Windows 11 build 25247 outs with new Studio Effects and Energy settings

• Windows 11 build 25247 is now rolling out in the Dev Channel.
• The update introduces Studio Effects, Energy Recommendations, and OneDrive storage warning.
• The flight also updates Suggested Action, Task Manager app, and Start now shows website recommendations.

Microsoft is now rolling out Windows 11 build 25247 for devices enrolled in the Dev Channel of the Windows Insider Program. This is a minor update, but it packs some interesting new features, improvements, and fixes.

Build 25247 for Windows 11, according to the official changes, introduces new energy recommendations for the power settings, and the “Accounts” page will now show a warning when running out of OneDrive storage. “Suggested action” will now show a new option to search copied online with Microsoft Edge. The “Quick Settings” flyout introduces Studio Effects settings for devices with Neural Processing Unit (NPU) support. This flight also ships with an updated version of Task Manager with a new search feature and various visual changes, and more.

Windows 11 build 25247 changes

Here are all the new features and improvements for the latest release of Windows 11 in the Dev Channel:

Studio Effects on Quick Settings

Starting on build 25247, the “Quick Settings” flyout (Windows key + A) includes quick access to the Windows Studio effects for devices with support for Neural Processing Unit (NPU). The features available for Studio Effects will depend on the hardware. However, they can include camera effects, such as Background Blur, Eye Contact, and automatic framing, and audio effects, such as Voice Focus.

Energy Recommendations

The “Power & Battery” settings page now includes “Energy Recommendations” with suggestions to configure features to save energy and lower your carbon footprint.

Task Manager

Windows 11 is also rolling out an updated version of Task Manager with a new filter feature to search processes using the binary name, PID, or publisher name. 

The filter algorithm matches the context keyword with all possible matches and displays them on the current page. The filter is also applied as you switch between pages. You can also use the keyboard shortcut “ALT + F” to focus on the filter box.

Microsoft is also improving the theming experience with a new option that allows you to change the color mode regardless of the system color mode you use.

In addition, Task Manager now supports themes for in-app dialogs. All dialog except for the “Run new task” and “Properties” dialog now supports themes.   

Finally, this version of the app makes it easy to apply efficiency mode and offers the ability to opt out of the confirmation dialog. You can change the “Efficiency mode” dialog box by unchecking “Don’t ask me again,” or you can disable it from the Task Manager settings.

Suggested actions

As part of the Suggested Action experience, Windows 11 build 25247 will now display an interface that suggests searching this text in Microsoft Edge upon selecting the text. (This will initially be available for Insiders in the United States only.)

OneDrie storage warning in the Settings app

The Accounts settings page will now show a warning when your OneDrive account is running out of space with an option to purchase more storage. The storage usage warning is not only for OneDrive but also for all Microsoft services.

According to the company notes, in the months to come, you will also see updates to what Microsoft 365 apps and services data is included in your cloud storage. These updates may impact your storage amount starting February 1, 2023.

Start menu with websites recommendations

On Windows 11, the Start menu can now show recent websites as part of recommendations, in addition to recent apps, files, and recently installed applications.

You can always control the websites in the “Recommended” section by right-clicking the item and selecting the “Remove from list” option, and you can also choose to stop showing the website entirely.

Taskbar with seconds 

Microsoft is also updating the Taskbar with a new option that allows you to show seconds in the System Tray alongside the hours and minutes. You can turn this feature on or off from the Taskbar settings page.

In addition, the company made performance improvements that will allow more files and content on your computer to appear as results in the Windows search box.

In the Taskbar settings page, the “Touch keyboard” setting has been converted to a drop-down menu with new options, including “Never,” “Always,” and “When no keyboard attached.”

Keyboard layout changes

On build 25247, Windows also includes two new keyboard layouts. These keyboards implement the two new French keyboard layout standards (AZERTY and BÉPO).

The new layouts are designed to allow the user to type the required characters of the French language. They also include support for all the Latin-based languages of the European Union, Greek letters, and a large variety of scientific, mathematical, and financial symbols.

Finally, the company improved the Emoji search for Japanese and Simplified Chinese by properly handling Kana/Kanji and Pinyin in the emoji panel.

Fixes and improvements

This flight also ships with a bunch of fixes and improvements for Taskbar, Input, Settings, File Explorer, and more.

Taskbar 

• When using the bottom right edge gesture to see Quick Settings, the tablet-optimized taskbar will no longer be stuck in the expanded state instead of dismissing to the collapsed state.
• Fixed multiple explorer.exe crashes impacting taskbar performance.
• Fixed the issue where certain chat apps (that supported it) weren’t flashing with new messages or opening a preview on hover in the system tray.
• The new show hidden icons flyout’s animation should now be consistent with other taskbar flyouts, and the arrow will now rotate when open versus closed.
• Fixed an issue causing the do not disturb icon to disappear while in do not disturb mode.
• Fixed an issue where invoking the context menu for items in the system tray might not put the context menu in the foreground, and it would get stuck behind the taskbar.
• The pin/unpin visual will now display when dragging system tray icons to any position along the system tray and not only when hovering over the show hidden icons button.
• The show hidden icons flyout background color should now align with your accent color if “Show accent color on Start and taskbar” is enabled in Settings > Personalization > Colors.
• Fixed an issue where the taskbar was sometimes flashing when transitioning between desktop posture and tablet posture.
• Fixed an issue causing certain third-party app icons in the system tray to be unresponsive after the latest system tray changes.
• The Windows Update icon in the system tray should no longer look pixelated after changing between light and dark modes.
• Fixed an issue causing the NVIDIA icon in the system tray to show empty notifications.
• Fixed an issue where the weak charger warning (a warning icon on the battery icon) in some cases was not displaying when it should have been.

Input 

• Fixed a bug that caused the text cursor to become white on white when hovering over text fields, making it difficult to see.
• Fixed an issue that could result in the touch keyboard / PIN entry keyboard being unable to input text on the login screen.
• Fixed a recent issue where the Japanese IME candidate window might fail to display proper candidates when using reconversion in certain edit controls.
• Microsoft released changes to improve the reliability of the touch keyboard, IME candidate window, and IME toolbar. It includes fixes for an issue where the IME candidate window and IME toolbar weren’t shown or cropped sometimes and an issue where a blank window titled “Windows Input Experience” appeared sometimes after resuming from sleep.
• Addressed a rare issue that could lead to certain apps crashing after interacting with incorrectly spelled words flagged by the spellchecker.

File Explorer

• Fixed a GDI handle leak when opening Show More Options in the context menu, which could lead to graphical issues and an explorer.exe crash over time if you used this a lot.
• Fixed an issue for Insiders using the Arabic or Hebrew display language, leading to text not displaying in the context menu when selecting Show More Options.
• Fixes a bug preventing certain phones from showing up in File Explorer when connected via USB in the last 2 Dev Channel flights.
• When connecting an iPhone via USB, iPhone photos will now be transferred in HEIF format instead of JPEG if the HEVC extension is installed.
• Fixed an issue that was causing .dotx Word templates to open as new documents instead of a template when you right-clicked them and selected Open in File Explorer.

Settings

• Fixed an issue that was causing Settings to crash sometimes when connecting and disconnecting Bluetooth devices.

Windowing

• Fixed an issue where if you maximized a window and then dragged it along the top of the screen into the corner could result in the app getting stuck and not being able to resize.
• Apps like Microsoft Edge should no longer unexpectedly show thick lines on the side of the windows.
• Fixed a DWM crash which was introduced in the latest Dev Channel flights.
• If you have two monitors on top of each other, the Desktops list in Task View should no longer appear floating in the middle of Task View.

Other fixes

• Switching projection modes using WIN + P / the Project section of Quick Settings should work again now.
• Fixed a high-hitting displayswitch.exe crash in recent Dev Channel builds.
• If memory integrity in the Windows Security app cannot be enabled due to incompatible drivers, the information about which drivers are incompatible is now selectable, so you can copy it if needed.
• Fixed an issue where the dismiss button for alerts in the Windows Security app might not work.
• Fixed a rare issue that could lead to a DWM.exe crash when taking screenshots using the Xbox Game Bar.
• Fixed an issue where if you booted from an ISO to install Windows, the Windows Setup dialog would show the text “Status” rather than displaying helpful text about the current status.
• Addressed a few issues when booting from an ISO to install Windows, where various items in the Windows Setup dialog weren’t being read out correctly by Narrator.
• Fixed the issue where users sometimes could not use FIDO keys to log onto their PC when a full-screen login message was displayed.
• Fixed a background crash for Windows Hello, impacting setup and usage.
• Improved the experience on login after booting up by reducing the performance impact of startup apps.
• Made a change to address a date formatting interoperability issue leading to domain login issues on some network shares.
• Fixed an issue causing VmmemWSL sometimes to use an unexpectedly large amount of CPU and lead to freezing on ARM64 PCs over time.
• We fixed a bug that could cause your wallpaper to render only a partial section at the top sometimes.
• Fixed an issue that could lead MSTSC to stop responding when connecting to a RemoteApp or remote desktop.
• Fixed an issue that was causing the runas command to unexpectedly fail in certain cases with error 87, saying the parameter was incorrect (when it wasn’t).
• Fixed the Windows version name written in Microsoft Management Console’s help section.

This release also has known issues with the Taskbar, Start menu, Task Manager, Settings, Widgets, and more.

Install build 25247

If you want to download and install the Windows 11 build 25247, enroll your device in the Dev Channel using the “Windows Insider Program” settings from the “Windows Update” section.

Once you enroll the computer in the program, you can download build 25247 from the “Windows Update” settings by clicking the Check for Updates button. However, you will need a device that meets the minimum system requirements to receive the update if you are new to the Windows Insider Program.