What you need to know
- Microsoft released Windows 11 Builds 22621.2191 and 22631.2191 this week.
- Build 22631.2191 has new features enabled by default and includes several changes and improvements to Windows 11.
- Most notably, the build includes support for Windows 365 Switch, which lets you switch between a local desktop and a Windows 365 Cloud PC easily.
Microsoft shipped several builds of Windows 11 to Insiders this week. Yesterday, we covered the preview release of Windows 365 Switch that shipped to the Dev Channel. Microsoft also added support for Windows 365 Switch to the latest Insider build in the Beta Channel.
Windows 11 Builds 22621.2191 and 22631.2191 both shipped yesterday. The former has new features disabled by default, but the latter has new features turned on.
Windows 365 Switch allows you to hop between a local desktop and a Windows 365 Cloud PC with a gesture, mouse-click, or keyboard command.
Build 22631.2191 includes support for setting JXR files as a desktop background as well. Windows 11 will then render those images in full HDR.
Here are the highlights of what's new, improved, and changed in Build 22631.2191, as outlined by Microsoft:
Build 22631.2191: What's new
HDR Background Support
You can now set JXR files to be your desktop background and if you have an HDR display, they will render in full HDR.
Narrator Natural Voices in French, Portuguese, English (India), German and Korea
We are introducing new natural voices in French, Portuguese, English (India), German and Korean that allow Narrator users to comfortably browse the web, read, and write mail, and do more. Natural Narrator voices use modern, on-device text to speech and once downloaded are supported without an internet connection.
Build 22631.2191: Changes & Improvements
Windows 365
- Windows Insiders in the Dev and Beta Channels can participate in the public preview of Windows 365 Switch. Windows 365 Switch provides the ability to easily move between a Windows 365 Cloud PC and the local desktop using the same familiar keyboard commands, as well as a mouse-click or a swipe gesture through Task View on the Windows 11 taskbar. Please read this blog post for all the details on how to participate.
Taskbar & System Tray
- REMINDER: As noted in our Beta Channel flight here, the settings for never combined mode for the taskbar were showing up under Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors but do not enable the experience. We have temporarily removed the settings for this to fix the issue. The feature will be coming to a Beta Channel flight soon.
File Explorer
- We’ve added “Share” to the context menu in File Explorer in addition to having the share icon at the top of the context menu.
- Added more fields to show in the Details pane, including image dimensions for pictures, number of pages for .docx, space used and free information for drives, and many others.
Windows Spotlight
- After doing an OS update, in certain cases such as using the default Windows 11 background or a solid color – Windows Spotlight may be enabled for you. If you decide you don’t want Windows Spotlight enabled, you can turn it off and in future OS updates it should not be enabled for you again unless you choose to re-enable the experience.
