Today, we’re announcing the deprecation of the CSS -ms-high-contrast media query and -ms-high-contrast-adjust property, in favor of the standard-based forced colors feature that we implemented in Chromium-based browsers in 2020.

Contrast themes is a very important accessibility feature of Windows, which makes text more visible and easier to read. In the past, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge with the EdgeHTML engine, made it possible for websites to honor a user’s contrast theme setting by using the -ms-high-contrast and -ms-high-contrast-adjust CSS features. In 2020, we went one step further and worked with Chromium to standardize support for contrast themes on the web, so that it doesn’t only work in Edge, but also in any engine that implements support for the feature. We renamed the feature to forced colors. Today, forced colors support is supported in Chromium-based browsers as well as Firefox.

To learn more about the forced colors feature, check out the following links:

• The forced-colors media query can be used to detect when the browser is in forced colors mode. This mode matches the Windows contrast theme feature, but there could potentially be other similar forced colors modes in other operating systems in the future.
• The forced-color-adjust property controls whether the user agent’s system colors override should be applied to an element and its descendants while in forced colors mode.
• System color keywords can be used to apply colors in the user’s color scheme.
• Our 2020 announcement: Styling for Windows high contrast with new standards for forced colors.

Deprecating the legacy ms-prefixed CSS features

When we shipped the forced colors feature in Chromium-based Edge for the first time, we also wanted the websites that used the legacy CSS features from Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge with the EdgeHTML engine to keep working. So, we maintained support for the -ms-high-contrast media query, and the -ms-high-contrast-adjust property.

Today, we’re announcing our deprecation process for these CSS features. Continue reading to learn what to expect, and how to migrate to the new properties.

Deprecation period

To reduce interoperability issues and to gather feedback, we plan to slowly deprecate the legacy -ms-high-contrast media query and -ms-high-contrast-adjust property in Microsoft Edge.

We are planning to completely disable the legacy implementation by Edge 138, but this plan might change depending on the feedback that we receive during this deprecation trial.

Testing the deprecation early

We’re introducing a way for you to check that your new forced color styles work correctly before we completely disable the legacy high-contrast implementation. To check your styles, you can disable the legacy implementation locally in Microsoft Edge:

• Open a new window or tab.
• Go to edge://flags/#edge-deprecate-ms-high-contrast in that tab.
• Enable the Deprecate ‘-ms-high-contrast’ and ‘-ms-high-contrast-adjust’ flag, and then restart Microsoft Edge.

DevTools warning

As part of the deprecation process, Microsoft Edge will also display a warning in the DevTools Console tool for any sites that use the legacy properties in their stylesheets starting with Edge version 126.

Origin trials

Finally, to make it possible for you to phase out the legacy implementation and keep your website functioning well after it’s been deprecated, we’re beginning an Origin Trial in Edge 132. See Microsoft Edge Origin Trials for more details.

In the time leading up to the deprecation, Microsoft Edge will be reaching out to accessibility testers and sites with known usage of the legacy properties to prevent breakages when the deprecation happens.

How to update your styles to the new forced colors standard

If your site uses the legacy -ms-high-contrast media query and -ms-high-contrast-adjust property to modify its styles when Windows is set to a contrast theme, we recommend that you adopt the new forced colors mode standard before the legacy properties are deprecated.

The table below shows how the legacy properties can be transferred to the new standards:

With Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge with the EdgeHTML engine	With Microsoft Edge and other browsers that support forced colors
@media (-ms-high-contrast: active) {}	@media (forced-colors: active) {}
@media (-ms-high-contrast: black-on-white) {}	@media (forced-colors: active) and (prefers-color-scheme: light) {} Note: this is not exactly equal to the legacy black-on-white media query, which matched only specific default contrast themes. The new implementation will observe the luminosity of the user’s background color to determine whether prefers-color-scheme: light/dark is appropriate to match. In Chromium, a forced background with a luminosity of <0.33 will be a match for dark color schemes; otherwise, prefers-color-color-scheme: light will match.
@media (-ms-high-contrast: white-on-black) {}	@media (forced-colors: active) and (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {} Same note as the previous row.
-ms-high-contrast-adjust: none;	forced-color-adjust: none;

Note that there are some key differences that you’ll need to account for, when migrating your contrast theme styles to the new forced colors mode standard. These include changes to the style cascade, system color keywords, and native form controls design. For more details, please see Styling for Windows high contrast with new standards for forced colors.

How to test forced colors mode on your website

To check how your website renders when using a contrast theme, you can either change your Windows settings to use a contrast theme or emulate it via DevTools.

To change your Windows settings:

• On Windows 10: go to Settings > Ease of Access > High contrast, and then click Turn on high contrast.
• On Windows 11: go to Settings > Accessibility > Contrast themes, select a theme from the Contrast themes drop-down menu, and then click Apply.

If you want to test your website on other operating systems, such as macOS or Linux, or if you don’t want to change your Windows theme, you can also emulate the forced colors mode by using Microsoft Edge DevTools:

• Open DevTools by pressing F12 or Ctrl+Shift+I.
• Open the Rendering tool by clicking More tools (+) > Rendering.
• Scroll down to Emulate CSS media feature forced-colors.
• Select forced-colors:active to emulate forced colors mode. Or select forced-colors:none to stop emulating forced colors.
• You can also choose a specific forced colors theme by using the Emulate CSS media feature prefers-color-scheme dropdown menu and setting its value to either prefers-color-scheme:light or prefers-color-scheme:dark.

By using the emulation feature in DevTools, you can preview how your website will look to users of different contrast themes and adjust your styles accordingly.

Backwards compatibility

If you’re required to support contrast themes for both Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge with the EdgeHTML engine, as well as newer versions of Microsoft Edge based on Chromium, we recommend using a combination of the legacy and standard properties for maximum compatibility.

For example, if your styles look like this:

Update these styles to with the following rules:

Let us know how things go

If you encounter any issues during your testing, please send us feedback in either of these two ways:

• To send us feedback directly from Microsoft Edge: go to Settings and more (…) > Help and feedback > Send feedback.
• Or, to report a problem directly with the Chromium implementation of the new forced colors mode standard, create a new issue using Chromium’s bug tracker.

Source: Windows Blog
—

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.3566 (KB5037002) to the Beta Channel.

REMINDER: All Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel will now be on the same build (Build 22635.xxxx) via an enablement package. For Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel who want to be the first to get features gradually rolled out to you, you can turn ON the toggle (shown in the image below) to get the latest updates as they are available via Settings > Windows Update. Over time, we will increase the rollouts of features to everyone with the toggle turned on. Should you keep this toggle off, new features will gradually be rolled out to your device over time once they are ready.

Going forward, we will document changes in Beta Channel builds in two buckets: new features, improvements, and fixes that are being gradually rolled out for Insiders who have turned on the toggle to get the latest updates as they are available and then new features, improvements, and fixes available to everyone in the Beta Channel.

Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out to the Beta Channel with toggle on*

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• In response to feedback, we are now showing the “show desktop” button by default and users can still manage this by right-clicking on the taskbar and choosing “Taskbar settings” (which opens Settings > Personalization > Taskbar directly).

[File Explorer] 

• Dragging-and-dropping files with your mouse between breadcrumbs in the File Explorer Address Bar that began rolling out with Build 22635.3420 is now available to all Insiders in the Beta Channel.

Fixes and Improvements for everyone in the Beta Channel

• New! This update improves the Widgets icons on the taskbar. They are no longer pixelated or fuzzy. This update also starts the rollout of a larger set of animated icons.
• New! This update affects Widgets on the lock screen. They are more reliable and have improved quality. This update also supports more visuals and a more customized experience for you.
• This update fixes an issue which was causing Settings to crash when copying out text in the last few flights.
• This update addresses an issue that affects universal printers. The system creates duplicate print queues for them.
• This update adds support for Arm64 .msi files using a Group Policy Object (GPO). You can now use the Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) to add Arm64 .msi files. You can also use a GPO to install these files on Arm64 machines.
• This update affects hypervisor-protected code integrity (HVCI). It accepts drivers that are now compatible.
• This update addresses an issue that occurs when you elevate from a normal user to an Administrator to run an application. When you use a PIN to sign in, the app will not run.
• This update affects Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL2). Intermittent name resolution fails in a split DNS setup.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the netstat -c It fails to perform effective port exhaustion troubleshooting.
• This update addresses an issue that affects a low latency network. The speed of data on the network degrades significantly. This occurs when you turn on timestamps for a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) connection.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Distributed Transaction Coordinator (DTC). A memory leak occurs when it retrieves mappings.
• This update includes quarterly changes to the Windows Kernel Vulnerable Driver Blocklist file, p7b. It adds to the list of drivers that are at risk for Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD) attacks.
• This update affects the touch keyboard. It makes the Japanese 106 keyboard layout appear as expected when you sign in.
• This update adds a new mobile device management (MDM) policy called “AllowScreenRecorder.” It affects the Snipping Tool. IT admins can use this policy to turn off screen recording in the app.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Bluetooth Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) hardware offload. A stop error occurs on PCs that support it.
• This update addresses a memory allocation issue in the Host Networking Service (HNS). The issue causes high memory consumption. It also affects service and pod deployment and scaling.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the container networking Address Resolution Protocol (ARP). It returns the wrong Virtual Subnet ID (VSID) for external ports.
• This update affects media allocations. It improves their memory granularity for some hardware setups. This lowers overcommitment. Also, performance is more efficient.
• This update addresses an issue that affects an accelerator backing store management path. A memory leak occurs that affects some devices.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Windows Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS). Its Post Authentication Actions (PAA) do not occur at the end of the grace period. Instead, they occur at restart.
• This update addresses a race condition that might stop a machine from starting up. This occurs when you set up a bootloader to start up multiple OSes.
• This update makes Country and Operator Settings Asset (COSA) profiles up to date for some mobile operators.
• This update addresses an issue that affects the Resilient File System (ReFS). A high load might make the system unresponsive. Also, signing in might be slow.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Settings. It stops responding when you dismiss a flyout menu.
• This update addresses an issue that affects Protected Process Light (PPL) protections. You can bypass them.

Known issues

[General]

• We are investigating an issue where Internet Information Services (IIS) and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) may not work after installing this update.

[Copilot in Windows*]

Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel who have the updated Copilot in Windows experience that introduces the ability for Copilot to act like a normal application window may see the following known issues:

• We are aware of reports by Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels that Copilot is auto-launching unexpectedly after restarting their PCs. We hope to have a fix for this issue soon and is unrelated to the auto-launching experience we tried out with Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels in early Februarywhich we stopped rolling out in March.
• Voice access does not work reliably with the updated Copilot in Windows experience that introduces the ability for Copilot to act like a normal application.
• Using Windows Ink to write in Copilot will not work with the updated Copilot in Windows experience.

[Widgets]

Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel who have the new position for the Widgets entry-point on left-aligned taskbars may see the following known issues:

• Swipe invocation for Widgets may not work if taskbar is center-aligned instead of left-aligned.
• Unpinning Widgets from the taskbar may not work if taskbar is center-aligned instead of left-aligned.
• The Widgets board is incorrectly positioned when Copilot is in side-by-side mode.
• Turning on/off Widgets in taskbar settings may refresh the taskbar.

About the Beta Channel

The Beta Channel is 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.

*Getting new features: For Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel who want to be the first to get features gradually rolled out to you, you can turn ON the toggle to get the latest updates as they are available via Settings > Windows Update. Over time, we will increase the rollouts of features to everyone with the toggle turned on. Should you keep this toggle off, new features will gradually be rolled out to your device over time once they are ready.

**Availability of Copilot in Windows: Copilot in Windows in preview is being rolled out gradually to Windows Insiders in select global markets. The initial markets for the Copilot in Windows preview include North America, United Kingdom and parts of Asia and South America. It is our intention to add additional markets over time.

Important Insider Links

• Want to learn how we made Windows 11? Check out the Inside Windows 11 website to hear and meet our makers from Engineering, Design and Research to share their insights and unique perspectives throughout this journey.
• You can check out our Windows Insider Program documentation here.
• Check out Flight Hub for a complete look at what build is in which Insider channel.

Thanks,
Amanda & Brandon

Source: Windows Blog
—

Manor Lords is out today on the Microsoft Store and via PC Game Pass (Game Preview).

A city-building and strategy game that focuses on sandbox gameplay and intimate historical details, the game delivers authentic building designs, workplaces and fashion. But if you’re not careful there can be a downside to the authenticity – your people will starve if you don’t adequately prepare for the colder months.

Head over to Xbox Wire for some tips and tricks on establishing yourself as a new Lord and keeping your settlers happy.

Source: Windows Blog
—

The web’s success is due, in big parts, to its ability to support text entry and form submissions. In other words, entering text on webpages is a fundamental part of the web, which we’ve all used.

But today’s modern web applications go even further and let you edit entire documents, spreadsheets, or presentations. Other applications let you write code, chat with friends, or write emails.

Even though the use cases are very diverse, the underlying technology hasn’t changed much since the early days of the web. the HTML input and textarea elements are still the primary ways to enter text, and they work great. For more advanced use cases, web developers often rely on the contenteditable HTML attribute, which lets you capture rich text input.

These text editing primitives are powerful, but building advanced experiences still comes with a lot of challenges and sometimes requires less than ideal workarounds.

On the Microsoft Edge team, we’re very familiar with these challenges and work hand in hand with our partners to make text editing on the web a better experience for everyone.

In this article, we’ll share a few important improvements that we’ve recently made to Microsoft Edge and to the web platform, which we’re very excited about:

• Rewriting text with AI.
• Writing with digital pens directly on web pages.
• Building text editors that support advanced text-editing surfaces.
• Improving clipboard access APIs.
• And controlling text prediction features.

Rewrite text with Copilot

Starting with version 124, Microsoft Edge’s AI Compose feature becomes available inline, within editable text areas of a document.

Select a section of text that’s displayed in an editable field and click the Copilot icon to start rewriting that section, by iterating through different AI-generated proposals.

You can change the tone, format, or length settings to your needs.

Being able to access Copilot directly within input fields can save time and avoid context switching. But we also realize that not all text editable surfaces on the web need this capability, so we’re also introducing the writingsuggestions HTML attribute to disable it. More on this attribute at the end of this article.

Write in any text field with a digital pen

Windows Ink allows you to write with a digital pen directly into an input field on Windows touch devices. This helps you stay in your workflow by reducing the need to switch back and forth between your keyboard and digital pen.

Microsoft Edge now also supports Windows Ink in places such as textarea elements, input elements, elements with the contenteditable attribute, or the browser address bar.

With Windows Ink support in Microsoft Edge, you can:

• Enter text by writing with a pen in, or near an input field.
• Delete text by scribbling over words to delete them.
• Add or remove spaces by drawing vertical lines in the text.
• Add line breaks by drawing horizontal lines.

Windows Ink can save a lot of time when interacting with webpages with a digital pen, and we would love to hear what you think and how we can improve the feature.

Note that you can toggle the feature in Microsoft Edge by going to edge://settings/content/HandwritingToText in a browser window.

Build rich text editors that support advanced input methods

Today’s text editing techniques on the web make it hard to truly decouple the text input logic from the text rendering logic. Custom text editors often must use a hidden element that uses the contenteditable attribute to capture text input events, and then render the text separately, which often comes with accessibility issues.

To help with this, we shipped the EditContext API in Chromium to make it possible to create custom web text editors that support advanced input methods and avoid hacky solutions. The API is available in Microsoft Edge starting with 121, and in other Chromium-based browsers.

With the EditContext API, web developers can receive text input events directly through the API surface, which removes unnecessary complexity in the code, enhances accessibility, and lets developers create their own custom view of the edited text. For example, you can use the API to render the edited text in a <canvas> element if you want.

The API supports text-editing UI surfaces that a user might be composing text with at the operating system level, such as IME composition dialogs. It even supports Windows Ink.

To learn more about the EditContext API, check out our previous announcement, and the API’s reference documentation on MDN.

Copy & paste HTML

Text editing webapps often encounter clipboard issues when copying and pasting HTML formatted content. Sometimes, the format is lost, other times, the clipboard payload is much more complicated than it should.

To address this, we introduced the unsanitized option to the navigator.clipboard.read() method, allowing web applications to choose when they want to receive the full HTML content, rather than a browser-sanitized version of the HTML.

To learn more about how to use the option, check out the Clipboard read() method documentation on MDN.

This API has already helped us improve Excel Online by addressing several top copy-paste issues affecting the app. We shipped the API in Chromium, making it available to all Chromium-based browsers, including Microsoft Edge starting with version 122.

Detect supported clipboard formats

When writing data to the system clipboard, by using the Clipboard API, web developers have no way of knowing if the data they’re trying to write is supported. This means that they must first attempt to write the data to the clipboard and then check whether the write operation failed due to an unsupported data format.

This leads to more complex code and unnecessary cost in terms of CPU cycles.

To fix this, we’ve added a new static method to the ClipboardItem interface called supports(), which makes it possible to detect supported clipboard formats before attempting to write data. For example, to test if the text/html mime-type is supported, use ClipboardItem.supports("text/html").

This new method shipped with Microsoft Edge 121, and is available in other Chromium browsers too.

Control the browser’s text prediction feature

As mentioned before, Microsoft Edge lets you rewrite text with the inline Compose feature. Edge can also predict text as you type, with the text prediction feature. Text prediction makes writing much faster by completing sentences.

However, we realize that not all text editing surfaces on the web want the text prediction or inline Compose features available at all times. So, starting with version 124, we’re introducing a new HTML attribute called writingsuggestions. The new attribute can be used to turn off text prediction and inline Compose on any editor element. To learn more, check out our explainer document, and the attribute’s specification.

The new writingsuggestions attribute is now part of the Chromium codebase, making it available to all Chromium-based browsers. However, because Microsoft Edge is currently the only browser to have access to these text prediction and rewriting features, the attribute doesn’t have any effect in other browsers.

---

Text editing on the web is more important than ever, and we can continue making the user and developer experience better with new APIs and browser features that address specific challenges. We hope the improvements described in this article are useful to you.

As always, we’d love to know what you think or if you spot any issues! To reach out, click the … button in the top-right corner of Microsoft Edge, and then go to Help and feedback > Send feedback.

Source: Windows Blog
—

We live in a world where technology is constantly evolving and improving our lives, and at the same time we need to be thoughtful and disciplined about minimizing the required resources and waste generated from these products. How can we balance the benefits of innovation with the environmental impact of our products? This fundamental question is at the forefront of sustainability, which aims to create and use products and services that meet our needs without compromising the future of the planet and its people.

As part of commemorating Earth Day, the Windows Sustainability Team is sharing details about features that can improve your device’s battery life and energy efficiency, while also helping reduce your device’s carbon footprint.

You’ll find information on the following highlights:

• Features in Windows 11 that can reduce your device’s power consumption and improve its battery life
• Energy efficiency improvements that reduce the power impact of using Edge and Teams
• Windows 365 Cloud PCs and Microsoft 365, harnessing the power of Azure, which will run on 100% renewable energy by 2025

Windows 11 sustainability features

Get longer battery life and conserve energy with Windows 11 Energy Saver!

Energy Saver is a new feature we are testing in our Windows Insider Program. Energy Saver improves energy efficiency by balancing CPU utilization with a performant user experience, resulting in longer battery life¹ through a reduction in power draw. Data from Insider devices shows that it increases a device’s battery life by up to 14%, and preliminary test data on a set of upcoming devices shows greater savings. This feature can be toggled on and off in the system tray or configured to run automatically whenever the device reaches a certain battery percentage. While designed to extend battery life, Energy Saver is also available when PCs are plugged in (this includes desktop PCs) for those aiming to conserve energy all the time.

Get the most out of your PC by optimizing for energy efficiency

With the click of a single button, you can improve the energy efficiency of your device. Energy recommendations, located in Power & battery settings, centralizes power hungry settings in one place. We see an average savings of 7% for devices that adopt at least one recommendation. Faster sleep and screen off timers can have the largest impact on energy use for many users, and we encourage everyone to find the settings that work best for them.

Earn money towards your next Windows device

A sometimes difficult part of buying a new device is figuring out what to do with the old one. We’ve partnered with device manufacturers like Surface, Lenovo, HP, Dell, ASUS and Acer to put you in contact with the right trade-in programs available for your machine. Simply click these links in System settings to explore your options, which can include trading it in for a discount towards a new laptop. Reducing waste and saving money on your next purchase is a win-win!

The Power Grid Forecast API brings carbon awareness to any application.

Windows can reschedule certain events, like Windows updates, to prioritize times when greater amounts of low carbon energy sources (like wind, solar and hydro) are available on the local electrical grid. Windows uses data from our partner WattTime to achieve this, and now we’ve put that power in the hands of developers. We’ve launched a new API that provides carbon forecasts to any developer. Use this forecast to shift hardware intense workloads, delay software updates, or integrate it with other scheduling features.

The API is currently being tested in our Windows Insider Program, and is available in the Windows Insider Preview SDK. You can find out more information by reading the documentation on Learn.

Enhancing sustainability with energy efficient software

Microsoft Edge can help users reduce their environmental footprint with built-in features like efficiency mode. Efficiency mode can not only give you better battery performance and more control over how your device consumes power, it can also help you conserve power when you’re plugged in. Using the balanced setting will help save energy while giving you a good browsing experience. That’s not all, Edge can also help you preserve system resources and boost your browser’s performance with sleeping tabs. This means Edge will automatically put inactive tabs “to sleep” which in turn maximizes resources available to active tabs.

Edge also makes it easy to earn Rewards points and make donations to environmental causes through Give with Bing. Use Microsoft Wallet to grow your E-tree, and when you earn enough water drops, a real tree will be planted of your behalf.

Over the last year we’ve also made significant improvements to the performance and efficiency of Microsoft Teams. The application has been rewritten from the ground up, with a focus on improving energy efficiency and reducing power and heat impact on your laptop. The newest version of the application uses up to 50% less memory and leverages intelligent background processing, saving power while Teams is idle or in the background. The net result is better battery life and memory improvements, which benefits you and the planet.

Hardware can play a big role in energy efficiency

While software improvement plays a significant role in how Microsoft can increase the energy of a device, we also invest in strong partnerships with hardware manufacturers to complete the picture. The Surface Pro 9 with 5G and Lenovo X13s are two examples, these devices balance performance with great energy efficiency and battery life.  The Surface Pro 9s with 5G achieves up to 19 hours of typical device usage battery life².

We are committed to our ongoing partnerships with all hardware vendors to continue driving for improvements to battery life and energy efficiency.

Using cloud-based solutions to reduce carbon footprint

Windows 365: Your Windows in the cloud

While these improvements to energy efficiency are fantastic, what if some of the resources you need could come from the cloud? Windows 365 makes it easy to offload IT power draw and processing to optimized cloud servers. This can significantly reduce supply chain emissions by allowing users to stream their Windows 365 Cloud PCs – personalized desktop, apps, settings and content from the Microsoft Cloud – to any device, whether it is a PC, Mac, iPad, Android or Linux endpoint. By utilizing cloud resources to do everyday tasks as well as the heavy lifting, you can also extend the life of older devices.

With the ability to scale Cloud PCs up or down according to your needs, provide secure access from remote locations, and support for key scenarios such as bring-your-own-device (BYOD) programs, Windows 365 can help to lower your environmental impact.

Windows empowered by Microsoft 365

Microsoft 365 is a subscription service built on the cloud that features the most popular and reliable productivity apps, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. Cloud-based solutions like this reduce the need for physical servers and hardware, which consume a lot of energy and materials. Microsoft 365 also enables users to monitor and improve their sustainability practices with tools like Emissions Impact Dashboard and Viva Insights, which provide insights and recommendations on how to work smarter and more eco-friendly.

Microsoft’s Sustainability Journey

“If the world is going to meet net zero goals by 2050, companies need to use their entire ecosystem and all of their positions of influence.”

Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President

Microsoft is working to become carbon negative by 2030 and by 2050 removing from the atmosphere an equivalent amount of all the carbon dioxide our company has emitted either directly or by our electricity consumption since we were founded in 1975. To achieve that ambitious goal, we need to be thoughtful and intentional about how we utilize energy and other resources. Windows and other products are focusing on improving energy efficiency over time and delivering an energy-conscious experience to our users. We believe that technology can be a force for good and a catalyst for change, and we are committed to continue our efforts to make our products and services more sustainable and responsible.

¹ Battery life varies significantly with settings, usage, device and other factors.

² Based on typical Surface device usage. Battery life varies significantly with settings, usage and other factors.

 

Source: Windows Blog
—

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200 to the Canary Channel.

(Note the .5001 after the build number does not mean anything relevant to Windows Insiders and we will continue to use the primary build number for these flight blog posts.)

With the Canary Channel moving to a higher build number, the window closes on being able to switch to the Dev Channel without doing a clean-install of Windows. If you haven’t switched channels yet, you can still do so BEFORE taking Build 26200.

Developers, please note that for a short period of time, we will not be releasing a SDK for builds we flight to the Canary Channel.

Changes and Improvements

[General]

• [REMINDER] As we’ve been mentioning previously that would happen, the build watermark at the lower right-hand corner of the desktop has returned.

[Widgets]

• We are also making some improvements to the Widgets button on the taskbar so that the icons on the taskbar are clearer and we are rolling out a larger set of animated icons too.
• As part of the Widgets board improvements that we began rolling out with Build 26090 a few weeks ago (which are now also rolling out to Insiders in the Dev Channel), we are introducing the ability for developers to send notifications to the taskbar button with their custom dashboards for the Widgets board. Developers can check out this documentation on how to implement this capability with their Widgets dashboards. To manage notifications from multiple dashboards, Widgets is also providing more granular control over what content shows on the Widgets button on the taskbar. You can go to Widgets Settings > Notifications and enable or disable taskbar notifications from individual dashboards. NOTE: These changes are only initially available to Windows Insiders in the European Economic Area (EEA).

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• After trying out a different design for the energy saver icon in system tray a few months ago for PCs that are plugged in and do not have batteries (such as desktop PCs), we reverted the design back to the leaf icon a few builds ago. (This change is also present in Build 26100.)

Fixes for known issues

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• Fixed an issue that caused a dead zone you couldn’t click inside of next to the notification center.
• Fixed an issue that was causing the page icons in quick settings to not work in secondary settings pages.
• Fixed an issue where keyboard focus wasn’t shifting to the top item of the new page correctly after switching pages in quick settings.

[Input]

• Fixed a tabtip.exe crash, which could impact the ability to input text.

[Windowing]

• Fixed an issue which could cause RemoteApp windows to get cut off when using 200% scaling.

[Multiple Desktops]

• Fixed an issue where the option to set a different wallpaper on each desktop wasn’t working.

Known issues

[General]

• [IMPORTANT NOTE] We are investigating reports that some Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels are stuck on Build 26040 or Build 23620. The investigation is ongoing, however if you are impacted by this and really want to get onto the latest build in the Canary or Dev Channel today – you can download the latest ISO here and do a clean install and opt your device back into flighting in the Canary or Dev Channels.

[Copilot in Windows*]

• [NEW] We are aware of reports by Insiders in the Canary, Dev, and Beta Channels that Copilot is auto-launching unexpectedly after restarting their PCs. We hope to have a fix for this issue soon and is unrelated to the auto-launching experience we tried out with Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels in early February which we stopped rolling out in March.
• Voice access does not work reliably with the updated Copilot in Windows experience that introduces the ability for Copilot to act like a normal application.
• Using Windows Ink to write in Copilot will not work with the updated Copilot in Windows experience that introduces the ability for Copilot to act like a normal application window.

Reminders for Windows Insiders

• The builds we release to the Canary Channel should not be seen as matched to any specific release of Windows and features and experiences included in these builds may never get released as we try out different concepts and get feedback. Features may change over time, be removed, or replaced and never get released beyond Windows Insiders. Some of these features and experiences could show up in future Windows releases when they’re ready.
• Many features in the Canary Channel are rolled out using Control Feature Rollout technology, starting with a subset of Insiders and ramping up over time as we monitor feedback to see how they land before pushing them out to everyone in this channel.
• To get off the Canary Channel, a clean install of Windows 11 will be required. As a reminder – Insiders can’t switch to a channel that is receiving builds with lower build numbers without doing a clean installation of Windows 11 due to technical setup requirements.

• The desktop watermark shown at the lower right corner of the desktop is normal for these pre-release builds.

• Check out Flight Hub for a complete look at what build is in which Insider channel.

• Copilot in Windows* in preview is being rolled out gradually to Windows Insiders in select global markets. The initial markets for the Copilot in Windows preview include North America, United Kingdom and parts of Asia and South America. It is our intention to add additional markets over time.

Thanks,
Amanda & Brandon

Source: Windows Blog
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Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22635.3500 (KB5036985) to the Beta Channel.

REMINDER: All Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel will now be on the same build (Build 22635.xxxx) via an enablement package. For Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel who want to be the first to get features gradually rolled out to you, you can turn ON the toggle (shown in the image below) to get the latest updates as they are available via Settings > Windows Update. Over time, we will increase the rollouts of features to everyone with the toggle turned on. Should you keep this toggle off, new features will gradually be rolled out to your device over time once they are ready.

Going forward, we will document changes in Beta Channel builds in two buckets: new features, improvements, and fixes that are being gradually rolled out for Insiders who have turned on the toggle to get the latest updates as they are available and then new features, improvements, and fixes available to everyone in the Beta Channel.

Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out to the Beta Channel with toggle on*

[Start menu]

• This update starts the roll out of the new account manager on Start menu. When you sign in with a Microsoft account, the new design gives you a quick glanceable view of your account benefits and makes it easy to manage account settings.

[Windows Share]

• If your Microsoft account uses a Gmail address, you can now send email to yourself from Windows share window and receive it in your Gmail account.

[Settings]

• To ensure you don’t lose access to your Microsoft account, we’re beginning to roll out a new banner with a “Add now” button under Settings > Account for adding a recovery email address if you haven’t added one for your Microsoft account yet. This will only show if you are signed in with a Microsoft account.
• We are introducing a new Game Pass recommendation card on the Settings homepage. The Game Pass recommendation card on Settings Homepage will be shown to you if you actively play games on your PC. As a reminder – the Settings homepage will be shown only on the Home and Pro editions of Windows 11 and if you’re signed into Windows with your Microsoft account.

New features rolling out for everyone in the Beta Channel

Widgets Board Improvements

We are introducing a new navigation bar on the left allowing you to switch between a dedicated widgets dashboard and other integrated dashboards like Discover. As part of this change, we are introducing the ability for developers to send notifications to the taskbar button with their custom dashboards for the Widgets board. Developers can check out this documentation on how to implement this capability with their Widgets dashboards. To manage notifications from multiple dashboards, Widgets is also providing more granular control over what content shows on the Widgets button on the taskbar. You can go to Widgets Settings > Notifications and enable or disable taskbar notifications from individual dashboards. NOTE: These changes are only initially available to Windows Insiders in the European Economic Area (EEA).

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

Changes and Improvements gradually being rolled out to everyone in the Beta Channel

[Widgets]

• We are making some improvements to the Widgets button on the taskbar so that the icons on the taskbar are clearer and we are rolling out a larger set of animated icons too.

Known issues

[General]

• We are investigating an issue where Internet Information Services (IIS) and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) may not work after installing this update.
• [NEW] We’re working on the fix for an issue causing Settings to crash when copying text in certain cases. As a workaround, please use the extract text option in Snipping Tool for the time being if you are impacted.

[Copilot in Windows*]

Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel who have the updated Copilot in Windows experience that introduces the ability for Copilot to act like a normal application window may see the following known issues:

• [NEW] We are aware of reports by Insiders in the Canary, Dev, and Beta Channels that Copilot is auto-launching unexpectedly after restarting their PCs. We hope to have a fix for this issue soon and is unrelated to the auto-launching experience we tried out with Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels in early February which we stopped rolling out in March.
• Voice access does not work reliably with the updated Copilot in Windows experience that introduces the ability for Copilot to act like a normal application.
• Using Windows Ink to write in Copilot will not work with the updated Copilot in Windows experience.

[Widgets]

• [NEW] We’re working on the fix for an issue causing Widgets to crash for some Insiders when interacting with the Widgets board.

Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel who have the new position for the Widgets entry-point on left-aligned taskbars may see the following known issues:

• Swipe invocation for Widgets may not work if taskbar is center-aligned instead of left-aligned.
• Unpinning Widgets from the taskbar may not work if taskbar is center-aligned instead of left-aligned.
• The Widgets board is incorrectly positioned when Copilot is in side-by-side mode.
• Turning on/off Widgets in taskbar settings may refresh the taskbar.

About the Beta Channel

The Beta Channel is 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.

*Getting new features: For Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel who want to be the first to get features gradually rolled out to you, you can turn ON the toggle to get the latest updates as they are available via Settings > Windows Update. Over time, we will increase the rollouts of features to everyone with the toggle turned on. Should you keep this toggle off, new features will gradually be rolled out to your device over time once they are ready.

**Availability of Copilot in Windows: Copilot in Windows in preview is being rolled out gradually to Windows Insiders in select global markets. The initial markets for the Copilot in Windows preview include North America, United Kingdom and parts of Asia and South America. It is our intention to add additional markets over time.

Important Insider Links

• Want to learn how we made Windows 11? Check out the Inside Windows 11 website to hear and meet our makers from Engineering, Design and Research to share their insights and unique perspectives throughout this journey.
• You can check out our Windows Insider Program documentation here.
• Check out Flight Hub for a complete look at what build is in which Insider channel.

Thanks,
Amanda & Brandon

Source: Windows Blog
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