Windows 11 Build 25217 Supports Third-Party Widgets And New Video Calling Experience

Microsoft has released Windows 11 Build 25217 for the Insiders on the Dev channel. This update brings some exciting new features and support for the Windows 11 operating system.

With build 25217, developers can now create 3rd party widgets with the help of WinAppSDK1.2 Preview 2. Moreover, the Microsoft Teams’ Chat icon in the taskbar has been improved to include a new video calling experience for the users. This flight also includes a plethora of fixes and input changes.

Let us closer look into the new features offered in this flight.

Windows 11 22H2 Build 25217 Summary

Here are some of the important details about this build for Windows 11.

Complete Release Build	Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25217.1000
Channel	Dev (Flight Hub)
Release Date	Thursday, October 6th, 2022
Official Announcement	https://blogs.windows.com/windows-insider/2022/10/06/announcing-windows-11-insider-preview-build-25217/
System Requirements	https://www.itechtics.com/windows-11-requirements-check/
Download and install	First Download the stable version of Windows 11 22H2 (2022 Update) Then join the Windows Insider program

Here is the list of the latest Windows 11 builds and versions for each channel for your information:

Windows 11 Latest Versions Numbers

Windows 11 Channel	Release Date	Build/Version Information
Windows 11 (22H2) Stable	25-Oct-22	Windows 11 22H2 Build 22621.755
Windows 11 (21H2) Stable	17-Oct-22	Windows 11 21H2 Build 22000.1100
Windows 11 22H2 Release Preview	19-Oct-22	Windows 11 22H2 Build 22621.754
Windows 11 21H2 Release Preview	18-Oct-22	Windows 11 21H2 Build 22000.1163
Windows 11 Beta	20-Oct-22	Windows 11 22H2 Build 22623.870/22621.870
Windows 11 Dev	27-Oct-22	Windows 11 Build 25231

What’s New and Improved in Windows 11 Build 25217

Develop Third-Party Widgets

This one is for all the developers. Microsoft has now included support for creating 3rd party widgets with the aid of WindowsAppSDK 1.2 Preview 2 and adding them to the widgets board.

Developers with packaged Win32 apps will be able to create and test 3rd party widgets locally if their machine is running in Developer Mode.

However, there is also a limitation to this feature. Third-party widgets can only be tested locally on the latest Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel for this preview release. Moreover, the support for 3rd party PWA widgets will also be coming as part of a future Microsoft Edge release.

New Video Calling Experience in Taskbar

The Chat icon in the taskbar will now begin offering a new and improved way to make video calls.

Clicking on the icon will now expand a flyout with a preview of the video from your own webcam, and a portion of it will offer various ways, including video calling, to connect to your people.

This new experience is not available for everyone on build 25217 immediately but will be rolling out gradually over the next week.

Cloud Suggestions in Simplified Chinese IME

Some changes have been made to Simplified Chinese IME. Microsoft is currently experimenting with the said IME to allow you to conveniently type in trending and popular words.

The changes include an improved cloud suggestion and an integrated search suggestion. The cloud suggestion adds the most relevant word from Bing to the IME candidate window.

The search suggestions then further provide additional similar suggestions to your search, and you can choose from either of them.

Of course, you will need to enable these cloud suggestions after upgrading to build 25217. To enable it, select a chevron button at the right end of the IME candidate window and you’ll find the Turn on button.

Note: This feature is beginning to roll out gradually, therefore you may not see it right away.

Updates to Microsoft Store

The Microsoft Store application will now be upgraded to version 22209. This will include the following changes:

• While searching for games in the Microsoft Store app, you will now see when they are “available with Game Pass” as well as the current available price.

  On the detail page of a game, the button design has also been updated and a new section has been added to let you know what is included in the subscription.

  

• The library experience has been improved with simplified options and better performance.

Other Fixes and Improvements

The following list of improvements and fixes have also been included with this flight:

• [Input]
  • The new Tamil Anjal keyboard for the Tamil language is now rolling out with this build. It is now available to all Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel. To add it, make sure Tamil (Singapore), Tamil (Malaysia), Tamil (Sri Lanka), or Tamil (India) is listed under Settings >> Time & Language >> Language & Region, and then click the ellipses (3 dots) next to the language, select Language Options, and add Tamil Anjal (QWERTY) to the list of keyboards.
  • The new touch keyboard setting that first began rolling out to Windows Insiders in Build 25188 is disabled for now. Microsoft hopes to bring this feature back in the future with further improvements.
• [Tablet-optimized taskbar]
  • The issue causing the taskbar to sometimes collapse when it should be expanded if there are no running windows on the desktop is now fixed.
  • An issue that would occur when using the left or right edge gestures resulting in the Widgets or Notification Center (respectively) to overlap with or look truncated by the taskbar is now fixed.
  • An issue that was causing the tablet-optimized taskbar to crash explorer.exe while switching apps has been addressed.
  • An issue that was causing the tablet-optimized taskbar to crash explorer.exe if you entered the overflow flyout is fixed.
• [Windowing]
  • An issue where the close button for window preview thumbnails in Task View was drawing slightly outside the bounds of the thumbnail is fixed.
  • An issue where when switching between windows in recent builds you might see the entire window flash black for a frame while rendering is now addressed.
  • An issue causing Miracast video quality to be very slow and stuttering in recent flights despite having a solid internet connection has been addressed.
• [System Tray Updates]
  • An issue so that Quick Settings items can now be rearranged with touch again is now fixed.
• [Settings]
  • An issue under Network and Internet >> Advanced Network Settings, where certain networks were displaying the wrong link speed, is addressed.
• [Other]
  • An issue where the remote desktop on ARM64 PCs was unexpectedly not using UDP and only TCP is now fixed.

With these issues fixed, there are still a few remaining that Microsoft needs to address.

Known Issues

• [General]
  • There are reports that audio stopped working for some Insiders after upgrading to the latest flights.
  • There are reports of a few different apps having started crashing in recent builds.
  • There are reports that various UI elements in apps appear to be disappearing and reappearing sometimes in recent builds.
• [Tablet-optimized taskbar]
  • The taskbar sometimes flashes when transitioning between desktop posture and tablet posture.
  • The taskbar takes longer than expected to transition to the touch-optimized version when switching between desktop posture and tablet posture.
  • When using the bottom right edge gesture to see Quick Settings, the taskbar sometimes stays stuck in the expanded state, instead of dismissing to the collapsed state.
• [Widgets]
  • In right-to-left display languages like Arabic, content animates out of view before the widgets board resizes when clicking on the expanded view of the widgets board.
  • The notification badge number may appear misaligned on the taskbar.

After considering the fixes, features, and issues, if you feel like upgrading to this release, continue to the next section to see how to install it.

How to Install Windows 11 Build 25217

To install this update, you need to be running Windows 11 and subscribed to the Dev channel. If you have enabled Windows updates, you will automatically get a “New features are ready to install” prompt.

If not, follow these steps to install the update:

1. Navigate to the Settings app and then click Windows Update on the left.

2. Here, click Check for updates on the right side of the window.

   

3. You will then see the following update available under Updates available to download:

   Windows 11 Insider Preview 25217.1000 (rs_prerelease)

   Click Download and install in front of it.

   

4. Once the update downloads and installs, click Restart Now to finalize the installation.

   

Once the computer restarts, you can verify that the OS has been updated to the build specified by typing in winver in the Run Command box.

Rollback/Remove Windows 11 Insider Preview Update

If you do not wish to keep the installed preview update for some reason, you can always roll back to the previous build of the OS. However, this can only be performed within the next 10 days after installing the new update.

To roll back after 10 days, you will need to apply this trick before the end of the 10 days.

Cleanup After Installing Windows Updates

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 /AnalyzeComponentStore

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup