Windows 11 experts have witnessed the release of a new test build that fixes some nasty bugs, including some File Explorer-related bugs, and adds some minor new startup features.
Windows 22621.898 build 11 (22H2) has hit the release preview channel, and there is an important bug fix for an issue with File Explorer that triggered high CPU usage, slowing down your PC, causing sometimes it happened when opening a file.
Another issue where File Explorer crashes completely when closing context menus and menu items has also been resolved.
There are plenty of other bug fixes besides these, as you can imagine, with the full list provided on the Microsoft blog post (opens in a new tab).
As for the new features in build 22621.898, there are some minor but useful additions here, including combining Windows Spotlight with Themes in the Personalization settings (which makes Spotlight easier to find and activate, Microsoft says).
Additionally, OneDrive users will now receive storage alerts letting them know when they're low on online storage on the Systems page (under Settings). It is also possible to purchase more storage from the Settings menu.
Microsoft also made one additional small change, now showing users the total amount of storage available from all their OneDrive subscriptions combined.
Note that all of these are still in testing, but will hopefully make it to the final version of Windows 11 soon.
Analysis: Crucial part of the Windows 11 interface
These are some useful additional additions, but nothing major - the main focus here is on squashing numerous bugs and vital work on that front as well. File Explorer is the centerpiece of the Windows user interface so it's good to see that the slow CPU issue is now fixed and indeed the problem that was causing File Explorer to crash for complete (never a good thing, of course).
We're expecting bigger changes to come to Windows 11 in addition to bug fixes, and in fact, we've just heard about one we've been waiting for quite a while: the ability to unlink apps from the taskbar. .
In other words, a "never merge" option that was always present in Windows 10, but was removed for Windows 11 for some unfathomable reason. It's a big step forward, at least in our book, though that said, it should have been a choice from the start (fewer options are never a good thing, in general).
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