Windows 11 (22H2) build 22621.898 has arrived in the release preview channel, and it includes an important bug fix for a problem with File Explorer that caused high CPU usage, slowing down your PC when opening a file.
Another issue where File Explorer completely froze when closing context menus and menu items has been resolved.
As you might expect, there are a slew of other bug fixes, with the full list available in Microsoft’s blog post.
There are some small but useful additions to build 22621.898‘s new features, such as combining Windows Spotlight with Themes under Personalization settings (making Spotlight easier to find and enable, Microsoft explains).
Furthermore, on the Systems page, OneDrive users will now receive storage alerts informing them when their online storage space is running low (in Settings). There is also the option to purchase additional storage space from the Settings menu.
Microsoft also made a minor adjustment, informing users of the total amount of storage available from all of their OneDrive subscriptions combined.
All of these features are still in testing, but should be available in the final version of Windows 11 before too long.
A critical component of the Windows 11 user interface
These are some useful extras, but nothing major – the main focus here is a lot of bug squashing, as well as some important work on that front. Because File Explorer is such an important part of the Windows user interface, it’s great to see that the CPU slowdown issue has been resolved – as has the problem that was causing File Explorer to crash completely (never a good thing, of course).
Aside from bug fixes, we’re looking forward to some bigger changes in Windows 11, and we’ve just learned about one that we’ve been waiting for a long time: the ability to ungroup apps on the taskbar.
In other words, a ‘never combine’ option that was always present in Windows 10, but was removed for some inexplicable reason in Windows 11. That’s a big step forward in our opinion, though it should’ve been a choice from the start.
