#preview-updates — Public Fediverse posts

Windows 11 July 2026 preview patch is out!

Microsoft have recently released this month’s preview patch for Windows 11 computers and laptops, and they usually contain new features that the normal patches will include. These new features, along with many improvements and bug fixes, will enhance your user experience by making some of the features easier to use.

The official changelogs for this preview patch is:

File Explorer

• File sizes in the Details view now display using appropriate units (KB, MB, GB) instead of KB-only, making them easier to understand at a glance.
• Middle click to open a folder in a new tab is now supported in the Address Bar and the Home page for a more consistent and efficient tabbed navigation experience across File Explorer.
• This update eliminates a grey flash on load and unexpected scrolling to the top on the Home page in certain cases.
• This update improves the appearance of file thumbnails in the Recommended section on the Home page so they’re crisper and easier to read.

Windows Search

• This update improves app search to better handle typos and partial app names when finding installed apps.
• This update improves Settings relevance to surface more useful settings higher in search results.

Voice Access

• New! This update adds Voice Isolation to Voice Access, helping it better recognize your voice by reducing interference from other speakers and background noise. Voice Access now offers three speed recognition modes under Voice Access settings > Improve speech recognition:
  • Voice Isolation — Filters out other speakers and background noise (one-time voice setup required).
  • Remove background noise only — Filters out non-speech sounds like typing or door slams. No additional setup needed.
  • No filtering — Default microphone input with no additional processing.
  • To set up Voice Isolation, go to Voice Access settings > Improve speech recognition and select Voice Isolation.
• New! This update adds Korean language support for voice access.
• This update improves the realiability of starting Voice Access.

Widgets

• New! Taskbar notification badges now use your Windows accent color instead of appearing red, helping reduce unnecessary attention-grabbing alerts.
• New! This update also simplifies the Lock screen Widgets experience. For new users, Weather is now the only widget shown on the Lock screen by default.

Touchpad

• New! New gesture controls for precision touchpads are available in Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Touchpad:
  • Scroll and zoom speed — Adjust the baseline speed for scroll and zoom gestures.
  • Accelerated scrolling — Scroll faster the more you repeat the gesture, so you can move quickly through long documents.

Start menu

• The update improves the reliability of Start menu view preferences, ensuring your selected view is retained.
• This update improves keyboard navigation when keyboard focus was set to the apps list within Start menu.

Voice Typing

• Fluid dictation is now off by default for new users. A teaching tip is also available when the feature is used for the first time.

Input

• This update improves persistence of mouse cursor size.

Windowing

• This update ensures system dialogs open at the appropriate size on small tablets.

Accessibility

• This update improves the Magnifier experience on touch-enabled devices. The horizontal and vertical touch bars used to pan the magnified view are now off by default, so they no longer obstruct magnified content. If you use touch to pan, you can turn the bars back on in Settings > Accessibility > Magnifier.

Windows Hello

• New! Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS) now supports peripheral fingerprint sensors. This update extends this secure sign in option beyond devices with built in fingerprint sensors to include desktops and other Windows 11 PCs, including Copilot+ PCs. To get started, plug in a supported ESS fingerprint reader, go to Settings > Accounts > Sign in options, and follow the prompts to enroll. This feature was previously disclosed in January 2026 (KB5074105) and is now beginning to roll out.

Fonts

• This update restores support for Unicode variation sequences in the Myanmar Text font.
• This update improves character shaping and rendering for Mongolian Baiti font, providing more accurate and consistent text display.

Account Control

• This update refreshes the design of the Start menu account control and adds a badge that displays your subscription status. To view your account control, open the Start menu and select your account picture in the lower-left corner. This experience is available for users signed in with a Microsoft account. 1

Taskbar

• This update improves reliability of loading the system tray area of the taskbar when using the taskbar on touch devices in a tablet posture.

AI Component

• This update allows you to remove the Image Generation AI component from supported Copilot+ PCs where the component is installed.

Windows Setup

• This update adds a parental controls notice during Windows setup that highlights available family safety features.

Power and Battery

• This update improves the reliability of power settings by applying changes made in Settings to all power plans. This includes display, sleep, hibernate, power button, sleep button, and lid-close settings, helping ensure your preferences are consistently maintained.
• This update restores the ability to set a threshold for when energy saver should enable within Settings > System > Power & Battery.

Windows Update

• This update improves calculation of update progress progression in Windows Update Settings.
• This update includes changes to update clean-up logic to improve system performance immediately following an update.

Sounds

• This update improves system sounds when using Windows in dark mode.

Date and Time

• This update improves detection for triggering time zone change notifications.
• This update improves daylight saving time (DST) data accuracy for Middle East Standard Time (Beirut), Morocco Standard Time (Casablanca), Israel Standard Time (Jerusalem), and Greenland Standard Time (Nuuk).

Network

• This update improves the reliability of DHCP renewals in a few scenarios, particularly in the case of NACKs received from the DHCP server, as well as on devices that use Modern Standby.

Print

• This update improves print time performance (page per minute) for IPPS (Internet Printing Protocol Secure) printers.

Clipboard

• This update improves clipboard reliability in some Remote Desktop and Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) scenarios.

General Reliability

• This update improves explorer.exe reliability, including when opening Jump Lists and recent files, when sharing files and folders, and when using Task View and multiple desktops.
• This update improves the reliability of the Windows sign-in and lock screens, especially when system memory is low. It also improves the reliability of the Start menu and taskbar during startup.

To install this update, you can click on the Download and Install button that shows up next to the cumulative update preview version, or, you can enable the faster update rollout option that shows up in the Windows Update page so that you’ll automatically get the preview updates without having to manually check for updates:

Please note that preview updates may have stability issues that are usually fixed in the final update release. Also, we recommend downloading such updates over non-metered connections to avoid extra charges. Installation of updates on an SSD should not take more than 10 minutes, but performing the same update on an HDD may take more than 30 minutes.

Enjoy the new features!

Windows 11 July 2026 preview patch is out!

Microsoft have recently released this month’s preview patch for Windows 11 computers and laptops, and they usually contain new features that the normal patches will include. These new features, along with many improvements and bug fixes, will enhance your user experience by making some of the features easier to use.

The official changelogs for this preview patch is:

File Explorer

• File sizes in the Details view now display using appropriate units (KB, MB, GB) instead of KB-only, making them easier to understand at a glance.
• Middle click to open a folder in a new tab is now supported in the Address Bar and the Home page for a more consistent and efficient tabbed navigation experience across File Explorer.
• This update eliminates a grey flash on load and unexpected scrolling to the top on the Home page in certain cases.
• This update improves the appearance of file thumbnails in the Recommended section on the Home page so they’re crisper and easier to read.

Windows Search

• This update improves app search to better handle typos and partial app names when finding installed apps.
• This update improves Settings relevance to surface more useful settings higher in search results.

Voice Access

• New! This update adds Voice Isolation to Voice Access, helping it better recognize your voice by reducing interference from other speakers and background noise. Voice Access now offers three speed recognition modes under Voice Access settings > Improve speech recognition:
  • Voice Isolation — Filters out other speakers and background noise (one-time voice setup required).
  • Remove background noise only — Filters out non-speech sounds like typing or door slams. No additional setup needed.
  • No filtering — Default microphone input with no additional processing.
  • To set up Voice Isolation, go to Voice Access settings > Improve speech recognition and select Voice Isolation.
• New! This update adds Korean language support for voice access.
• This update improves the realiability of starting Voice Access.

Widgets

• New! Taskbar notification badges now use your Windows accent color instead of appearing red, helping reduce unnecessary attention-grabbing alerts.
• New! This update also simplifies the Lock screen Widgets experience. For new users, Weather is now the only widget shown on the Lock screen by default.

Touchpad

• New! New gesture controls for precision touchpads are available in Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Touchpad:
  • Scroll and zoom speed — Adjust the baseline speed for scroll and zoom gestures.
  • Accelerated scrolling — Scroll faster the more you repeat the gesture, so you can move quickly through long documents.

Start menu

• The update improves the reliability of Start menu view preferences, ensuring your selected view is retained.
• This update improves keyboard navigation when keyboard focus was set to the apps list within Start menu.

Voice Typing

• Fluid dictation is now off by default for new users. A teaching tip is also available when the feature is used for the first time.

Input

• This update improves persistence of mouse cursor size.

Windowing

• This update ensures system dialogs open at the appropriate size on small tablets.

Accessibility

• This update improves the Magnifier experience on touch-enabled devices. The horizontal and vertical touch bars used to pan the magnified view are now off by default, so they no longer obstruct magnified content. If you use touch to pan, you can turn the bars back on in Settings > Accessibility > Magnifier.

Windows Hello

• New! Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS) now supports peripheral fingerprint sensors. This update extends this secure sign in option beyond devices with built in fingerprint sensors to include desktops and other Windows 11 PCs, including Copilot+ PCs. To get started, plug in a supported ESS fingerprint reader, go to Settings > Accounts > Sign in options, and follow the prompts to enroll. This feature was previously disclosed in January 2026 (KB5074105) and is now beginning to roll out.

Fonts

• This update restores support for Unicode variation sequences in the Myanmar Text font.
• This update improves character shaping and rendering for Mongolian Baiti font, providing more accurate and consistent text display.

Account Control

• This update refreshes the design of the Start menu account control and adds a badge that displays your subscription status. To view your account control, open the Start menu and select your account picture in the lower-left corner. This experience is available for users signed in with a Microsoft account. 1

Taskbar

• This update improves reliability of loading the system tray area of the taskbar when using the taskbar on touch devices in a tablet posture.

AI Component

• This update allows you to remove the Image Generation AI component from supported Copilot+ PCs where the component is installed.

Windows Setup

• This update adds a parental controls notice during Windows setup that highlights available family safety features.

Power and Battery

• This update improves the reliability of power settings by applying changes made in Settings to all power plans. This includes display, sleep, hibernate, power button, sleep button, and lid-close settings, helping ensure your preferences are consistently maintained.
• This update restores the ability to set a threshold for when energy saver should enable within Settings > System > Power & Battery.

Windows Update

• This update improves calculation of update progress progression in Windows Update Settings.
• This update includes changes to update clean-up logic to improve system performance immediately following an update.

Sounds

• This update improves system sounds when using Windows in dark mode.

Date and Time

• This update improves detection for triggering time zone change notifications.
• This update improves daylight saving time (DST) data accuracy for Middle East Standard Time (Beirut), Morocco Standard Time (Casablanca), Israel Standard Time (Jerusalem), and Greenland Standard Time (Nuuk).

Network

• This update improves the reliability of DHCP renewals in a few scenarios, particularly in the case of NACKs received from the DHCP server, as well as on devices that use Modern Standby.

Print

• This update improves print time performance (page per minute) for IPPS (Internet Printing Protocol Secure) printers.

Clipboard

• This update improves clipboard reliability in some Remote Desktop and Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) scenarios.

General Reliability

• This update improves explorer.exe reliability, including when opening Jump Lists and recent files, when sharing files and folders, and when using Task View and multiple desktops.
• This update improves the reliability of the Windows sign-in and lock screens, especially when system memory is low. It also improves the reliability of the Start menu and taskbar during startup.

To install this update, you can click on the Download and Install button that shows up next to the cumulative update preview version, or, you can enable the faster update rollout option that shows up in the Windows Update page so that you’ll automatically get the preview updates without having to manually check for updates:

Please note that preview updates may have stability issues that are usually fixed in the final update release. Also, we recommend downloading such updates over non-metered connections to avoid extra charges. Installation of updates on an SSD should not take more than 10 minutes, but performing the same update on an HDD may take more than 30 minutes.

Enjoy the new features!