Microsoft releases Build 21301 to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel

Microsoft has released a new build to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel. The new build 21301 brings improvements to the touch keyboard design and more. You can head down to check out the full changelog for the update.

What’s new in Build 21301

Improving the touch keyboard design

Building on the design changes already live in the Dev Channel, Windows Insiders will start to notice some more refinements rolling out for the touch keyboard based on their feedback. Those refinements include:

• When undocking the keyboard, it now switches to the Small keyboard layout, and you can easily move the keyboard around using the gripper region at the top of the keyboard.
• Small and split layouts will now feature an updated symbol’s view based on the default layout.
• The settings menu now has a nested structure for improved clarity and less clutter.

Finally, we have a new password feedback icon to the left of the space bar for when you are in a password field and would like to turn on visual key press feedback on the touch keyboard.

Some Insiders may also see updates to the default keyboard layout on 12” or larger screens with the keyboard having a more traditional keyboard layout featuring an ESC, Tab, and Windows key and other small tweaks.

One thing we heard from our customers is that the candidate bar can feel cluttered and hard to quickly process. To reduce the cognitive overload we will be displaying 5 candidates maximum and centering them into position above the keyboard.

This feature is rolling out to a subset of Insiders in the Dev Channel at first, to help us quickly identify issues that may impact performance and reliability. Rest assured they will be gradually rolled out to everyone in the Dev Channel.

Changes and Improvements

• We made a change so that when you right click locally saved files displayed in jump lists, in addition to Open you will now have the option to Open File Location.
• We updated our N’Ko keyboard layout to add access to currency and some other symbols by tapping the keys along the top row of your keyboard while holding the Shift key.
• We updated the Touchpad on/off toggle under Settings > Devices > Touchpad such that it no longer requires admin privileges to change.
• We updated our backend dictionaries to help improve spellchecking and text prediction relevance.

Fixes

• We fixed an issue so that the taskbar context menu and news and interests should no longer overlap.
• We fixed an issue where in certain circumstances, news and interests would use 100% of CPU when it is first launched.
• We fixed an issue that could result in Task Manager crashing when switching to the Details tab.
• We fixed a recent issue for some Insiders related to the Clock and Calendar flyout that could result in ShellExperienceHost using an unexpectedly high amount of CPU.
• We fixed an issue resulting in the State Repository Service being prematurely terminated during service startup. If you were impacted, one possible symptom was it taking longer to load the desktop when signing in. If you’re continuing to experience performance issues when logging in, please file them with a trace under Install and Update > Logon hangs.
• We fixed an issue where if you searched for “change your password” and used the result to launch Settings, Settings would crash.
• We fixed an issue where Aero Shake was unexpected disabled in the last few flights.
• We fixed an issue where when moving a window between mixed DPI monitors it could result in the window margins being calculated with the wrong DPI, leading to the window overflowing on the other monitor when maximized.
• We fixed an issue that could result in certain HEIF files not rendering although the correct codecs were installed.
• We fixed an issue resulting in pinning a website to your taskbar from Microsoft Edge not working in the last few flights.
• We fixed an issue that could result in VPN repeatedly connecting and disconnecting in a loop.
• We fixed an issue resulting in some 32-bit systems lost network connection in recent flights.
• We fixed an issue resulting sometimes in nothing happening after clicking a “Wi-Fi password needed” notification.
• We fixed an issue where certain games like State of Decay 2, or Assassin’s Creed, may hang or crash when launching.
• We fixed a few issues resulting in Narrator not reading elements of our troubleshooters when in Scan Mode.

Known issues

• Miracast users may experience very low frame rates in this build.
• We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
• We’re investigating an issue impacting the reliability of Start and other modern apps, which started in the previous flight. If you are impacted, you may experience the Start menu layout resetting.
• Live previews for pinned sites aren’t enabled for all Insiders yet, so you may see a grey window when hovering over the thumbnail in the taskbar. We’re continuing to work on polishing this experience.
• We’re working on enabling the new taskbar experience for existing pinned sites. In the meantime, you can unpin the site from the taskbar, remove it from the edge://apps page, and then re-pin the site.
• [News and interests] Sometimes the news and interests flyout cannot be dismissed with pen.
• [News and interests] News and interests uses more taskbar space on the left than expected.
• [News and interests] The taskbar button can show stale information each time the user signs into their Windows session.
• [News and interests] The news and interests flyout shows content in a single column before quickly switching to double column.
• [News and interests] Text in taskbar button can look pixelated in high resolution screens.
• [News and interests] Attempting to share content dismisses the flyout.
• [News and interests] In certain situations, the flyout may not dismiss until the taskbar button is clicked or the hover effect may appear stuck.
• [ARM64] Insiders who installed the preview version of the Qualcomm Adreno graphics driver on the Surface Pro X may experience reduced brightness of the display. This will be addressed in a future update.

Windows Insiders can go to Settings>Update & Security>Windows Updates and click on Check for Updates to download and install the latest Build.