Windows 11 build 22538.1000

Windows 11 build 22538 is the eighteenth Insider Preview build of Nickel, the 22H1 development semester of Windows as a service. It was released to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel on 19 January 2022.

Voice access
The ability to use the touch keyboard with voice access has been added.

Task Manager
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 * An updated version of Task Manager has been added, although in an unfinished state and disabled by default. It features a refreshed, theme-aware user interface based on WinUI framework, so as to align with the design aesthetics of Windows 11.
 * The ribbon tab is replaced by a navigation panel using the Mica material.
 * All of its settings, previously available in the Options menu, are moved to a separate "Settings" page.
 * The overview header along the top side of Task Manager is showed as a dummy interface.
 * To enable it, use ViveTool to run the following commands from an elevated Command Prompt window:


 * The column name "Tile updates" in App History tab has been renamed to "Notifications".

Shell

 * The focus rectangle in Alt, task view, and snap assist has been tweaked to match the customized accent color.
 * The updated IMEs and touch keyboard designs has been available to the login screen.
 * When the custom mode is used, the background of Alt, task view, and snap assist will follow the default Windows light/dark mode instead of the default app mode.

Features
The updated entry point for Widgets, initally introduced in build 22518, has been rolled out to all users.

Settings

 * The "display calibration" section, previously available as a separate Settings page, has been moved to HDR subpage under Display page.
 * The unused "try out your setup" box from Custom Theme subpage under Personalization pages has been removed.

Miscellaneous

 * The ability for voice typing to download Speech Packs from the Microsoft Store has been added.
 * The discoverability of certain input features in various areas across the OS has been improved.
 * The HTTPS boot for Hyper-V Generation 2 virtual machines has been added.

Shell

 * Fixed an issue where attempting to open a folder named "advanced" would open the "Advanced sharing settings" page in Settings app.
 * Fixed an issue where the customized text color won't actually apply to the text in the candidate window, clipboard history, and emoji panel.
 * Addressed an issue wherein typing when using search from Start menu or after clicking the search icon, taskbar would not actually start a search, as no text was input.
 * Fixed an issue where taskbar's date and time in the long format would cut off on secondary monitors.
 * Mitigated an issue which was impacting the performance for users with the new input switcher when rapidly switching input back and forth.
 * Fixed an issue where tapping the search box in the expressive input area of the touch keyboard would cause the touch keyboard to immediately dismiss the first time the search box is tapped after switching input language.
 * Fixed an unexpected 1-pixel gap between the side of the touch keyboard and edge of the screen when docked.
 * The missing inverted interrobang (⸘) to the general punctuation section of ⊞ Win has been added.
 * Fixed an issue where dragging and dropping windows in task view won't drag in the correct direction while using an Arabic or Hebrew display language.
 * Fixed an issue that was causing  to crash when closing snap groups which include 3 or 4 apps.
 * Fixed the issue where if the taskbar alignment is changed, it would cause the Widgets button to disappear from the taskbar.
 * Fixed the issue where Widgets content on taskbar would get out of sync between multiple monitors.

Settings

 * Fixed an issue where in some cases, several texts and strings across the Settings app would be mixed up and disorganized.
 * The blank entry under Bluetooth & Devices page has been removed.
 * Fixed an issue where Narrator was reading the Resume updates button as "Check for updates" in the Windows Update page.
 * Fixed an issue that was causing the Settings app to crash when going to HDR section under System page.
 * Fixed an issue believed to be the root cause of the Settings app crashing sometimes when using the clear location history option.
 * Mitigated an issue that was causing the Settings app to crash for some users when viewing the properties of a Wi-Fi network.
 * Fixed an issue where the "private" and "public" controls in network properties would flicker if dual network cards are present.
 * Fixed an issue when searching for "network reset", it won't appear in the search results.
 * Fixed an issue where the signal strength indicators won't reflect the correct signal strength when viewing the list of available Wi-Fi networks.

Voice access

 * Fixed an issue where recently removed microphone shows up as the selected microphone.
 * Addressed an issue to ensure the microphone state changes are announced for screen reader users.
 * Fixed an issue to ensure microphone names are read out for screen reader users on the microphone selection page while setting up voice access for the first time.
 * Fixed an issue to ensure microphone labels communicate the current microphone state for screen reader users.
 * Fixed an issue where duplicate number labels were showing up on Microsoft Edge home page with the command "show numbers".
 * Fixed an issue where the command "lowercase previous character" was not working as expected.
 * Fixed an issue where voice access would give an incorrect message to say "voice access wake up" even when no microphone is connected.
 * Fixed an issue where the command "switch to Edge" was not prompting for input when two Microsoft Edge windows are open with one of them maximized.
 * Fixed an issue where the command "go to font" didn't give expected results in Microsoft Word.
 * Addressed an issue where the command "voice access wake up" was not activating voice access microphone when speaking continuously without any pauses.
 * Addressed an issue where dictation was not working as expected on the desktop and File Explorer.
 * Addressed an issue where the command "show numbers" was not showing number labels on the window in focus.

General

 * Fixed an issue that was causing  to crash when pressing multimedia keys (such as the volume and brightness keys) on the keyboard.
 * Fixed an issue that was causing Narrator to crash in text boxes when using scan mode.
 * Mitigated an issue where for some devices, after resuming from sleep or hibernate, video playback would resume instantly but the audio could take 10 seconds to start playing.
 * Fixed an issue that was impacting Task Manager reliability.

Bugs and quirks

 * The taskbar corner flyout may be collapsed in size and aligned to the top rather than centered.
 * This bug is somewhat simliar to the bug introduced in build 22000.65.
 * The hidden icons chevron in the taskbar may be duplicated.
 * The IME candidate window may not show up on a UAC prompt.
 * The information such as temperature may not show on a left-aligned taskbar.
 * Task Manager may crash when attempting to access the Performance tab.
 * This bug may be encountered on devices that are upgraded to this build. A clean installation of this build will not be affected.
 * On bigger DPIs, the new Task Manager may not show up the Settings tab, and the new buttons on top may be covered by the tab area, if Device Properties placeholder is enabled.

Trivia
The build number was mentioned in an issue posted to the GitHub repository for Azure Data Studio one day prior to this build being publicly released.