The newest Windows 11 Dev Channel build allows you to enroll and use a passkey to sign into apps and websites in place of your password.
It’s a busy day today to be a Windows Insider. Microsoft has rolled out both a new Windows 11 Dev channel build, and the usual two builds over on the Beta channel. The Dev channel build, coming in at 23486, adds some passwordless improvements to Windows. Meanwhile, on the beta channel, there’s build 22631.1906 for those with new features rolling out and then build 22621.1906 for those with features off by default. We have the scoop right here for you on everything you need to know.
Dev channel build 23486
Everything new
To help move people beyond passwords, Microsoft is now adding a new option in this build so you can use enroll and use a passkey to sign into certain websites and apps. This passkey should be harder to be stolen and hacked, and are phishing-resistant, according to Microsoft. They’re even easier to use. You can use them on websites like eBay, Best Buy, and even Google. After you make one from your website or app’s account settings, you’ll be prompted to sign in and use a passkey. In some cases, you can use your face or fingerprint to sign in. You also can use your phone to complete application login processes. Here’s a bit more from Microsoft on the process.
Create and Sign in using passkeys saved on your Windows device:
- 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.
Manage passkeys saved to your Windows device: We are giving users a fundamental control over how they can manage the passkeys saved to their Windows device. They can now view and delete passkeys saved for their favorite apps/websites from Windows settings.
- Navigate to Settings> Accounts> Passkeys.
- You are presented with a list of all passkeys saved to your Windows device.
- You can now search and delete any passkey from the device.
Special Instructions:
- On Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome, if you see the browser’s passkey UI, choose “Windows Hello or external security key” to get the Windows native experience. Try Google Chrome Canary for the latest experience there. As Microsoft Edge is Chromium-based, experiences in Chrome Canary will roll up into Microsoft Edge as well over time.
Beyond those basic changes, Microsoft is rolling back the changes introduced last week on the Dev Channel for removing classic parts in the File Explorer. New effects are also available for dynamic lighting, and you can now enjoy Unicode Emoji 15. Microsoft’s also improved the user experience for time zones where you can see a non-dismissible notification for accepting or rejecting time zone change and prompts for confirmation before adjusting the time zone. Also, under Settings> Time & language> Date & time. If location settings are disabled, a warning is now, urging you to enable location settings to ensure accurate time zone adjustments.
Changes and fixes
There are a few changes and fixes in this build today, too. A lot of this is for Dynamic Lighting, Input, Networking, and Task Manager. Check it out below.
- We 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.
- We’re rolling a fix for an issue where a blank window whose title is “Windows Input Experience” appears after resuming the device from the sleep.
- Fixed an issue where the login screen was crashing in the last couple flights when trying to connect to certain types of networks.
- 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.
Known issues
Finally, there are the known issues. There are a few this week with notifications, Windows Ink, and Dynamic Lighting. Also, the usual issues with Dev Drive, Search, and File Explorer.
- There might be variable performance on different hardware. If you notice slower performance on your machine, please file feedback!
- [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.
- [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 we are 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Clicking on the Share command will currently bring up the Windows share sheet (non-OneDrive).
- 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.
- [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.
- 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.
Beta channel build 22621.1906 and build 22631.1906
The Beta channel builds are not as exciting as what the Dev channel offers. Over on build 22631.1906, there are some slight tweaks to TaskBar and System Tray, the Lock Screen, Networking, Windows Security, and Settings. Check it out below.
- You can now hide the time and date in the system tray. You can turn this on by right-clicking on the system tray clock and choosing “Adjust date and time”.
- When right-clicking on the network icon in the system tray, we’ve added the option to diagnose network problems.
- We have updated the network flyout on the Lock screen to align with Windows 11 design principles.
- Added support for bridging adapters via command line via netsh.
- We have updated the Windows Security (firewall) notification dialogs that match the Windows 11 visuals.
- We have added links to advanced properties for network adapters and internet properties under Settings> Network & internet> Advanced network settings.
- We have added a way to view Wi-Fi passwords for your known networks via Settings> Network & internet> Wi-Fi and “Manage known networks”.
- Based on your feedback, we have added additional options to the Data Usage page that allows for daily and weekly data limits. The page will also now show how far a data limit has been exceeded.
- We added the ability to join Bluetooth Personal Area networks under the Settings> Bluetooth & devices> Devices. This option will appear for paired devices like Phones that are sharing internet over Bluetooth.
- Right-clicking on a Win32 app in Start, or searching for the app, and choosing “Uninstall” will now take you to the Settings to uninstall the app.
- The settings page for wheel devices such as the Surface Dial has been updated to better match the Windows 11 design principles.
- (BOTH Build 22621.1906 & Build 22631.1906) This update addresses a compatibility issue. The issue occurs because of unsupported use of the registry.
That’s all we have to report this week. We know it’s a lot, but it’s been a busy week already. Earlier, Microsoft pushed out a Release Preview channel build that enabled Moment 3 features for all Insiders.