- Windows 11 build 23435 is now rolling out in the Dev Channel.
- The update introduces a new version of File Explorer based on WinUI 3 and the new Gallery feature.
- The Start menu gets new badge notifications, and the Settings app rolls out the Presence sensing feature.
- Microsoft is also releasing various fixes and improvements.
Windows 11 build 23435 is being made available by Microsoft to devices that are part of the Windows Insider Program’s Dev Channel. Despite being a major update, it has some intriguing new features, enhancements, and repairs.
A new version of File Explorer based on WinUI 3, the native interface platform component that comes with the Windows App SDK, is introduced in Build 23435 for Windows 11, per the official modifications. To make it easier to access your images, the file manager also adds a new Gallery page.
Badging alerts are now displayed in the Start menu to emphasize the advantages of logging in with a Microsoft account. This flight also comes with a number of fixes and enhancements, including a new presence-sensing privacy feature in the Settings app that lets apps know whether you’re close to the device when compatible sensors are present.
Windows 11 build 23435 changes
The Dev Channel’s most recent version of Windows 11 has the following enhancements and new features:
New File Explorer
Beginning with build 23435, Windows 11 presents a new version of File Explorer that is not built on WinUI 3, the native interface platform component that comes with the Windows App SDK, although it does maintain the same architecture as the previous version.
Furthermore, the business is formally releasing a sneak peek of the new Gallery experience for File Explorer, which simplifies access to your photo collections. The business claims that Gallery provides the same view as the Photos app.
Your most recent photos are displayed in the updated view. The photos will show up on Gallery immediately if your phone is already set up to use OneDrive Camera Roll Backup. Additionally, you can select which folders show up in the Gallery view and add or remove folder locations with photographs using this view.
New Start menu badging
For users registered in with a local account, the Start menu will now display badge notifications in the profile menu to emphasize the advantages of checking in with a Microsoft account.
New Presence sensing settings
Beginning with Windows 11 build 23435, the options app adds additional privacy options and APIs for presence sensors under Settings>Privacy & security>Presence sensing. However, only devices with suitable presence sensors can access the settings page. If so, you can now control your privacy by allowing or prohibiting specific apps from using these sensors. To protect privacy, Microsoft won’t gather any photos or metadata, and all processing is carried out locally on the hardware of the device.
Windows Narrator
Users can now confidently interact with Traditional Chinese characters when using Narrator and the IME candidate window in Windows thanks to the improvements made to Narrator.
Fixes and improvements
Numerous fixes and enhancements for Taskbar, Settings, Live Captions, Input, Task Manager, and other areas are also included in this flight.
Taskbar
- Fixed a few explorer.exe crashes that were impacting taskbar reliability.
Input
- Updated the TextInput/EnableTouchKeyboardAutoInvokeInDesktopMode MDM policy to allow 2 as a valid value to enforce showing the touch keyboard on tapping an edit control even when the hardware keyboard is attached.
Settings
- Fixed an issue which was causing Settings crashes when navigating to various Windows Update related pages in the last couple flights.
Live Captions
- Fixed the issue that caused enhanced speech recognition support installed through the Language & Region settings page to require restarting live captions if you switch languages in the live captions Caption language menu on Arm64 devices.
- Fixed the issue where you may not see install completion of Enhanced speech recognition (required by Live Captions) when adding a language through the Language & Region settings page, and language feature installation progress may become hidden.
Task Manager
- Improved the performance of the expand all and collapse all View options on the Processes page.
Accessibility
- Updated Narrator s default for Context level for buttons and controls to 3 Immediate content name and type.
There are also documented problems with the Taskbar, Live Captions, and File Explorer with this edition.
Install build 23435
Enroll your device in the Dev Channel using the Windows Insider Program settings from the Windows Update section if you wish to download and install Windows 11 build 23435.
You can get build 23435 from the Windows Update settings by clicking the Check for Updates button after enrolling the machine in the program. If you are new to the Windows Insider Program, however, you will need a device that satisfies the minimal system requirements in order to receive the update.