Microsoft has released the preliminary update KB5101684 (build 26200.8968) for Windows 11 version 25H2. It is distributed in two phases: a phased rollout, where new features become available on devices gradually, and a standard rollout, meaning a broad release for all compatible devices immediately after reaching the general availability stage.
- File Explorer. File sizes in the Details view are now displayed in appropriate units (KB, MB, and GB), not just in KB, simplifying perception at a glance. Middle mouse button click now opens a folder in a new tab also in the address bar and on the Home page for more consistent and convenient navigation. Fixed a gray flash during loading and unexpected scrolling to the top of the Home page in some cases. Improved the appearance of file thumbnails in the Recommended section on Home — they have become clearer and easier to read.
- Windows Search. Improved searching files in local, cloud, and connected content, including support for two-character search queries. Improved app search: better handling of typos and partial names of installed applications. Improved settings relevance — more useful settings are displayed higher in the search results.
- Voice Access. Added voice isolation, which helps to recognize the user's voice more accurately by reducing interference from other speakers and background noise. Three speech recognition modes are now available in Voice Access Settings > Speech Recognition Enhancement: Voice Isolation filters out other speakers and background noise (requires a one-time voice setup); Background Noise Removal Only filters out non-speech sounds such as keystrokes or door slams (no additional setup required); No Filtering uses the standard microphone signal without additional processing. To set up voice isolation, go to Voice Access Settings > Speech Recognition Enhancement and select Voice Isolation. Also added Korean language support in Voice Access.
- Widgets. Notification badges on the taskbar now use the Windows accent color instead of red, reducing the number of overly attention-grabbing alerts. Simplified lock screen widgets: for new users, only Weather is displayed by default.
- Touchpad. In Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Touchpad, new gesture settings for precision touchpads have appeared: scroll and zoom speed allows adjusting the base speed of scrolling and zooming gestures, and accelerated scrolling makes movement faster the more frequently the gesture is repeated, which is convenient for quickly moving through long documents.
- Start menu. Improved the reliability of saving Start menu view settings — the selected view is now saved. Improved keyboard navigation when the focus is set on the app list in the Start menu.
- Voice Typing. The Fluid dictation feature is now disabled by default for new users. A teaching tip is displayed when using the feature for the first time.
- Input. Improved saving of the selected mouse pointer size.
- Accessibility. Improved the magnifier experience on touchscreen devices. The horizontal and vertical touch bars used for panning the magnified area are now disabled by default and no longer overlap the magnified content. If you use touch panning, the bars can be re-enabled in Settings > Accessibility > Magnifier.
- Windows Hello. Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS) now supports external fingerprint scanners. Secure login becomes available not only on devices with built-in scanners, but also on desktop computers and other Windows 11 PCs, including Copilot+ PCs. To get started, connect a supported fingerprint scanner with ESS, open Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options and follow the instructions for registration. The feature was announced in January 2026 (KB5074105) and is now beginning to roll out.
- Fonts. Restored support for Unicode variation sequences in the Myanmar Text font. Improved shaping and rendering of Mongolian Baiti font characters for more accurate and uniform text display.
- Account Manager. Updated the design of the Account Manager control in the Start menu, added an icon with subscription status. To open the Account Manager, open the Start menu and select your account picture in the lower left corner. Available for users signed in with a Microsoft account.
- Taskbar. Improved the reliability of loading the taskbar notification area on touch devices in tablet mode.
- AI Component. It is now possible to remove the AI image generation component on supported Copilot+ PCs where this component is installed.
- Windows Setup. Added a parental control notification during Windows setup with information about available family safety features.
- Power & battery. Changes to global power settings — display turn-off time, entering sleep mode and hibernation, power and sleep button actions, as well as lid close actions — are now applied to all power schemes. Improved the reliability of power settings: changes made in Settings are applied to all power schemes, so settings are saved consistently.
- Windows Update. Improved the calculation of update progress in Windows Update settings. Changed the post-update cleanup logic to improve system performance immediately after installing an update.
- Sounds. Improved system sounds when using Windows in dark mode.
- Date & time. Improved the detection of conditions for showing time zone change notifications. Improved the accuracy of Daylight Saving Time (DST) data for the Middle East Standard Time (Beirut), Morocco Standard Time (Casablanca), Israel Standard Time (Jerusalem), and Greenland Standard Time (Nuuk) time zones.
- Network. Improved the reliability of DHCP lease renewal in a number of scenarios, in particular when receiving a NACK from the DHCP server and on devices with Modern Standby.
- Print. Improved printing speed (pages per minute) for IPPS printers.
- Clipboard. Improved clipboard reliability in some Remote Desktop and Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) scenarios.
- Battery. Restored the ability to set the charge threshold at which battery saver turns on, in Settings > System > Power & battery.
- General Stability. Improved explorer.exe reliability, including when opening jump lists and recent files, when sending files and folders, as well as when using Task View and multiple desktops. Improved the reliability of Windows login and lock screens, especially when memory is low. Improved the reliability of the Start menu and taskbar at system startup.
To install the update, go to Settings > Windows Update and click Check for updates.
| Feature / Change | Performance Increase or Decrease | Optimization | PC Speed | Gaming Optimization |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| File Explorer: appropriate size units (KB, MB, GB) | ⚪ No direct impact | 🟢 High (reduces cognitive load, faster perception) | ⚪ No direct impact | ⚪ Not applicable |
| File Explorer: middle-click opens in new tab | ⚪ No direct impact | 🟢 High (reduces action steps, faster navigation) | ⚪ No direct impact | ⚪ Not applicable |
| File Explorer: fixed gray flash & unexpected scroll | 🟢 Slight increase (smoother rendering) | 🟡 Medium (removes visual lag spikes) | 🟢 Marginal (perceived responsiveness) | ⚪ Not applicable |
| File Explorer: clearer thumbnails in Recommended | ⚪ No impact | 🟡 Medium (faster visual identification) | 🟢 Marginal (less time scanning files) | ⚪ Not applicable |
| Windows Search: two-character & typo handling | ⚪ No impact | 🟢 High (reduces query retries, faster results) | 🟢 Noticeable (less waiting for results) | ⚪ Not applicable |
| Voice Access: voice isolation modes | ⚪ No impact | 🟢 High (cleaner input signal, fewer corrections) | ⚪ No direct impact | 🟡 Medium (less CPU on misrecognition for voice-control games) |
| Widgets: accent color badges instead of red | ⚪ No impact | 🟡 Medium (reduces distraction, faster task refocus) | ⚪ No impact | ⚪ Not applicable |
| Touchpad: scroll/zoom speed & acceleration | ⚪ No impact | 🟢 High (fewer gestures to traverse content) | 🟢 Perceived speed boost for document navigation | ⚪ Not applicable |
| Start menu: improved view reliability & keyboard nav | 🟢 Slight (less UI reset overhead) | 🟡 Medium (fewer disruptions, consistent flow) | 🟢 Marginal (faster keyboard access) | ⚪ Not applicable |
| Voice Typing: fluid dictation disabled by default | 🟢 Slight increase (reduced background processing) | 🟢 High (lighter idle footprint for new users) | 🟢 Marginal (fewer background cycles used) | ⚪ Not applicable |
| Input: improved mouse pointer size saving | ⚪ No impact | ⚪ No direct performance optimization | ⚪ No impact | ⚪ Not applicable |
| Magnifier: touch bars disabled by default | ⚪ No impact | 🟡 Medium (removes overlay redraw cost) | 🟢 Marginal (smoother touch magnifier panning) | ⚪ Not applicable |
| Windows Hello: ESS external fingerprint support | ⚪ No impact | ⚪ No performance optimization | ⚪ No direct impact | ⚪ Not applicable |
| Fonts: Myanmar Unicode & Mongolian Baiti fixes | ⚪ No impact | 🟡 Medium (faster text layout calculation) | 🟢 Marginal (rendering stall reduction) | ⚪ Not applicable |
| Account Manager: updated design in Start | ⚪ No impact | ⚪ No performance optimization | ⚪ No impact | ⚪ Not applicable |
| Taskbar: improved notification area reliability | 🟢 Slight (fewer load failures) | 🟡 Medium (less error recovery overhead) | 🟢 Marginal (faster taskbar ready state) | ⚪ Not applicable |
| AI Component: removable image generation | 🟢 Increase (frees storage, reduces background services) | 🟢 High (removes unused resource consumption) | 🟢 Noticeable on affected Copilot+ PCs | 🟢 Medium (more free RAM/disk for games) |
| Power & battery: global power settings application | 🟢 Slight increase (consistent sleep timers reduce wake overhead) | 🟢 High (eliminates scheme mismatch inefficiency) | 🟡 Medium (predictable power state transitions) | 🟡 Medium (less chance of throttling misconfiguration) |
| Windows Update: improved progress calculation & cleanup | 🟢 Increase (immediate post-update performance boost) | 🟢 High (aggressive post-update disk cleanup) | 🟢 Noticeable right after updates | 🟢 Medium (cleaner system state, less background disk I/O) |
| Sounds: improved dark mode system sounds | ⚪ No impact | ⚪ No performance optimization | ⚪ No impact | ⚪ Not applicable |
| Date & time: DST data accuracy improvements | ⚪ No impact | ⚪ No performance optimization | ⚪ No impact | ⚪ Not applicable |
| Network: DHCP lease renewal reliability | 🟢 Slight increase (avoids network drop recovery) | 🟢 High (prevents connection loss overhead) | 🟡 Medium (reduces network interruption latency) | 🟢 Medium (fewer online game disconnects) |
| Print: improved IPPS printing speed (PPM) | 🟢 Increase (higher pages per minute throughput) | 🟢 High (faster print job processing) | 🟡 Medium (less waiting for print completion) | ⚪ Not applicable |
| Clipboard: improved RDP/AVD reliability | ⚪ No impact | 🟡 Medium (fewer copy-paste retries) | 🟢 Marginal (faster remote workflow) | ⚪ Not applicable |
| Battery: restored charge threshold setting | ⚪ No direct impact | 🟡 Medium (allows tuning for sustained performance) | ⚪ No direct impact | ⚪ Not applicable |
| General: explorer.exe reliability (jump lists, multi-desktop) | 🟢 Increase (fewer crashes/restarts) | 🟢 High (less UI thread blocking) | 🟢 Noticeable (smoother shell interaction) | 🟡 Medium (less chance of Explorer crash during Alt+Tab) |
| General: login & lock screen low-memory reliability | 🟢 Increase (faster recovery from low memory) | 🟢 High (reduces thrashing on lock screen) | 🟢 Noticeable on low-RAM devices | 🟢 Medium (quicker return to game after lock) |
| General: Start menu & taskbar startup reliability | 🟢 Slight increase (fewer hung startups) | 🟡 Medium (cleaner boot resource allocation) | 🟢 Marginal (faster to desktop usability) | ⚪ Not applicable |
Find and Change Settings
| Setting | Where to find | How to change |
|---|---|---|
| File Explorer Details View Units | File Explorer > View > Details | File sizes now automatically display in appropriate units (KB, MB, GB). No manual change is required; this behavior is applied by default in the Details view. |
| File Explorer Middle-Click Open in New Tab | File Explorer > Address bar or Home page | Click the middle mouse button on a folder in the address bar or on the Home page to open it in a new tab. No setting change is required; the feature is enabled by default. |
| Voice Access Voice Isolation | Settings > Accessibility > Speech > Voice Access > Speech Recognition Enhancement | Open Voice Access Settings > Speech Recognition Enhancement and select Voice Isolation. A one-time voice setup is required. To disable filtering, select No Filtering. To remove only background non-speech sounds without voice setup, select Background Noise Removal Only. |
| Voice Access Korean Language | Settings > Accessibility > Speech > Voice Access | Download the Korean language pack under Settings > Accessibility > Speech > Manage voices, then enable Voice Access and select Korean as the speech recognition language. |
| Widgets Notification Badge Color | Taskbar > Widgets | Notification badges now automatically use the Windows accent color instead of red. No manual change is required; this is applied by default. |
| Lock Screen Widgets | Settings > Personalization > Lock screen | For new users, only Weather is displayed by default. To add or remove widgets, go to Settings > Personalization > Lock screen and customize your lock screen status. |
| Touchpad Scroll and Zoom Speed | Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Touchpad | Under Touchpad, adjust the Scroll and zoom speed slider to set the base speed. To enable faster movement on repeated gestures, turn on Accelerated scrolling. |
| Voice Typing Fluid Dictation | Settings > Accessibility > Speech > Voice Typing | Fluid dictation is now disabled by default for new users. A teaching tip appears on first use. You can enable or disable it in Voice Typing settings. |
| Mouse Pointer Size | Settings > Accessibility > Mouse pointer and touch | Changes to mouse pointer size are now saved reliably. Adjust the Size slider to your preference; the setting persists after restart. |
| Magnifier Touch Bars | Settings > Accessibility > Magnifier | Horizontal and vertical touch bars for panning are now disabled by default and no longer overlap content. To re-enable them, go to Settings > Accessibility > Magnifier and turn the touch bars on. |
| Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS) External Scanners | Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options | Connect a supported external fingerprint scanner with ESS, open Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options, and follow the registration instructions to set up secure login. |
| Account Manager | Start menu > Account picture (lower left corner) | Open the Start menu and select your account picture in the lower left corner to view the updated Account Manager with subscription status icon. Available for Microsoft accounts. |
| AI Image Generation Component Removal | Settings > Apps > Installed apps | On supported Copilot+ PCs, locate the AI image generation component in Installed apps, select it, and choose Uninstall to remove it. |
| Power & Battery Settings | Settings > System > Power & battery | Changes to display turn-off time, sleep, hibernation, power/sleep button actions, and lid close actions are now applied to all power schemes automatically. Adjust these under Power & battery settings. |
| Battery Saver Charge Threshold | Settings > System > Power & battery > Battery saver | Open Settings > System > Power & battery, navigate to Battery saver, and set the charge percentage threshold at which battery saver automatically turns on. |
Official announcement on the Microsoft website.
The last 10 Windows updates:
| Update | Build | Version | Windows | Channel | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KB5121157 | 28020.2818 | 26H1 | Windows 11 | Beta | 2026-08-31 |
| KB5121158 | 28120.2824 | 26H1 | Windows 11 | Experimental | 2026-08-31 |
| KB5121794 | 26300.9278 | 26H2 | Windows 11 | Preview | 2026-08-27 |
| KB5121132 | 28120.2760 | 26H1 | Windows 11 | Experimental | 2026-08-21 |
| KB5124040 | 26220.9223 | 25H2 | Windows 11 | Beta | 2026-08-21 |
| KB5124042 | 26340.9233 | 26H2 | Windows 11 | Experimental | 2026-08-21 |
| KB5121106 | 28020.2731 | 26H1 | Windows 11 | Beta | 2026-08-17 |
| KB5121109 | 28120.2738 | 26H1 | Windows 11 | Experimental | 2026-08-17 |
| KB5124036 | 26220.9202 | 25H2 | Windows 11 | Beta | 2026-08-17 |
| KB5124038 | 26340.9212 | 26H2 | Windows 11 | Experimental | 2026-08-17 |