Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25120 introduces a search bar on the desktop

[harlan4096]

Microsoft has released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25120 to users in the Dev Channel. It introduces a search bar on the desktop



What's new in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25120

The Redmond company is calling it a "lightweight interactive content". Why not call it what it is, that is a desktop widget. You will need to reboot the computer after installing the update to trigger the search bar. Users can paste a URL in it, or type in their query to perform a web search via Bing (via Microsoft Edge?)
Image credit: Microsoft.

Microsoft says that the search bar isn't available for everyone just yet, as it is being A/B tested. The search widget may be rolled out on a wider scale if it receives positive feedback from users. I'm not a fan of the giant Bing search bar, but does this mean more desktop widgets are on the way? I miss the Windows 7 gadgets, they were really cool.

How to disable the desktop search bar in Windows 11

Not a fan of the new search bar on the desktop? You can remove the widget quite easily. Right-click on the desktop, select "Show more options", and click on the "Show Search" option to toggle it.

Microsoft is offering Build 25120 for ARM64 devices.

Fixes in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25120

The Suggested Actions feature which debuted a week ago, in Build 25115, has been updated to support more date and time formats. It should now work more reliably. Viewing the battery usage graph will no longer crash the Settings app. The Wi-Fi section in the Quick Settings panel is faster to display available wireless networks. Text on the Task Manager's performance page is now readable when a contrast theme is active. Windows Update will not stall or roll back updates for users who have WSA enabled on their computer.

Known issues in Windows Insider Preview Build 25120

Games that use Easy Anti-Cheat may crash or cause a blue screen of death on your PC, with a bug check. The issues related to Live Captions which were present in the previous build remain unfixed in the current build. You can read the announcement article at the Windows Insider Blog, for more details.

My Windows Update got stuck at 99% downloaded, and wouldn't progress. I didn't have WSA enabled. A few others seem to have had this issue. I also had an Update Stack Package version 922.415.111.0 failing to install with an error code 0xc4800010. The issue is, this stack update had been installed successfully in the last week of April, but Windows 11 wanted to re-download it, and failed every time it tried to install it. I'm not sure about this, but the stack update bug may have corrupted the Windows Update files, which maybe why the Build update wouldn't get past 99%.

This had been happening for the last few Insider Builds, but usually I got around it by restarting the VM and checking for updates again, running Disk Cleanup to delete the update files, or by resetting the Windows Update components. None of these steps fixed my issue in the last build, I even deleted the SoftwareDistribution and Catroot2 folders, but ended up upgrading the OS manually using an ISO that I downloaded from UUdump.

The same issue occurred today with Build 25120, so I clean installed it using the previous build's ISO, after which the VM was able to download the Build 25120 update and install it. If you're facing similar issues, you can download the current build's ISO directly from Microsoft, take a backup of your data, and clean install the operating system.

Do you like the new search widget?
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