Windows 11 23H2: Microsoft shows new XXL dashboard for widgets

Microsoft is sticking with its Windows 11 widgets and will continue to optimize them in the future. Insiders can now get a first glimpse of the new look of the interactive tiles in the dev channel. The motto: more is better. The Xbox Game Pass widget is also getting an update.

The new Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25201 expands Microsoft’s Dev Channel playground with an expanded view for the Widget Dashboard (Windows key + W). The area can be enlarged to fill the entire main screen with widgets via a button on the upper right side of the page. The size of the board is saved so that the settings made are reapplied the next time you open it.

Changes will also be made to the Game Pass widget, which was introduced as one of the first new widgets for Windows 11 in early August. The button can now be linked to an Xbox profile using the Xbox app. After logging in, the widget shows all Game Pass games that are available in the respective subscriptions. In addition, the titles played last are displayed to enable players to continue playing quickly.

As usual, the new features are not available to all Insiders. “We’re just beginning to roll out this experience,” Microsoft says in its blog post. Furthermore, it is unclear if and when the revised widgets will be rolled out for the average consumer. The dev channel is associated by many experts with the Windows 11 23H2 update, which is scheduled for release in autumn 2023. However, the functions could also be included earlier in the final version via planned “Moment” patches.

Windows 11 Build 25201: More improvements at a glance

General

• Fixed an issue that caused a bugcheck when moving the mouse in certain games in recent flights.

File Explorer

• Searching in File Explorer now displays results as you type. The complete search results page is updated live without you having to press enter. We’re just beginning to roll out this feature, so it’s not available to all Insiders yet.
• We’re experimenting with adding more cloud files to Home search results.
• A one-time change intended to make it easier for users to find their folders with the Navigation Pane updates: if the default folders that were pinned to the File Explorer Navigation Pane were unpinned, they will be re-pinned after the upgrade.
• Fixed a memory leak that occurred when closing File Explorer windows.

taskbar

• The apps in the taskbar overflow flyout should now appear in the correct order when using an Arabic or Hebrew display language.

Input

• Fixed an issue where the pen clicks to launch OneNote wouldn’t work if you hadn’t already opened OneNote.
• Made a change to address an issue where it was not possible to type into the chat box on certain games using the pinyin IME.

Settings

• Fixed an issue that caused the Settings app to crash intermittently.
• Fixed a broken white pixel in the icon animation when clicking the Apps category in Settings.

Widgets

• We fixed the issue that in some cases the notification banner for certain badges wasn’t showing in the widgets board.

Windowing

• Fixed an issue where explorer.exe would crash if you dragged a snap group to another desktop in task view.
• Fixed an issue related to interacting with the desktop flyout in the taskbar, which caused explorer.exe to crash periodically.
• Fixed a DWM crash in recent flights that could result in a brief black screen when rotating a tablet.
• Fixed a rare issue that could cause DWM to crash when watching videos in certain UWP apps in recent builds.

Task manager

• Fixed an issue with task manager reliability.

Other

• Fixed an issue that caused some Insiders to unexpectedly receive the “Unable to connect to this network” message when connecting to certain Wi-Fi networks even though the network was working on other devices.
• Fixed an issue that could cause Windows Sandbox to only open as a black window on certain PCs.