Microsoft rolls out first Canary Channel Build for Windows 11 Insiders

Microsoft announced a new Canary channel for the Windows Insider Preview Program a few days ago. Today, it has released the first build for the channel.

What's new in Windows 11 Build 25314

Windows 11 Build 25314 brings some new features to the built-in file manager's XAML context menu. File Explorer supports access key shortcuts, that are displayed next to each command in the menu. Tap the Menu Key on your keyboard to bring up the context menu + the access keys. Hit the corresponding key next to a command to execute it.

Currently, using the Menu Key brings up the legacy context menu. Does the change in the shortcut's action spell the end of the old menu style? It's not clear yet. The access keys feature will not be available for users who have the Windows App SDK version of File Explorer, which you can tell by checking if it has the pizza icon on the command bar.

File Explorer will display File Recommendations at the top of the Home page, above the favorites section. These relevant files, as Microsoft terms them, are those that you have accessed on the cloud, e.g. files that you own, or are shared with you. Per the announcement, File Recommendations are only available for users who are signed in to an Azure Active Directory account (AAD).

Microsoft says that Local Security Authority Protection Enablement (LSA) will be enabled by default. The security feature will prevent unauthorized code from running in the LSA Process, in order to protect against theft of credentials and data. The feature can be toggled under the Device Security > Core Isolation page of the Windows Security Dashboard.

Narrator will receive updates for its Outlook support when the accessibility feature is started. The app will notify the user after the update has been downloaded. The feature is only supported in U.S. English as of now, more languages are planned to be added in a future flight. Microsoft says this change allows Outlook updates to be delivered through the Microsoft Store.

Users in the Dev Channel of the Windows Insiders Program can manually move to the Canary Channel, as long as the latter has a higher build number. Currently, users who have installed the recent Dev Channel build are actually set to receive updates from the Canary Channel by default, even though Microsoft doesn't recommend it due to stability issues.

 Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23403 for Dev Channel

The Dev Channel has also been updated to day, but there is an important change.  Microsoft is reserving Builds in the 25000 series to the Canary Channel. That means users who installed Dev Build 25309 will not get today's update, which is Build 23403. You are not missing on much since the latest release is pretty similar, it has the same features that were introduced in the Canary Channel, i.e., Access Keys, and File Recommendations.

Speaking of which, both changes in File Explorer are being A/B tested, and will only be available for some users. This applies to both channels. The release notes for Build 23403 are available at the Windows Insiders blog.

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