Windows 11 build 25309

Windows 11 build 25309 is the thirtieth Insider Preview and the twelfth 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 2 March 2023.

File Explorer

 * The File Explorer based on Windows App SDK, initially introduced in build 25300, has been rolled out to all users.
 * When clicking the "Open in new tab" context menu option or middle-clicking folders, File Explorer will open a new tab in the background rather than switching focus.

Shell

 * The redesigned Sound output page in the Quick Settings with new volume mixer feature, along with a new keyboard shortcut to open the page directly (⊞ Win), initially implemented in build 25281, have been rolled out to a subset of users. This feature can be toggled on manually by enabling the  velocity ID.
 * The dot-style notification badge on the Start menu's user profile icon, initially introduced in build 25217, has been updated with different text variants. This change is only available to a subset of users.
 * A lighter version of the search box on the taskbar has been added when Windows is set to dark mode.
 * The new Windows Spotlight UI, previously re-introduced in build 25281, has been disabled by default.
 * The support of showing the "Learn more about this picture" icon at different positions, initially implemented in build 25281, has been rolled out to all users.
 * The second-chance out of box experience (SCOOBE) screen has been updated in a more personalized way.
 * The ability to show recommendations for tips, shortcuts and new apps in Start menu (configurable via Personalization > Start in the Settings app) has been added. This feature is disabled by default, but can be toggled on manually by enabling the  velocity ID.

Widgets
The theme-aware icons for the Widgets entry point on the taskbar based on the user's Windows theme has been added.

Settings

 * The new touch keyboard dropdown menu under Time & language > Typing, initially implemented in build 25188 and later disabled by default in build 25217, has been re-enabled and re-rolled out to a subset of users. This feature can be toggled on manually by enabling the  velocity ID.
 * The new "Automatically manage color for apps" option under Display > Advanced display, initially implemented in build 25262, has been rolled out to a subset of users. This feature can be toggled on manually by enabling the  velocity ID.
 * A new "Power button controls" option for changing the behavior when interacting with the device's physical power controls has been added to the Power & Battery page.

Voice access
The following changes have been added to Voice access:
 * Redesigned in-app help page.
 * The ability to support English dialects other than American English.
 * New text selection and editing commands.

Input
The performance and accuracy of Simplified Chinese handwriting recognition engine have been improved, and the support of characters defined in GB18030-2022 has been added.

Miscellaneous
VBScript is now an optional feature and can be uninstalled.

General

 * Fixed an issue that was causing USB devices (including keyboard and mouse) to not work after upgrading to previous Zinc builds.
 * Fixed an issue that was causing the Start menu and taskbar to cyclically crash if users had uninstalled the previous Zinc builds.
 * Fixed an issue where using Windows Hello to sign in with facial recognition won't work on certain ARM64 devices.
 * Fixed multiple issues that were preventing some of the new live captions language models from downloading correctly.
 * Fixed an underlying issue that was causing certain ARM64 devices to not be able to activate M365, with it citing a network issue.
 * Fixed a search indexer crash.
 * Fixed an underlying issue that could cause UWP apps to appear in English after upgrading although that wasn't the current display language.
 * Fixed an issue which was causing  packages to fail to install with an error message that says "The parameter is incorrect."
 * Fixed an underlying issue causing certain cameras to not work in apps.
 * Fixed an underlying issue which was leading to Microsoft Edge crashes.

File Explorer

 * Fixed an issue that was causing custom desktop icon arrangements / sizes to get set back to default in build 25300.
 * Fixed an underlying issue believed to be the cause of File Explorer unexpectedly jumping into the foreground sometimes.
 * Fixed an issue where the close button could get stuck in a highlighted state when moving the mouse across it.

Shell

 * Fixed multiple  crashes that were impacting taskbar and system tray.
 * Fixed a display issue that was resulting in the taskbar appearing duplicated when making resolution changes.
 * Fixed an issue that was causing app icons on the taskbar to appear on the wrong monitor.
 * Fixed rendering issues when using the touch keyboard with the search box on the taskbar.
 * Fixed an issue where when double-clicking the search highlight glyph in the search box makes it disappear.
 * Fixed an issue that was causing the search box on the taskbar to randomly disappear.
 * Fixed an issue that was causing the search icon on the taskbar to flip incorrectly for right-to-left languages.
 * Fixed an issue that was causing some text flicker in the search box on the taskbar when clicking into it.
 * Fixed an issue that was causing the search box on the taskbar to disappear on one monitor when using multiple monitors.
 * Fixed a high hitting DWM crash in the last couple Zinc builds.

Settings

 * Fixed an issue that was causing Windows Update > Windows Insider Program page to show a newer build was available in Windows Update even though Windows is currently the latest available Zinc build.
 * Some accessibility fixes to the settings for search under Personalization > Taskbar have been made.
 * Fixed an underlying issue that was causing the settings under Apps > Startup to get reset.
 * Fixed an issue that was causing the Settings app to crash when opening Privacy & Security > Phone Calls.

Widgets
Fixed an issue where that was causing third-party widgets to not load as expected under certain circumstances.

Input

 * Fixed an issue where when using the French-Canadian layout for the touch keyboard, the letters output when typing didn't always match what was displayed on the keys.
 * Fixed an issue where when using the Korean IME, pressing Ctrl would open the IME context menu.

General

 * The system may take longer than expected to upgrade to this build in certain cases.
 * The "Getting ready for you" screens may appear for Azure Active Directory joined users when signing into Windows after upgrading to this build.
 * The Administrative Templates error  may appear when opening Group Policy Editor.
 * If attempting to format a ReFS volume with, the user may need to omit the   parameter. Otherwise, the file system may not be recognized.

Shell

 * The New button in Snipping Tool may be broken. The key combination ⊞ Win will still work.
 * 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.

Settings

 * The Language & Region page may indicate speech recognition support for currently unsupported languages.
 * When adding a language via the Language & Region page, the installation progress may become hidden, and users may not see install completion for enhanced speech recognition.
 * The Language & Region page may not offer the necessary speech recognition language support for live captions for up to an hour after first login.

Live captions

 * The enhanced speech recognition support may not be installed correctly through the Language & Region page in the Settings app on ARM64 devices.
 * Captioning performance may be degraded in non-English languages and missing out-of-language filtering in non-English (United States) languages.

Voice access
The redesigned in-app help page in voice access may not include all commands and the supplementary information may be inaccurate.

Safe mode

 * 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.