Windows 11 build 26257

10.0.26257.5000.ge_prerelease.240719-1747
	Build of Germanium
OS family	Windows 11 (NT 10.0)
Version number	10.0
Build number	26257
Build revision	5000
Architecture	AMD64, ARM64
Build lab	ge_prerelease
Compiled on	2024-07-19
Expiration date
Timebomb	2024-09-15 (+58 days)
SKUs
	Home (N, Single Language, China); SE (N); Pro (N, Single Language, China); Pro Education (N); Pro for Workstations (N); Education (N); Enterprise (Evaluation, G, GN, N, N Evaluation); IoT Enterprise (Subscription)
About dialog

Windows 11 build 26257 is a build of Germanium, the 24H2 development semester of Windows as a service. It was released to the Windows Insiders in the Canary Channel on 24 July 2024 alongside its server counterpart.

This is the last Germanium client build to be available to Insiders in the Canary Channel, as the channel would later receive Dilithium builds starting from 27686. However, server builds are still released on the Germanium development semester constantly.

New features and changes[edit | edit source]

Features[edit | edit source]

The following features and changes introduced previously have been gradually rolled out:

Updates to the logic for the "End Task" option in the taskbar's context menu so that it no longer shows a "Not Responding" dialog to give confirmation before ending the task (initially implemented in build 22635.3858)
The change that moves options for toggling abbreviated date/time and clock with seconds in the system tray to the "Show time and date in the System tray" section under Time & language > Date & time in the Settings app (initially implemented in build 22635.3930 and can be activated manually by enabling the 46874415 and 48433719 velocity staging keys)
The toggle switch for manually toggling the notifcation bell icon under the "Notifications" section of System > Notifications in the Settings app (initially implemented in build 22635.3930 and can be activated manually by enabling the 46874415 and 48433719 velocity staging keys)
The change to the Run dialog and System Information that follows text size preference under Accessibility > Text Size in the Settings app (initially implemented in build 22635.3930)
The "Duplicate Tab" option in the File Explorer's tabs context menu for duplicating the selected tab (previously introduced in build 26212 and can be activated manually by enabling the 45262221 and 48433719 velocity staging keys)
The "Enhance pointer precision" option and the "Scrolling direction" dropdown menu (ported from the Mouse Control Panel applet) under Bluetooth & devices > Mouse in the Settings app (previously introduced in build 26227 and can be activated manually by enabling the 48433719 and 51190751 velocity staging keys)

The following features and changes introduced previously have also been ported to this build, albeit being disabled by default:

The ability to show abbreviated date/time in the system tray (initially implemented in build 22635.3790 and can be activated manually by enabling the 46874415 and 48433719 velocity staging keys)
The change to the system tray that hides the notification bell icon by default if the date and time clock is enabled (initially implemented in build 22635.3930 and can be activated manually by enabling the 46874415 and 48433719 velocity staging keys)
The redesigned taskbar thumbnail previews with new hover and switch animations (previously force disabled in build 26063 but then refined in build 22635.3790, and can be activated manually by enabling the 29532725 velocity staging key)
The redesigned Open With dialog (initially implemented in build 22635.3790 and can be activated manually by enabling the 41118774 and 51339492 velocity staging keys)
The revamped Windows Hello user experience with new Windows Hello and PINs iconography on the login screen and redesigned Windows security credential user experiences for PINs (initially implemented in build 22635.3930 and can be activated manually by enabling the 42941381 velocity staging key)

Miscellaneous[edit | edit source]

The netsh wlan show networks command has been updated to show Wi-Fi SSIDs using UTF-8 encoding, thus making SSIDs with Unicode characters to be displayed in netsh output properly. This change is gradually rolled out, but can be activated manually by enabling the 48433719 and 49686287 velocity staging keys.

Bugfixes[edit | edit source]

Fixed an underlying issue that was causing the KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE bugcheck in certain cases.
Addressed an issue where the address bar dropdown menu in File Explorer might appear unexpectedly.
Fixed an underlying issue leading to some of the pop-up windows in the Settings app unexpectedly appearing left-aligned (for example, the window for selecting a custom color under the Dynamic Lighting page).

Bugs and quirks[edit | edit source]

Users may be unable to perform an in-place upgrade to this build via Windows Update in builds 26040, 23620 and earlier due to a deadlock that occurs during the initial preparation process.
Text on highlighted items in Microsoft Management Console and some of its snap-ins may have a yellow color.
Switching to the kaomoji and symbols sections or selecting an emoji may cause the emoji panel to close unexpectedly.
Windows Sandbox may fail to initialize with the 0x80370106 error.
Text suggestions for the hardware keyboard may not work properly (selecting one unexpectedly concatenates).
The color for graphs in the Performance section on Task Manager may not display correctly in dark mode.