Windows 11 Build 26200.5751: Enhanced Click to Do & UI Updates
Microsoft has released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26200.5751 to the Dev Channel, offering an early glimpse at forthcoming features and enhancements for its operating system. This latest build introduces significant updates, particularly for Copilot+ PCs, alongside a suite of general improvements and critical bug fixes.
A highlight of this preview is the introduction of new selection modes within the “Click to Do” feature, designed to offer users greater control and flexibility, especially on touch-enabled devices. These include Freeform Selection, allowing users to draw freely around desired entities with a pen or finger for a natural feel; Rectangle Selection, where dragging a box around items captures everything within the defined area; and Ctrl + Click, enabling multi-selection of various content types like text and images using a keyboard and mouse. These additions aim to make “Click to Do” actions more powerful and efficient by allowing multiple entity types to be selected in a single gesture, resulting in a smarter, faster, and more fluid user experience.
Beyond these Copilot+ PC-specific enhancements, the build also delivers a range of general changes and improvements. IT administrators can now leverage Group Policy or MDM CSP to remove select pre-installed Microsoft Store applications from Enterprise and Education devices, providing more granular control over software deployment. File Explorer receives a visual refresh, with the “Open with” context menu no longer displaying accent-colored backplates behind packaged app icons, making them appear larger and easier to discern. Additionally, the taskbar sees updated, smoother animations when users hover over app groups.
Numerous fixes address various user experience issues. The taskbar no longer duplicates additional clock displays in the date and time tooltip. The Start menu benefits from several stability improvements, resolving instances where its layout might temporarily shrink, it failed to open in safe mode, its context menu appeared far from the icon, or the “Hide this pane” option for the mobile device companion was difficult to see with custom accent colors. File Explorer’s dark mode now correctly displays colors for low-space drives, addressing previous issues where red indicators were unexpectedly light. Login and Lock screens also see improvements, with blank square icons for login options resolved and underlying issues contributing to lock screen hangs addressed, enhancing overall reliability. Furthermore, the build fixes a crash in live captions on Copilot+ PCs and resolves DWM crashes experienced by some Insiders. An issue preventing interaction with the screen area underneath moved hardware indicators has also been rectified.
For all users in the Dev Channel, critical fixes include resolving a bug that caused text and image actions in “Click to Do” to fail and the feature to crash after updating to a previous build. The frustrating issue where apps pinned to the taskbar would become unpinned after updates has also been addressed.
However, some known issues persist. A subset of Windows Insiders may encounter a 0x80070005 error during installation, though a recovery option is available via Windows Update settings. Developers on Arm64 PCs may experience Visual Studio crashes when using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) scenarios. Users in the European Economic Area (EEA) might find that the Recall feature is not functioning correctly, with a reset option available in settings. Minor issues include the “Shared” section in File Explorer Home appearing even without content, and the “Temporary files” scan in Storage settings getting stuck. Xbox Controller users connecting via Bluetooth may experience PC bugchecks, with a specific driver uninstall workaround provided.
Finally, an update to the Snipping Tool (version 11.2507.14.0 and higher) is rolling out, introducing a new “window mode screen recording” feature. This allows users to capture activity within a specific application window effortlessly. The tool automatically sizes the recording region to match the chosen app window precisely. While the recording region remains fixed once initiated, this feature provides a simple, focused way to record defined screen areas without needing post-capture cropping or adjustments.
As with all Dev Channel releases, it’s important to remember that these builds represent early development. Features may evolve, be removed, or never see a public release. Microsoft utilizes “Control Feature Rollout technology” to gradually deploy new functionalities, monitoring feedback before wider release. Insiders can opt-in to receive these features as they become available via a toggle in Windows Update settings, though new functionalities will eventually roll out to all users in the channel over time.