Microsoft releases Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25206

Microsoft has released a new build of Windows 11 for Windows Insiders on the dev channel. Build 25206 has changes to the SMB authentication, changes to “Open with” and many fixes.

The SMB authentication rate limiter now limits the pass attempts making it much slower to target your device:

The SMB authentication rate limiter in Insider Preview builds has added an additional protection mechanism to the SMB server service: it implements a delay between each failed NTLM authentication. This means if an attacker previously sent 300 brute force attempts per second from a client for 5 minutes (90,000 passwords), the same number of attempts would now take at least 50 hours. The goal here is to make a Windows client an unattractive target either when in a workgroup or for its local accounts when joined to a domain. Even though the SMB server runs by default in all versions of Windows, it’s not accessible by default unless you intentionally open the firewall or create a customer SMB share that opens the firewall.

A few builds ago Microsoft introduced an update “Open With” dialog box to a limited set of Windows Insiders and now it’s available to all Insiders.

Windows Insiders can try out the new power saving feature of Dynamic Refresh rates on external displays. You will need a monitor that support Variable Refresh rate with minimum refresh rate of 120hz along with WDDM 3.1 drivers. The settings is in Settings, System, Display, Advanced display.

Here are the other changes, fixes and know issues with build 25206:

[File Explorer]

• Search from File Explorer Home will show recent file activity for cloud files in Details View.

[Input]

• We’re beginning to roll out a change to suppose the use of clipboard history (WIN + V) on password fields. We are beginning to roll this out, so the experience isn’t available to all Insiders just yet.

Fixes

[General]

• OneDrive setup should no longer unexpectedly ask for permission to set up every time your PC reboots.
• Fixed a high hitting explorer.exe which was impacting some Insiders.

[Settings]

• Fixed a Settings crash which could happen when searching and selecting certain Narrator related settings.

[Search]

• Fixed a high hitting search crash which was impacting some Insiders in the last few flights.

[Other]

• The Windows Sandbox window should now resize correctly if you snap it to the side of the screen.
• Fixed an issue which could lead to a memory leak in Windows Error Reporting after certain crashes.
• If focus is on the desktop, then pressing ALT + F4 and Enter should now shutdown your PC, rather than having to move keyboard focus first (as was needed in the last few flights).
• The computer icon is now showing again in the Shut Down Windows dialog.

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

[General]

• [NEW] We are investigating an issue where a “date, time and time zone settings are incorrect” message is improperly displayed and prevents the installation from proceeding further.
• [NEW] Using the “Reset this PC” option to reset your PC will break UWP apps post-reset. If you need to reset your device on Builds 25201 or higher, please back up your files manually and use the latest ISO available from aka.ms/WIPISO to complete a clean install.
• We’re looking into reports that audio stopped working for some Insiders after upgrading to the latest flights.
• We’re investigating reports of a few different apps having started crashing in recent builds.

[File Explorer]

• We’re working on the fix for an issue where command bar items like copy, paste, and empty recycle bin may unexpectedly not be enabled when they should be.

[Settings]

• We’re investigating some issues where uninstalling certain apps using Settings > Apps > Installed apps isn’t working correctly.

[Tablet-optimized taskbar]

• The taskbar sometimes flashes when transitioning between desktop posture and tablet posture.
• The taskbar takes longer than expected to transition to the touch-optimized version when switching between desktop posture and tablet posture.
• Using the left or right edge gestures can result in the Widgets or Notification Center (respectively) to overlap with or look truncated by the taskbar.
• When using the bottom right edge gesture to see Quick Settings, the taskbar sometimes stays stuck in the expanded state, instead of dismissing to collapsed state.
• When there are no running windows on the desktop, the taskbar can sometimes collapse, when it should be expanded.

[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.
• Notification badge number may appear misaligned on the taskbar.

Via