KB5077223

Microsoft released cumulative update KB5077223 for Windows 11 version 25H2, intended for Windows Insider participants on the Beta channel. This update is a Windows 11 Insider Preview Quality Update (build 26220.7859) and brings several stability improvements and a new feature for Microsoft 365 Family subscribers.

• Microsoft 365 subscription plan change offer. On the Settings > Accounts page, an offer to switch to another Microsoft 365 subscription plan is now displayed. Users can view available options for upgrading their subscription directly from the Settings app. If desired, the display of this offer can be disabled by turning off the "show recommended content" setting in system parameters.
• Improved reliability of app icons in the system tray. Improved reliability of app icon display in the system tray when the automatic taskbar hiding feature is enabled.
• Fix for unexpected switching of File Explorer windows. Fixed an issue where all open File Explorer windows and tabs could unexpectedly switch to the desktop or the home page.
• Increased reliability of Nearby Sharing. Increased reliability of transferring large files using the Nearby Sharing feature.
• Improved stability of Surface Dial settings. Improved stability when configuring settings in Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Dial for Surface Dial and similar devices.

Installation is performed via Windows Update: go to Settings > Windows Update and click Check for updates. A computer restart is required to complete the installation.

Windows Insider participants on the Dev channel who previously used build 26200 will be automatically migrated to build 26220 using the enablement package KB5066383, manual installation via provided links is also available.

Please note that update KB5077223 is distributed in checkpoint format. Such cumulative updates will be smaller in size and will only contain changes made since the last checkpoint, which speeds up download and installation, saves bandwidth and disk space. Therefore, before manual installation, it is necessary to have previously installed updates, namely KB5043080 (build 26100.1742) for Windows 11 version 24H2.

How the new features work:

Microsoft 365 subscription plan change offer: On Settings > Accounts page, the system checks the subscription token via Windows Feedback API. Disabling show recommended content in registry or Group Policy blocks this API call. Users see upgrade options only if a better plan is detected.

Improved reliability of app icons in the system tray: When taskbar auto-hide is enabled, the updated ShellExperienceHost.exe handles WM_TASKBARBUTTONCREATED and ITaskbarList4 redraws more reliably, preventing icon freezes during tray state changes.

Fix for unexpected switching of File Explorer windows: Fixed a bug in explorer.exe where SetForegroundWindow incorrectly affected all tabs via TabBand. Each Explorer instance now maintains its own navigation context independently.

Increased reliability of Nearby Sharing: For large files, the NearbySharing protocol increases Wi-Fi Direct ACK timeout from 5 to 15 seconds and adds fragment retransmission without session break, improving reliability over unstable links.

Improved stability of Surface Dial settings: Fixed a thread conflict in DeviceSettingsBroker.exe when polling HID messages. Rotation, click, and haptic feedback handlers now use a mutex with timeout, eliminating deadlocks in device registry parameters.

The last 10 Windows updates: