Look at me—I’m the captain now! Microsoft has returned to its Wednesday 10 a.m. release cadence for Windows 11 preview builds, which we all know and love.
This time, the company has introduced three builds, one in the Dev channel and a couple in the Beta.
Dev channel users now have access to Windows 11 build 25188, which includes several welcome changes and quality improvements, including a new Store.
Things start with some new options for the touch keyboard settings, the migration of more legacy settings to the new Settings app, as well as making the Windows Terminal the default terminal option in the operating system.
Redmond details this new release here.
In terms of additions, we start with the updated touch keyboard settings. The company is trying out a new touch keyboard setting that replaces the “Show the touch keyboard when there’s no keyboard attached” checkbox in Settings > Time & language > Typing > Touch keyboard.
A new dropdown menu opens, listing 3 options for controlling whether tapping an edit control should launch the touch keyboard.
- Never suppresses the touch keyboard even when no hardware keyboard is attached.
- When no keyboard attached will show the touch keyboard only when the device is used as a tablet without the hardware keyboard.
- Always will show the touch keyboard even when the hardware keyboard is attached.
This new experience is just being rolled out, so is not available to all Insiders just yet. The company will monitor feedback before pushing it out to everyone.
Then we have the shiny new Windows Terminal, which has now become the default terminal in Windows 11. This means that all command-line applications like Command Prompt and PowerShell will open in it automatically.
You will need Windows Terminal version 1.15 or greater for this takeover.
Then we have a long list of bug fixes and other improvements, the details of which you can collect from the announcement post above. A fair few known issues have also made their way to this build.
Do note that this is still version 22H2 of the operating system. Sun Valley 3 development has given way to the new strategy of releasing a major new version of Windows every three years. The Dev channel is sticking with this version, which will be released under the Windows 11 23H2 naming in 2023.
