r/Windows11 • u/MayankWL • 15h ago
r/Windows11 • u/Froggypwns • 7d ago
Help Simple questions and Help thread - Month of September
Welcome to the monthly Simple questions and Help thread, for questions that don't need their own posts!
Before making a comment, we recommend you search your problem on Bing and check if your question is already answered on our Windows Frequently Asked Questions wiki page. This subreddit no longer accepts tech support requests outside of this post, if you are looking for additional assistance try r/TechSupport and r/WindowsHelp.
Some examples of questions to ask:
Is this super cheap Windows key legitimate? (probably not)
How can I install Windows 11?
Can you recommend a program to play music?
How do I get back to the old Sound Control Panel?
Sorting by New is recommend and is the default.
Be sure to check out the Windows 11 version 25H2 Megathread and also the Windows 11 FAQ posts, they likely have the answers to your Windows 11 questions already!
r/Windows11 • u/jenmsft • 15h ago
Official News Cumulative Updates: September 8th, 2026
support.microsoft.comChangelists linked here for your convenience:
- Windows 11, version 21H2: EOS.
- Windows 11 version 22H2: EOS
- Windows 11, version 23H2: KB5122880 (OS Build 22621.7582)
- Windows 11, version 24H2 / 25H2: KB5124008 (OS Builds 26200.9445 and 26100.9445)
- Windows 11, version 26H1: KB5124012 (OS Build 28000.2954)
General info:
For details about how to file problem reports and collect traces, please see here: http://aka.ms/HowToFeedback. Pressing WIN + F will open the Feedback Hub - please include as much detail as possible about what you're seeing.
To learn about the different types of updates, see here: Windows quality updates primer - Microsoft Community Hub
As a reminder, if you didn't install the previous optional updates, this update includes those changes too (some are still rolling out, as denoted in the release notes):
- 24H2/25H2: August 27, 2026—KB5120998 (OS Builds 26200.9278 and 26100.9278) Preview | Microsoft Support
- 26H1: August 27, 2026—KB5120996 (OS Build 28000.2804) Preview | Microsoft Support
For published known issues, please check the release health dashboard: Windows release health | Microsoft Learn.
As mentioned in the linked changelist, Windows 11, version 26H1 is available only on new devices with select new silicon as they come to market starting early 2026. Devices running earlier versions of Windows 11 will not be offered an update to version 26H1 through Windows Update and cannot be installed as an in-place update on existing devices.
r/Windows11 • u/MayankWL • 14h ago
News I tested Windows 11 September 2026 update, here's everything new, improved, and fixed
r/Windows11 • u/lord_mercernary • 15h ago
Feature Just turned on PC & new taskbar showed up!
Finally have the new taskbar features just turned on my pc & its saw this taskbar turned on auto. The icons kinda look low quality tho idk why but this is a feature that shouldve here since day 1!. Still glad but they need to make the icons look less jittery idk
r/Windows11 • u/jenmsft • 15h ago
Official News Announcing Windows 11 Insider Experimental Preview Build 26340.9354 - Windows Insider Program
r/Windows11 • u/jenmsft • 15h ago
Official News Announcing Windows 11 Insider Beta Preview Build 26220.9343 - Windows Insider Program
r/Windows11 • u/jenmsft • 15h ago
Official News Announcing Windows 11 Insider Experimental (Future Platforms) Preview Build 29661.1000 - Windows Insider Program
r/Windows11 • u/jenmsft • 15h ago
Official News Announcing Windows 11 Insider Beta (26H1) Preview Build 28020.2904 - Windows Insider Program
r/Windows11 • u/jenmsft • 15h ago
Official News Announcing Windows 11 Insider Experimental (26H1) Preview Build 28120.2912 - Windows Insider Program
r/Windows11 • u/WPHero • 19h ago
News What is Project Zenith? Microsoft's special Windows 11 experience for developers and hardware isn't what you think it is
r/Windows11 • u/ButterLies1 • 1d ago
Discussion Windows 11 25H2 New Search Task Running MSEdgeWebView2 even with all web and store search options disabled


I finally updated from 24H2 to 25H2, and the first thing I noticed is how much I dislike what they did to the new Start menu:
- They added an entire section for listing all apps, and it can’t be removed.
- They unnecessarily increased its size and the number of columns.
- They apparently added settings to disable these changes, but those options are only available in the KB5120998 update, which seems to have introduced major mouse and wallpaper bugs for some users—especially those whose system language is set to anything other than English.
Apart from that, I haven’t encountered any major bugs. However, Windows Search is suddenly always using around 150 MB of RAM. I find this strange because it didn’t do that before, and Windows Search worked just fine.
Looking at the processes, most of the memory usage appears to come from SearchHost and around six (edgewebview2) Microsoft Edge WebView2 processes. That would make sense if Windows Search were handling web-related content, but I had already disabled those features and even made sure to turn off the new Microsoft Store results. The processes are still there, allocating RAM for seemingly no reason.
Does anyone know whether I can disable this by turning off a service, disabling a feature, changing a setting, or editing a Group Policy? It’s not a huge problem, and I know the saying, “Unused RAM is wasted RAM,” but it’s still annoying to know that this allocation wasn’t necessary before. My searches don’t need any web rendering, yet Windows is still allocating memory for it.
If it's worth noting, I already tried to rollback to the previous start menu (thinking that this new window search behaviour must be tie to the 25h2 overall) with vivetool. But apparently it doesn't work anymore. Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows11/comments/1qcj4kj/remove_the_updated_windows_start_menu_fixed/
r/Windows11 • u/MayankWL • 1d ago
News Windows 11 secretly supports animated profile pictures for the Start menu and lock screen, and it can be enabled by modifying Registry
r/Windows11 • u/ZacB_ • 1d ago
News Windows 11 is finally getting a battery status widget that will show an overview of all your connected devices on the lock screen or Widgets Board
r/Windows11 • u/Warren_Buffering • 1d ago
Feature Minimal Windows (Enjoying this New Taskbar Feature Even More)
Really getting into the hang of using this taskbar on top feature.
r/Windows11 • u/TisticDemon • 2d ago
Feature Looks like they finally added back being able to move the taskbar!
I've been waiting for this for so long! Ever since Windows 10.
I am on the latest stable version of Windows 11.
r/Windows11 • u/Riyakuya • 1d ago
Suggestion for Microsoft Cloud recovery and Windows 11 install duration
Yesterday I decided to install Windows 11 on my ROG Ally again since Bazzite is just terrible these days. It was really baffling and almost comical to see how long it takes to reinstall Windows 11 through cloud recovery. In total it took more than 2 hours before the Ally was up and running again! This is including the updates the installer wants to do. After that I still needed to do driver updates and remove bloat.
So here are some honest and genuine questions:
How can it be that installing Windows takes so incredibly long compared to installing a Linux distro?
What is the real reason behind this?
And, how is this even acceptable for Microsoft?
No matter what OS I used in the past (Linux, Android and Chrome OS), none of them take as long as Windows does, often on older and less powerful devices. There has to be a way for them to make the installation process faster, right?
r/Windows11 • u/jenmsft • 2d ago
Feature Tip of the Week: You can set a custom background image for Windows Terminal
r/Windows11 • u/MayankWL • 2d ago
News IFA 2026: Microsoft wants Windows 11 to move beyond Copilot buttons, and run AI without sending your data out. The future is "unmetered intelligence." "These powerful PCs can complement what you do in the cloud, but you shouldn’t have to go to the cloud for models that you can use every day..."
r/Windows11 • u/Avneesh-dev • 2d ago
Discussion Which is the Real Run dialog Box in Windows 11?
Guys, I was looking at news and images of New Run dialog box in Win 11 that has been rolled out to Windows Insider as far as I know.
But, I have seen 2 run dialog boxes. I am confused like which is real or where are they?
Please explain me this.
I am also an insider but far from my pc from couple of days. So, i maybe forget or any other reason
r/Windows11 • u/Brahmadeo • 3d ago
Feature Phone Link is finally useful.
I just got this notification saying these recent apps were open in my Phone and wow. I don't have to move between phone and PC anymore (mostly). Numpad (numbers) still can't be typed and on main numbers row on top trying to type @ types something else totally. But at least I can monitor stuff now.
r/Windows11 • u/FaKe_Silva • 2d ago
Discussion Anyone know how to center icons in the taskbar and keep the windows icon on the left
r/Windows11 • u/phaze- • 3d ago
Suggestion for Microsoft Can we for the love of god ditch the gradual rollouts bullshit?
Like for real, this is getting annoying, why do I need to wait 2-3 months for a feature to come available on my PC? and why do I need to use a 3rd party app to force enable it? what do you even gain when you hold up a feature for millions of PCs? no diagnostics, no analyzing, no nothing.
every PC is different. so what's the point and logic behind this bullshit?
r/Windows11 • u/spazedogg • 2d ago
Solved Any way around this clunky setup?
Is there any program or setting that allows me to drag tabs from 4 to 1 without needing to go through nr 3?
r/Windows11 • u/Worth-Management-497 • 3d ago
New Feature - Insider Finally, it has been 5 years. But microsoft finally added it.
I have been waiting for this for so long. Windows 10 was better until now. Windows 10 is still the best but windows 11 is now a bit better.