Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.1028 and Build 22623.1028 (KB5021866) to the Beta Channel.

  • Build 22623.1028= New features rolling out.
  • Build 22621.1028 = New features off by default.

December 2022 Bug Bash: Insiders in the Dev and Beta Channels will have seen quests light up in the Feedback Hub covering various scenarios we’re looking for feedback on. Take the opportunity to try out some new features and let us know how things are going! The Bug Bash will be running from now through to 11:59pm PST December 12th. Insiders who participate (by filing feedback or completing quests on the latest builds for their channel) will receive a badge in the Feedback Hub once the Bug Bash is over.

REMINDER: Insiders who were previously on Build 22622 will automatically get moved to Build 22623 via an enablement package. The enablement package artificially increments the build number for the update with new features getting rolled out and turned on to make it easier to differentiate from devices with the update with features off by default. This approach is being used for the Beta Channel only and is not indicative of any changes or plans for final feature rollouts.

Insiders who landed in the group with new features turned off by default (Build 22621.xxxx) can check for updates and choose to install the update that will have features rolling out (Build 22623.xxx).

Fixes in Build 22623.1028

[General]

  • Made another fix to address explorer.exe crashing repeatedly in safe mode.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

  • Fixed an issue where, with the system tray design updates, auto-hiding the taskbar would stop working after you had interacted with the hidden icons flyout.
  • Made a small refinement for tablet-optimized taskbar users to make it a bit easier to expand the taskbar without invoking the Start menu.
  • Fixed an issue which could lead to the taskbar jump lists and preview thumbnails not appearing in the correct position for Insiders with 2-in-1 PCs.
  • Improved the transition animation when switching between collapsed and expanded views of the tablet-optimized taskbar.
  • The tablet-optimized taskbar should collapse more reliably now after launching an app from the Start menu.
  • Fixed an explorer.exe crash when using Alt + F4 with the show hidden icons flyout in the system tray open.
  • Updated the battery icon’s tooltip to let you know if your device is charging slowly.
  • Fixed an issue causing the top half of the media controls in Quick Settings to be missing sometimes.
  • Fixed a GDI handle leak in recent builds related to receiving certain types of notifications. This could cause UI issues or explorer.exe crashes for Insiders who receive a lot of notifications.
  • Fixed an issue that was causing the NVIDIA icon in the system tray to show empty notifications.

[Search]

  • Fixed an issue causing search to not work in the previous flight for Insiders with Arm64 PCs.

[Settings]

  • Fixed an issue where the sleep recommendation on the Energy Recommendations page and Battery & Power page were sometimes inconsistent.

[Task Manager]

  • Task Manager colors in light and dark should display correctly now for people with their mode set to Custom.

Fixes for BOTH Build 22621.1028 & Build 22623.1028

  • We fixed an issue that affected some games and applications. This issue was related to GPU performance debugging features. This lowered the expected game performance.

Known issues

[General]

[Taskbar & System Tray]

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

[Task Manager]

  • [NEW] When using the search box at the top of Task Manager, Task Manager may become unresponsive.
  • Filtering by publisher name does not match correctly on the Processes page.
  • Some services may not show in the Services page after filtering is applied.
  • If a new process is starting while a filter is set, then that process may appear for a split second in the filtered list.
  • Some dialogs may not render in the correct theme when applied from Task Manager Settings page.
  • The data content area of the Processes page may flash once when theme changes are applied in the Task Manager Settings page.
  • The Startup apps page in Task manager does not list any apps for some Insiders. If you are impacted, please use Settings > Apps > Startup for the time being.

About the Beta Channel

The Beta Channel will be the place we preview experiences that are closer to what we will ship to our general customers. Because the Dev and Beta Channels represent parallel development paths from our engineers, there may be cases where features and experiences show up in the Beta Channel first. However, this does not mean every feature we try out in the Beta Channel will ship. We encourage Insiders to read this blog post that outlines the ways we’ll try things out with Insiders in both the Dev and Beta Channels.

Important Insider Links

Thanks,
Amanda & Brandon

Source: Windows Blog