Hey Windows Insiders, One of the best parts of the work is hearing directly from the people using Windows every day. I was recently in Hyderabad and Taipei meeting with local Windows Insiders, and those conversations gave me a lot of energy heading into Build next week. The feedback we’re hearing from you continues to reinforce that we’re focused on the right places. For me, the theme this month is momentum. Some of that momentum is in performance. We’re making steady progress across core areas like File Explorer, search, and broader system responsiveness, backed by architectural improvements that are starting to unlock more consistent gains across Windows. Some of it is in craft: the small details that make Windows feel more polished, more predictable, and more personal. Address bar improvements in File Explorer. A modern Run experience. More taskbar positioning flexibility with app labels. These are the kinds of refinements we’re working through across Windows, and you’ll continue to see more of them in Insider builds throughout the coming year. Let’s get into what started showing up this month, including new experiences beginning to roll out in today’s flights.

Making Taskbar and Start more personal

This month, we began rolling out more personalization for Taskbar and Start, two of the most used and most personal surfaces in Windows. With these updates, you can move the taskbar to any edge of the screen, choose icon alignment based on its position, and use app labels across positions to make open windows easier to tell apart. There’s also a new smaller taskbar option to help reclaim screen space. We’re also making Start easier to shape around how you work. New controls let you independently show or hide sections like Pinned, Recommended, and All apps, adjust Start menu size, and hide your name and profile picture for more privacy. The Recommended section is also being updated to Recent, with better file relevancy, so surfaced content better reflects what you’re actually working on. These updates have started to roll out in the Experimental Channel. Read more about the considerations and improvements we’re bringing to taskbar and Start in the recent blog post from Diego Baca.

Improving driver quality, reliability, and security with the Driver Quality Initiative (DQI), and Cloud Initiated Driver Recovery

In March, we committed to delivering a smoother, more dependable Windows experience with our ecosystem of partners. Drivers are a critical part of that work. Drivers sit at the heart of Windows, connecting the OS to silicon, components, and peripherals. With thousands of partners contributing to tens of thousands of active driver families, improving driver quality is essential to making Windows more reliable over time. At WinHEC 2026, we introduced the Driver Quality Initiative (DQI), a comprehensive effort designed to improve driver quality, reliability, and security across Windows. We also rolled out new changes with Cloud Initiated Driver Recovery to improve how drivers are validated, delivered, and maintained. By catching issues earlier, targeting updates more precisely, and enabling automatic recovery when needed, devices can stay reliable over time with fewer disruptions and a better path back to a known-good state. This is part of our ongoing work with partners to make Windows more dependable over time.

File Explorer improvements across reliability, readability and usability

[embed]https://youtu.be/gZUDEBbZSp4[/embed] Building on last month’s improvements, we made several updates to File Explorer across reliability, readability, and usability, including the Address Bar, file size formatting, keyboard navigation, and renaming. The Address Bar now supports paths containing double backslashes and quotation marks, such as C:\Users\user or "C:\Users\user", improving compatibility with more of the paths people paste or type into File Explorer. We also improved reliability of the Address Bar suggestion dropdown so it consistently closes after an item is selected. In Details view, file sizes now use appropriate units like KB, MB, and GB instead of KB-only, making them easier to read at a glance. We also improved keyboard navigation in File Explorer context menu flyouts. We also fixed multiple renaming issues, including one where text could be repeatedly selected while renaming items in folder views, and another where updated names with case-only changes were not immediately reflected in folder views across local and cloud storage. These are small details, but they show up in places people use all day. The goal is fewer broken paths, clearer information, and File Explorer interactions that behave more predictably. These updates also began rolling out earlier this month in the Experimental Channel.

Making Windows easier to use with voice input, touch, and more personalization

[caption id="attachment_178981" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Screenshot showing setup of voice isolation.[/caption] Accessibility work in Windows often shows up across many different parts of the experience, because people use their PCs in different ways and in different environments. For voice, one of the most common pieces of feedback we hear is sensitivity to background noise. With Voice Isolation in Voice Access, Windows can better focus on the speaker and reduce the impact of surrounding noise, helping commands come through more consistently without needing to change where or how you’re working. We’re also adding more ways to personalize how Windows looks and feels. New options like screen tint make it easier to adjust color and opacity based on preference or lighting conditions, giving people more control during longer sessions. We’re continuing to improve Magnifier as well, making it easier to set precise zoom levels and adjust zoom directly within the experience without needing to go into Settings. Finally, we added new gesture-related controls for precision touchpads in Settings, including automatic scrolling, gesture speed controls, accelerated scrolling, and optional single-finger scrolling support. These are areas we hear about regularly in feedback. The changes are gradual, but they help reduce friction and make Windows easier to use in more moments. These updates began rolling out in the Experimental channel earlier this month.

Build next week!

Next week is Microsoft Build, where we’ll share more about what we’re doing to elevate the developer experience across the Windows platform. We’ve got a lot in store, so tune in for the keynote at 9:30am PT on Tuesday. Earlier today, we also shared the first episode of Inside Windows, a podcast where Pavan Davuluri, Executive Vice President, Windows & Devices, sits down with members of the team to share more insight into the work and people behind Windows. I was honored to be the first guest and talk through some of the work we’ve been focused on over the past several months. For those attending our meetup next week in San Francisco, I look forward to meeting you and hearing how we can keep improving the Windows Insider experience, particularly for developers. More to come next week! Marcus

Hello Windows Insiders, This week we continue to expand the rollout of the new Windows Insider Program changes to devices in channels already announced. New builds this week Today we are releasing new Windows 11 Insider Preview Builds. As a reminder, all Insiders can find the release notes for your device based on the new channel system, even if you haven’t moved yet. This is to make finding build information as easy as possible during the transition. See your channel release notes here:

• Beta: Build 26220.8544
• Experimental: Build 26300.8553

For those on other specific build versions, here are today’s new builds and release notes:

• Experimental (26H1): Build 28020.2207
• Experimental (Future Platforms) – Including Canary 29500 series: Build 29599.1000
  • Please note: We have identified an issue internally causing crashes on AMD machines supporting System Guard, meaning these devices in WIP will not be offered this week's Experimental (Future Platforms) build. This should be fixed by the next flight.

As a reminder, you can always find your build number in the watermark on bottom right-hand corner of your desktop. Advanced core selection As mentioned in recent WIP blogs, we are in the process of releasing the Windows 11 version 26H1 build to those Insiders who have elected this version under Advanced options in the Windows Insider Program settings. We will begin releasing this version to those Insiders who have elected this change on June 5 2026. As outlined in our Windows IT Pro Blog, Windows 11 26H1 is a targeted release that supports some of the new device innovations coming in 2026, including devices with Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Series processors. Devices running Windows 11, version 26H1 will not be able to update to the next annual feature update in the second half of 2026. This is because Windows 11, version 26H1 is based on a different Windows core than Windows 11, versions 24H2 and 25H2, and the upcoming feature update. These devices will have a path to update in a future Windows release. Insiders who have elected the 26H1 option in Advanced options but no longer wish to take this version, should reselect version 25H2 before version 26H1 is made available to these devices beginning June 5. Insiders who do take version 26H1 and want to move back to 25H2 will be able to do so through a complete reinstall of Windows.

Notable new features:

[Start menu]

Release channel: Experimental This update brings a number of improvements for the Start menu as first outlined in the Making Taskbar and Start more personal Insider blog. This includes:

• Renamed "Recommended" section to "Recent" in Start and Settings page
• Section-level toggles to independently show or hide Pinned, Recommended, and All.
• Choose between a small and large Start menu, in addition to "Automatic (default)" setting option that's already available today
• The option to hide your name and profile picture in Start
• Redesigned Start menu settings page

[caption id="attachment_178960" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Screenshot of the updated Start settings showing the new section-level toggles.[/caption]

[Windows Search]

Release channel: Experimental, Beta We're improving Windows Search results:

• Search by Substring: Files with compound names or content (e.g., MeetingNotesApril, ProjectStatusReport) are now easily discoverable by typing “april” or “status”.

Thanks, Stephen and the Windows Insider Program team