In late June, Microsoft announced the upcoming release of Windows 11 and is now releasing early preview builds for Windows Insiders on the Dev and Beta channels. However, not everyone will be able to participate in the Windows 11 Insider Program, because the new operating system has stricter system requirements than Windows 10.
As described in this Microsoft blog post, if your PC does not meet the minimum hardware requirements for Windows 11, you will not be able to participate in the Insider Dev or Beta channels. Instead, you can join the Release Preview Channel to test Windows 10 preview updates. (For more information on each Insider channel, see our guide to Windows 10 Insider Preview Builds.)
If you were a member of the Windows 10 Insider Dev Channel prior to June 24th and your PC doesn’t meet the hardware requirements, you can still get Windows 11 builds. However, Microsoft warns, “As these devices fail to meet the new hardware requirements, there may be problems and errors that affect the Windows 11 experience on these PCs and may not be fixed.” And if something goes wrong and you go to Windows 10, you won’t be able to get any more Windows 11 builds.
Now that Windows 11 is generally available, any PCs that don’t meet the minimum requirements will not receive Windows 11 Insider Preview builds.
Below are summaries of each of the Windows 11 Preview builds, starting with the most recent. For each build, we’ve included the date it was released, the Insider Channel it was approved for, a summary of the build, and a link to Microsoft’s announcement about it.
Windows 11 Insider Preview builds
Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 2200.132
Release date: August 12, 2024
Published on: Development and beta channels
With this build, Insiders now have access to Microsoft Teams chat in the beta channel. The feature previously introduced on the Dev Channel for Insiders includes individual and group audio and video calls. You can create and attend meetings, turn your microphone and camera on or off, and choose your preferred speakers, microphones, and cameras. You can also share your screen, view the attendee list, allow meeting attendees from the lobby, chat, and view people’s videos in a gallery view. For more information, see “Microsoft Teams Chat First Preview Begins Rolling Out for Windows Insiders”.
The build also introduces the new Snipping Tool for Windows 11 and updated calculator, mail and calendar apps for Insiders in the Dev Channel. For more information, see First Set of Windows App Updates Deployed to Windows Insiders for Windows 11.
There are seven fixes in this build, including a bug that caused the system tray to crash repeatedly in the Windows sandbox, and another where the icon for the “Location In Use” indicator did not appear in the system tray when it should have been should.
There are many known issues in this build, including one where you might not be able to enter text using Search from Start or the system tray, and one where the search box might not open when you click the icon Click Search in the system tray.
(More information about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 2200.132.)
Windows 11 Insider Preview build 22000.120
Release date: August 5, 2024
Published on: Development and beta channels
This build introduces a new family widget for MSA accounts (a Microsoft single sign-on account). It allows users to see the most recent activity by members of their Microsoft family group. The build also fixes several dozen bugs, including one where File Explorer didn’t show an updated scroll bar in dark mode; another that caused the search in the settings to be permanently interrupted and said “No result” with every search; and one where explorer.exe crashed when the Task View button was clicked.
There are many known issues in this build, including one where you might not be able to enter text using Start or System Tray search, and another where the search window appears after clicking the search icon on the system tray may not open.
(More information about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22000.120.)
Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22000.100
Release date: July 22, 2024
Published on: Developer channel
This build introduces Microsoft Teams integration in Windows 11, including a Teams chat flyout in the system tray. For more information, see the Microsoft blog post “Microsoft Teams Chat First Preview Begins Rolling Out for Windows Insiders”. Note that not every insider will see the feature right away.
There’s also a host of minor new features, including fully collapsing the Taskbar Calendar flyout when you click the chevron in the top corner to make more room for notifications.
Several dozen bugs have been fixed, including one where right-clicking on the desktop or File Explorer caused the resulting context menu and submenus to appear partially off-screen, and another where logging in for widgets in some scenarios did not work for authentication hang.
There are many known issues in this build, including one where you might not be able to enter text using Start Search or the system tray, and one where the system tray sometimes flickers when you switch input methods.
(More information about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22000.100.)
Windows 11 Insider Preview build 22000.71
Release date: July 15, 2024
Published on: Developer channel
This build introduces a new entertainment widget that shows new and featured movie titles in the Microsoft Store. There are also many bug fixes, including one where the new command bar would not appear when the “Open folder in a separate process” option is checked under File Explorer Options> View, and another one that caused Settings to crash periodically on startup.
There are many known issues in this build, including one where you might not be able to enter text using search from the Start or Taskbar, and another where the right-click menu and submenus from the desktop or file explorer screen may be partially disabled.
(More information on Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22000. 71.)
Windows 11 Insider Preview build 22000.65
Release date: July 8, 2024
Published on: Developer channel
Among other changes in this build, the Start menu now includes a search box, the power mode settings are now available on the Power and Battery page in Settings, and several dialog boxes for system warning, e.g. If you change your display settings, stick with the new one now visual design of Windows 11.
The build includes a variety of bug fixes, including one where Settings couldn’t start, another where you couldn’t pin and pin apps from startup, another where the command bar in File Explorer disappeared, and another where the snap layouts were not displayed until you restarted your PC.
In addition, a remote code execution exploit in the Windows Print Spooler Service known as PrintNightmare has been closed. For more information, see CVE-2021-34527.
There are many known issues in this build, including one where you might not be able to enter text using Start Search or the system tray, and one where the new command bar might not appear when “Folder in Open a separate process “is activated under File Explorer Options> View.
What IT needs to know: Since this is a security update, it should be applied relatively soon. Check for reports of problematic issues over the next few weeks and install the update if everything is OK.
(More information about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22000.65.)
Windows 11 Insider Preview build 22000.51
Release date: June 28, 2024
Published on: Developer channel
This first Insider Preview for Windows 11 is big and offers many of the new features that are expected to be part of the shipping version of the new operating system.
General interface changes: The start menu is now centered and not pinned to the left of the screen. It contains a number of pinned apps as well as recently opened files in OneDrive on all of your cloud-connected devices, including PCs and smartphones. The taskbar is also centered and offers new animations. It includes a button in the lower right corner for notifications and quick changes to your settings.
MicrosoftFile Explorer has a new command bar and overall look, including new context menus. New themes have been added to the overall interface and the Windows sounds have been redesigned.
Widgets: Windows 11 comes with a number of resizable information widgets for things like the news, the weather, your calendar, local traffic, a to-do list, photos from OneDrive, news, sports, and more.
Multitasking: The “Snap” function of Windows 10, with which you can control how you can arrange your open windows, has been redesigned. You can choose from pre-made snap layouts and arrange them in pre-made snap groups. Desktops available from Task View can now be rearranged and have custom backgrounds.
Touch, handheld and voice input: The touch keyboard gets 13 new themes and can be resized. There’s also a launcher for voice input and several new touch gestures. The build allows you to quickly switch between additional languages and keyboards using a toggle that appears in the lower right corner of the system tray next to Quick Settings. There is now also a menu for customizing digital pens.
Other changes are:
- The Microsoft Store has been redesigned. Finally, Android mobile games and apps are housed there and can work on Windows 11.
- When you undock your laptop, the windows on your external monitor are minimized. When you reconnect your computer to your monitor, Windows will put everything back where it was before.
- With Windows 11’s dynamic refresh rate, your PC can automatically increase the refresh rate as you colorize or scroll to give you a smoother experience, and decrease the refresh rate when you don’t need it to save power on your laptop.
- The settings have been redesigned, including the navigation on the left that is retained between pages. There are also breadcrumbs that let you know exactly where you are in the settings.
- Windows 11 offers Wi-Fi 6E.
Known problems: There are more than two dozen known issues in this build across a variety of functions including the Taskbar, Settings, Startup, Search, Widgets, and Store. For example, if you upgrade a device with multiple user accounts to Windows 11, the settings will not start. After clicking the search icon on the system tray, the search window may not open. and when upgrading to Windows 11 from Windows 10 or installing an update to Windows 11, some features may be out of date or removed.
More information about Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22000.51.
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