Microsoft dropped Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.5742 (KB5064075) into the Beta Channel on August 8, 2025, packing one of the most significant settings migrations yet. The build relocates nearly all remaining Time & Language options and keyboard repeat settings from the aging Control Panel to the modern Settings app, a long-demanded move by Windows enthusiasts who have watched the classic interface slowly fade. This release targets version 24H2 of Windows 11, applying directly to the Beta Channel, and arrives alongside a suite of critical fixes for File Explorer, the Start menu, Task Manager, and more—though it also carries a handful of known issues that could trip up unsuspecting testers.
The Great Control Panel Exodus: Time & Language Finds a New Home
The headlining change is the mass migration of time, date, language, and region controls out of the old Control Panel and into Settings. For years, users had to bounce between the two interfaces to configure dual clocks, switch time servers, or tweak number formats—a disjointed experience that clashed with Windows 11’s streamlined design. Build 26120.5742 closes much of that gap.
Under Settings > Time & language > Date & time, you can now set up additional clocks that appear in the Notification Center and as tooltips when hovering over the taskbar clock. Time server selection, once buried in the antique “Internet Time” dialog box, now lives in an “Additional settings” section on the same page. Date and time formatting controls—including the ability to change the AM/PM symbol—have moved here too, letting power users customize how Windows displays temporal data without digging through legacy windows.
Language and region settings also got a substantial transplant. The Settings > Time & language > Language & region page now sports a “Region” section for adjusting number and currency formats, a toggle to enable Unicode UTF-8 for worldwide language support, and an “Additional settings” option to copy current language and region settings to the welcome screen, system account, and new user accounts. This last feature is a godsend for IT pros setting up multiple machines; what once required scripting or manual tweaks across different control panels is now a few clicks away.
The UTF-8 toggle, in particular, addresses a longstanding pain point for developers and users working with mixed-language environments, where legacy encoding could garble characters. Making it a simple on/off switch in Settings rather than a checkbox in the old Region dialog reflects Microsoft’s intent to surface advanced options without making them feel arcane.
Keyboard Settings Take an Unexpected Turn
If the Time & Language migration feels like a logical cleanup, the relocation of keyboard settings raises eyebrows—especially their destination. Build 26120.5742 moves two typist-critical controls out of Control Panel: character repeat delay/rate and cursor blink rate. Instead of landing in the Time & language or Devices sections, both now reside under Accessibility.
Specifically, you’ll find the repeat delay and rate sliders under Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard, while the cursor blink rate control sits in Settings > Accessibility > Text cursor. On one hand, this makes sense: repeat rate affects users with motor impairments, and accessible design philosophy argues that such settings should be where people expect assistive options. On the other hand, power users who tweak keyboard repeat purely for speed and responsiveness—gamers, fast typists—may never think to hunt inside Accessibility. The move could frustrate those accustomed to the old Keyboard Control Panel applet’s straightforward layout.
Microsoft hasn’t explained the reasoning, but the pattern aligns with its recent tendency to fold hardware customization into Accessibility when the feature could benefit users with disabilities. Still, the organization of Settings remains a messy work in progress, and this choice may spark debate in the Insider community.
Visual Polish and Bug Squashing
Beyond settings migration, build 26120.5742 delivers a raft of visual and stability fixes that address several long-running annoyances.
Dialogs that appear when an app cannot open—for example, when a file association is broken—now sport Windows 11’s rounded corners and Mica backdrop, shedding the stale Windows 10-era look. It’s a small touch, but it inches the OS closer to visual consistency.
File Explorer received multiple patches. Icon mirroring in right-to-left languages like Arabic and Hebrew now works correctly, a relief for users who have endured flipped visuals for years. Persistent tooltips that refused to disappear even after closing File Explorer have been squashed, and performance when launching files or loading context menus should be smoother. These fixes address common complaints in the Feedback Hub, where laggy Explorer behavior has been a top gripe.
The Start menu also got attention. Build 26120.5742 resolves a bug where the “All” section would spontaneously generate categories that didn’t make sense, and it ensures applications like Visual Studio are categorized properly. Such quirks might seem minor, but they erode trust in the interface, especially for newcomers.
Task Manager reliability improves too. Freezes in the performance section—where CPU, memory, and disk graphs occasionally locked up—have been mitigated, and accessibility enhancements make it easier to navigate via keyboard. Meanwhile, Input Method Editor (IME) users will be glad to hear that typing Chinese characters after copying text no longer triggers weird behavior, and certain IMEs that flat-out stopped working now function as intended.
Settings itself is more stable; a crash that occurred when adding security keys under Accounts > Sign-in options has been fixed. Under-the-hood, Microsoft addressed “underlying issues” causing app crashes and system bugchecks, though it didn’t detail what those were—likely a catch-all for telemetry-derived stability improvements.
Known Issues: The Price of Progress
As with any Insider preview, this build ships with a list of acknowledged problems that range from minor to disruptive. Testers should weigh these carefully before installing.
First, the update might roll back during installation with error 0x80070005. Microsoft suggests a workaround: go to Settings > System > Recovery > “Fix issues using Windows update,” but it’s not a guaranteed fix. Some users may need to wait for a re-release.
The “Click to Do” preview feature, which offers contextual actions on text and images, is partially broken after upgrading. Text and image actions may not function correctly, and the app can crash. Microsoft promises a resolution in the next update, but for now, the feature is unreliable.
The Start menu itself might temporarily appear in a smaller layout than usual—a cosmetic glitch that doesn’t affect functionality but looks out of place. File Explorer’s dark mode has its own visual hiccup: the red indicator for low disk space may display the wrong color, making it harder to spot at a glance.
Live Captions on Copilot+ PCs crashes when users attempt live translation, a blow to those who rely on the accessibility feature during calls or media playback. Finally, Bluetooth-connected Xbox Controllers can trigger full system bugchecks (blue screens). The immediate fix is to uninstall the relevant driver via Device Manager, but that’s a clunky workaround for a device as mainstream as an Xbox gamepad. Given the severity, this issue alone might give many Insiders pause.
Analysis: A Step Forward, Two Steps Sideways?
Build 26120.5742 is a tangible sign that Microsoft is serious about retiring the Control Panel—eventually. The Time & Language migration, in particular, addresses a glaring inconsistency that has lingered since Windows 10’s early days. Power users who juggle multiple time zones or need fine‑grained regional control will find the new Settings pages more discoverable, and the copy‑settings feature could streamline deployment for IT.
But the keyboard settings relocation highlights the awkward adolescence of the Settings app. The Accessibility grouping, while defensible from an inclusive design standpoint, fragments keyboard preferences across multiple unrelated areas: key remapping lived in Devices in older builds, typing insights are in Time & language, and now repeat/blink rate are under Accessibility. Without a unified keyboard hub, users are stuck hunting through disjointed sections. Microsoft would do well to add cross‑references or a dedicated “Keyboards” page before finalizing this migration.
The fix list is solid, demonstrating that the Insider team is listening. File Explorer performance, Start menu categorization, and IME reliability directly impact daily workflows, and addressing them builds goodwill. The updated dialogs, though minor, reinforce that Windows 11’s design language is meant to be everywhere, not just in the flashy parts.
The known issues, however, cast a shadow. Error 0x80070005 on install is a recurring headache across multiple builds, suggesting a deeper servicing stack problem. The Xbox Controller bugcheck is alarming because it implies a kernel‑level driver defect that shouldn’t make it to Beta. And breaking Live Captions on Copilot+ PCs undermines one of the platform’s accessibility selling points. Insiders who depend on these features will likely skip this build.
Looking ahead, the pattern is clear: expect more Control Panel sections to vanish with each new Insider release. The upcoming 25H2 feature update (or whatever Microsoft names it) might finally see the classic interface fully replaced—or at least hidden behind progressively more “redirects.” For now, build 26120.5742 gives enthusiasts plenty to test, but the rough edges remind us that the journey to a truly modern Windows is still a work in progress.