Windows 11 build 25272

Windows 11 build 25272 is the sixth Insider Preview and the fifth available client build of Zinc, the 23H2 development semester of Windows as a service. It was released to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel on 5 January 2023.

Suggested actions
The ability to show up a pop-up offering to search the copied text with search potential in Microsoft Edge, initially introduced in build 25247, has been removed.

File Explorer
A new folder named Gallery (GUID ) has been added in the navigation pane. Opening it will be redirected to the Pictures folder, although it's impossible to cut, copy and paste files within it or view its properties. This change is disabled by default, but can be toggled on manually by enabling the  and   velocity IDs.

Task Manager

 * Task Manager will inform users explicitly if there are no matching search results.
 * The ability to set focus to the search box by pressing Ctrl has been added.

Miscellaneous

 * The Quick Assist shortcut under the Windows Tools folder has been moved to the Start menu's main All apps list.
 * The performance when using a high report rate mouse while gaming has been improved.
 * A refresh button has been added to the Windows print queue.

General

 * Fixed an issue where some ARM64 devices experienced a black screen while resuming from sleep or hibernate.
 * Fixed an issue that was causing various UI elements in apps to disappear and reappear sometimes.
 * Fixed the issue that was causing Live Captions to not work in certain cases.
 * Fixed an issue that was causing some Windows Security app crashes.
 * Fixed an issue where the print queue was showing stale job information for printer connection printers.
 * Fixed an issue where when creating a FIDO2 credential for a website in a browser, the dialog might show twice in a row in certain cases.
 * Fixed an issue impacting Windows Hello on certain devices.
 * Fixed an issue which could lead to the Camera app showing that something went wrong if users pressed Pause while recording video.

Taskbar

 * Fixed an issue that was causing the search box on taskbar to not render correctly and display visual artifacts.
 * Fixed an issue that was causing the Japanese IME candidate items to display incorrectly inside the search box on the taskbar.

Task Manager

 * Fixed an issue that was causing filtering by publisher name to not match correctly on the Processes page.
 * Fixed an issue that was causing some services to not show in the Services page after filtering is applied.
 * Fixed an issue which resulted in new processes appearing in a filtered list if launched while a filter is set.
 * Fixed an issue where Task Manager did not display light and dark content correctly, rendering potentially unreadable text.
 * Fixed an issue that was causing the Startup apps page in Task manager to not list any apps.
 * Fixed a Task Manager crash that could happen when attempting to end certain processes.

Narrator

 * Fixed an issue that was causing the Settings app to crash after turning Narrator on or off in Lithuanian and Hungarian builds.
 * Fixed an issue that was causing Narrator to work incorrectly with Windows Defender Application Guard for Edge.
 * Fixed an issue that was causing Narrator to read out the entire composition string each time users press a key when using the Japanese IME.

Input

 * Fixed an issue where pressing Alt for the the first time would display an message, even if users only have one input language installed.
 * Fixed an issue where the Surface Pen could no longer advance PowerPoint slides.
 * Fixed an issue where if users used the touch gesture for opening the Start menu, it could get stuck halfway.
 * Fixed an issue which could cause Excel to stop responding on certain mouse drag events when using the Japanese or Chinese IMEs.

Settings

 * Fixed an issue which could cause a hang if users cancelled out of certification authentication when connecting to VPN.
 * Fixed an issue that was causing the Settings app to crash when opening the Power and Battery pages sometimes.
 * Fixed an issue that was causing Quick Settings crashes sometimes when navigating to the Bluetooth section.
 * Fixed an issue where the app icons under Apps > Default apps might be blurry.

Shell

 * Fixed an issue that was causing a black screen when switching out of certain games by pressing Alt.
 * Fixed an issue that was causing the maximize button to be slightly smaller than the close and minimize buttons when highlighting it in File Explorer and certain other apps while using dark mode.
 * Fixed a couple DWM crashes.

General

 * Using Windows Hello to sign in with facial recognition may not work on certain ARM64 devices.
 * The system may take longer than expected to upgrade to this build in certain cases.

Shell

 * The taskbar may sometimes be cropped in half when using the tablet-optimized taskbar.
 * Several layout issues with the text in the search box may appear on right-to-left locales.
 * On some locales, the default font used in several UI elements (such as the date and time on the taskbar) may change to regular Segoe UI instead of Segoe UI Variable.

Task Manager

 * Some dialogs may not render in the correct theme when applied from the Settings page.
 * The data content area of the Processes page may flash once when theme changes are applied in the Settings page.

Settings
Switching the Search entry point on the taskbar from the search box to the search icon via Personalization → Taskbar may fail in certain cases.

Widgets

 * On right-to-left locales, the content may animate out of view before the Widgets board resizes when clicking to expanded view of the Widgets board.
 * The widgets board may get stuck open in an invisible state for users in certain regions, causing clicks on the left side of the screen to not work.
 * Pressing ⊞ Win may resolve this issue.

Safe mode

 * Enabling the search box/icon on the taskbar may cause  to hang or crash.
 * Quick Settings and date/time clock on the taskbar may be missing due to the  service not running.
 * Clicking Bluetooth & devices and Personalization pages may crash the Settings app due to an overrun of a stack-based buffer.

== Hidden velocity IDs == Most of these velocity IDs' functions are just predictions, so some things may not be correct. Do note that many of these velocity IDs are forcefully disabled due to mostly a work-in-progress, only Gallery (works in this build) and the new File Explorer details pane (works in build 25276) works. Starting with this build, several velocity IDs related to a major File Explorer update has been added. It is possible that Microsoft is preparing a big File Explorer revamp for later versions. There are 4 velocity IDs that have  on its name, so they are likely a part of this File Explorer update, but they can't be predicted at the moment (as of 2024):
 * — Insights feature, responsible with the new File Explorer details pane (see build 25276).
 * and   — Recommendations in File Explorer (can be toggled on or off via the Folder Options applet)
 * — the ability to drag a File Explorer tab out to create a new window (usable in build 25290)
 * — Gallery feature
 * — new File Explorer home page.
 * ( — XAML folder viewing in File Explorer support (previously predicted this is the new File Explorer details pane introduced in build 25276, later founded this is a part of the new "Gallery" feature and required this ID to be enabled in order for the feature to work).