Microsoft is making a much-needed improvement to Windows Insider builds soon

Yesterday, Microsoft rolled out build 28020.1371 to Windows Insiders on the Canary Channel. This was the first update in this particular channel this year, which is currently seeding builds for Windows 11, version 26H1, expected within a few months. While this build contained fixes for File Explorer, Start menu, Windows Terminal, and more, it also highlighted a new bug.

According to the change log, the "desktop watermark is showing the wrong build number" in the latest Canary Channel release. This caused confusion among some Insiders who claimed that the desktop watermark has always been the case, going back to Windows 10, where only the "base" build number is displayed.

Regardless of how old the issue is, the good news is that Microsoft's Director of Communications for Windows + Devices, Brandon LeBlanc, has announced that the company will fix the build number in the watermark via an Enablement KB (EKB) soon:

This is definitely a welcome change, especially considering that the watermark is always visible on the Windows 11 desktop in Insider channels. For those unaware, this watermark is present on the bottom-right corner of the desktop, and it contains some metadata about the build you are currently using. See an example below:

Fixing the build number may seem like a small change, but it is definitely much needed. It's unclear when this patch will become available, but it's likely to happen sooner rather than later, considering that it should be a relatively minor fix.

Source

Hope you enjoyed this news post. Feedback welcome.

Posted Friday 16 January 2026 at 12:24 pm AEST (my time).

News posts... 2023: 5,800+ | 2024: 5,700+ | 2025: 5,700+

RIP Matrix