Microsoft releases Task Manager search, new themes on Windows 11 Beta (KB5020040)

Recently, Microsoft began flighting two separate of Windows 11 Preview builds for Insiders on the Beta channel for a staggered release. Today, the Redmond company has released an update with new builds 22621.891 and 22623.891 (KB5020040). The company writes on its blog post:

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.891 and Build 22623.891 (KB5020040) to the Beta Channel.

• Build 22623.891= New features rolling out.
• Build 22621.891 = New features off by default.

Here are the changes and improvements:

Task Manager Improvements

We have a set of Task Manager improvements rolling out with this build.

• Filter processes: We are bringing process filtering to Task Manager. This is the top feature request from our users to filter/search for processes. You can filter either using the binary name, PID or publisher name. The filter algorithm matches the context keyword with all possible matches and displays them on the current page. The filter is also applied as you switch between pages. You can also use the keyboard shortcut ALT + F to focus on the filter box. This is a helpful feature if you want to single out a process or a group of processes and want to take action or just monitor the performance of the filtered processes.

• Better theme support: We have added the ability to use your preferred theme in Task Manager regardless of the active theme in Windows. You can set it in the setting page in Task Manager.

Task Manager now also supports themes for in-app dialogs. All dialog except for “Run new task” and Properties dialog now support themes and will adhere to either app specific theme or Windows theme.

• Improved Efficiency mode dialog: We are making it easy for you to apply Efficiency mode and offering the ability to opt-out of the confirmation dialog. You can make changes on the Efficiency mode dialog box by unchecking “Don’t ask me again” or you can enable/disable it the settings for Task Manager.

FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Desktop Environment > Task Manager.

Here are the changes and improvements in Build 22623.891 :

[Input]

• We have made improvements to Emoji search for Japanese and Simplified Chinese by handling Kana/Kanji and Pinyin properly in the emoji panel.

Here are the bug fixes in Build 22623.891

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• When using the bottom right edge gesture to see Quick Settings, the taskbar should no longer get stuck in the expanded state (instead of dismissing to collapsed state).
• Fixed an issue causing the do not disturb icon to disappear while in do not disturb mode.
• The new show hidden icons flyout’s animation should now be consistent with other taskbar flyouts.
• The show hidden icons flyout background color should now align with your accent color if “Show accent color on Start and taskbar” is enabled in Settings > Personalization > Colors.
• Fixed multiple explorer.exe crashes impacting taskbar performance.

And here are the fixes for both Build 22621.891 and Build 22623.891:

• New! You can back up applicable settings to your Microsoft account. You can also sync these settings on any Windows device and in Microsoft Office.
• We fixed an issue that affected File Explorer. It failed to localize folders.
• We fixed an issue that affected the CopyFile function. It might have sometimes returned error 317: ERROR_MR_MID_NOT_FOUND.
• We fixed an issue that affected process creation. It failed to create security audits for it and other related audit events.
• We fixed an issue that affected printing in landscape mode in Microsoft Edge. The print output was incorrect. This issue occurred when you used Microsoft Defender Application Guard.
• We fixed an issue that affected Microsoft Defender when it was not the primary antivirus. Microsoft Defender failed to turn off passive mode. This issue occurred when you turn off Smart App Control (SAC).
• We added .wcx to the list of Dangerous Extensions that some app control policies do not allow.
• We fixed an issue that affected a computer account. Use of non-standard characters can stop the cleanup of the Out of Box Experience (OOBE) accounts.
• We fixed an issue that affected the Windows Firewall service. It did not start when you turned on the Override block rules option.
• We fixed an issue that might have affected applications that run on the Windows Lock Down Policy (WLDP). They might have stopped working.

The known issues are:

[General]

• We’re looking into reports that audio stopped working for some Insiders in recent Beta Channel builds.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• The taskbar sometimes flashes when transitioning between desktop posture and tablet posture.
• The taskbar takes longer than expected to transition to the touch-optimized version when switching between desktop posture and tablet posture.

[Task Manager]

• [NEW] Filtering by publisher name does not match correctly on the Processes page.
• [NEW] Some services may not show in the Services page after filtering is applied.
• [NEW] If a new process is starting while a filter is set, then that process may appear for a split second in the filtered list.
• [NEW] The delete key and tooltip are not working on the filter input box.
• [NEW] Some dialogs may not render in the correct theme when applied from Task Manager Settings page.
• [NEW] The data content area of the Processes page may flash once when theme changes are applied in the Task Manager Settings page.
• [NEW] There’s an issue we’re investigating where Task Manager isn’t displaying light and dark content correctly, leading to unreadable text. This happens when you have your mode in Settings > Personalization > Colors set to Custom – as a workaround for the time being, please switch it to Light or Dark.

You can find the official blog post here.

Microsoft releases Task Manager search, new themes on Windows 11 Beta (KB5020040)