This follows another borked update earlier this month

When Microsoft announced Windows 11 on June 24, it stated that its Teams software will have deeper integration with the OS. While this capability hasn't been enabled for Insider builds released since June 28, the company is finally ready to start testing it now.

Starting today, select Insiders will be able to test a new Teams integration present in Windows 11, which currently allows them to sign in, add contacts, collaborate via individual and group chats, and make use of the Chat flyout from the taskbar.

Insiders can simply click on the Chat icon on the taskbar or press Win+C to open a list of their recent chats, regardless of which app window they have open right now. From there, they can also click on the "Open Microsoft Teams" option in the Chat flyout to launch the full desktop experience. It is also possible to reply inline to chat notifications, which have been natively designed on Windows 11.

Existing contacts can be synced from Skype or Outlook while new ones can be added by directly sending them a message to their email address or phone number. Similarly, you can invite people to group chats and video calls using URLs that can also be shared via email.

Microsoft says that the Teams experience has been tailored to Windows 11, and can be utilized across any device running the OS. Multi-tasking features work across Teams and other apps, and the visual design of the software follows the design elements of Windows 11, such as rounded corners.

That said, there are a few limitations as well. Currently, Chat from Microsoft Teams is localized only in English (US), it does not have any offline capabilities, and does not support Teams' complete native feature-set yet either. Furthermore, syncing contacts from Outlook or Skype may take up to 24 hours and if the contact has multiple email IDs or phone numbers, only the primary one will be shown. At times, the Chat flyout might get stuck in its open state as well. In such cases, Microsoft recommends that you toggle the following setting off and then on again: Settings app > Accessibility > Visual Effects > Animation Effects.

It is important to note that the Chat from Microsoft Teams flyout is being rolled out to Insiders on a staggered basis, and may not be available to everyone just yet. A reboot of the device is also required in order to see the capability in the taskbar, provided that you have been selected to test it from today.

Although Windows 11 is set to publicly release later this year, people can still play around with it in the Insider Preview if they want. The OS contains a bunch of features and enhancements compared to its predecessor already, and we walked you through some of the major ones here. Windows 11 build 22000.71 also brought several changes to the OS, including tweaks to the context menu, and Microsoft has now broken down all the modifications it is making to the feature.

Microsoft highlighted a number of issues in the context menu of Windows 10 including the fact that it is overly long and contains options that are barely used, common commands are not grouped together, and they are too far from the cursor.

The Redmond tech giant is looking to improve on all these fronts in the Windows 11 context menu. Common commands are now right next to where the context menu is invoked. Furthermore, common commands like "Open" and "Open with" are grouped. Third-party developers can utilize IExplorerCommand and app identity to extend this menu, with apps containing more than one verb grouped into a flyout menu with app attribution. App extensions will also be grouped separately below the Shell verbs.

Microsoft has emphasized that it has not removed any Windows 10 context menu functionality completely as of yet. Users can still click on "Show more options" or Shift-F10 to load the old menu to make use of Shell verbs not present by default in the Windows 11 context menu and to utilize apps that have not been ported over yet.

There are a number of enhancements being made to the share dialog as well, detailed below:

• Nearby sharing is now much easier to use, with easy control over your discoverability setting up top and a link to more settings in the footer of the dialog.
• If you use the Mail app, the first entry in the contacts list helps you easily send an email to yourself.
• All apps can now participate in the Share dialog as targets. For unpackaged Win32 apps, this is covered in the same sample as the context menu. PWAs installed through Microsoft Edge are also supported if they implement the Web Share Target API.

Microsoft has also highlighted the best practices that developers should follow when registering their apps with the Windows 11 context menu, you can find more details over here.

The developers of the open source cross-platform video converter Handbrake have released Handbrake 1.4.0 just a moment ago (if you are reading this on July 18, 2021). The new version updates many included third-party libraries, adds support for 10bit and 12bit, new filters, hardware encoding improvements and more.

Windows users face several compatibility changes. Handbrake is available as a portable version and installer, but the new graphical user interface version of Handbrake requires the Microsoft .NET 5.0 Desktop Runtime. If it is not installed, users are prompted to install it before the program can be run. The prompt opens the download page of the runtime on Microsoft's website (make sure you download the desktop version of the runtime).

Another compatibility change is that Windows 10 is the only version of the software that is supported officially by the application when it comes to the Windows platform. Handbrake 1.4.0 will run on Windows 7 and 8.1 devices, but a message is displayed twice that the app is no longer support. The developers note in the changelog that some features may not work on older versions of Windows.

As far as new features and improvements are concerned, a lot has changed since the release of Handbrake 1.3.0 in November 2019.  Besides the already mentioned support for 10bit and 12bit, Handbrake supports passing HDR10 metadata if present in the source file. The static previews that the program generates during file scans are stored as compressed jpeg and no longer as YUV420, which reduces disk space usage and disk writes significantly.

In the hardware encoding department, Media Foundation is available as a new encoder for arm64 powered Windows devices. The AMD VCN and the Intel QuickSync encoder received updates, which include optimizations and performance improvements.

Handbrake 1.4.0 introduces support for the three new filters Chroma Smooth, Colourspace Selection, and Crop/Scale, which benefits from QuickSync hardware acceleration. The new version supports Mp2 Audio Passthru and new general purpose subtitle decoders.

All version of Handbrake 1.4.0 come with a redesigned Dimensions tab; rotate and flip have been moved to the filters tab, and support for padding, resolution limits and upscaling were added.

Most operating system specific changes are found in the Mac and Linux versions. The Mac version supports Apple Silicon hardware and running multiple simultaneous jobs. UI navigation has been improved and eyetv packages with .ts enclosed media files are now also supported.

Windows users benefit from a number of changes as well. Users may enable process isolation, which runs encoding jobs in their own process. The separation protects the main user interface from crashes caused by the file processing and ensures that queued jobs can still be processed. Another benefit is that it is now possible to run multiple jobs simultaneously, which improves CPU utilization on systems with many cores.

You can check out the full changelog on the official site. There you find download links for all versions as well.

Microsoft has released the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22000.71 to the Dev Channel. Here's what's new in the latest version of the operating system.

Entertainment widget

Build 22000.65 had the following widgets to choose from: Calendar, To Do, Tips, Sports, Traffic, Esports, Weather, Watchlist and Photos. There is a new widget available in Build 22000.71, the Entertainment widget. It highlights new and featured movies that are available in the Microsoft Store.

Image courtesy: Microsoft

The announcement article says that the Entertainment widget is only available in the following Countries it: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, France, Australia and Japan.

Since the widget isn't available in my region, I couldn't test this feature. I tried switching to one of the supported regions from the Settings app, but that didn't give me an option to add the new widget.

Acrylic Context Menu

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22000.71 also brings some aesthetic changes. The context menu in the OS, e.g. on the Desktop, is no longer a plain white color. The new menu design has an acrylic glass effect, which looks similar to the one used by the Widgets panel.

I hope Microsoft gives the Start Menu the same treatment.

New Split button

The New button in the top left corner of File Explorer's command bar has a drop-down menu next to it, Microsoft calls this the Split button.

Clicking it allows you to switch between New File, New Folder or New Item (document, shortcut, etc.).

Taskbar Preview

The Windows 11 Taskbar Preview panels (for open programs) have been updated, and follow the rounded edge design introduced by the OS, instead of the boxy look from before.

Fixes

Taskbar

• We fixed an issue where if you drag app icons on the Taskbar to rearrange them, it was making the apps launch or minimize when you released the icon.
• Using a long press with touch on an app icon in the Taskbar to open the jump list should now work.
• After right-clicking the Start icon in the Taskbar, clicking somewhere else should now dismiss the menu more reliably.
• Shift + Right-click on an app icon in the Taskbar will now bring up the window menu like it used to and not the jump list.
• We’ve addressed an issue that was making your mouse move slowly when hovering over the Taskbar previews.
• We’ve included the fix for an issue when using multiple Desktops where an app icon in the taskbar might give the appearance of multiple windows being open when that wasn’t the case on that Desktop.
• When using the Amharic IME you should no longer see an unexpected X next to the IME icon in the taskbar.
• The issue where if you click on the input indicator on the Taskbar and it would unexpectedly highlighted Quick Settings has been fixed.
• When you hover over Task View, the preview flyout for your Desktops will no longer pop back up after using Esc to dismiss them.
• We made a fix to address an issue where explorer.exe might crash after hovering over the Task View icon in the Taskbar.
• We fixed an issue where the selected date in the calendar flyout was out of sync with the date in the Taskbar.
• We made an update to address a scenario resulting in some Insiders not seeing the lunar calendar text in the calendar flyout when enabled in Settings.
• This flight addressed an issue that could unexpectedly make the Taskbar background transparent.
• Right-clicking the focus assist icon in the taskbar should now show a context menu.
• The issue from the previous flight where icons in the taskbar corner were getting crushed against the top of the Taskbar has been addressed.
• The tooltip for the location in use icon in the Taskbar should no longer appear blank sometimes.

Settings

• We fixed an issue making Settings crash on launch periodically.
• Using the volume mixer sliders in Sound Settings should be more responsive now, as well as the page responsiveness as a whole.
• We fixed an issue resulting in Disk and Volumes Settings’ change size option being clipped.
• There was a non-functional verify link under Backup Settings – this has been fixed.
• The Power and Battery Settings page should no longer be reporting that battery saver is engaged in it’s not.
• The Power and Battery Settings page should also now not crash when launched from Quick Settings.
• We fixed a grammatical error in the Sign-in Settings text.
• The “I forgot my PIN” link was unexpectedly missing in Sign-in Settings when a PIN was set up and has now been returned.
• The issue where the Move option under Apps & Features in Settings wasn’t working reliably should be addressed in this build.
• We’ve mitigated a problem where some of the colors in Settings weren’t updating after switching between dark and light mode, leaving unreadable text.
• We’ve done some work to help improve the performance of Settings when switching between light and dark mode.
• We addressed an issue where some of the elements of the Themes page in Settings would end up crowded together when the window size was small.
• We resolved an issue where the Pen menu toggle under Taskbar Settings was not in sync with the actual state of the feature.
• Changes made to “Dismiss notification after this amount of time” in Accessibility Settings should now persist.
• Some of the icons you could enable in Taskbar Settings were erroneously labeled Windows Explorer even though that’s not what they were – this should now be fixed.
• The Connect text in Quick Settings has been updated to say Cast.

File Explorer

• Clicking the command bar button twice should now close any dropdown that appeared.
• The new command bar should now appear when “Open folders in a separate process” is enabled under File Explorer Options > View.
• This build addresses an issue where right clicking a file and selecting Open With > Choose another app might launch the file in the default app rather than opening the Open With dialog.
• Fixed an issue the desktop and File Explorer context menu would stop launching.

Search

• We fixed an issue where the option to verify your account in Search wasn’t working.
• Hovering over the Search icon on a secondary monitor will now show the flyout on the correct monitor.
• Search should now work if you open Start and start typing after having gone to the apps list and back.

Widgets

• When using the Outlook client with a Microsoft account, Calendar, and To Do updates should sync faster down to the widgets.
• We addressed an issue where if you added multiple widgets quickly from the widgets settings, it could result in some of the widgets not being visible on the board.
• We fixed a bug where widgets could all become stuck in a loading state (blank squares in the window).
• The traffic widget should now follow the Windows mode (light or dark).
• The title of the sports widget should no longer mismatch with the content of the widget.

Other

• This build addresses an issue where ALT + Tab was getting stuck open sometimes after you released the keys and had to be manually dismissed.
• We made a fix for an issue where Narrator focus wasn’t ending up on the emoji panel after using the keyboard shortcut to open it.
• Magnifier’s lens view has been updated so the lens now has rounded corners.
• We found an issue that was noticeably impacting Start launch reliability for some Insiders, and have addressed it with this flight.
• We’ve updated the “Most Used” text in the Start menu’s app list so it should no longer be getting clipped.
• Using the semantic zoom in Start’s app list should no longer result in the list being pushed down and to the right off the edge of the window.
• We fixed an issue where if you pressed WIN + Z you would need to press Tab before you could use the arrow key to navigate through the snap layouts.
• We addressed an issue where an acrylic area could get left on the screen after repeatedly snapping and unsnapping a window with touch.
• We’ve done some work to mitigate an unexpected flash when moving a snapped window with touch.
• We made a change to help window borders have a little more contrast when “Show accent color on title bars and windows borders” was turned off.

Known Issues

The release notes for the build mentions Microsoft is working on improving the Win + X menu, to add support for shortcuts like Win + X M to open the Device Manager.

For the full list of known issues in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22000.71, head to the official announcement. Since the list is massive, I will mention a few important ones here. The Taskbar flickers when opening, closing or switching between input methods, I experienced this issue with File Explorer. The Reset this PC and Go back buttons in Settings > System > Recovery are not working. You'll have to access the Windows Recovery's Troubleshoot screen to reset the system.

If you have turned off Focus Assist, and click the Date and Time button on the Taskbar, File Explorer will crash. To fix this, you need to enable Focus Assist. This disables all notification popups, but you can access them from the notification center.  A bug is causing Explorer to crash in a loop, this only affects Turkish language users, when their laptop battery is at 100%.

I also observed a couple of bugs that weren't mentioned on that page. The operating system still has issues drawing the context menu, where it appears partially. File Explorer is still a bit laggy, it takes a split-second longer than normal to open folders.

The acrylic context menu, which was supposed to be in Explorer, doesn't work for me, so I still have the old design even after rebooting the virtual machine several times.

However, the menu appears to work, albeit partially, after right-clicking several times. You may have noticed from my screenshots that the Toolbar has the acrylic effect.

The previous version of the OS had the Build number 22000.65. The Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22000.71 is being delivered as a cumulative update with KB5004252.

During Windows 11's June 2021 event, Microsoft confirmed that Android apps are coming to Windows 11 and users will be able to try mobile apps on the desktop operating system.

With Windows 11, Microsoft is bringing Amazon Appstore to its Microsoft Store.

Within the redesigned app store, users will be given access to an extensive catalog of Android apps, which will be powered by Amazon's Appstore. Amazon has already confirmed that its Appstore will support Android App Bundles (AAB), the next-generation Android app standard format that will eventually replace the current APK format.

As a result, Windows 11 users can access nearly all popular Android apps directly from the native Microsoft Store.

How Android apps work on Windows 11

To help users run their favourite Android apps on Windows 11, Microsoft says it will use Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA), which is similar to Linux Subsystem for Linux (WSL).

Windows 11 will also ship with a new virtual machine technology to address compatibility issues with Android Open Source Project (AOSP), which is an open-source software stack.

Thanks to Android Open Source Project (AOSP), Windows 11 doesn't require Google Play Services support and most apps will work fine on the desktop operating system.

Android apps compatibility

During the event, Microsoft officials confirmed Android apps will work on Intel, AMD and Qualcomm (ARM) devices. 

Not much is known about how Microsoft will support Android apps on AMD systems but the company has already confirmed that they will use Intel's Bridge Technology feature on all Intel PCs.

Intel Bridge Technology is a run-time post compiler to enable applications that are not compiled to run natively on x86-based devices—such as Android-based mobile applications—to run on those devices. Intel believes it is important to provide this capability and has designed Intel Bridge technology to support all x86 platforms.

Intel's Bridge technology is not restricted to Intel CPUs, so it can be used to run mobile apps on AMD CPUs, but Microsoft says Bridge tech is not necessary for AMD or ARM CPUs.

Sideloading Android apps

The Amazon Appstore is not as big as its competition and not all apps are available, but Microsoft says users can easily sideload the APK files.

An engineer at Microsoft recently confirmed on Twitter that users can sideload apps onto Windows 11, but it's unclear how the sideload process will work.

When can you try Android apps on PC?

Microsoft is currently planning to launch the first preview of Android apps later this year and more details will be shared soon

Microsoft released the first preview build of Windows 10 21H2 this week, but it is not being offered to everyone at this time. However, for those who want to test the new build, a way has been discovered that allows anyone to upgrade to the new feature update now.

On Thursday, Microsoft released the first Windows 10 21H2 preview build. While it is not a very large release, it does have a few new security features that better protect your account and Wifi connection.

However, unlike other releases of new feature updates preview builds, Microsoft is only making it available via Windows Update to Insiders who were moved to the 'Release' channel for not meeting Windows 11's hardware requirements.

This means that Windows Insiders can't just switch to the Release channel and be offered the new Windows 10 21H2 update as we could in the past.

The good news is that Windows sleuth Albacore has shared a method that allows users running Windows 10 2004, Windows 10 20H2, and Windows 10 21H1 to upgrade their device to Windows 10 21H2 quickly.

Manually installing the enablement package

The Windows 10 21H2 feature update is being rolled out to Insiders as an enablement package for Windows 10 2004, Windows 10 20H2, and Windows 10 21H1, allowing these versions to update quickly with a single reboot.

This enablement package acts as a "master switch" that enables the dormant features already present in Windows 10 2004/20H2/21H1 and upgrades the Windows version and build number.

For Windows Insiders not being offered the Windows 10 21H2 package, it is possible to upgrade to the new feature update by downloading the appropriate enablement package and manually installing it.

To manually upgrade your Windows 10 Insider device to Windows 10 21H2, please follow these steps:

1. Switch to the 'Release' channel in your Windows Insider settings.
2. Download the appropriate enablement package for your version of Windows to the Downloads folder. It will be the 64-bit version for most people, but you can confirm if you are 32-bit, 64-bit, or running ARM using these instructions.
   
   Albacore has shared Windows 10 21H2 enablement packages for 64-bit systems (Windows10.0-KB5003791-x64.cab), 32-bit systems (Windows10.0-KB5003791-x86.cab), and ARM systems (Windows10.0-KB5003791-arm64.cab).
3. Open a Windows 10 Elevated Command Prompt and type cd %userprofile%\downloads and press enter on your keyboard. You will now be in your Downloads folder.
4. Now type DISM /online /add-package /packagepath:[name of file you downloaded] and press enter on your keyboard. For example, 64-bit users would enter DISM /online /add-package /packagepath:Windows10.0-KB5003791-x64.cab.

   

   The command will now install the enablement package on your computer, and when finished, prompt you to restart your computer.
5. After rebooting your computer, you can click on the Start button, and type winver, and press enter to see your new version of Windows 10, which should now say Version 21H2 Build 19044.1147, as shown below.

Upgraded to Windows 10 Version 21H2 Build 19044.1147

6. You can now close the About Windows dialog and the command prompt.

Now that you are upgraded to Windows 10 21H2, you will continue to receive new updates for the operating system as they become available.

Teams 2.0 removes the address bar and main menu to look more like a native app

Ahead of the release of Windows 11 later this year, Microsoft is working on a redesigned version of Microsoft Teams for the next version of its operating system that will also work on Windows 10.

First announced during the software giant's Windows 11 event, the major update to its video conferencing software is currently being referred to as Microsoft Teams 2.0.

The biggest difference between the existing Teams client and this upcoming one is the fact that Microsoft Teams 2.0 is based on Edge WebView2 instead of Electron which will allow Microsoft to use embedded web technologies such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript along with the Chromium rendering engine.

At the same time, Teams 2.0 will no longer use Angular and will instead now use the open source front-end JavaScript library React.js.

Microsoft Teams 2.0

As reported by Windows Latest, Microsoft's new Teams client is built around Microsoft Teams for the web though it doesn't look that different from the existing app or website. However, since it uses Edge WebView2, Teams 2.0 no longer has an address bar and users will be able to run the app in a separate window as they could with the old app.

The browser's extension and main menu have also been removed in the new client to give it more of a native app-like experience though traces of Microsoft Edge can still be found when right-clicking anywhere in the app.

Based on Windows Latest's tests of Teams 2.0 in a preview version of Windows 11, the news outlet observed that the app is now significantly faster on desktop and runs better on low-end devices. Microsoft Teams 2.0 also uses less memory and performance is slightly better as well. The app now launches instantly and Teams users will no longer get stuck on the loading screen as a result of Microsoft Edge background processes and the inclusion of WebView2.

Unlike the old client, the Teams 2.0 app window can now be resized and the interface scales alongside it automatically. Microsoft has also added integrations with native notifications and other Windows 10 features. While many features are now available in the new client, advanced controls are still missing which limits the functionality of Together Mode and prevents users from changing Teams' noise cancellation features.

Microsoft Teams 2.0 already looks to be a welcome upgrade though Microsoft plans to enable support for additional features such as multiple accounts and improved PowerPoint integration in the coming weeks before officially announcing its new Teams experience.

Via Windows Latest

Microsoft has officially announced the Windows 10 21H2 feature update (build 19044.1147) and released the first preview build to Insiders for testing.

While Windows 11 is the hot topic right now, most enterprise users will likely be staying with Windows 10 until the bugs are worked out of the new operating system.

Microsoft will continue to release feature updates, such as Windows 10 21H2, through October 2025 to allow businesses and consumers time to switch to Windows 11.

As most of the development for new features is going into Windows 11, Microsoft will be releasing limited features for Windows 10 going forward.

"Windows 10, version 21H2 will have a scoped set of features focused on productivity and security, prioritized to meet our customers’ needs based on feedback," Microsoft's John Cable, Vice President, Program Management, Windows Servicing and Delivery, explained in a blog post tonight.

However, for the initial test of Windows 10 21H2, Microsoft is only making the new feature update available to Windows Insiders who were moved from the 'Beta' channel to the 'Release' because their PC did not meet the system requirements for Windows 11.

Even for these users, Microsoft is only making it available to 'Seekers,' or those who manually check for updates in Windows Update.

After installing the update, Windows 10 will be upgraded to build 19044.1147.

Windows 10 21H2 is a Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) release, which means it will receive support for 30 months after it is released.

What's coming in Windows 10 21H2

Windows 10 21H2 is not a big release compared to Windows 11 but will include some new productivity and business features.

With this release, Microsoft is adding support for the WPA3 H2E (Hash-to-Element) protocol, which provides increased security against side-channel attacks and reduces the risks of future side-channel attacks.

Windows 10 21H2 also brings GPU compute, the #1 most requested feature, to the Windows Subsystem for Linux and Azure IoT Edge for Linux on Windows.

This feature allows you to use your installed graphics card to "to accelerate math-heavy workloads and uses its parallel processing to complete the required calculations faster, in many cases, than utilizing only a CPU.

To use this feature, you will need Hyper-V and WSL2 installed.

Finally, this feature update improves Windows Hello for Business by supporting passwordless deployment models for easy rollouts of new machines predefined security policies.

Microsoft states that some of these features are not currently enabled in Windows 10 21H2 and will be available in future builds.

AMD's first graphics driver of July, Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.7.1, landed today with optimizations for EA's latest racer, the RX 6600M and 6700M mobile GPUs, as well as several bug fixes.

The Codemasters-developed racer F1 2021, the first game to arrive from the company after the EA acquisition, launched today, and those with a graphics card from the red team will want to upgrade to this driver to get the best performance.

While running the new 21.7.1 driver and compared to the previous 21.6.2 release, F1 2021 can see performance gains of up to 6% when raytracing is enabled, and up to an impressive 26% performance increase when it is disabled. The company's test bench for getting these results were running a Radeon RX 6800 XT GPU paired with a Ryzen 9 5900X CPU, while the game settings were cranked up to ultra at 4K resolution.

Here are the included bug fixes:

• An Oculus service error may be received on Radeon RX 5000 & 6000 series graphics products which prevents the Oculus Link setup software from running.
• Lighting corruption may be experienced in Apex Legends™ when Radeon™ Boost is enabled.
• Some users may experience elevated memory usage by AMD User Experience Program.
• A driver mismatch error may appear when two versions of Radeon software (Windows Store & AMD Support versions) are installed on your system.
• Some users may experience higher than expected memory utilization when running 3DMark Time Spy™.
• While playing Carrion™, some users may experience image corruption when Anisotropic Filtering is enabled.

The known issues list comes next:

• Game Compatibility advisor in Radeon™ Software Experience may incorrectly advise some users their CPU and/or GPU do not meet the minimum requirements to play some games.
• Resident Evil Village™ may experience an intermittent application hang or TDR on AMD Radeon VII graphics products in the first mission of the game.
• Enhanced Sync may cause a black screen to occur when enabled on some games and system configurations. Any users who may be experiencing issues with Enhanced Sync enabled should disable it as a temporary workaround.
• Connecting two displays with large differences in resolution/refresh rates may cause flickering on Radeon RX Vega series graphics products.
• Radeon performance metrics and logging features may intermittently report extremely high and incorrect memory clock values.
• If Ryzen Master is not detected in Adrenalin software after installation, a system restart may be required.
• If Blue or Black screen is observed in mobile systems, temporarily disable Enhanced sign-in.
• A Blue or Black screen may be observed after updating to the latest Radeon Software. A workaround is to disable core isolation.
• Lower than expected performance may be observed on select AMD Athlon™ mobile systems.

The Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 21.7.1 driver is available for download via the optional section in the Radeon Software app on Windows. Standalone download links can be found on the driver's official release notes page here.

It’s a new week, which means it’s time for a Windows 11 Dev channel build. Today’s build – the third update that is rolling out to Windows 11 – bumps up the build number of the OS to 22000.71 and brings with it a bunch of improvements. These include a refreshed right-click context menu that adheres to the Windows 11 design, bringing acrylic blur.

As users would notice, unlike the Windows 10 Dev channel builds, Windows 11 releases are cumulative updates. This is because the OS is almost done in terms of the under-the-hood code is concerned, and it will only be serviced through cumulative updates. The other reason that this is possible with Windows 11 is that the firm has decoupled the underlying bits of the OS from the UI stack, allowing them to update the UI elements via Feature Experience Packs.

In addition to the changes to the context menu design, the build also adds a new Entertainment widget to the widgets pane with a link to the Microsoft Store. However, features such as the ability to install and run Android apps on Windows 11 are yet to be added to these builds. There are, as usual, a bunch of fixes and general improvements that have been made based on user feedback.

Here is the complete list of new features in this build:

• We’re introducing a new entertainment widget! The entertainment widget allows you to see new and featured movie titles available in the Microsoft Store. Selecting a movie will direct you to the Microsoft Store to see more information about that title. Just open widgets and click or tap on the “Add widgets” button and choose the entertainment widget.

• The new context menus and other right-click menus have been updated to use acrylic material.

• We are testing the usability of a SplitButton for making new folders and files in the File Explorer command bar.
• The Taskbar previews (when you mouse-over open apps on the Taskbar) have been updated to reflect the new visual design of Windows 11.

As mentioned, there are a bunch of fixes being made with this build. These include fixes to taskbar behavior across multiple monitors, Settings app fixes, and other improvements to enhance the reliability of the OS.

Here is the complete list of fixes:

• Taskbar:
  • We fixed an issue where if you drag app icons on the Taskbar to rearrange them, it was making the apps launch or minimize when you released the icon.
  • Using a long press with touch on an app icon in the Taskbar to open the jump list should now work.
  • After right-clicking the Start icon in the Taskbar, clicking somewhere else should now dismiss the menu more reliably.
  • Shift + Right-click on an app icon in the Taskbar will now bring up the window menu like it used to and not the jump list.
  • We’ve addressed an issue that was making your mouse move slowly when hovering over the Taskbar previews.
  • We’ve included the fix for an issue when using multiple Desktops where an app icon in the taskbar might give the appearance of multiple windows being open when that wasn’t the case on that Desktop.
  • When using the Amharic IME you should no longer see an unexpected X next to the IME icon in the taskbar.
  • The issue where if you click on the input indicator on the Taskbar and it would unexpectedly highlighted Quick Settings has been fixed.
  • When you hover over Task View, the preview flyout for your Desktops will no longer pop back up after using Esc to dismiss them.
  • We made a fix to address an issue where explorer.exe might crash after hovering over the Task View icon in the Taskbar.
  • We fixed an issue where the selected date in the calendar flyout was out of sync with the date in the Taskbar.
  • We made an update to address a scenario resulting in some Insiders not seeing the lunar calendar text in the calendar flyout when enabled in Settings.
  • This flight addressed an issue that could unexpectedly make the Taskbar background transparent.
  • Right-clicking the focus assist icon in the taskbar should now show a context menu.
  • The issue from the previous flight where icons in the taskbar corner were getting crushed against the top of the Taskbar has been addressed.
  • The tooltip for the location in use icon in the Taskbar should no longer appear blank sometimes.
• Settings:
  • We fixed an issue making Settings crash on launch periodically.
  • Using the volume mixer sliders in Sound Settings should be more responsive now, as well as the page responsiveness as a whole.
  • We fixed an issue resulting in Disk and Volumes Settings’ change size option being clipped.
  • There was a non-functional verify link under Backup Settings – this has been fixed.
  • The Power and Battery Settings page should no longer be reporting that battery saver is engaged in it’s not.
  • The Power and Battery Settings page should also now not crash when launched from Quick Settings.
  • We fixed a grammatical error in the Sign-in Settings text.
  • The “I forgot my PIN” link was unexpectedly missing in Sign-in Settings when a PIN was set up and has now been returned.
  • The issue where the Move option under Apps & Features in Settings wasn’t working reliably should be addressed in this build.
  • We’ve mitigated a problem where some of the colors in Settings weren’t updating after switching between dark and light mode, leaving unreadable text.
  • We’ve done some work to help improve the performance of Settings when switching between light and dark mode.
  • We addressed an issue where some of the elements of the Themes page in Settings would end up crowded together when the window size was small.
  • We resolved an issue where the Pen menu toggle under Taskbar Settings was not in sync with the actual state of the feature.
  • Changes made to “Dismiss notification after this amount of time” in Accessibility Settings should now persist.
  • Some of the icons you could enable in Taskbar Settings were erroneously labeled Windows Explorer even though that’s not what they were – this should now be fixed.
  • The Connect text in Quick Settings has been updated to say Cast.
• File Explorer:
  • Clicking the command bar button twice should now close any dropdown that appeared.
  • The new command bar should now appear when “Open folders in a separate process” is enabled under File Explorer Options > View.
  • This build addresses an issue where right clicking a file and selecting Open With > Choose another app might launch the file in the default app rather than opening the Open With dialog.
  • Fixed an issue the desktop and File Explorer context menu would stop launching.
• Search:
  • We fixed an issue where the option to verify your account in Search wasn’t working.
  • Hovering over the Search icon on a secondary monitor will now show the flyout on the correct monitor.
  • Search should now work if you open Start and start typing after having gone to the apps list and back.
• Widgets:
  • When using the Outlook client with a Microsoft account, Calendar, and To Do updates should sync faster down to the widgets.
  • We addressed an issue where if you added multiple widgets quickly from the widgets settings, it could result in some of the widgets not being visible on the board.
  • We fixed a bug where widgets could all become stuck in a loading state (blank squares in the window).
  • The traffic widget should now follow the Windows mode (light or dark).
  • The title of the sports widget should no longer mismatch with the content of the widget.
• Other:
  • This build addresses an issue where ALT + Tab was getting stuck open sometimes after you released the keys and had to be manually dismissed.
  • We made a fix for an issue where Narrator focus wasn’t ending up on the emoji panel after using the keyboard shortcut to open it.
  • Magnifier’s lens view has been updated so the lens now has rounded corners.
  • We found an issue that was noticeably impacting Start launch reliability for some Insiders, and have addressed it with this flight.
  • We’ve updated the “Most Used” text in the Start menu’s app list so it should no longer be getting clipped.
  • Using the semantic zoom in Start’s app list should no longer result in the list being pushed down and to the right off the edge of the window.
  • We fixed an issue where if you pressed WIN + Z you would need to press Tab before you could use the arrow key to navigate through the snap layouts.
  • We addressed an issue where an acrylic area could get left on the screen after repeatedly snapping and unsnapping a window with touch.
  • We’ve done some work to mitigate an unexpected flash when moving a snapped window with touch.
  • We made a change to help window borders have a little more contrast when “Show accent color on title bars and windows borders” was turned off.

There are also a bunch of known issues that the firm has listed - ones that users must be aware of when installing the build. Here are all the known issues:

• [REMINDER] When upgrading to Windows 11 from Windows 10 or when installing an update to Windows 11, some features may be deprecated or removed. See details here.
• Start:
  • In some cases, you might be unable to enter text when using Search from Start or the Taskbar. If you experience the issue, press WIN + R on the keyboard to launch the Run dialog box, then close it.
  • Based on feedback, we are working on adding access keys to WIN + X so that you can do things like “WIN + X M” to launch Device Manager. Insiders may see this functionality in this build, however we are currently investigating an issue in which sometimes the option is unexpectedly unavailable.
• Taskbar:
  • There is an issue in this build where Explorer.exe will crash when the date and time button on the Taskbar is clicked to access new notifications with Focus Assist turned off. The workaround for this is to enable Focus assist to priority or alarms mode. Note that when focus assist is turned on, notification popups won’t appear, but they will be in the notification center when opened.
  • The Taskbar will sometimes flicker when switching input methods.
  • Taskbar previews may draw partially offscreen.
• Settings:
  • When launching the Settings app, a brief green flash may appear.
  • When using Quick Settings to modify Accessibility settings, the settings UI may not save the selected state.
  • The button to rename your PC doesn’t work in this build. If needed, this can be done using sysdm.cpl.
  • Settings will crash when clicking “Facial recognition (Windows Hello)” under Sign-in Settings if Windows Hello is already set up.
  • Reset this PC and Go back buttons in Settings > System > Recovery do not function. Reset and roll back can be accessed from the Windows Recovery Environment by selecting System > Recovery > Advanced startup, and pressing Restart now. Once in Windows Recovery, choose Troubleshoot.
    • Choose Reset this PC to perform a reset.
    • Choose Advanced options > Uninstall Updates > Uninstall latest feature update to perform a rollback.
• File Explorer:
  • Explorer.exe crashes in a loop for Insiders using the Turkish display language when battery charge is at 100%.
  • When right clicking the desktop or File Explorer, the resulting context menu and submenus may appear partially off screen.
  • Clicking a desktop icon or context menu entry may result in the wrong item being selected.
• Search:
  • After clicking the Search icon on the Taskbar, the Search panel may not open. If this occurs, restart the “Windows Explorer” process, and open the search panel again.
  • When you hover your mouse over the Search icon on the Taskbar, recent searches may not be displayed. To work around the issue, restart your PC.
  • Search panel might appear as black and not display any content below the search box.
• Widgets:
  • Widgets board may appear empty. To work around the issue, you can sign out and then sign back in again.
  • Launching links from the widgets board may not invoke apps to the foreground.
  • Widgets may be displayed in the wrong size on external monitors. If you encounter this, you can launch the widgets via touch or WIN + W shortcut on your actual PC display first and then launch on your secondary monitors.
• Store:
  • The install button might not be functional yet in some limited scenarios.
  • Rating and reviews are not available for some apps.
• Windows Security:
  • Device Security is unexpectedly saying “Standard hardware security not supported” for Insiders with supported hardware.
  • “Automatic sample submission” is unexpectedly turned off when you restart your PC.
• Localization:
  • There is an issue where some Insiders may be some missing translations from their user experience for a small subset of languages running the latest Insider Preview builds. To confirm if you have been impacted, please visit this Answers forum post and follow the steps for remediation.

As usual, these builds will be made available to users running Dev channel builds via Windows Update. The firm is yet to release any ISOs yet, so those who want to perform a clean install of Windows 11 might have to wait longer. As for Beta channel users that want to test the next generation of Windows, the wait might be a bit longer.