Windows 11 Build 23516 (Dev) adds HDR wallpapers, improves screen casting

Microsoft has released Windows 11 Preview Build 23516 to Insiders in the Dev channel. It features screen casting improvements, HDR wallpaper support, voice access support on the sign in screen, natural voices in more languages, and more.

What's new in Windows 11 Build 23516 (Dev)

In this build, Microsoft has enhanced the casting feature to enable wireless display extension from your PC to other nearby devices such as PCs, TVs, or external displays. Their goal is to provide a better user experience by improving the discoverability of the Cast feature and simplifying the overall process. The improvements include:

• When you work with many apps on your PC, you will receive a pop-up notification prompting you to use the Cast feature to better organize them.
• You can now set up your PC to project your screen to another device from the quick actions flyout.
  • Installing the optional Wireless Display optional feature.
  • Making your PC discoverable by other devices through the "Cast to this device" settings page.

Support for HDR wallpapers

You can now set JXR files as desktop backgrounds. If you are using an HDR-enabled display, then the image will be displayed using this technology.

First, make sure your device has an HDR display or is connected to an external HDR-enabled display. To check, go to Settings -> System -> Display -> HDR. If the technology is available, then enable it on this page.

After that, download these HDR images in .JXR format. Right-click on the desktop, select "Personalization" -> "Background" -> "Personalize background" and select the file in .JXR format.

After that, the desktop background should be in HDR format. If you have multiple displays, the background will be displayed in HDR or SDR (Standard Dynamic Range) depending on the characteristics of each display. If you are using external displays, we recommend that you run the HDR Calibration app to get the best image settings.

Voice Access improvements

• Voice Access is now available on the sign-in screen.
• You can use your voice to move the focus to the password entry field and even dictate your password or PIN to the system.
  • You can also say "show keyboard" to open the touch keyboard with number labels and speak the numbers to enter letters. This will hide your actual password, which will be helpful if someone nearby can hear it.
• In addition, Voice Access now supports applications that work with Microsoft Defender Application Guard.

Natural Narrator Voices

New natural voices in French, Portuguese, English (India) ,German and Korean allow Narrator users to comfortably browse the web, read, and write mail, and do more. Natural Narrator voices use modern, on-device text to speech and once downloaded are supported without an internet connection.

• The new French voices are Microsoft Denise (Female) and Microsoft Henri (Male)
• The new Portuguese voices are Microsoft Francisca (Female) and Microsoft Antonio (Male)
• The new English (India) voices are Microsoft Neerja (Female) and Microsoft Prabhat (Male)
• The new German voices are Microsoft Katja (Female) and Microsoft Conrad (Male)
• The new Korean voices are Microsoft SunHi (Female) and Microsoft InJoon (Male)

Presence Sensing Improvements

Computers with presence sensors that have attention detection capabilities now feature adaptive brightness control. This means that the device can automatically adjust the screen brightness based on whether you are looking at it or turned away. To access the function settings, navigate to Settings -> Privacy & Security -> Presence Sensing, provided that your device supports this feature.

Also, Windows will wake up and lock the device depending on whether you are near it. All of these features can now be enabled during the initial system setup (OOBE) phase.

Changes and improvements

• Windows Copilot:  Windows Insiders on the Dev Channel who use AAD (soon to be renamed Microsoft Entra ID) to sign in and manage will find that Windows Copilot Preview is disabled in this release. This is a temporary issue. You can enable the feature using Group Policies under User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Windows Copilot . Keep in mind that the name of this setting will change in upcoming builds. In the future, Windows Copilot Preview will be enabled by default and will also support Bing Chat for Enterprise.
• Taskbar and system tray: As mentioned in the post for build 23481, the Microsoft Teams (Free) app is now pinned to the taskbar by default. The rollout of the change is ongoing, so not all insiders will see it yet.
  If you click on the icon, a compact Teams window will appear on the screen, allowing you to send text messages, call and create conferences with a few mouse clicks. The compact size of the window allows you to place it anywhere on the screen, which helps you keep track of active correspondence. Integration with the Link to Phone app is also coming soon.
  • Under Settings -> Personalization -> Taskbar -> Taskbar Behaviors, there is an option to disable grouping of items on the taskbar, however this setting does not work at this time. Microsoft has temporarily removed these settings to complete the fix. This feature will be coming to builds for the Beta channel soon.
• File Explorer: Added additional fields to display in the new Details panel. In particular, now it displays information about the size of pictures, the number of pages in .docx documents, data on free and occupied hard disk space, and so on.

Fixes

• General: fixed an issue resulting in the Photos app being automatically pinned to the taskbar for some users after updating to build 23511 . It was an isolated incident that will not happen again. The Windows Insider team brings changes for the inconvenience.
• Explorer: Fixed an issue where icons on tabs in File Explorer might not sync with the current folder after navigating.
  • Fixed a memory leak in File Explorer that could cause explorer.exe to crash and other issues with prolonged use.
  • Fixed an issue where desktop icons could be empty in previous builds.
  • Fixed an issue that caused File Explorer to display "Working on it" in empty folders.
  • Fixed an issue where the text field for renaming created files and folders on the desktop was displayed too close or too far from the icon.
  • Fixed an issue where opening the context menu with the right mouse button caused explorer.exe to crash for some Insiders.
  • Fixed an issue where the context menu would not appear when right-clicking navigation bar items after switching between folders.
  • Fixed an issue where the ALT+P and Shift+Alt+P shortcuts didn't work to show or hide the preview panel when the focus is on one of the images in the Gallery section.
  • Fixed an issue where the Home and Gallery pages could have the wrong color scheme when switching between dark and light skins.
  • Fixed an issue that caused the thumbnails in the Gallery section to not load after reducing the icon size (for example, from normal to small).
  • Fixed an issue where pinning and unpinning favorite files stopped working after refreshing the Home page.
  • Fixed the following issues with the new Details panel:
    • Fixed an issue where the Info panel styling was displayed from left to right instead of right to left when using the Arabic or Hebrew system.
  • Fixed the following issues with the updated address bar in File Explorer:
    • You can now set focus to the address bar with the keyboard shortcuts ALT + D, CTRL + L and F4.
    • Fixed an issue where typing drive letters, %localappdata%, and some other items in the address bar did not show suggested paths in the drop-down list.
  • Fixed the following issues with the redesigned Home page in File Explorer:
    • Fixed an issue that caused explorer.exe to crash when opening the Home page.
    • Fixed an issue where the tooltip would not disappear when scrolling through the contents of the Home page using the touchscreen.
    • Fixed an issue where the collapse and expand of sections on the Home page did not always work.
    • Changed the sizes of elements, including reduced text size.
    • Fixed an issue where scrolling with the mouse wheel did not work if the cursor was hovered over the "Recommended" section.
• Taskbar and system tray: Fixed multiple crashes in explorer.exe that affected the stability of the taskbar.
• Input: Fixed an issue where some mouse actions (such as resizing windows) did not work when connected to Remote Desktop.
• Dynamic Lighting: Fixed an issue that caused device LEDs to turn off when switching between accounts.

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

Known Issues

• General: Investigating reports that explorer.exe crashes (with an error popup) in safe mode when trying to log in to a profile on the system.
• Start menu: Some apps in the Start Menu's All Apps list (such as PWA apps installed via Microsoft Edge) may be marked as system apps when they aren't.
• Windows Copilot:
  • You can use the Alt + Tab combination to exit Windows Copilot, but not return to it. To switch to Windows Copilot, use the combination WIN + C.
  • On first launch or after updating Copilot, when using Voice Access, you must use the Show grid command to then navigate to the Ask me anything field.
• File Explorer may crash when interacting with the scrollbar or trying to close the window while loading files.
• Windows Ink:
  • In Microsoft 365 Apps, the Windows Ink feature does not convert ink to content (such as Word documents or Excel spreadsheets).
  • In Microsoft 365 apps (such as Word), the search box may not work correctly.
  • Comment fields may not work correctly in Microsoft 365 apps (such as Word).
• Input: Investigating reports that, starting from the previous build, text input using the Japanese and Chinese IME does not work correctly on the system.

Source

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