Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 28020.1362 to the Canary Channel. (KB5073095)
What’s new in Build 28020.1362
Changes and Improvements Gradually Rolling Out
[Gaming]
- The full screen experience (FSE) is now available on more Windows 11 handheld devices after its initial launch on ASUS ROG Ally and ROG Ally X. FSE gives you a console-style interface with the Xbox app, making handheld gaming clean and distraction-free. It improves performance by minimizing background tasks, so gameplay stays smooth and responsive. To turn it on, go to Settings > Gaming > Full screen experience, and set Xbox as your home app. You can open FSE from Task View or Game Bar or configure your handheld to enter full screen experience on startup.
- Feedback: Share your thoughts in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Gaming and Xbox > Gaming Handhelds.
[Click to Do]
The following changes and improvements are rolling out for Copilot+ PCs:
- The Click to Do context menu is being updated with a streamlined design, making it simpler to locate what you need. Frequently used actions like Copy, Save, Share, and Open will now be easier to access directly from the context menu.
- Whenever a large image or table appears on your screen, the context menu will automatically pop up, making it quicker and easier to access the actions and results you need.
[Agent in Settings]
The following changes and improvements are rolling out for agent in Settings on Copilot+ PCs:
- We’re introducing new experiences to make it easier to modify settings in both search and recommended settings.
- Recommend Settings: Now allows for faster changes by showing an inline agent action for recently modified settings.
- Search: We now show more available results in the search fly out to discover what you’re looking for and to allow you to quickly modify those settings. In cases where the settings can’t be adjusted further, a dialog lets you know why and provides an option to modify the settings as needed.
[Studio Effects]
Making Windows Studio Effects available on additional cameras
- We are working to bring the Windows Studio Effects experience from integrated laptop cameras to a broader range of camera hardware, helping you stay professional and look your best across more setups. On supported Copilot+ PCs, we are rolling out the ability to use Studio Effect’s AI-powered camera enhancements with an additional, alternative camera – such as a USB webcam or your laptop’s built-in rear camera.
- To get started, navigate to Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Cameras and select your preferred camera from the connected cameras list. Then, open the advanced camera options menu to find the new “Use Windows Studio Effects” toggle. Once enabled, you can now access and adjust Studio Effects directly from the camera settings page or via the quick settings menu in the taskbar.
- For more information on Windows Studio Effects and device prerequisites, check out Windows Studio Effects – Microsoft Support.
[Drag Tray]
For Insiders with the Drag Tray feature:
- Drag Tray now supports multi-file sharing, intelligently surfaces more relevant apps, and enables seamless file movement to a chosen folder.
- We’ve added the ability to turn Drag Tray on/off from Settings > System > Nearby sharing.
[File Explorer]
- Dark Mode: We’ve made improvements to the dark mode experience in File Explorer starting with key actions like copy, move, and delete dialogs. You’ll now see a consistent dark mode experience in:
- The default and expanded state for copy, move, and delete dialogs
- Progress bars and chart views
- Dialogs for confirming states like skip, override, and file selection
- Multiple confirmation and error dialogs
Other File Explorer improvements include:
- For Insiders with Copilot+ PCs, we’re updating the File Explorer Search Box placeholder text to raise awareness of the improved Windows Search experience introduced earlier this year. Learn more in our January blog post.
- When you hover over a file in File Explorer Home, commands such as Open file location and Ask Copilot appear as quick actions. This experience is now supported for work and school accounts (Entra ID). This feature isn’t available in the European Economic Area.
[Mobile Device Settings]
- You can now directly add and manage your mobile devices from Settings on your Windows PC by navigating to “Mobile Devices” under the Bluetooth & Devices section. This page allows you to view your mobile devices, add new mobile devices, and manage features such as using your device as a connected camera or accessing your device’s files in File Explorer.
[Desktop Spotlight]
- We are trying out a change that adds “Learn more about this background” and “Next desktop background” to the context menu when you click on your desktop if you have Windows Spotlight chosen as your desktop background under Settings > Personalization > Background.
[Input]
- We’re moving more keyboard settings from Control Panel to Settings – this includes that the setting for character repeat delay / rate is now available under Settings > Bluetooth & Devices > Keyboard, and the setting for cursor blink rate is now available under Settings > Accessibility > Text cursor.
- Keyboard backlight performance has improved on supported HID-compliant keyboards. Compatible keyboards display keys clearly in low-light environments, and the backlight adjusts to help conserve power.
- The AltGr layer is now enabled for the Arabic 101 keyboard layout. The left Alt key continues to function as before, while the right Alt key acts as a modifier to access additional symbols. The first new symbol mapped to AltGr on the Arabic 101 layout is the Saudi Riyal currency symbol (AltGr+S). The Saudi Riyal currency symbol is also available on the touch keyboard’s symbols page and the expressive input panels currency tab. Users who switch languages with Alt+Shift can continue to use the left Alt+Shift or the general shortcut Windows logo key+Spacebar. Arabic 102 and Arabic 102 AZERTY layouts are updated similarly.
- Pens that support haptic feedback will now deliver tactile responses during certain interactions with the system UI. For example, you may feel vibrations when hovering over the close button or when snapping and resizing windows.
[Game Pass]
- In this build we have modified references to Game Pass plans in Settings to reflect updated branding and benefits.
[OneDrive]
- We are rolling out the new OneDrive icon in Accounts and Homepages in Settings.
[Recovery]
- Quick Machine Recovery (QMR) now runs a one-time scan on PCs with settings quick machine recoveryand automatically check for solutions are both turned on. If a fix isn’t available immediately, QMR directs you to the best recovery options to get your PC running again.Alt txt: In Settings for Systems, Recovery, “Quick machine recovery” and “Automatically check for solutions” are enabled to run a onetime QMR scan by default.
[Advanced Settings]
- You can now turn on Virtual Workspaces in Advanced Settings. Virtual Workspaces allow you to enable or disable virtual environments such as Hyper-V and Windows Sandbox. To access Virtual Workspaces, go to Settings> Systems > Advanced.
Fixes gradually being rolled out
[File Explorer]
- Fixed an issue where File Explorer might unexpectedly not show thumbnails for video files containing certain EXIF metadata.
- Fixed an issue where an old white toolbar might sometimes appear unexpectedly in File Explorer.
- Fixed an issue where when you right-clicked a file, the app icon next to the Open option might appear generic instead of showing the default app for that file type.
- Fixed an issue where when opening a folder from another app (for example, opening the Downloads folder from a browser), your custom view — including sorting files by name, changing the icon size, or removing grouping — unexpectedly might reset back to default.
- Fixed an issue where the body of the File explorer window might no longer respond to mouse clicks after invoking the context menu.
- Fixed an issue where extracting very large archive folders (1.5gb+) might fail with a “Catastrophic Error” (error code 0x8000FFFF).
- Fixed an issue which could cause File Explorer to become unresponsive when opening Home.
[Settings]
- Fixed and issue where Settings might become unresponsive when attempting to navigate to the Network & Internet section.
- Fixed an issue where the search bar in Settings might become overlapped with the minimum and maximum buttons in the title bar.
- Fixed an issue where the processor name in Settings > System > About might be truncated.
[Taskbar]
- Fixed an issue where the automatically hide the taskbar setting might unexpectedly turn off, after seeing a message saying a toolbar is already hidden on this side of your screen.
- Fixed an issue where Voice access wasn’t working correctly when attempting to interact with the taskbar (calling out a number might not invoke that item).
- Fixed and issue where the taskbar icons might automatically scale to be smaller, although there was enough room left without scaling changes.
- Fixed an issue where if you hovered over an app icon on the taskbar, and then selected the window preview, the preview might dismiss and not bring the window to the foreground.
[Start menu]
- For Insiders with the new Start menu, the Windows Search panel now matches the new Start menu in size. This update aims to create a smoother transition when searching.
[Internet]
- Made some underlying improvements to help address an issue which could lead to not having internet after resuming from disconnected standby. Please don’t hesitate to file feedback under Network and Internet in the Feedback Hub if you continue experiencing issues.
[Display and graphics]
- Improved performance when apps query monitors for their full list of supported modes. When this happened it could previously lead to a momentary stutter on very high-resolution monitors. This work should help prevent and reduce stuttering in these scenarios.
- Fixed an issue where All-in-one PCs might experience issues with their brightness slider, where it unexpectedly would revert to the original brightness when interacting with it.
- Fixed an issue where recently certain games might display the message Unsupported graphics card detected, although a supported graphics card was being used.
- Fixed an issue where apps and browsers might display partially unresponsive onscreen content when other maximized or full-screen apps were updating in the background. This issue was particularly noticeable when scrolling, as only parts of the window content might update.
- Fixed an issue where text might not render correctly when editing content within a multiline text box in certain apps.
[Login and Lock screens]
- Made some underlying changes to improve the performance of loading the taskbar after unlocking your PC from sleep. This also should help in cases where the password field and other sign-in screen contents didn’t render when transitioning from the lock screen to the sign-in screen after sleep.
- Fixed an issue where it might be very slow the first time when signing into a new account.
- Fixed an issue where when your lock screen was set to slide show, there might be a memory leak. Memory leaks can lead to performance or reliability issues over time.
[Narrator]
- Fixed an issue where Narrator might take abrupt random pauses during continuous reading. in word docs.
[Windows Update]
- Fixed an underlying issue which could cause “Update and shutdown” to not actually shut down your PC after updating
- Fixed an underlying issue which could lead to some Insiders seeing error 0x8007042B when attempting to upgrade to Canary from recent Windows 11 24H2 or 25H2-based builds.
[Task Manager]
- Fixed an issue where Task Manager might open as expected, but if you tried to close it it would remain running in the background, with the number of processes growing each time you opened Task Manager. This could also lead to Task Manager unexpectedly appearing on boot.
[Other]
- Fixed an issue where certain apps might become unresponsive when launching the Open or Save Dialog.
- Fixed an issue where interacting with the desktop might unexpectedly invoke Task View.
[Paint App update rolling out to Canary & Dev Channels]
- With Paint version 11.2511.281.0, we’re introducing the collapse toolbar feature in Paint. To get started, open Paint and click the chevron icon at the bottom-right of the ribbon to enable Automatically hide toolbar. Once the toolbar collapses, use the Show toolbar button to bring it back and switch tools. To hide it again, click the Hide toolbar button or anywhere outside the toolbar. When you’re ready to return to the default view, click the chevron icon and select Always show toolbar.
- FEEDBACK: Please file feedback in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Apps > Paint.
Reminders for Windows Insiders in the Canary Channel
- These builds can be unstable and may be released with limited documentation. Join Windows Insider – Get early access to Windows 11 features & updates
- The builds we release to the Canary Channel represent the latest platform changes early in the development cycle and should not be seen as matched to any specific release of Windows. Features and experiences included in these builds may never get released as we try out different concepts and get feedback. Features may change over time, be removed, or replaced and never get released beyond Windows Insiders. Some of these features and experiences could show up in future Windows releases when they’re ready.
- Many features in the Canary Channel are rolled out using Control Feature Rollout technology, starting with a subset of Insiders and ramping up over time as we monitor feedback to see how they land before pushing them out to everyone in this channel.
- Some features may show up in the Dev and Beta Channels first before showing up in the Canary Channel.
- Some features in active development we preview with Windows Insiders may not be fully localized and localization will happen over time as features are finalized. As you see issues with localization in your language, please report those issues to us via Feedback Hub.
- To get off the Canary Channel, a clean install of Windows 11 will be required. As a reminder – Insiders can’t switch to a channel that is receiving builds with lower build numbers without doing a clean installation of Windows 11 due to technical setup requirements.
- Check out Flight Hub for a complete look at what build is in which Insider channel.
Thanks,
Windows Insider Program Team
*Functionality will vary by device and market; text actions will be available across markets in select character sets. See aka.ms/copilotpluspcs.
Source: https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2025/12/15/announcing-windows-11-insider-preview-build-28020-1362-canary-channel/
