Microsoft introduces some new features for the Windows 11 operating system along with a plethora of fixes and other improvements. There is a new notification badge that will be visible for the dynamic widgets in the taskbar, which will expand into more information upon clicking it. Moreover, DNS over TLS (DoT) testing is now also available for Windows DNS client query protection. That said, it is expected that these features will make their way to the stable Windows 11 OS with version 23H2, which will be released next year since the build for version 22H2 has already been declared (Build 22621). Let us discuss these improvements in detail, and then continue to learn how to install this build.
New in Windows 11 Build 25158
Notification Badge for Widgets
Note: This feature is still rolling out to Insiders on the Dev channel gradually. Users will now see a tiny notification badge on the Widgets in the taskbar which will look like something in the image below.Widgets badge in the taskbar. Source: Microsoft Clicking this badge will expand the Widgets flyout displaying more information about the notification at the top.
DNS over TLS (DoT)
Insiders can now test out the new feature for Windows 11; DNS over TLS. It is another protocol addition to the Windows operating system, similar to DNS over HTTPS (DoH). To begin testing out this new feature, here are the steps to set it up: You will now have configured DNS over TLS on your PC. If you are still having trouble setting it up, refer to this TechCommunity post.
New Search Style on Taskbar
Note: This feature will only be available on selected devices. Some chosen machines will now experience a new search style in the taskbar. This is an experiment by Microsoft, therefore, may be retracted in a future flight; depending on the user feedback.Different variants of the Search button in the taskbar. Source: Microsoft
Other Improvements and Fixes
Other changes and fixes have also been made with this flight:
[General]The floating search widget on the desktop that was introduced with Build 25120 will be removed after a system reboot.An issue causing some Insiders to experience bugchecks with the error message “KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED: in NetAdapterCx.sys in recent flights has been fixed.An issue that was leading some PCs to hang at a black screen when resuming from a low power state in recent flights has been addressed.An issue believed to generally be impacting performance across Windows shell experiences in the last few flights has been fixed.An issue where the Mica material and Acrylic blur effect was rendering incorrectly in OS surfaces like the Start menu, Notification Center and other areas in recent flights has been taken care of.[Input]The Nyala font has been updated to support syllables for the Gurage language orthography from the Ethiopic Extended-B Unicode range. Also revised and replaced Ethiopic kerning to fix gaps and errors in earlier implementation improving the overall texture of text in Ethiopic languages.A crash in textinputhost.exe initialization was happening in some cases in recent flights has been addressed.An issue where the “Sync across your devices” option under Settings » System » Clipboard wouldn’t stay enabled has been fixed.The Times New Roman font family has been updated to include U+061D / ARABIC END OF TEXT MARK.[File Explorer]An issue where closing command bar flyouts could in some rare cases crash explorer.exe has been fixed.An issue that could lead to explorer.exe crashing when navigating through File Explorer with OneDrive enabled has been fixed.The tooltip when hovering over a tab has been updated to suggest using the CTRL + W shortcut keys to close the tab (rather than CTRL + F4, which didn’t work).Opening a zipped folder in a new tab should no longer have a blank tab name.If the focus is on the tab row, pressing the CTRL + W shortcut keys will no longer unexpectedly close two tabs instead of just the tab in focus.An issue where the CTRL + Tab shortcut keys wouldn’t cycle in the correct order after rearranging tabs has been fixed.Some adjustments have been made so that when using “Show full path in title”, the folder name is always visible in the tab at the top of File Explorer.[Taskbar]An underlying issue that could lead to pinned app icons getting stuck on the taskbar after uninstalling the app in recent flights has been fixed.A high-hitting explorer.exe crash in the last few flights related to loading Widgets has been addressed.[Start]Start shouldn’t crash anymore when using the CTRL + Shift + Right Arrow keys to move a pinned app into a folder that’s the last item in the Start menu.A crash some Insiders were experiencing when opening the Start menu has been fixed.Narrator will now read the prompt that opens when trying to uninstall an app from Start correctly.[Search]An issue when using IRowsetPriorititization where setting the scope priority for a query rowset did not properly alter the indexing speed of the rowset, resulting in slower indexing overall, has been fixed.Searching for “power mode” should now return an entry for power modes in the Settings app.[Settings]The “System” entry under Network & Internet » Advanced network settings » Data Usage has been updated, to now be called “System and Windows Update.”An issue where the “Listen to this device” option for audio devices would stop working after a reboot has been fixed.A crash some Insiders were seeing when navigating to Bluetooth & Devices » Printers & Scanners has been fixed.An issue where the “Allow Bluetooth devices to find this PC” checkbox under Bluetooth & Devices » Devices » More Bluetooth Settings wouldn’t display the correct state has been addressed.An issue that was causing Quick Settings to crash for ARM64 PCs when attempting to use the Cast section to cast to certain devices has been fixed.An issue that could cause the eye icon beside the Wi-Fi password box in Quick Settings to disappear after its first use has been addressed.[Windowing]Some improvements have been made to help with the performance of opening Task View.[Narrator]A fix was made to the two-finger triple tap touch gesture to dismiss context menus with Narrator is working correctly again.[Task Manager]An issue where some services were being unexpectedly grouped under Microsoft Edge when they weren’t actually child processes has been addressed.[Other]An issue that would lead to losing network connectivity after turning on the mobile hotspot has been fixed.An issue that could result in the mobile hotspot button getting unexpectedly stuck in a greyed-out state in certain cases has been fixed.An underlying issue that was leading to Your Phone crashes in certain cases has been fixed.An underlying issue where Microsoft Defender Application Guard windows weren’t visible in the last few flights has been addressed.A crash that could happen when using suggested actions has been fixed.An underlying issue when recording game clips using the Xbox Game Bar, which could lead to the resulting saved video not displaying correctly when viewed later on an iOS device, has been fixed.Some improvements have been made to help address an issue resulting in apps in the Microsoft Store failing to download with error 0x80080204.An underlying issue leading to Microsoft Store app remediation failures with error 0x803FB004 has been addressed.An issue where the print dialog wasn’t launching centered in the application has been fixed (for example, in Notepad).
With these new features, improvements, and fixes, there are also a few known issues we think you should know about before upgrading to this build.
Known Issues
[General]There are reports that SQL Server Management Studio is failing to launch for some Insiders.Some games that use Easy Anti-Cheat may crash or cause your PC to bugcheck.[File Explorer]The up arrow is misaligned in the File Explorer tabs. This will be fixed in a future update.There are reports that launching File Explorer in certain ways when using the dark mode (for example, from the command line) is showing the body of File Explorer unexpectedly in light mode.[Widgets]The Notification badge number may appear misaligned on the taskbar.In some cases, the notification banner for some badging will not appear in the widgets board.We’re working on the fix for an issue causing Widgets preferences (temperature units and pinned widgets) to unexpectedly get reset to default.[Live captions]Certain apps in full screen (e.g., video players) prevent live captions from being visible.Certain apps positioned near the top of the screen and closed before live captions is run will re-launch behind the live captions window positioned at the top. Use the system menu (ALT + Spacebar) while the app has focus to move the app’s window further down.
Some of these issues have prolonged over the last few flights in the Dev channel, but some of them are new with this flight. Hopefully, Microsoft will address these in future releases.
Download and Install Windows 11 Build 25158
To install this update, you either need to be running Windows 11 and subscribed to the Dev channel, or perform a clean install using the ISO image provided by Microsoft.
Windows Update
If you have enabled Windows updates, you will automatically get a “New features are ready to install” prompt. Follow the steps below to upgrade to this build: Once the computer restarts, you can verify that the OS has been updated by typing in winver in the Run Command box.Windows 11 Dev channel updated Click Download and install in front of it.Download and install the update
Download Windows 11 Build 25158 ISO Image
You can also download the ISO image for Windows 11 Build 25158 and perform a clean install. Here is how: You are now set to perform a fresh installation of Windows 11 Dev Build 25158 using the downloaded ISO image. Learn how to create a multiboot USB installation media using Ventoy.
Rollback/Remove Windows 11 Insider Preview Update
If you do not wish to keep the installed preview update for some reason, you can always roll back to the previous build of the OS. However, this can only be performed within the next 10 days after installing the new update. To roll back after 10 days, you will need to apply this trick.
Cleanup After Installing Windows Updates
If you want to save space after installing Windows updates, you can run the following commands one after the other in Command Prompt with administrative privileges: Also see:
Windows 11 Build 25120 Released With Search Widget On DesktopWindows 11 Preview Build 22572 Released With Microsoft Family And ClipchampMicrosoft Begins Development On Windows 11 23H2 With Preview Build 25115Windows 11 Build 25188 Gives Control When Touch Keyboard AppearsWindows 11 Insider Preview Build 22509: Clock on Secondary Monitor + Improvements to Narrator
