KB5040529 brings all the new features introduced in Windows 11 24H2 so far to the Release Preview Channel

Microsoft has released its newest update to Windows 11: the Release Preview Channel build 26100.1297 (KB5040529). This update includes many exciting features that promise to significantly improve user experience.

KB5040529 contains numerous advancements—some were hinted at in earlier Beta, Dev, and Canary preview builds for those who like to be on top of things before they happen. Yet, what does this update truly offer? Let’s take a look.

To begin with, the lock screen is getting enhanced by new content types like sports, traffic, and finance. These join weather updates to give users a complete informational experience when they start their day—all in one place. One can activate this feature by going into the settings menu.

Next, the Start menu has a new account manager. This makes it simpler to quickly view your Microsoft account benefits and manage your account settings straight from this area. Also, you can now pin apps to the taskbar by dragging and dropping them from the Start menu—a minor but nice touch for improving usability.

File Explorer has not been forgotten in KB5040529. You can now drag files among breadcrumbs in the address bar, which could greatly simplify your file handling and navigation tasks. For those who love emojis like me, this new update includes Emoji 15.1 support – providing a fresh set of expressive characters for our digital communications.

The update also adds protection from accidentally closing the Windows Share window; now, clicking outside will not close it. KB5040529 also provides a feature to share directly into particular Microsoft Teams channels and group chats, generate QR codes for webpage URLs and cloud files, and allow you to send emails to yourself from within the Windows Share window. Plus, copying files from the Windows Share window just got easier.

If you are stressed about your digital footprints, Windows now backs up many of your sound settings. However, this only happens when the necessary options in Windows backup settings have been enabled. For gamers, a fresh Game Pass recommendation card will show up on the Settings home page if you are actively playing games on your PC.

The change goes beyond what users see and covers Task Manager. This includes changing the units for DDR speed from MHz to MT/s and solving a problem with USB devices. Now, Task Manager is more steady, reachable, and straightforward when moving around. This is because of updates in keyboard focus, tab key navigation, text scaling, and other areas.

KB5040529 has included PC Manager and polished the Widget icons on taskbars to remove any pixelation or fuzziness for people using devices in China. Now, OneDrive can be utilized as a RemoteApp within Azure Virtual Desktop, and support for packet drop collection in Windows nodes has been enhanced, making troubleshooting easier.

However, the update is not without some problems. KB5040529 mentions a few issues, such as trouble selecting a group from the aimed domain for Item Level Targeting in Group Policy Preferences and occasionally errors occurring with Local Security Authority Subsystem Service failing.

KB5040529 is now available to download and install. The full changelog is available here.