Windows 11 has a new preview on the Dev Channel that includes some smart interface tweaks and better, more natural voices for Narrator.
Narrator, the built-in tool that reads screen content to you, like a web page, for example, now has two new natural American English (female) voices, called "Jenny" and "Aria." Users can select the one they prefer, and once the voices are downloaded and installed, they work without an internet connection.
Microsoft also introduced new keyboard shortcuts for Narrator to make it easier to switch between different voices (and more).
The new preview build 22543 also makes some minor but nifty changes to the desktop interface, including resizing captured windows. When you do this, the captured windows (apart from the main one) blur and overlap with the corresponding app icon. It's a pretty cool effect that makes it a little easier to see how much space you're giving those broken windows.
Additionally, the media controls steering wheel panel on the lock screen has now been changed to match the quick settings controls. This particular setting is only rolling out to a limited number of testers at this time, and feedback will be evaluated before a larger rollout begins. In other words, don't be surprised if you still don't get it.
As always, many fixes for Windows 11 are provided in this preview, and this includes a fix for a crash issue with File Explorer that occurs when dragging a file out of a ZIP. All the work done is summarized in Microsoft's blog post about the new version (along with known issues unavoidable with an early preview - expect some unknown issues too).
Analysis: Fast progress with accessibility features
It's good to see continued progress on the accessibility front, in terms of more natural voices for Narrator, which have already been well received by testers using the feature. Presumably, we will soon see more options for different voices.
Accessibility is something that Microsoft has rightly prioritized in Windows, and the most recent major move is the introduction of full voice control capabilities (built with Nuance's Dragon speech recognition technology) and a virtual keyboard that you can type with your voice. The accessibility work has been going on for years, of course, and it brings some very useful features like eye tracking that debuted almost five years ago with Windows 10.
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