Microsoft releases KB5011543 update preview to bring new Search Highlight feature to Windows 10

With Windows 11 now very much Microsoft's focus, it might come as something of a surprise to find that the company is still adding things to Windows 10 -- but with the release of the KB5011543 update, this is precisely what is happening.

This is a preview of the update that will be officially released on April's Patch Tuesday, and it is designed for Windows 10 20H2, Windows 10 21H1 and Windows 10 21H2. What can you expect in this update? In addition to the arrival of search highlights -- with slightly different looks for enterprise users and ordinary consumers -- there are numerous bug fixes, and changes to the Action Center.

See also:

• Screenshots leaked by Lapsus$ strongly suggest Microsoft has been hacked
• After tests, Microsoft has decided to add the 'System requirements not met' watermark to Windows 11
• Oops! Microsoft didn't want you to know about adverts in Windows 11's File Explorer

The KB5011543 update was previously made available to Windows Insiders only, but now it can be installed by any Windows 10 user who is interested. Bug fixes include addressing problems with Outlook search, issues with TPM, and various Bluetooth-related error messages. But it is the new features that are of most interest. The Search Highlights feature has been ported from Windows 11, and there is a new policy that changes the way some notifications work in the Action Center.

Microsoft says of the new functionality:

Search highlights will present notable and interesting moments of what’s special about each day -- like holidays, anniversaries, and other educational moments in time both globally and in your region. To see more details at a glance, hover, click, or tap on the illustration in the search box.

For enterprise customers, search highlights will feature the latest updates from your organization and suggest people, files, and more. 

Search highlights will roll out to Windows 10 customers over the next several weeks. We are taking a phased and measured approach. Broad availability will occur in the coming months. 

The full changelog for the KB5011543 update looks like this:

• New! Provides the ability to change the color of toast buttons to identify success and critical scenarios more easily for apps that send notifications using Windows notifications in the OS. This feature also makes notifications more visually compact.
• New! Adds a new policy that expands an app's top three notifications by default in the Action Center for apps that send notifications using Windows notifications in the OS. This feature displays multiple notifications that you can interact with simultaneously.
• Addresses an issue that causes searchindexer.exe to stop responding during a dismount operation in the Remote Desktop setup environment.
• Addresses an issue that affects searchindexer.exe and prevents Microsoft Outlook’s offline search from returning recent emails.
• Addresses an issue that might deactivate Windows when you change the National Language Support (NLS) version from 6.3 to 6.2.
• Addresses an issue in which modern browsers fail to correctly render HTML that is generated by gpresult/h.
• Addresses an issue that causes an “Access denied” exception for a file during a PowerShell test for AppLocker.
• Addresses an issue that might cause the Group Policy Service to stop processing telemetry information for Group Policy Registry Preferences.
• Addresses an issue that might prevent a DNS Server query resolution policy from working as expected when you specify a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) and subnet conditions.
• Addresses a heap leak in PacRequestorEnforcement that degrades the performance of a domain controller.
• Addresses an issue that affects the Key Distribution Center (KDC) Proxy. The KDC Proxy cannot properly obtain Kerberos tickets for signing in to Key Trust Windows Hello for Business.
• Adds support for Microsoft Account (MSA) Pass-through scenarios in Azure Active Directory (AAD) Web Account Manager (WAM).
• Addresses an issue that logs Event ID 37 during certain password change scenarios, including failover cluster name object (CNO) or virtual computer object (VCO) password changes.
• Addresses an issue that might unintentionally add a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) protector when you use the Silent BitLocker enablement policy.
• Addresses an issue that prevents the User Account Control (UAC) dialog from correctly showing the application that is requesting elevated privileges.
• Addresses an issue that causes the Move-ADObject command to fail when you move computer accounts across domains. The error message is, “Multiple values were specified for an attribute that can have only one value”.
• Addresses an issue that prevents Event 4739 from displaying the new values of certain attributes after a policy change.
• Addresses an issue that prevents Android device users from signing in to some Microsoft applications, such as Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Teams. This issue occurs after rolling over token signing and decrypting certificates, resetting a user's password, or when an administrator has revoked refresh tokens.
• Addresses an issue that might cause domain joining to fail in environments that use disjoint DNS hostnames.
• Addresses an issue that prevents the Back button of the credentials window, where you sign in, from being visible in high contrast black mode.
• Addresses an issue that prevents you from accessing Server Message Block (SMB) shares using an IP Address when SMB hardening is enabled.
• Addresses an issue that occurs when the Best Practices Analyzer (BPA) values for SMB have not been updated for more recent platforms.
• Addresses an issue that causes stop error 0x1E in the SMB Server (srv2.sys).
• Addresses an issue that causes a mismatch between NetBIOS and DNS Active Directory domain names when you create a cluster.
• Addresses an issue that causes the Network File System (NFS) redirector to stop working (error 0x50) when you convert a text file to a PDF.
• Addresses a known issue that might cause some devices to receive error messages on a blue screen when those devices are paired to Bluetooth devices. This issue occurs when certain configuration service provider (CSP) policies are in place that affect the Bluetooth A2dp profile.

If you are running an Insider build of Windows 10, you will receive the update via automatic Windows Updates. You can also manually check for updates and install it via the View all optional updates option, or you can download it directly from the Microsoft Update Catalog.

Image credit: Sundry Photography / Shutterstock