📢 Microsoft adds VPN status, new Taskbar search, and more to Windows 11 build 25252

What's new and improved in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25252

In the latest Windows 11 (Preview) Build 25252, Microsoft added a glanceable VPN status into the system tray. This will be visible once you connect your system to a recognized VPN profile. The VPN icon, a small shield, will be overlayed in your system accent color over the active network connection.

With this build, Microsoft also added some tweaks to try out different treatments for how search looks on the taskbar. We are excited to learn from your feedback on this, so please let us know what you think via Feedback Hub if you see the different treatments on your PC, says Microsoft in the release notes.

Insiders who get this experience will have the ability to change the treatment of search on the taskbar in settings under Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar Items. So, give it a try.

Issues fixed in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25252

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• Fixed an explorer.exe crash when using Alt + F4 with the show hidden icons flyout in the system tray open.
• Fixed multiple explorer.exe crashes impacting system tray performance.
• Updated the battery icon’s tooltip to let you know if your device is charging slowly.
• Made a small refinement for tablet-optimized taskbar users to make it a bit easier to expand the taskbar without invoking the Start menu.
• Fixed an issue which could lead to the taskbar jump lists and preview thumbnails not appearing in the correct position for Insiders with 2 in 1 PCs.

[Start menu]

• We fixed an issue causing folders in Start menu to not open on the first try.

[Other]

• Fixed an issue causing some Insiders to see a bugcheck with the error SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION after upgrading to the previous flight.
• Fixed an issue which was causing certain apps (including Media Player) to crash when playing media in the background in recent flights.
• Fixed an issue which could lead to your PC going to sleep although it was configured to not sleep.
• Fixed an issue where network-to-local copying (for example, when copying a file from a network share) was slower than expected from some users.

NOTE: Some fixes noted here in Insider Preview builds from the Dev Channel may make their way into the servicing updates for the released version of Windows 11.

Known issues in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25252

[General]

• [NEW] Under certain circumstances, Widgets may appear missing for a small subset of Windows Insiders causing explorer.exe to crash in a loop after upgrading to this build. If it is missing, you can install it here. We recommend doing this before you upgrade. If you upgrade and are impacted, please follow these steps for rolling back the build.
• [NEW] There is an issue in Build 25247+ causing some Insiders to not able to view certain secondary drives – this may also affect other PCI devices. The device shows as having an error in Device Manager. We are working on a fix, once you upgrade to a build with the fix it should be functional again.
• We’re looking into reports that audio stopped working for some Insiders after upgrading to the latest flights.
• We’re investigating reports of crashes with a few different apps and games in recent builds.
• We’re working on the fix for an issue causing various UI elements in apps appear to disappear and reappear sometimes in recent builds.

[Taskbar & System Tray]

• The taskbar is sometimes cropped in half when using the tablet-optimized taskbar.
• [NEW] We’re working on the fix for an issue causing the Bluetooth section of Quick Settings to crash starting with the previous flight. If you are impacted, please use the Settings > Bluetooth & Devices for the time being instead.

[Search on the Taskbar]

• For certain files ending with .cmd, .exe or .bat you will need to press backspace after typing before you will see results.

The following known issues only apply for Windows Insiders who received one of the different treatments for how search looks on the taskbar as mentioned above in this blog post:

• [NEW] When you change your primary monitor, for example by plugging an external display in, you will see a search box that appears to be floating on the desktop. You can fix this issue by going into Personalization > Taskbar > Search and toggling the setting.
• [NEW] When using multiple monitors, the search box is not visible on the non-active monitor when the search flyout is open. This is only present when “Show my taskbar on all displays” is enabled.
• [NEW] When you click on the search box on taskbar, the search box will momentarily flash before the Search flyout shows up
• [NEW] In right-to-left display languages like Arabic, there are layout issues with the text in the search box on taskbar.
• [NEW] Some Japanese IME candidate items are clipped inside the search box on taskbar.

[Task Manager]

• Filtering by publisher name does not match correctly on the Processes page.
• Some services may not show in the Services page after filtering is applied.
• If a new process is starting while a filter is set, then that process may appear for a split second in the filtered list.
• Some dialogs may not render in the correct theme when applied from Task Manager Settings page.
• The data content area of the Processes page may flash once when theme changes are applied in the Task Manager Settings page.
• There’s an issue we’re investigating where Task Manager isn’t displaying light and dark content correctly, leading to unreadable text. This happens when you have your mode in Settings > Personalization > Colors set to Custom – as a workaround for the time being, please switch it to Light or Dark.
• The Startup apps page in Task manager does not list any apps for some Insiders. If you are impacted, please use Settings > Apps > Startup for the time being.

[Widgets]

• In right-to-left display languages like Arabic, content animates out of view before the widgets board resizes when clicking to expanded view of the widgets board.