Microsoft has released Windows 11 build 27965 to Insiders in the Canary channel. After long time, the Canary channel gets the new scrollable start menu with a companion panel for Phone Link. It lists everything on one page, and allows disabling the Recommended section.
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For Insiders with the "Get the latest updates as soon as they're available" toggle enabled
New features
New Start Menu for Windows 11
Microsoft has begun testing a redesigned Start menu designed to make it easier to launch apps. The "All apps" section has been moved to the top level, eliminating the need to navigate to a separate page to access the list of installed apps. Additionally, two new app display options have been added: "Categories" and "Grid."
The default "Categories" option automatically groups your apps into categories for quick access to the most frequently used categories and apps. For example, if you frequently use Outlook and Solitaire, you can expect these apps to appear at the top of their respective categories. Categories are created if at least three apps exist for a category. Otherwise, they will be placed in the "Other" category.
The Grid view is organized alphabetically, like the classic A-Z list, but makes it easier to browse your installed apps by making better use of horizontal space.
The new Start menu will remember the last selected option for displaying the app list.
The Start menu will automatically adapt to your screen size to make the most of the available space. If you have a device with a larger display, you'll see a larger Start menu displaying more apps and files. Users will see 6 columns of pinned apps, 6 recommendations, and 4 category columns in the Start menu. Devices with smaller displays will see 6 columns of pinned apps, 4 recommendations, and 3 category columns.
The Start menu sections are also adaptive and depend on the number of items in the "Pinned" and "Recommended" sections. For example, if you have few pinned apps, the "Pinned" section will shrink to a single row, while the other sections will move up. You can also set the pinned apps section to be expanded by default in "Settings."
If you don't want to see the Recommended section in the Start menu, you can disable the following options in Settings > Personalization > Start:
- Show recently added apps.
- Show suggested files in the Start menu...
- Show websites from your browsing history.
- Show recommendations for tips, shortcuts, news apps, and more
Integration with the "Phone Link" app
Finally, the updated Start menu includes a "Link to Phone" sidebar that slides out to the right of the Start menu. It provides quick access to content from your connected smartphone when needed. If you don't need the sidebar, you can hide it with the click of a button.
The integration is available for connected Android and iOS devices in most regions. The feature will be available in the European Economic Area (EEA) at a later date.
For all users
Changes and improvements
.NET Framework 3.5
- Starting with build 27965, the.NET Framework 3.5 is no longer a Windows Feature on Demand (FOD). Microsoft recommends that customers using this platform migrate to modern versions of.NET. If you run business-critical applications that depend on the.NET Framework 3.5, you can download the standalone installer from this link: https://go.microsoft.com/. Additional information about the.NET Framework product lifecycle can be found in the documentation.
Command line
- The Edit console text editor is now included with Windows. Now you can quickly edit a file in the Terminal app by entering
editthe filename. Edit is an open-source project that can be found on GitHub. A full list of features can be found in the documentation.
Fixes
Taskbar and system tray
- Fixed an issue from the previous build where the taskbar might not auto-hide correctly.
Play video
- Fixed an issue where some videos and games would unexpectedly take on a red tint.
- Fixed an issue that affected playback of protected content in some Blu-ray, DVD, and digital TV applications using the Enhanced Video Renderer with HDCP.
Known issues
File Explorer
- [New] Working on a fix for an issue where File Explorer crashes when transferring files to a network drive.
Settings
- [New] The Settings app may crash when attempting to retrieve disk information under Settings > System > Storage. This issue also affects access to disk information through the Properties dialog box accessed by right-clicking a disk in File Explorer.
Lock and login screen
- Investigating an issue where media controls may not appear on the lock screen.
Power and battery
- Investigating reports that some Insiders are experiencing sleep and shutdown issues after installing the latest Canary builds.
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