Dev Channel Insiders Can Now Use Pen Input Anywhere They Can Type

Microsoft has released today the Windows 11 Insider build 23481 for testers on the Dev Channel. This build introduces a big change to the Windows Ink experience, as Insiders can now use their pen anwyhere they can type in Windows.

“Windows Ink is being modernized to allow users to enable inking directly onto edit fields. In addition, we are improving the accuracy from the recognition technology and a scratch out gesture for when users need to make edits,” the Windows Insider team said today. For now, this new Windows Ink experience is only available in English (US), and as often with new Insider features, it’s only rolling out to a subset of testers on the Dev Channel.

In this build, Microsoft is also introducing a new Focus Session widget, which you can see below. It will be available for a subset of Insiders after they install an update for the Clock app.

In the taskbar, Microsoft is renaming the Windows 11 Chat app as “Microsoft Teams – Free.” This app always used the consumer version of Microsoft Teams, so the rebranding kind of makes sense. But rest assured, you can still unpin it from the taskbar. Starting with this build, Microsoft is also making the never combined mode for the taskbar available for all Insiders in the Dev Channel.

Lastly, Microsoft is making the ability to tear out and merge tabs in File Explorer available to all Dev Channel testers. The company is also removing some legacy settings that currently appear under Folder Options in File Explorer.

If you’re on the Canary channel, the build 25393 is available for you today, but there are no release notes for it. The Windows Insider team previously said that it would only publish a blog post when new features are available in a build, so here we are.