Windows 11 build 22579 is out with BitLocker improvements

Microsoft is a bit late this week, but there’s a brand new Windows 11 Insider Preview that’s available to test out in the Dev channel. Unlike what we’ve seen in previous weeks, there’s not a whole lot that’s new. There’s also no mention of tabs in the File Explorer, something that was hidden in last week’s build.

BitLocker improvements

Starting with this build, admins will be able to prevent users from encrypting certain types of storage, particularly removable storage, using BitLocker. It’s meant to solve accidentally encrypting things that have to be used later. Examples used by Microsoft in the blog post include video cameras, voice recorders, conferencing systems, medical devices, and more. The idea is that if you encrypt them using BitLocker, the device that needs to use them can’t decrypt them.

New ISOs and general changes

Microsoft is releasing new ISO images for this build. That means that if you want to do a clean installation of the OS, you can easily do that. You can download the images here, and they come in Windows 11, Windows 11 Enterprise, and Windows 11 Home China flavors.

There are also a bunch of changes in this build, which are meant to be more minor. You might recall that in a previous build, Microsoft added the ability to put apps in folders in the Start Menu. Now, you’ll be able to name them.

There are also new touch gestures. You’ll be able to swipe left or right with three fingers to switch between recently used apps.

Below is the full list of Windows 11 build 22579 changes

General

• As some Insiders noticed, along with our updated Print Queue experience, we have also made an update so that win32 apps which use CPrintDialog to display the print dialog will now show our modern print dialog. In addition, the modern print dialog discovers local network printers automatically. If you choose a new printer, it will be installed without you needing to go into Settings. Please file feedback about your printing experiences under Devices and Drivers > Print in the Feedback Hub.
• We are reverting the Open With dialog box redesign that began rolling out with Build 22567 to the previous design. We plan to bring this back in the future after addressing some performance issues identified by Windows Insiders. Thank you for your feedback!
• To ensure users are still able to quickly access the console if Windows Terminal has been uninstalled, we are updating the WIN + X menu to point to Windows PowerShell. If you have Windows Terminal installed and would like Windows PowerShell to open in Windows Terminal, we recommend going to Settings > Privacy & Security > For Developers, and setting Windows Terminal as your default terminal app.
• Magnifier and the on-screen keyboard now have new Fluent-style icons.

Start menu

• You can now name your folders of apps in Start. To name a folder, simply create a folder (which will have the default name of “Folder”), open it, click on “Edit name”, and type your folder name. Alternatively, use keyboard focus to open the folder then select the text box and start typing.

Get Started app

• We have added pinned site suggestions to the Get Started app so you can conveniently pin websites to your taskbar. To find this new feature, launch the Get Started app and navigate to the “Apps and sites we think you’ll love” page. Click on any of the sites suggested on the page to pin it to your taskbar so you can access the sites you care about in one-click. Please file feedback in the Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Apps > Get Started.

Note: This experience recommends popular sites and is currently only available to EN-US devices. Personalized site recommendations and other locales will be supported soon.

Windowing

• Continuing our effort to update multi-finger touch gestures to include responsive and delightful animations that follow your finger, try out using three fingers to swipe left and right and switch between recently used windows.

Task Manager

• Based on feedback, the Run New Task button is now available on all pages of Task Manager.
• Updated the icon for Run New Task.

Input

• To help improve discoverability, emoji that can be personalized (such as the family emoji) now display a small accent colored dot in the bottom corner of their entries in the emoji panel.
• Removed the Keyboard Layout section from Quick Settings.