Microsoft today released a new beta channel build for Windows Insiders. The new build, 22635.3500 under KB5036985, has some new features related to Microsoft Account (MSA), and there are other additions and improvements as well. The full changelog appears below:

Changes and improvements are rolled out gradually to the beta channel with launch mode*

[Start menu]

• This update starts launching the new Account Manager in the Start menu. When you sign in with a Microsoft account, the new design gives you a quick view of your account benefits and makes it easier to manage your account settings.

[Windows Share]

• If your Microsoft account uses a Gmail address, you can now send email to yourself from the Windows Share window and receive it in your Gmail account.

[Settings]

• To ensure you don’t lose access to your Microsoft account, we’re starting to roll out a new banner with an “Add Now” button underneath Settings > Account Add a recovery email address if you haven’t already added one for your Microsoft account. This will only show if you’re signed in with a Microsoft account.
• We’re introducing a new Game Pass testimonials card on the Settings homepage. The Game Pass recommendation card on the settings homepage will be shown to you if you are actively playing games on your PC. As a reminder – the home page of the settings will only be displayed in Home and Pro editions of Windows 11 and if you are connected to Windows with your Microsoft account.

New features that are released to everyone in the beta channel

Widget panel improvements

We’re introducing a new navigation bar on the left that lets you switch between a dedicated widget dashboard and other integrated dashboards like Discover. As part of this change, we’re introducing the ability for developers to send notifications to the taskbar button with their custom dashboards for the widget panel. Developers can Check out this documentation How to implement this capability with their widget dashboards. To manage notifications from multiple widget centers, Widgets also provides more granular control over the content displayed in the Widgets button on the taskbar. You can go to Settings Widgets > Notifications and enable or disable taskbar notifications from individual dashboards. Note: These changes are initially only available to Windows Insiders in the European Economic Area (EEA).

Feedback: Please submit feedback in the Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Desktop Environment > Widgets.

Changes and improvements are gradually rolling out to everyone in the beta channel

[Widgets]

• We’re making some improvements to the taskbar widgets button so that the icons on the taskbar are clearer and we’re also rolling out a larger set of animated icons.

known problems

[General]

• We are investigating an issue where Internet Information Services (IIS) and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) may not work after you install this update.
• [NEW] We are working on a fix for an issue that causes settings to crash when copying text in some cases. As a workaround, please use the Extract Text option in the Crop tool for now if you are affected.

[Copilot in Windows*]

Windows Insiders in the beta channel who have the updated Copilot experience on Windows that introduces the ability for Copilot to act like a normal application window may see the following known issues:

• [NEW] We are aware of reports from Insiders in the Canary, Dev, and Beta channels that Copilot is automatically starting unexpectedly after restarting their PCs. We hope to have a fix for this issue soon and is not related to the auto launch experience we tried with Insiders on the Canary and Dev channel At the beginning of February which we stopped distributing in March.
• Voice access doesn’t work reliably with the updated Copilot experience on Windows that introduces Copilot’s ability to act like a regular app.
• Using Windows Ink to write in Copilot will not work with the updated Copilot experience on Windows.

[Widgets]

• [NEW] We are working on a fix for an issue that causes Widgets to crash for some Insiders when interacting with the Widgets panel.

Windows Insiders in the beta channel they have The new location for the Widgets entry point on left-aligned taskbars You may see the following known issues:

• Enabling swipe for widgets may not work if the taskbar is center-aligned instead of left-aligned.
• Unpinning widgets from the taskbar may not work if the taskbar is center-aligned instead of left-aligned.
• The Widgets panel is positioned incorrectly when Copilot is in side-by-side mode.
• Enabling/disabling widgets in the taskbar settings may refresh the taskbar.

You can view the official blog post Here on Microsoft’s website.