KB5021866 for the Windows 11 Beta Channel brings loads of taskbar bugs

It’s time to talk Insider builds once again, and what better occasion than the release of two brand new builds to the Windows 11 Beta Channel.

As you know, since months ago, Microsoft started flighting two separate builds to Beta Channel Insiders, one of them has new features rolling out, while the other has new features off by default.

Today, we are going to take a closer look at Builds 22621.1028 and Build 22623.1028 (KB5021866) and analyze what we received.

Please keep in mind that we are one week away from the December 2022 Patch Tuesday release, so it will be pretty interesting to see what Microsoft has prepared for us.

What’s new with Builds 22621.1028 and 22623.1028?

Speaking of the latest operating system (Windows 11), we invite you to take a look at some of the neat upcoming features.

Also, remember that if you haven’t yet upgraded, Microsoft is now flighting Windows 11 to Windows 10 22H2 users via OOBE.

Please note that starting today, December 7th, Insiders in the Dev and Beta Channels will see quests start to light up in the Feedback Hub covering various scenarios Microsoft is looking for feedback on.

You can actually take the opportunity to try out some new features, test them out, and provide feedbak on your experience.

Furthermore, the Bug Bash will be running from 12am PST December 7th, to 11:59pm PST December 12th, so keep that in mind.

It goes without saying that, Insiders who participate, will receive a badge in the Feedback Hub once the Bug Bash is over.

Now, circling back to the Beta Channel release, know that Insiders who were previously on Build 22622 will automatically get moved to Build 22623 via an enablement package.

Let’s take a look at the changelog and discover together what the Redmond-based tech giant has prepared for us.

Fixes in Build 22623.1028

[General]

• Made another fix to address explorer.exe crashing repeatedly in safe mode.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• Fixed an issue where, with the system tray design updates, auto-hiding the taskbar would stop working after you had interacted with the hidden icons flyout.
• Made a small refinement for tablet-optimized taskbar users to make it a bit easier to expand the taskbar without invoking the Start menu.
• Fixed an issue which could lead to the taskbar jump lists and preview thumbnails not appearing in the correct position for Insiders with 2-in-1 PCs.
• Improved the transition animation when switching between collapsed and expanded views of the tablet-optimized taskbar.
• The tablet-optimized taskbar should collapse more reliably now after launching an app from the Start menu.
• Fixed an explorer.exe crash when using Alt + F4 with the show hidden icons flyout in the system tray open.
• Updated the battery icon’s tooltip to let you know if your device is charging slowly.
• Fixed an issue causing the top half of the media controls in Quick Settings to be missing sometimes.
• Fixed a GDI handle leak in recent builds related to receiving certain types of notifications. This could cause UI issues or explorer.exe crashes for Insiders who receive a lot of notifications.
• Fixed an issue that was causing the NVIDIA icon in the system tray to show empty notifications.

[Search]

• Fixed an issue causing search to not work in the previous flight for Insiders with Arm64 PCs.

[Settings]

• Fixed an issue where the sleep recommendation on the Energy Recommendations page and Battery & Power page were sometimes inconsistent.

[Task Manager]

• Task Manager colors in light and dark should display correctly now for people with their mode set to Custom.

Fixes for BOTH Build 22621.1028 & Build 22623.1028

• Fixed an issue that affected some games and applications. This issue was related to GPU performance debugging features. This lowered the expected game performance.

Known issues

[General]

• Based on incoming feedback rates with the latest updates, we’re removing audio issues from the known issues list. We’ll continue to monitor feedback in this space – if you’re experiencing issues, please follow these steps for filing actionable feedback for audio issues.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• The taskbar takes longer than expected to transition to the touch-optimized version when switching between desktop posture and tablet posture.

[Task Manager]

• When using the search box at the top of Task Manager, Task Manager may become unresponsive.
• Filtering by publisher name does not match correctly on the Processes page.
• Some services may not show in the Services page after filtering is applied.
• If a new process is starting while a filter is set, then that process may appear for a split second in the filtered list.
• Some dialogs may not render in the correct theme when applied from Task Manager Settings page.
• The data content area of the Processes page may flash once when theme changes are applied in the Task Manager Settings page.
• The Startup apps page in Task manager does not list any apps for some Insiders. If you are impacted, please use Settings > Apps > Startup for the time being.

This is pretty much what we are dealing with in terms of new features, fixes, and known issues when it comes to 22621.1028 and Build 22623.1028 (KB5021866).

Remember that Windows 11 version 22H2 is still new and full of bugs and glitches, so we’re going to have to be patient while Microsoft sorts everything out.

The company recently warned of database connection issues affecting Windows apps and there is no current workaround for the problem.

What can I do if I can’t install KB5021866?

1. Press Win+ I to access Settings.
2. Select the System category and click on Troubleshoot.
3. Press the Other troubleshooters button.
4. Press the Run button next to Windows Update.

Also, make sure to report any other issues you might come across, in order for Microsoft to address and improve the overall OS experience for us all.

This is everything you can expect if you are a Windows Insider. Leave a comment below if you found any issues since installing this build.