Microsoft has rolled out Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23435 to the Dev Channel. The update has added Gallery functionality to File Explorer, which is designed to simplify access to your photo collection. The content displayed in Gallery is the same as why you view in the All Photos view in the Photos app. The Gallery is optimized to access most recently captured photos.
Gallery Improvements
The photos will display automatically at the top of the view if you have OneDrive Camera Roll Backup configured on your device. It’s possible to choose the relevant folders that are shown in Gallery via the Collection dropdown. You can also add subfolders to existing sources for the purpose of content filter such as desktop background and SD card or camera imports.
Gallery is designed to work from the file-picking dialog to simplify attachment insertion, PowerPoint deck building, or for publishing social media content. The new Gallery feature introduced with Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23435 is being rolled out in a phased manner. The product team continues to monitor feedback before making wider availability.
Enhancements
The Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23435 has added several new treatments related to badging on the Start menu. However, this feature will be available for users with local user accounts so that they can know about the benefits of signing in with a Microsoft account. Windows Insiders will view a pizza icon on the File Explorer command bar. The icon will not provide any functionality but is an indication that the Insider is previewing the Windows App SDK version of File Explorer. The File Explorer switches from WinUI 2 to WinUI 3 but the basic functionality remains unchanged.
The Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23435 has added improvements to Narrator. The Narrator users who used to interact with Traditional Chinese characters can now work effectively because of the addition of a Traditional Chinese dictionary for detailed reading. The narrator is now revamped to consume each Traditional Chinese word. You should note that Narrator detailed reading is now available only for the Taiwan language pack.
Microsoft has added new presence sensor privacy settings and APIs. You will be able to manage privacy including the ability to allow/block apps from accessing sensors if you have a device with compatible presence sensors. The system will process all data locally on the device hardware for enhanced privacy without collecting images or metadata. You can locate these settings under Settings | Privacy & Security | Presence sensing based on the device. Are you an app developer with compatible presence sensor devices? If yes, you can target apps to read and request user presence information by leveraging the API.
The Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 23435 has resolved a few explorer.exe crashes related to Taskbar reliability. The flight updated the TextInput/EnableTouchKeyboardAutoInvokeInDesktopMode MDM policy to enable “2” as a valid value. The issue pertaining to the crashing of Settings while navigating to various Windows Update-related page has been fixed.
The issue related to enhanced speech recognition for live captions on ARM64 devices has been resolved. If you are unable to view install completion of “Enhanced speech recognition” while adding a language via the Language & Region settings page, then the issue has been resolved. The latest flight has enhanced the performance of the expand all/collapse all View options on the Processes page. The build also updated Narrator’s default for “Context level for buttons and controls” to “3 – Immediate content name and type.”
Windows Insider Program Revamped
Microsoft recently revamped Windows Insider Channels by introducing a new Canary Channel for those Windows Insiders who are in the Dev Channel Build 25000. The Dev Channel Windows Insiders will receive 23000 series builds. If you would like to migrate to the Dev Channel from Canary Channel, you have to perform a complete reinstallation of Windows 11. Microsoft is providing limited edition free USB disks for those Windows Insiders who intend to reinstall Windows 11 completely. The builds that are released to the Canary Channel are hot off the presses and will ship with several new features that could be unstable.
