Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22538 brings some improvements to Voice Access and t

[harlan4096]

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22538 is now available in the Dev Channel. This release focuses on improvements to Voice Access, Voice Typing, a couple of changes to the interface and fixes some issues that were reported by users.

Voice Access and Voice Typing

Voice Access is now compatible with the Touch Keyboard. The app displays tear drops with a number over each key to assist the user. You can use it to dictate names, email addresses, phone numbers, punctuation marks, emojis etc. Speech packs for Voice Typing are available from the Microsoft Store.

UI related improvements

The Widgets panel's icon will display the weather information, such as the temperature, directly on the Taskbar. The feature, which was introduced in Build 22518, is now available for all Insiders in the Dev Channel. If you have the taskbar aligned to the left, the Widgets icon changes to represent the weather info.

Note: I'm not sure how this happened, but the Widgets button, which used to be on the left edge prior to today's update, is back on the Centered Taskbar in my VM, and it doesn't display the weather information either. The change log says that these issues have been fixed in the update, but seem to have actually been introduced in this build for me.

The lockscreen will display the Touch Keyboard and IMEs, that you can use to enter your username and credentials. This feature is being A/B tested, so only some Insiders will be able to use the option.

The new Alt + Tab interface, along with Task View and Snap assist now uses your theme's accent color for the focus rectangle, i.e. the border that appears when you select a window.

The Network Connections Control Panel applet is back, you can access it by typing ncpa.cpl from the Start Menu.The option to adjust the Display Calibration can be accessed from the Settings > Display > HDR page. Hyper-V Generation 2 VMs now support HTTPS boot, which is enabled by default.

Fixes in Windows 11 Build 22538

Using the hardware keys to adjust the volume level should no longer cause Explorer to crash. The Wi-Fi signal indicators in the Quick Settings will reflect the signal strength bars correctly. A bug that caused text to appear in the Settings app and other places has been patched. Scan mode in text boxes does not result in Narrator crashing. The delayed audio sync issue that occurred when playing a video after the computer woke up from sleep or hibernate, has been mitigated. Trying to open folders with the name Advanced will not open Advanced Sharing Settings anymore. The Search function should recognize input properly when you access it from the Search button or Start Menu.

Issues in Windows 11 Build 22538

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22538 still has some known issues from previous releases. But the new version brings a couple of new bugs. The date and time and Quick Settings icons are misaligned. Check the screenshot for comparison, you can see that the icons are aligned near the top instead of their usual central position.

The caret button for displaying hidden icons is displayed twice, so 2 arrow icons appear in the system tray. Only of these buttons are functional, the one on the left, the other displays the tooltip when you mouse over it, but is otherwise non-responsive. Microsoft has acknowledged these as known issues in the announcement post, and is investigating them for potential fixes. Meanwhile, users are advised to reboot the system as a temporary fix, however that didn't work for me, YMMV.

Some users are reporting that the Task Manager crashes when trying to access the Performance tab. It doesn't happen on my virtual machine. It took just over 2 hours for my virtual machine to download and install the new build. If your Windows update seems to be stuck for an hour or longer, it is normal. A Microsoft representative says that Insider Builds are full updates, i.e., not Cumulative Updates which are way faster, and as such are slow to install.
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