Last month, Microsoft split the Beta channel into two and began flighting two separate preview builds of Windows 11 for Insiders in what can be called a staggered release.
The company has been updating both these versions regularly.
It released a refresh again this week, with new builds for folks to check out. They are build 22621.586 and build 22622.586 (KB5016701), the details of which you can gather yourself from the official blog post.
These new versions of the preview launched alongside the Dev channel build 25188, which brought many new features and improvements, only some of which the company officially cataloged.
Anyway, getting back to the Beta channel builds, build 22622.586 is the one that has new features rolling out, while build 22621.586 has the new features off by default. This is par for the course for Microsoft after the split.
As the announcement post outlines, both builds have plenty of improvements, bug fixes, and known issues.
Redmond primarily fixed a problem that caused DWM crashes, which led to black flashes or content stuck on the screen. It also fixed an issue that caused SQL Server Management Studio to fail to launch.
However, the development team paid special attention to File Explorer, which received the bulk of the attention.
The company fixed an issue that prevented the left half of the File Explorer title bar from being draggable via mouse or touch. Selecting multiple folders and then using the context menu to open them now does that instead of opening the first folder in a new tab and all the others in a new window.
Microsoft also made a problem history that caused Home, Documents, Pictures, and potentially other folders to become unexpectedly duplicated.
Also fixed is an issue that suddenly caused the Delete key to stop working on files in File Explorer. Redmond also vaporized a problem where the min/max/close button was not visible in File Explorer when using a contrast theme.
These are pretty standard releases, but very necessary.
Get these versions if you are enrolled in the Beta channel of the Windows Insider program.
