Windows 11 Build 25179 (Dev) brings up File Explorer tabs and navigation pane to everyone

Today's build in the Dev channel finally makes File Explorer tabs and the new navigation pane available to everyone. Also, Microsoft is experimenting with how File Explorer shows search results. Finally, there are input improvements, and ISO images available for clean install.

What's new in Windows 11 Build 25179

Input improvements

Microsoft has introduced a new language-neutral word list. Microsoft is syncing this option across users' devices that use the same Microsoft Account. You can enable it in Settings > Accounts > Windows backup > Remember my preferences > Language preferences. Besides MS accounts, the company will support AAD later.

The Tamil Anjal keyboard is now for the Tamil language. It’s a popular keyboard for inputting Tamil characters. Ensure that Tamil (India) is listed under Settings > Time & Language > Language & Region, and then click the “…” next to the language, select Language Options, and add it to the list of keyboards.

Finally, Microsoft has tweaked the key repeat rate for the traditional touch keyboard layout, as well as the default touch keyboard layout. It now has the rate of 20 keys per second when you hold a key. It makes the UI more responsive for the user.

File Explorer

File Explorer tabs and navigation pane introduced in build 25136 are now available to everyone in the Dev channel. To see these changes, you may need to restart the OS.

Also, Microsoft is tinkering with different variants of search result appearance.

Other changes

Microsoft has changed the default duration for the powercfg -sleepstudy report. It will now capture data from 3 to 7 days.

Finally, this build includes several fixes to various components of the OS.

Fixes

• Fixed an issue causing hangs and crashes in apps (like Excel) when attempting to print in the last couple flights.
• Fixed a few issues impacting explorer.exe reliability.
• in File Explorer, the Mount option when right clicking things like ISO files should now show an icon in the context menu.
• Fixed an issue where the min / max / close button might not be visible in File Explorer when using a contrast theme.
• Fixed the issue causing Widgets preferences (temperature units and pinned widgets) to unexpectedly get reset to default.
• Fixed an issue which could lead to the taskbar overflow flyout unexpectedly appearing on the opposite side of the screen.
• Fixed a sporadic crash impacting reliability of the input switcher.
• Fixed an issue where when Suggested Actions was enabled, if you copied multiple items in a row to your clipboard history, some of the items might not display after you pressed WIN + V.
• Fixed an issue which was causing Settings to crash on launch sometimes.
• Improved alignment of the “Scan for phone” button displayed on Accounts > Sign-In Options under Dynamic Lock when your phone failed to connect.
• Your preferred state for the Suggested Actions setting under System > Clipboard should persist upgrade going forward from this build.
• Fixed an issue where when resizing certain app windows near the edge of the screen when using mixed DPI monitors might unexpectedly cause the window to jump and shrink.
• Made a change so that the media controls in Quick Settings will more reliably not load old media you’re no longer using.
• Fixed an issue causing one of the characters in the bugcheck text to not display correctly (as a box) when the display language was set to Chinese.
• Fixed an issue causing app install failures with error 0x80080204 in the last few flights.
• Improved date / time recognition for existing supported locales when using Suggested Actions.

Traditionally for Dev channel builds, you must check the list of known issues in this release. You'll find it in the official announcement.

The ISO images are here.