Today Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25352 to the Canary Channel with improvements to the Windows 11 Widget system.
The Canary Channel is the place to preview platform changes that require longer-lead time before getting released to customers. Some examples of this include major changes to the Windows kernel, new APIs, etc. Builds that Microsoft release to the Canary Channel should not be seen as matched to any specific release of Windows and some of the changes Microsoft try out in the Canary Channel will never ship, and others could show up in future Windows releases when they’re ready.
Starting with today’s build, Windows Insiders in the Canary Channel will notice that the name of the branch shown in the desktop watermark has changed to ZN_RELEASE. Just like Microsoft have done in the past, Microsoft can change which branch they flight builds from. As their engineers work in development cycles internally, Microsoft may prioritize work being done in a specific branch and may need to move Insiders between branches. Microsoft is treating these builds the same as they would treat builds from the RS_PRERELEASE branch. As a result of this change, Insiders will notice that some features have been removed temporarily. Microsoft looks to bring these features back to Insiders in the future. And builds from the ZN_RELEASE branch should not be viewed as being matched to a specific Windows 11 release.
As builds released to the Canary Channel are “hot off the presses,” Microsoft will offer limited documentation for builds flighted to the Canary Channel (no known issues for example), but Microsoft will not publish a blog post for every flight – only when new features are available in a build. And like the previous Canary Channel build, this build has a few new features and changes to document.
Changes and Improvements
[Widgets]
- Microsoft is beginning to roll out a new widget picker experience to Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev Channels with an image that gives a visual preview of the widget before pinning, a deep linking ability that allows users to jump directly to the picker from the provider app/service as well as a link to the widgets Store collection page where users can discover more apps with widgets.
Windows 11 Insiders in the Canary channel can download the update by Checking for Updates in Settings.
