Microsoft has released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 27898 to the Canary Channel.
This update introduces features aimed at improving usability and recovery, including taskbar icon scaling, quick machine recovery, and enhancements to accessibility tools like voice access and Narrator.
One of the main additions in Build 27898 is taskbar icon scaling. This feature addresses a common issue for users who often fill their taskbar with pinned or active apps. Once the taskbar begins to fill, Windows will now automatically reduce the size of the icons, allowing more apps to stay visible without forcing users into an overflow menu.
Microsoft offers three options for how this feature behaves. The default setting kicks in when the taskbar gets full, shrinking icons only when space runs out. Users who prefer consistency can choose to always keep icons at their smaller size, and for those who don’t want icons to scale at all, there’s an option to disable the behavior entirely.
These preferences can be changed by right-clicking on the taskbar, selecting taskbar settings, and adjusting the “Show smaller taskbar buttons” option under taskbar behaviors.
Build 27898 also gains quick machine recovery, part of the broader Windows Resiliency Initiative announced during Ignite 2024. This tool is designed to help recover from boot issues automatically, using the Windows Recovery Environment.
If a system fails to start correctly, it will attempt to connect to the internet through WinRE and receive a targeted fix from Windows Update. This removes the need for most manual recovery steps and is enabled by default for home users.
IT administrators have options to manage the feature through Intune and a dedicated settings page under System > Recovery.
For accessibility, Microsoft is continuing to expand voice access features. Users can now add custom words to the voice access dictionary, which improves how well dictation understands personalized vocabulary, including names and uncommon terms.
Screen Curtain is another addition meant to enhance user privacy. Available through the Narrator screen reader, this feature blacks out the display so that only Narrator reads what’s on screen, useful for those using screen readers in public spaces or shared environments.
Elsewhere, privacy dialogs for app permissions have been updated with a new design that dims the screen and brings focus to the prompt. Microsoft Entra ID sign-ins will now use WebView2 for improved compatibility, and file Explorer gets a small visual change with dividers added between top-level context menu icons.
Energy Saver sees an update as well, with a preview of adaptive energy saver now rolling out. This setting automatically enables or disables energy saver based on device power state and system load, without dimming the screen. It’s currently only available on devices with batteries and can be managed under the Power & battery settings.
Windows share
The Windows share window now shows visual previews of shared content. When sharing images, users can choose from High, Medium, or Low quality compression settings instead of picking from a wide range.
File extraction performance has also been improved, especially for large archives in formats like .7z or .rar.
The Snipping Tool gains a new shortcut, letting users launch the text extractor directly with Win + Shift + T. Settings also gets some refinements, including a clearer country or region display and more options for managing default browser behavior.
There is also a new option to make the default browser the handler for PDFs and pin it to the Start menu and taskbar.
Fixes in Build 27898 address issues in File Explorer, and Settings crashes. Some known problems remain, including display distortion in Remote Desktop on Arm64 PCs, and Settings crashes under Power & Battery options.
What do you think about the new changes in Build 27898? Let us know in the comments.
Image Credit: Simon Lehmann / Dreamstime.com
