Microsoft Releases Windows 11 Canary Build 27749

Windows Insiders on the Canary Channel can download the Windows 11 preview build 22749 today. The new bits mostly includes bug fixes plus the same Narrator improvements that are also rolling out with this month’s Patch Tuesday updates for all supported versions of Windows 11.

Users who rely on the Narrator accessibility feature can now press the Narrator key + Ctrl + X to copy what Narrator last spoke to the clipboard. This new shortcut should be useful for quickly copying some content like codes or numbers.

Narrator is also getting the ability to auto read the contents of an email in the new Outlook for Windows app, which will replace the Windows Mail app after its shutdown on December 31. This new feature will also match what Narrator can already do with emails in the classic Outlook for Windows client.

In this new Canary build, Microsoft also fixed performance issue where Narrator would slow down after 15 minutes of continuous use with a single app. Another bug causing Task Manager to show a 0 count for apps and processes has also been addressed.

In recent months, the Canary Channel clearly hasn’t been the place where Windows enthusiast can test lots of new features. It’s still doesn’t make a lot of sense to see some new features ship first on the “less advanced” Dev and Beta Channels, but this is how it is. We’re also still waiting for Microsoft to make the Recall AI feature available for Insiders with Copilot+ PCs, and this should now happen before the end of the year.