Microsoft has released a servicing update KB5013296 for Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22581 for both Dev and Beta channels. If you are a beta or dev user, you should get this update from Windows Update. Once you have installed KB5013296, Windows 11 build will be 22.581.200.
According to Microsoft, this update does not include any new features or bug fixes. This update is just to test the servicing pipeline for future builds of Windows 11. If you haven’t installed KB5013283, installing this update will bring in all the features of the last update.
UPDATE 3/29: We are starting to roll out Cumulative Update Build 22581.200 (KB5013296). This update does not include anything new and is designed to test our servicing pipeline for builds in the Dev and Beta Channels.
Microsoft blog
If you want to get this update right now, go to Windows Settings –> Windows Update and press the “Check for updates” button. This will bring you the latest cumulative update. It should start downloading automatically. Hit the Restart button once the update is downloaded completely.
Please note that although Microsoft says there are no new features or bug fixes in this update, the update may still break your system. But since it should be a test system (always recommended for beta and dev installations), you should test the update in your environment.
I have updated all my available systems, including virtual machines, to the latest build, and am yet to see any negative effects of this update. So for me, it’s pretty safe to update.
One more thing that you can do with this update is to downgrade yourself from Dev channel to Beta channel. Normally Microsoft does not allow downgrading a channel, but this time Microsoft has enabled this feature. If you want to downgrade from Dev to Beta, now is the time.
To switch from Dev to Beta, just go to Windows Settings –> Windows Update –> Windows Insider Program. Expand “Choose your Insider settings” and select the channel Dev or Beta. Release Preview will still not be available.
One more thing, Microsoft had removed the Windows File Explorer tabs feature in the recent beta build for Windows 11, but it has been restored after this update. I have tested our way of enabling the Windows File Explorer tabs feature and it’s working fine. Have you enabled the tabs feature? What is your experience with the tabs? For me, it’s still in the early stages of development and needs a lot of work before it is offered to stable channel users.
You can also roll back if you have any issues with this update.
If you want to save space after installing Windows updates, you can run the following commands one after the other in Command Prompt with administrative privileges:
dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStoredism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanupUpdate: I use the Traffic Monitor app, which displays the system resource usage at the far right of the taskbar. Since this update, the alignment of the app has been messed up. Now the resource usage is shown over the icons, instead of the black space on the taskbar. I hope this will be fixed in the next releases.
