3 new Windows Insider builds released for Windows 11

UPDATE on August 26, 2022: added details about WDDM in Dev Channel build.

Microsoft has released a total of 3 Insider builds for Windows 11 on August 24, 2022:

• Update 1:
  • Channel: Beta Channel
  • “Subchannel” with new features disabled
  • Build: 10.0.22621.586
  • Target release context: 22H2
  • KB: 5016701
  • Update title: Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Insider Preview (10.0.22621.586) (KB5016701)
  • Official announcement in the Windows Insider blog @Windows Blogs: Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.586 and 22622.586
• Update 2:
  • Channel: Beta Channel
  • “Subchannel” with new features enabled
  • Build: 10.0.22622.586
  • Target release context: 22H2
  • KB: 5016701
  • Update title: Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Insider Preview (10.0.22622.586) (KB5016701)
  • Official announcement in the Windows Insider blog @Windows Blogs: Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22621.586 and 22622.586
• Update 3:
  • Channel: Dev Channel
  • Build: 10.0.25188.1000
  • Branch: rs_prerelease
  • Target release context: 22H2 (that is, normally this would be 23H2, but this is not official yet (see Flight Hub). Moreover, there is a good chance 23H2 won’t be coming at all, because of the alleged Windows 12 coming the year after, needing the necessary dev attention. Heck, the build is still called 22H2 inside Windows (winver)! That’s why the “target release context” of build 25188 could end up being 22H2, although some kind of post-“General Availability Channel” type.)
  • Official announcement in the Windows Insider blog @Windows Blogs: Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25188

For the Beta Channel Microsoft has flighted 2 builds, which is normal nowadays, as a few weeks ago the channel has been splitted into a “subchannel” where the new features are enabled (build 22622) and another one where they aren’t (build 22621).

Anyway, the 2 new updates are plain Cumulative Updates (CUs). As usual, if you’re on the 22621 “subchannel” you can, after applying the CU, check for updates again manually to then find the 22622 CU, providing you with the latest features from the Beta Channel.

The last one is the highest non-internal Windows build available and part of the Dev Channel, which, as you’re probably aware of, doesn’t relate anymore to a non-“Dev Channel” Windows release: while in the other channels there is at least the intention to keep new features moving forward towards a “real” (non-Insider) release, in the Dev Channel not even this intention is guaranteed, although, of course, many times this intention is actually present. All this also implicates new features can sometimes even pop up first or even only in the Beta Channel!

Important to be aware of with the latest build this time are:

• Updated Touch Keyboard Settings.
• Windows Terminal has now become the default terminal in Windows 11. Note: Windows Terminal Preview v1.15 is required (or when later released: Windows Terminal v1.15 or a higher version for both of them).
• Updated properties pages in Settings:
  • Wi-Fi
  • VPN

A few things have not been officially communicated, but have been discovered by enthusiasts:

• Live kernel dump from Task Manager. This one has been spotted by Rafael Rivera as vso/feature id 40430431. Live kernel dumps were already possible (e.g. through Microsoft’s Sysinternals tool LiveKd, which could even be used with the -o switch without real debugging – credits to the prominent Mark Russinovich, also CTO of Microsoft Azure @Microsoft). Anyway, this feature is really great, as it makes taking a dump of the kernel mode memory very easy and this without needing a reboot (live)!

  

• Animating Settings navigation icons. This nice visual enhancement has been spotted by Rafael as well.
• An updated Secure Boot driver called Microsoft Security Core Boot Driver, as spotted by Twitter user and leakster Xeno: driver file msseccore.sys gets a bump to 10.0.25188.0.

However, a bugcheck has already been discovered with STOP code MSSECCORE_ASSERTION_FAILURE:

Tero Alhonen could find this about the bugcheck:

• Hints of a new version of the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) driver, i.e. 3.2, spotted by Twitter user Xeno. For Windows 11 22H2 version 3.1 is expected, so it could be that 3.2 is n the works and is meant for the next major Windows version (Windows 12?). The driver itself is not 3.2 yet, but a hint was found in the Multilingual User Interface (MUI) file dxdiagn.dll.mui, which belongs to Microsoft DirectX Diagnostic Tool:

  

Also possible now in the Dev Channel, thanks to a Microsoft Store update, is Microsoft Store Ads in search results.

Anyway, Flight Hub hasn’t been updated yet, but you may expect this to happen very soon.

Ciao!

Pedro