Windows Insiders should set a reminder to check for builds at the end of each week. Microsoft just rolled out four Insider builds, each of which contains several changes and improvements.
Quick links
As a reminder, Microsoft is overhauling the Windows Insider Program. Beta Channel Insiders have not been transitioned to the new Beta experience yet. Those who were in the Dev Channel and now in the Experimental Channel will receive Build 26300.8376. Insiders who were in the Canary 28000 series Channel are now in Experimental and will receive Build 28020.2075. Any Insiders who were in the Canary 29500 series Channel will receive Build 29585.1000.
Once the transition is complete, channels within the Windows Insider Program will be easier to navigate and switch between. But for now, people will need to double-check release notes to understand which build and features they'll receive.
With so many different builds rolling out, I'll highlight the biggest changes rather than list four separate change logs.
Beta Preview Build 26220.8370
Free upgrade path to Windows 11 Pro Education for K-12
Windows Insiders in K–12 education environments can now experience a seamless upgrade path from Windows 11 Home to Windows 11 Pro Education edition—at no additional cost. This enables educational organizations to procure Windows 11 Home devices, upgrade them to Windows 11 Pro Education, and bring devices under school management.
Please note: This upgrade is one-way only. Reverting to Windows Home is not supported without a clean OS reinstall.
Experimental Preview Build 26300.8376
Touchpad
We’re adding new gesturing-related functionality to precision touchpads in Settings. The new features should be widely available across applications, with the exception that WinUI3-based UI requires new WinAppSDK versions for complete functionality - we're in the process of bringing the necessary changes to versions 1.8 and 2.0.
- Scroll / zoom speed: control the baseline speed for these gestures
- Automatic scrolling: scrolling continues indefinitely without lifting your fingers. Activate by either bringing your fingers near the edge of the touchpad while scrolling, or holding them still and pressing harder (requires hardware support).
- Accelerated scrolling: repeatedly scrolling increases their speed, allowing quick traversal of long documents.
- Single-finger scrolling: perform a vertical scroll with a single finger starting from the left or right side of the touchpad.
File Explorer
We’ve made several updates to improve reliability, readability, and overall usability in File Explorer:
- Address Bar improvements
- The address bar now supports paths containing double backslashes and quotation marks (for example, C:\Users\user or "C:\Users\user"), improving compatibility with a wider range of inputs.
- Improved reliability of the Address Bar suggestion dropdown so it now consistently closes after an item is selected.
- More readable file size formatting
- File sizes in the Details view now display using appropriate units (KB, MB, GB) instead of KB-only, making them easier to understand at a glance.
- Refinements to the rename experience
- Fixed an issue where text would be repeatedly selected while renaming items in folder views.
- Fixed an issue where updated names (case-only changes) were not immediately reflected in folder views across local and cloud storage.
- Improved keyboard navigation of File Explorer context menu in flyouts.
EDU
Windows Insiders in this channel can also upgrade to Windows 11 Pro for K-12 from Windows 11 Home at no additional cost.
Experimental (26H1) Preview Build 28020.2075
Input
- Improved the reliability of typing when using the ADLaM keyboard.
- Improved performance of opening clipboard history.
Fonts
We’ve made some font improvements, including updating the Leelawadee UI font family for the Thai, Lao, Khmer, and Lontara scripts to help improve glyph sequencing, positioning, and rendering for these scripts.
Experimental (Future Platforms) Preview Build 29585.1000
Touch Keyboard Experience for Voice Typing
- We’re updating the experience when you use voice typing with the touch keyboard to make it feel more streamlined and intuitive. The new design removes the previous full‑screen overlay and instead shows voice typing animations directly on the dictation key, helping you stay focused on what you’re doing without extra visual distractions.
Windows 11's best new features
All of the changes that shipped to Windows Insiders this week are welcome improvements, though they affect different customers. Educators and school admins will likely value the free upgrade path to Windows 11 Pro Education edition, since it allows them to acquire Windows 11 Home devices and upgrade them.
I'm most excited about the new gesture functionality in Windows 11. Being able to control the scroll and zoom speed through Windows Settings will save me time and automatic scrolling will let me scan webpages with less effort. I read a lot of articles for my job and need to locate specific pieces of information, so anything that speeds up scrolling and navigating is a big plus.
I also appreciate File Explorer showing file sizes in the most appropriate units. Listing a file as 4,215,577 KB isn't especially useful. I know I can convert it in my head by moving a decimal point, but I prefer to just see that same file listed in GB.
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