • Fixed an issue that caused the cursor to display incorrectly in the search box when using the Arabic language system.
• Input:
  • Fixed an issue where Touch Keyboard did not correctly recognize a hardware keyboard in some cases.
• Multitasking:
  • Fixed shellexperiencehost.exe crash when disconnecting from another display using WIN+P.
• Notifications:
  • Fixed an issue that caused 2-factor authorization (2FA) codes to not be recognized if they were enclosed in parentheses.
• Live Captions:
  • Fixed an issue resulting in Live Captions crashing on first launch due to a problem getting data from the registry.
  • All required files are now installed on ARM64 devices for advanced speech recognition support. After changing the language in the subtitle menu, you no longer need to restart the Live Subtitle feature. However, you need to uninstall any installed speech packs under Settings -> Apps -> Installed apps that were installed prior to this change, and then reinstall them from the Language and Region page.
  • Fixed an issue where the language feature installation progress on the Language and Region page was hidden.
  • Fixed an issue that caused the icon and Add Language label in the Live Captions menu to overlap.
• Task Manager:
  • Double-clicking the title bar of the Task Manager window should now expand the window to full screen again.
  • Fixed a crash in Task Manager experienced by Insiders in the last few builds.
• Ease of Access:
  • Fixed an issue that caused the Voice Control window to remain blank after launch.
  • Fixed an issue that caused Voice Control to crash when using the command to jump to the beginning of a document.
  • Fixed an issue where Narrator commands to navigate to the beginning (CTRL + Narrator + Home) or end (Ctrl + Narrator + End) of text did not work correctly in the Edge browser.

Note. Some of the fixes listed above may be included in cumulative updates for release versions of Windows 11.

Known Issues

• Search on the taskbar:
  • After updating to  Build 23403, some users may be missing the taskbar search box and/or taskbar search settings Microsoft is aware of the issue and is working on a fix.
• Explorer:
  • If the "Gallery" section is available in the "Explorer":
    • To load the Gallery section for the first time, you may need to double-click on the corresponding item in the navigation bar on the left side of the window.
    • Real-time updating (including for applying a filter) is currently disabled. Use the Refresh button as a workaround.
    • Thumbnail loading performance for cloud files and excessive RAM usage in large collections are known issues that Microsoft is working on. For performance related issues, be sure to record a trace before submitting feedback to the Feedback Hub.
      Rebuilding indexing can help if cloud file thumbnails are missing. To do this, open "Indexing Options" and go to "Advanced Settings" to find the rebuild tool.
    • Displaying photos from OneDrive for Business may not work correctly.
    • Some file types (such as HEIC) may not display correctly or may be of poor quality.
  • If keyboard shortcut hints are available in the context menu:
    • Keyboard shortcut hints may not appear if no keys are pressed. Pressing the key will make them appear.
  • Problems with commands for recommended files:
    • When you click on the "Share" button, a system window will open, not a window from OneDrive.
• "Live Captions":
  • Some languages ​​displayed on the Language and Region page support speech recognition (such as Korean), but do not yet support live captioning.
  • Subtitle display speed may be slower when using languages ​​other than English. There is also no detection of languages ​​other than English (United States), which means that incorrect subtitles may be displayed for speech other than the subtitle language.

You'll find the official announcement here.