Microsoft Releases Five Windows Insider Preview Builds

Microsoft today released five pre-release Windows 11 builds through the Windows Insider Program, but there’s only one notable change plus a note about a change to one channel.

The new builds are:

• Beta: Build 26320.9876
• Experimental: Build 26340.9882
• Beta (26H1): Build 28020.3445
• Experimental (26H1): Build 28120.3454
• Experimental (Future Platforms): Build 29704.1000

The only notable change is an improvement to Windows Hello in the Experimental channel: Now, whichever sign-in method you use will work immediately, so you no longer have to wait for face or fingerprint recognition to finish before you can enter your PIN. Oddly, Windows 11 will sometimes require you to enter a PIN before you can use biometrics, like after a restart. That’s how mobile devices work and I don’t get it.

As for the channel change, those on Experimental (Future Platforms) will soon start seeing additional interim weekly builds between each normal weekly build. Microsoft says these interim builds are “just synthetic latest cumulative updates (LCUs), and do not contain any new features or payload” that help it “test backend flighting and updating services.”