TechonoBlog

Microsoft just pushed Build 27686 to the Canary Channel. We installed it immediately and found some hidden gems. The updated taskbar finally supports drag‑and‑drop between virtual desktops, and the new “Energy Saver” mode extends battery by up to 15% in our tests. There’s also a redesigned volume mixer that lets you control per‑app audio directly from Quick Settings. The build feels stable for a pre‑release, though some widgets are still glitchy.

Notable improvements

File Explorer now opens faster, and the right‑click context menu loads instantly. Microsoft is also testing a new backup app that syncs more settings across devices. If you’re in the Canary channel, give it a try.

The latest Edge Dev build (version 124.0.2478.0) introduces auto‑grouping in vertical tabs. Now when you open multiple tabs from the same site, they are automatically stacked. You can also pin entire groups. The performance panel now shows which tabs are using the most memory. We’re also seeing early tests of a built‑in VPN that works with selected sites. No official announcement yet, but the code references are there.

The perpetual version of Office 2024 is now available for business preview. The biggest change is a robust offline mode: you can now co‑author documents locally and sync changes when back online. Excel gains new dynamic array functions that work without an internet connection, and Outlook’s search is noticeably faster. The new interface matches Windows 11’s design language, with rounded corners and acrylic menus. No subscription required – a one‑time purchase option remains.

Microsoft has started rolling out intelligent recap to Teams Premium users in the public preview. After a meeting, you get an AI‑generated summary with key points, action items, and even mentions of who said what. The recap appears in the chat tab. In our tests, it accurately identified tasks about 80% of the time. There’s also a new “speaker coach” view that shows pacing and filler word usage during the call.

Sprint 235 brings several improvements for test pipelines. The new test impact analysis now supports .NET 8 and can automatically select tests based on code changes. The pipeline editor gets a dark theme and better YAML validation. For manual testers, the Test Plans hub now allows bulk upload of test cases from CSV. We also noticed experimental support for GitHub Copilot in Azure DevOps – it can suggest test scripts from work items.

This week, Microsoft released ten new connectors for Power Automate and Power Apps in preview mode. Among them are connectors for Adobe Sign, Freshdesk, and a beta for Salesforce Genie. The AI Builder also gets a new “entity extraction” model that you can train with just a few examples. We built a simple flow that extracts invoice data from emails – it worked surprisingly well. Expect general availability by summer.

The latest preview of Windows Server 2025 (Build 26252) introduces a new “Active Directory Forest Recovery” tool that automates most of the recovery steps. There’s also a delegated managed service account (dMSA) feature that reduces password‑related attacks. On the hybrid side, integration with Azure Arc is now built‑in, allowing you to manage on‑prem servers from the Azure portal without installing an agent. Performance improvements for Hyper‑V and storage are also present.

The “new Outlook” for Windows is now enabled by default for Office Insiders. The interface is faster and now supports third‑party accounts (like Gmail and Yahoo) directly in the same app. Calendar sharing has been simplified, and you can now pin emails for later. There’s also a new “events” section that automatically pulls travel and delivery info from your emails. Some advanced features like offline search are still missing, but the team promises them before general release.

In the latest Dev Channel build, Copilot gains two experimental skills: “screen understanding” and “file operations.” With screen understanding, you can ask Copilot “what’s on this page?” and it will describe the content or even summarize it. File operations let you move, rename, or delete files using natural language. Both are still rough – accuracy is about 70% – but they hint at where Microsoft is heading. You can enable them via a hidden feature flag.

The Microsoft Store in the latest Windows Insider build now includes AI‑driven app recommendations. Based on your usage, the Store suggests apps you might need – for example, if you open many PDFs, it recommends a PDF editor. The “collections” feature also uses AI to group apps for specific tasks (like “photo editing” or “development”). Early feedback indicates the recommendations are surprisingly relevant, though some users worry about privacy.