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Microsoft's February "Patch Tuesday" for 2026 brings some quality changes to Windows 11, and this is what you need to know.
On Tuesday, February 10, 2026, Microsoft is scheduled to begin the rollout of a new Patch Tuesday update for Windows 11 in the second month of the year, introducing several new features, improvements, and bug fixes.
In this update, the software giant will be rolling out the ability to resume Android apps on your computer. It pushes a major upgrade to Windows MIDI Services, expands Windows Hello enhanced security for external devices, and lets you manage the Smart App Control without reinstallation.
Windows 11's new features arriving in February
Microsoft uses the Controlled Feature Rollout (CFR) technology to gradually push new features and changes, so it may take some time before you see them.
1. Cross-Device Resume
Start with this quality update, the development team is expanding the Cross-Device Resume feature to more devices.
The feature allows you to resume features from your Android phone on your computer directly from the Taskbar. Currently, you can resume Spotify playback, work in Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, or continue a browsing session.
(Image credit: Microsoft)
Microsoft also notes that resuming browsing sessions works for Vivo phones when using the Vivo Browser on Windows 11.
Furthermore, if you use a phone from HONOR, OPPO, Samsung, Vivo, or Xiaomi, the company notes that you can also resume online files opened in the Microsoft Copilot app.
2. Windows MIDI Services
In this update, Windows 11 is getting MIDI improvements, including enhanced support for MIDI 0 (in-box) and 2.0, including "full WinMM and WinRT MIDI 1.0 support with built‑in translation, shared MIDI ports across apps, custom port names, loopback, and app‑to‑app MIDI."
(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)
Microsoft also notes performance improvements and bug fixes to improve the experience for musicians.
If you want to access the new MIDI improvements, the company is offering the App SDK and Tool package as a separate download.
3. Device info card in Settings
The Home page in the Settings app is getting a new "Device info" card, which is designed to highlight the top technical specifications, such as processor, memory, graphics, and storage.
(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)
The card also includes a link to access the "About" page.
4. Smart App Control changes
On Windows 11, Smart App Control is a security feature that locks down the system, allowing only trusted applications to run.
When the company rolled out this feature in 2025, after turning on the feature, you needed to reinstall the operating system to turn it off. However, starting the February 2026 update, it's now possible to turn this feature on or off without reinstallation.
This can be done from Windows Security > App & Browser Control > Smart App Control.
(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)
As a side note, since this change is rolling out gradually, the feature wasn’t yet enabled on my device at the time of this writing.
5. Windows Hello improvements
The Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS) experience has only supported built-in biometric sensors, but starting with this update, you'll be able to connect and configure virtually any supported Windows Hello ESS fingerprint reader from the "Sign-in options" settings page.
You can do this in Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options and enable the "Enhanced sign-in security" option with an external supported device.
(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)
6. File Explorer navigation speed boost
Although this isn't a feature, this particular update includes an improvement to speed up the responsiveness of File Explorer when navigating network locations.
(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)
7. Voice Access changes
As part of the Voice Access improvements, the February 2026 update is expected to ship with a new wizard to help you set up the experience more easily.
(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)
This new experience will help you download the required speech model for your setup language, choose a microphone, and get started with the feature.
8. Voice Typing changes
Finally, Microsoft is also updating Voice Typing to let you set a wait time before a voice command runs.
You can find the option on Voice Typing Settings > Wait time before acting. The options available vary from instant, medium (default), to very long.
(Image credit: Mauro Huculak)
This quality update is currently available through the Release Preview Channel from the Windows Insider Program. However, in the coming days, the company plans to make it available through the Stable Channel.
Once the preview is available to everyone, you can trigger the download in Settings > Windows Update by selecting the "Get the latest updates as soon as they're available" toggle switch and clicking the "Check for updates" button.
Also, remember that Microsoft has been dealing with a lot of quality issues in its updates, so it's best to prepare for the event by creating a system restore point before proceeding with the installation.
Furthermore, it's a good idea to create a full backup in case you need to roll back, as users have also been having issues uninstalling quality updates after the January 2026 Security Update.
It's unlikely this case will recur, but it's better to take precautions.
Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.
Posted Monday 2 February 2026 at 4:22 am AEST (my time).
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