Windows 11 Build 26120.3380 (Dev and Beta Channels) is out

Microsoft has released a new preview of Windows 11, build  26120.3380 (KB5053660), to Windows Insiders in the Dev and Beta channels. It includes new snap recommendations in the Start menu, Recommended files in Explorer, a new emoji button in the taskbar, and more.

Recently, Insiders in the Beta channel have been receiving the same Windows 11 version 24H2 builds that are released to the Dev channel. The updates are currently optional, so you can choose the right time to upgrade to the new OS version.

Later, the update will become a recommended update, meaning your PC will automatically update to 24H2 if you're on the Beta channel. Until then, both Windows 11 24H2 and Windows 11 23H2 builds will be released on the Beta channel.

If you are on the Dev channel, you now have the option to upgrade to the Beta channel. This option will be available as long as the Dev and Beta channels receive the same builds. At the end of February, the Dev channel will receive higher build numbers, and it will no longer be possible to upgrade to the Beta channel.

Future builds on the Dev channel may not be as stable as they are now. Microsoft strongly recommends that you consider which update channel you want to stay on.

Full build number: 10.0.26120.3380.ge_release_svc_betaflt_prod1.250226-1832 .

For Insiders with the "Get the latest updates as soon as they're available" toggle turned on

New features

Recommended files in Explorer

The Recommended section on the home page in File Explorer is now available to all Insiders signed in with a personal Microsoft account or using a local profile. This section provides quick access to relevant files based on your activity. The section is a carousel with preview support for file contents. The section will show frequently used files, recently downloaded files, as well as items added to the Gallery in File Explorer. Additional types of recommendations are now available when using a work or school account (Entra ID).

This change is not yet available in European Economic Area (EEA) countries.

Changes and improvements

Live Captions

• • On Copilot+ PC devices with AMD and Intel processors, it is now possible to translate subtitles into Chinese (simplified) in real time. Supported languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, German, Greek, English, Spanish, Estonian, Finnish, French, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian and Swedish.

Start Menu

• • Microsoft is testing a new change to the Start menu. The Recommended area may now prompt you to open and pin the two apps you use most often in a feature called Snap Layouts.
    

Search on the taskbar

• • Improved support for third-party search engines in the Search window for users in the European Economic Area (EEA). Switching search engines has also been simplified.

Notifications

• • To make sure you don't lose access to your Microsoft account, you might receive a new notification to encourage you to add a backup email address or phone number that you can use to recover your password. The notification will only appear if you have a Microsoft account on your computer and that information isn't in your profile.

Widgets

• • Web developers can now use existing web content to create dynamic and interactive widgets that can be added to the Widgets panel in Windows 11. You can read more about this in Microsoft's documentation.

Input

• • Microsoft is testing a new way to open the Emoji Panel in Windows 11. The developers have added a new icon to the notification area of ​​the taskbar. It will help you quickly express yourself using emoji, GIFs, kaomoji, and more across all Windows apps and interfaces. The Win + . keyboard shortcut still works, and information about it is in the tooltip for the new icon. If you want, you can hide this icon by right-clicking on it and going to the taskbar settings page.

    

• Settings:
  • Added cards at the top of the Settings > System > About page that give you a quick look at key features of your PC — CPU, RAM, storage, and graphics. This is designed to make decision making easier by highlighting potential areas for hardware improvement while giving you a clear picture of your PC. The cards won’t show up on managed enterprise PCs yet. The cards only show up on certain form factors, like desktops.

    

Fixes

File Explorer

• • This update includes expanded support for text scaling in File Explorer, the Open and Save dialog boxes, and the file copy dialog box. Text scaling is configured in Settings > Ease of Access > Text Size.

Windows

• • Fixed an issue where the anchor layout panel at the top of the screen had non-rounded corners on the side closest to the edge of the screen.

Input

• • Fixed a crash in ctfmon.exe that could affect the ability to enter text.

Settings

• • Fixed an issue that could cause the Settings app to crash when adding a color profile under Settings > System > Display.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause the Settings app to crash when using it to sign in to a Microsoft account (MSA).
  • Fixed an issue for Japanese users where the name displayed at the top of Settings > Accounts was shown in the format "First Name Last Name" instead of the expected "Last Name First Name" format.

Other

• • Fixed an issue that could cause a GSOD with the PDC_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT error when exiting sleep mode.
  • Fixed an issue with windows.storage.dll where attempting to open a file from within an application would cause that application to crash.

Known issues

General

• • After resetting the system settings in Settings > System > Recovery, the build number may change to 26100 instead of 26120. This will not affect receiving future updates on the Dev channel, which will fix the issue.

Recall

• • [Reminder] Be sure to update your Microsoft 365 apps to the latest version so you can get back to certain documents.
  • [New] If you're using Recall on a PC that's managed by your organization's IT admin (i.e. signed in with a Microsoft Entra ID), you'll see that previously taken snapshots will be deleted when you install this build. Snapshots will also be deleted every time you reboot your device. As a temporary workaround to prevent snapshots from being deleted, you can do the following before installing this update. You may have to do these steps before each system reboot after installing this update:
    • Type gpedit.mscin the search box on the taskbar to open Local Group Policy Editor.
    • Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows AI.
    • Set "Allow Recall to be enabled" to "Enabled".
    • Set "Turn off saving snapshots for use with Recall" to "Disabled".
  • Some Insiders may encounter an issue where Recall is unable to automatically save snapshots and the setting is grayed out. Working to fix the issue.
  • Recall can be enabled or disabled in the "Turn Windows features on or off" section. At the moment, Recall files remain on the disk even after the feature is disabled. In future updates, these files will be completely removed from the system.

Click to Do

• • [Reminder] If some actions with objects in images are not displayed, check for updates to the Photos and Paint apps in the Microsoft Store.
  • [Reminder]  Intelligent text actions use the secure Microsoft cloud to improve the quality of results, ensuring the safety and appropriateness of suggestions and answers. This data is automatically deleted. In the future, we plan to introduce local moderation of suggestions and answers, which will replace the current cloud solution.
  • Sometimes, intelligent text actions based on Phi Silica may provide unnecessary context. This issue will be fixed in future Windows Insider builds.

Improved search

• • [Reminder] To improve the Windows Search experience on Copilot+ PC devices, it is recommended that you connect your computer to a power source to complete the initial indexing. You can check the search indexing status in Settings > Privacy & Security > Windows Search.

File Explorer

Engineers are investigating an issue where File Explorer closes very slowly for some Insiders when they click the X button in the title bar. This issue may also affect other buttons in the title bar.

Task Manager

• • After adding the new "CPU Load" column, you may notice that the load for the "System Idle" process is always 0.
  • The CPU graphs on the Performance page still use the old CPU usage calculations.

Source

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