News

Microsoft Releases Windows 11 Build 22449 to Dev Channel

By Brian Burgess

Published September 2, 2021

In addition to a new release to Insiders in the Beta Channels, Microsoft is releasing the first new build to Insiders in the Dev Channel. Here’s what to expect.

Microsoft today is releasing Windows 11 build 22449 to Insiders in the Dev Channel. This is the first time the company is splitting build versions between the Dev and Beta Channels. As the Microsoft team notes, “Builds released to the Dev Channel no longer match the Windows 11 experience that will be released to customers on October 5th.” These builds will include the latest features that will be tested for future feature updates. Keep in mind that Dev Channel builds will be far less stable than builds released to the Beta Channels.

Windows 11 Build 22449 for Dev Channel

Today’s new release brings UI improvements, easier Bluetooth settings access from Quick Settings, and updated SMB compression for faster network file transfer.

And here are the changes and improvements included in this build:

• The boot screen now shows a progressive ring animation for loading the OS instead of an animated circle of dots. We are working to replace this animated circle of dots in other areas of the OS over time.

• Right-clicking on the Bluetooth entry in Quick Settings and selecting Settings will now open the main Bluetooth & Devices page in Settings.
• The Windows startup sound will no longer play after an unattended update (aka a scheduled Windows update when you are not at your PC).
• Added a link to the touch keyboard personalization settings from Typing > Touch Keyboard to help improve discoverability.
• Notifications now have an acrylic background.
• Updated animation used in the notification introducing you to Windows Hello if it hasn’t been set up.
• Updated the dialog when closing Windows Sandbox so that it has rounded visuals.
• Adjusted the design of Notification Center to make the app names more visibly separated from the notifications.

And this is the list of fixes to various parts of the OS:

[Taskbar]

• If your Taskbar is set to auto-hide, hovering over the Taskbar corner or bottom of secondary monitors should now properly invoke the Taskbar.
• Fixed an issue that could make the calendar flyout get in a state where only the week names would load and not the calendar part.
• Addressed an issue where the lunar calendar would get out of sync with the actual date in the calendar flyout.
• If you’ve updated your time format, additional clocks added to the calendar flyout will now update to reflect that.
• Hovering over one of the Desktops in the Task View flyout should no longer unexpectedly change your active Desktop.
• The Focus Assist button in Notification Center now has an accessible name for screen readers.
• Fixed an underlying issue that was causing the font in the Taskbar previews to not be correct.
• Did some work to help make explorer.exe more reliable when using the Taskbar on multiple monitors.

[Input]

• We mitigated an issue that was making the Mail app not able to accept keyboard input into the address / subject lines of a new email sometimes.
• Also fixed an input related deadlock that was making certain windows not respond to mouse input, including Search, Start, and the emoji panel.
• If you’re using a tablet or 2-in-1 device in tablet posture, the touch keyboard should now be invoked when tapping Command Prompt to input text without having to tap the touch keyboard button.
• The N’Ko keyboard name should now display correctly in the input flyout when added to the input list.
• We did some work to address an animation issue with the shadow when opening the emoji panel or voice typing.
• Made some performance improvements to help address an issue where the Pinyin IME would take a significant amount of time to start.
• Addressed an issue where the Pinyin IME would crash and get stuck in a broken state that could result in no longer being able to type anything.
• We fixed an issue where Japanese IME didn’t lock Kana input mode and reverted it to Romaji input mode after inputting a single character while UAC was disabled or using Windows Sandbox. Thank you everyone who’s shared feedback so far, we really appreciate it.
• We fixed an issue that when you insert multiple prolong sounds in a row with Japanese IME, the first one and remaining ones were inserted with different character code.
• We addressed some cases where you wouldn’t see anything when trying to launch the input switcher (Win + Space), including when using Windows Sandbox.
• We fixed an issue where an angry looking emoji was returned if you searched for “sad” in the emoji panel.
• Made some tweaks to fix rendering with certain characters when writing vertically, for example writing Japanese vertically with Meiryo UI.
• Did some work to address an issue that could cause the left mouse click button on precision touchpads to get stuck and stop working.
• Inputting ALT key codes on the number pad when using the Japanese IME should work now.
• Addressed an issue that was making Alt-Gr occasionally get ignored when a client RDP window was active.
• Made a change to help address an issue that could result in characters getting dropped when typing with the Korean IME into certain win32 text boxes.

[File Explorer]

• We’ve done some work to help address an underlying issue where moving certain app windows would be very slow if a File Explorer window was also visible on the screen.
• The command bar should now be properly mirrored in Arabic and Hebrew and fixed some positioning when using the command bar flyouts in those display languages.
• Mitigated an issue impacting explorer.exe reliability.
• Fixed a text rendering issue with the apostrophe in the Move Folder dialog.
• Clicking the “Network discovery is turned off” message in File Explorer will now navigate to a more relevant location instead of just the main page of Network Settings.
• Fixed an underlying issue that is believed to be the cause of explorer.exe crashing for some people when using the paste button when right-clicking in File Explorer.

[Settings]

• Fixed a bug that was causing the battery level displayed for connected Bluetooth devices in Settings to get stuck and appear out of date.
• The contrast issues in Sound settings should be fixed now when using the Desert contrast theme.
• Addressed an issue where selecting 5.1 audio type in Sound Settings wasn’t sticking.
• The sliders in the Sound Settings volume mixer should no longer unexpectedly be different lengths.
• The Searching Windows link on the Search Permissions page in Settings now works and should no longer crash Settings if the indexer is not running.
• Made some improvements to help address an underlying issue that could result in display positions and settings being unexpectedly forgotten.
• Fixed an issue that was causing the profile picture in the top corner of Settings to scale poorly sometimes.
• The time format in Power & Battery Settings should now follow your preferences.
• Addressed an issue where clicking the high brightness warning in Powery & Battery Settings wouldn’t lower the brightness.
• The Video Playback page in Settings should no longer show battery options for devices without batteries.
• Fixed misspelling of Santali in Language Settings.
• Fixed misspelling Malaysia (TA-MY) in Language Settings when using the Tamil display language.
• Did some work to fix an issue where navigating to Lock Screen was crashing Settings sometimes.
• The “only allow Windows Hello sign-in for Microsoft accounts on this device” setting in Sign-in Settings will now only show for accounts where this option supported.
• You can now select the text of the update names in Windows Update History again if you would like to copy them out.
• Addressed an issue that is believed to be the root cause of some people experiencing crashes when clicking on some of the links in the Advanced Options page of Windows Update Settings.
• Windows Update History should now correctly show the number of updates in each category, instead of showing 0.
• The BitLocker link in Settings will no longer crash if it’s clicked on devices where it’s not supported.
• Fixed a few places in Settings where Narrator wasn’t reading items, including making an update so Narrator will now announce success after successfully pairing a device.
• Options in Personalization Settings that aren’t supported when a contrast theme has been selected will now be disabled.
• Opening Taskbar Settings in Windows Sandbox will no longer crash Settings.
• Fixed a hang relating to the input flyout that was causing Quick Settings to hang and not launch.
• Did some work to address an issue where the edit button in Quick Settings would go missing sometimes.
• Fixed a deadlock that was resulting in cellular data on/off values not matching between Quick Settings and Cellular Settings page.
• Quick Settings shouldn’t get clipped anymore when using Magnifier.
• Addressed an issue that was making the Duplicate option under the Project flyout in Quick Settings not work in some cases.

[Logging in and Authentication]

• The icons used in Windows Spotlight text on the lock screen should display properly now and not look like boxes sometimes.
• The Windows startup sound should no longer play while updates are in progress.
• Tweaked the buttons of the UAC dialog so the pressed state is more consistent with other buttons.
• The image in the Windows Hello notification is now visible when using light mode.
• The “Getting things ready for you” text after an update should now be written in the correct font (Segoe UI Variable).
• Did some work to help reduce potential banding effects on the “getting things ready” screen after first setting up a device.
• Addressed an issue where the Number Lock state did not persist during a Fast Start reboot.
• Fixed an issue that could cause the Lock screen to appear blank with the default lock screen image if lock screen slideshow was enabled combined with “Automatically pick accent color from my background” in Personalization settings.

[Bluetooth and Devices]

• We fixed an issue for Insiders with paired Bluetooth LE devices that was causing an increase in Bluetooth reliability issues and bugchecks after resume from hibernate or when Bluetooth was turned off.
• Fixed a crash with certain connected devices that could result in not being able to use Bluetooth.
• Mitigated an issue for certain connected devices that was resulting in unexpected beeping, lower than expected maximum volume, occasional Windows Audio service hangs, and volume seemingly getting stuck.
• Addressed an issue that was making certain scanners not work.
• Fixed an issue that could cause unexpected brightness changes when adding a monitor, closing then opening a laptop lid, changing resolution or orientation (including autorotation) or a in game setting or a full-screen mode at a different resolution.
• A new display driver being installed should no longer unexpectedly re-enable disabled devices, including graphics adapters.

[Windowing]

• Min/Max buttons in the title bar of certain apps should no longer become distorted after turning off a contrast theme.
• Fixed an explorer.exe crash that could happen when using ALT + Tab.
• The keyboard focus in ALT + Tab and Task View should be easier to see now.

[Microsoft Store]

The following issues were fixed in the most recent Store updates:

• We fixed the issue where the install button might not be functional in limited scenarios.
• We also fixed an issue where rating and reviews were not available for some apps.

[Chat from Microsoft Teams]

• Arabic and Hebrew languages will now allow changing Teams Settings.
• We fixed the issue where if you were making an outgoing call, there was no ring tone, but the user interface would show that the call is getting connected.

[Other]

• Made a change to help improve Task Manager launch performance in certain scenarios where it was unexpectedly very slow.
• Addressed an issue that was making certain applications sometimes get the wrong color profile in multi-monitor scenarios.
• Fixed an underlying crash that was resulting in the recording and screenshot options in the Xbox Game Bar getting unexpectedly disabled.
• Addressed an underlying app deployment issue believed to be the root cause of Windows Security not launching on a small number of devices.
• The Windows Boot Loader text should now correctly say Windows 11.
• Fixed the logo in the Store apps troubleshooter.
• We did some work on WSL2 to help improve the performance and reliability of localhost relay.

Windows 11 Insider Builds

These builds are not meant for inexperienced users. They are also not meant to run on your primary production machine. Insider builds contain many known stability issues that can cause your system to become unstable or even crash. Especially the new builds from the Dev Channel.

This is the reason it’s only being offered to members of the Windows Insider Program. When the final build is ready for the public, it will be preinstalled on new PCs.  Then it will be available for users with eligible PCs in the first part of 2022.

If you want to check it out and start testing it now, read our article on how to download and install Windows 11. Or take a look at how to do a clean installation of Windows 11.

And more on this build’s full list of changes, known issues, and workarounds, make sure to read Microsoft’s full blog post.