Microsoft released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.6682 (KB5065782) to the Dev Channel on July 10, delivering a new inline Copilot prompt box, locally generated AI suggestions via Phi-Silica, a curated Emoji 16.0 set, and sweeping Narrator enhancements. The flight targets version 25H2 and arrives as a controlled feature rollout—many changes are gated behind server-side toggles and limited to Copilot+ PCs.

This build exemplifies Microsoft’s incremental approach: small, focused improvements wrapped around AI productivity, accessibility, and reliability. But it also carries a non-trivial list of known issues that make it unsuitable for production machines.

Click to Do gets a Copilot micro-composer

The most visible addition is a text entry box inside Click to Do—the contextual overlay that appears when you select content on screen. Users can now type a custom prompt directly into that box, then send it to Copilot along with the selected text or image. Beneath the entry field, suggested prompts appear to accelerate common tasks.

Those suggestions are generated on-device using Microsoft’s Phi-Silica model, but only for text selections and only in English, Spanish, and French. The design is a privacy play: keep short, frequent interactions local to reduce latency and minimize cloud round trips. It effectively turns Click to Do from a passive menu into a micro-composer for Copilot, letting users quickly ask “summarize this paragraph” or “rewrite in a professional tone” without leaving their workflow.

Microsoft is staging this rollout carefully. The Copilot prompt box and suggestions are exclusive to Copilot+ PCs—devices with a dedicated neural processing unit—and not yet available to Insiders in the European Economic Area or China. That hardware and regional gating aligns with the company’s pattern of incremental AI deployment and regulatory caution.

A known regression affects multi-monitor setups: launching Click to Do on the primary display via right-edge swipe may cause the visual animations to appear on the wrong screen. Microsoft is investigating.

Also new in Click to Do: refreshed right-edge gesture animations that follow your finger, and “new and popular” action tags in the context menu to surface AI-powered actions. The Summarize action for text entities now produces more concise output, a result of ongoing tuning.

Start menu surfaces Copilot prompt examples

As an experiment to boost Copilot discovery, the Recommended section of the Start menu now shows example prompts—like “create an image with Copilot”—that a user can click to launch. It’s a minor but clever touch that introduces Copilot’s capabilities right in a familiar place.

Emoji 16.0: a carefully curated set

Rather than dumping the entire Unicode 16.0 emoji slate, Microsoft has added just seven new glyphs to the emoji panel, one from each major category:

  • Face with Bags Under Eyes (captures exhaustion)
  • Fingerprint (identity/security)
  • Root Vegetable (healthy eating, gardening)
  • Leafless Tree (winter, dormancy)
  • Harp (timeless musical icon)
  • Shovel (gardening, metaphorical digging out of trouble)
  • Splatter (expressive and fun)

The restrained selection keeps the picker usable while still offering fresh expression. Note that third-party apps may not display these new glyphs until they adopt an updated emoji font.

Xbox controller button gets a remap for multitasking

Gamers and streamers get a small ergonomic tweak: short-pressing the Xbox button now opens Game Bar, and a long press opens Task View. Pressing and holding still powers off the controller. The change makes it easier to juggle games and other apps without leaving the controller.

Narrator receives comprehensive document-reading upgrades

This build delivers a major accessibility win for users who rely on screen readers, particularly in Microsoft Word. The improvements focus on more natural speech, better document navigation, and consistent formatting announcements.

More natural voice feedback

Narrator no longer raises pitch dramatically when announcing headings, grammar, or spelling errors. This removes a distracting artifact that made long editing sessions fatiguing with Natural Voices.

Better footnote and comment navigation

Users can now navigate a document via footnotes and hear the footnote number clearly. When moving from the document canvas into the comments pane, focus tracking is preserved, so the reader doesn’t lose context.

Reliable continuous reading

Long passages no longer trigger unexpected stops. Continuous reading flows smoothly from beginning to end, a fix for a long-standing irritation.

Improved list handling

Lists are read consistently across surfaces and navigation methods. Formattings like style and level are announced according to verbosity, and long list items that wrap to a second line are no longer cut off. A new hotkey—Ctrl+Up/Down—lets you jump between list items directly.

Table navigation reworked

Narrator gains quick navigation commands in Scan Mode to move to the first or last cell of a row or column:
- Beginning of Row: Ctrl+Alt+comma
- End of Row: Ctrl+Alt+period
- Beginning of Column: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+comma
- End of Column: Ctrl+Alt+Shift+period

Other table fixes: no more double “enter table” announcements, clear boundary alerts when reaching the last cell (preventing accidental row additions), better feedback during multi-cell selection, and awareness of non-uniform tables with missing cells.

These Narrator changes materially improve the editing and reading experience for blind and low-vision users—exactly the kind of thoughtful iteration that should accompany any major AI push.

Reliability fixes target hibernation, taskbar, and audio stutter

The build addresses several real-world pain points:

  • Hibernation green screen: Some PCs bugchecked (green screen) during hibernation, appearing to shut down instead. The same root cause also produced shutdown hangs with a black screen and fan noise. Both are fixed.
  • Taskbar auto-hide: Reliability improved when “automatically hide the taskbar” is enabled. The animation may now be smoother, and issues that caused loss of interactivity in areas above the taskbar are resolved.
  • File Explorer: Shared section in Home no longer appears empty; video thumbnails with certain EXIF metadata now display; context-menu interactions no longer freeze the Explorer body; hangs when launching Open/Save dialogs are mitigated.
  • Start menu: Fixed crashes when using Win+Shift+S to screenshot it, and no more random scrolling to the top.
  • Windows Sandbox: The vmmemCmFirstBoot process no longer spikes CPU after login.
  • Windows Hello: PIN setup error 0x80090010 on Entra-domain joined devices is fixed; booting into safe mode no longer fails with a “PIN not available” message.
  • Audio stutter in OBS with NDI: An update addresses audio glitches when using Network Device Interface with Display Capture active in OBS Studio, a fix streamers will welcome.
  • Voice Access: Error 9001 that stopped Voice Access from working is corrected.
  • Lock screen: Crash when interacting with the power button is fixed.
  • Hardware indicators: The ability to move indicators (likely for camera/mic in use) returns after disappearing in a previous flight.

Known issues that demand caution

This is not a production-ready build. Microsoft explicitly calls out several problems:

  • Click to Do gesture visual on wrong display (multi-monitor).
  • Lock screen media controls may not appear.
  • External webcams: Enabling “Use Windows Studio Effects” can cause camera preview failure due to firmware incompatibility. Workaround: disable Studio Effects.
  • PIX on Windows: GPU capture playback is broken on this OS version. A PIX update is expected by end of September.
  • Settings search: Placeholder text may be vertically misaligned.
  • Audio driver yellow exclamation: Some Insiders see devices like “ACPI Audio Compositor” with yellow warnings in Device Manager. Microsoft provides a manual workaround: right-click the device, choose Update driver > Browse my computer > Let me pick from a list, select the most recent-dated driver, and repeat for each affected device.

Given these caveats, installing on primary machines or those critical for streaming, accessibility, or development is risky without a backup.

Practical guidance for Insiders and IT admins

  • Back up before installing any preview build. Have a known-good system image or restore point.
  • Test on secondary devices, VMs, or dedicated test hardware.
  • Streamers using OBS + NDI: While the build fixes the stutter, validate your full workflow, as unique hardware combos can still surface regressions.
  • If audio fails: Use the driver reinstall steps from Microsoft for yellow-banged audio devices.
  • Windows Studio Effects: Disable it for external webcams until a firmware or OS fix arrives.

Enterprise and privacy notes

The local Phi-Silica inference is a boon for latency and data privacy—short prompts never leave the device. However, enterprise compliance teams should verify what telemetry is collected, whether selected content is ever cached or transmitted, and how AI model components are delivered through update channels. Copilot+ hardware gating means IT must maintain an inventory of eligible devices and understand any AI platform packages pushed to them.

Developer impact

  • Game devs and streamers: The Xbox button change is minor but test that controller shortcuts hold up. The OBS/NDI fix is critical for streamers.
  • GPU debuggers: PIX is impaired; use the feedback channel for private builds until September.
  • Accessibility devs: Apps using ARIA/automation patterns should be retested with the new Narrator announcements and table hotkeys.

A measured step forward, with asterisks

Build 26220.6682 exemplifies how Microsoft is weaving Copilot deeper into Windows—not with massive overhauls, but with small, context-sensitive touchpoints. The prompt box in Click to Do is smart: it respects user intent without being intrusive, and the on-device suggestions via Phi-Silica are both practical and privacy-conscious. Narrator’s leap in document handling is a clear signal that accessibility remains a core investment even as AI takes center stage.

Yet the flight is also a reminder that bleeding-edge Windows is still rough around the edges. The display gesture bug, webcam incompatibilities, and audio driver hiccups are exactly the kind of friction that can derail a user’s workflow. Microsoft’s staged, hardware-gated rollout is the right strategy to catch these issues early—but it also means the most exciting features reach only a sliver of Insiders right now.

For those who can accept the risks, the build offers a promising preview of a more assistive, AI-augmented Windows. For everyone else, patience—and a good backup—are the prudent choice.