Latest Windows 11 build offers passwordless improvements

Microsoft, like a lot of tech companies, believes that we’re finally edging closer to be able to say goodbye to passwords. The hope is that we will soon be able to use passkeys instead, which are more secure and harder to steal.

Today, the software giant rolls out Windows 11 Build 23486 to users in the Dev Channel and the big focus with this flight is on improving the passkey experience.

Microsoft says users will be able to "go to any app or website that supports passkeys to create and sign in using passkeys with the Windows Hello native experience."

To get started:

• Go to a website that has enabled passkeys on Windows (Example: bestbuy.com, ebay.com, google.com).
• Create a passkey from your account settings.
• Sign out of your account and sign-in using your passkey.

Sign in using passkeys saved on your phone:

• Go to a website that has enabled passkeys from your mobile device (Example: bestbuy.com, ebay.com, google.com).
• Create a passkey from your account settings.
• Go to the website on Windows and sign in using your passkey saved on your mobile device.

You can view and manage passkeys through Settings > Accounts > Passkeys.

Other changes and improvements include:

[File Explorer]

• Thank you to all the Windows Insiders who provided feedback on the Folder Options changes in File Explorer that removed a handful of old settings in Build 23481. Microsoft has rolled back this change. As is normal for the Dev Channel, the company will often try things out and get feedback and adjust based on the feedback received.

[Dynamic Lighting]

• New Effects are now available for Dynamic Lighting via Settings > Personalization > Dynamic Lighting. Check out Wave, Wheel, and Gradient.

[Emoji]

• Unicode Emoji 15, which began rolling out with Build 23475, is now available to all Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel.

[Settings]

• Microsoft is improving the user experience when changing time zones, including cases of low confidence in location data. It displays a non-dismissible notification for accepting or rejecting the change and prompts the user for confirmation before adjusting the time zone.
• Microsoft is also improving the user experience while changing the time zone via Settings > Time & language > Date & time. If location settings are disabled, a warning is now shown to the user, urging them to enable location settings to ensure accurate time zone adjustments. This warning provides helpful information to the user, helping them understand why their time zone may not be correct and guiding them towards resolving the issue.

Fixes include:

[Dynamic Lighting]

• Fixed the issue where on first boot after installing recent builds and connecting a device, the "Use Dynamic Lighting on my devices" toggle is off in Settings and device LEDs may not turn on automatically.

[Input]

• Microsoft is rolling a fix for an issue where a blank window whose title is "Windows Input Experience" appears after resuming the device from the sleep.

[Network]

• Fixed an issue where the login screen was crashing in the last couple flights when trying to connect to certain types of networks.

[Task Manager]

• Fixed an issue causing Task Manager crashes for some people.
• Fixed an issue where focus wasn’t getting set correctly to search if the Task Manager window was small enough that search was collapsed to an icon.
• Fixed alignment of Task Manager icon and name in the title bar.
• Right clicking the empty space in the Details page (aka so no process is actually selected) will no longer show the option to create live kernel memory dumps.
• Fixed an issue where the live kernel memory dumps weren’t being cleaned up by Storage Sense.

NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11.

Known issues include:

[Dev Drive]

• There might be variable performance on different hardware. If you notice slower performance on your machine, please file feedback!

[Search on the Taskbar]

• [NEW] After changing your Windows display language, the search box on the taskbar may continue to display in the previous language for a short time before changing to the new language you selected.
• Text scaling may not work in the search flyout.

[File Explorer]

• [NEW] In some cases, the context menu background in File Explorer may appear transparent.
• Insiders may experience a File Explorer crash when dragging the scroll bar or attempting to close the window during an extended file-loading process.
• Thumbnail loading performance in Gallery for dehydrated cloud files and memory usage in large collections are known issues Microsoft is focused on improving. Please capture Performance traces in Feedback Hub for any performance-related issues. Rebuilding your Indexer can help if thumbnails are missing for cloud files; Search for "Indexing Options" and look in Advanced settings to find the rebuild tool.
• The count shown for selected files in the details pane may be extremely large.

Insiders who have the modernized File Explorer Home that began rolling out with Build 23475:

• File Type icons are displayed in place of file thumbnails for ‘Recommended’ section (applicable to Enterprise users).
• Insiders signed in with an AAD account and try to navigate the Recommended section on File Explorer Home with the tab key on the keyboard may experience an explorer.exe crash.
• When navigating from another group to the Recommended section using a keyboard, focus does not appear on the group header or files appropriately.
• Files display file extensions with the Show file extensions setting disabled.

Insiders who have the modernized File Explorer address bar that began rolling out with Build 23475:

• Windows Insiders may notice missing craftmanship polish with the modernized address bar and search box. The team greatly appreciates the use of Feedback Hub to help call out important details to address.
• Users might experience lost keyboard focus and missing keyboard shortcuts. The team implemented improved tabbing with keyboard shortcuts that will be available soon.
• If “…” shows in the address bar path, selecting it will crash explorer.exe.

Insiders will have issues with the following commands on recommended files in File Explorer that began rolling out with Build 23403:

• Clicking on the Share command will currently bring up the Windows share sheet (non-OneDrive).

[Notifications]

• The copy button for quickly copying two-factor authentication (2FA) codes in notification toasts (first introduced in Build 23403) is currently not working in this build. A fix is coming in a future flight.

[Dynamic Lighting]

• [NEW] Using Wave and Wheel effects can result in typing not working in certain apps.
• All-device settings changes are not propagating to per-device Settings.
• Device icons are missing from the device cards in Settings.
• Switching user accounts can turn off device LEDs.

[Windows Ink]

• Users can’t use handwriting to erase text in Microsoft Edge.
• The address box in Microsoft Edge might not work correctly.
• Windows Ink does not convert handwriting to text into the main content (e.g., Word documents and Excel spreadsheets) in Microsoft 365 applications.
• Search boxes in Microsoft 365 applications (e.g., Microsoft Word) might not work correctly.
• Comment fields in Microsoft 365 applications (e.g., Microsoft Word) might not work correctly.

Image Credit: Wayne Williams