Microsoft has a Friday treat for Windows Insiders. Now rolling out to the Canary channel of the Windows Insider program is Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25352. Microsoft only noted one new feature in this build, and it’s related to widgets. You’ll now see that you can preview widgets before adding them to your board, but you’ll also want to keep in mind that this build could remove some features temporarily.
This new feature isn’t actually linked to the Canary channel specially. Microsoft is bringing it out to both the Windows 11 Dev channel, and the Canary channel. With it, you’ll see an image that previews what your widget looks like before you pin it. There’s also a deep link feature that lets you jump to a specific widget for an app or service like Spotify, or something from Microsoft like Sports, OneDrive, it Outlook. There’s even a Find more widgets link that you can click to go to the Microsoft Store to find and discover new widgets. Check it out below.
Again, this is the only change that Microsoft reported in this week’s Canary build. It’s not too surprising, as Canary builds are the least stable in the Windows Insider Program and documentation isn’t always provided. You can come across new features that Microsoft didn’t even mention.
Do note that there is a slight change in naming this week, too. Builds coming from the Canary Channel now have a new desktop watermark. It should now show as ZN_Release. This doesn’t mean too much, as Microsoft frequently changes the branch that builds come from, as their employees tweak Windows 11. The builds are still the same as the previous RS_Prerelease branch, but Microsoft mentioned today that some features in Canary Channel build might now be removed heading into the future. The company also detailed that it will be bringing this back when the time is right.