Microsoft has released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22518 to Windows insiders in the dev channel.

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22518

Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22518 to the Dev Channel. 

What’s new in Build 22518

View the world on your desktop with Spotlight collection

Keep your desktop fresh and inspiring with Spotlight collection. You will get beautiful new desktop pictures from around the world every day and fun facts about each picture. Here is how you can try out Spotlight collection:

1. Right-click on your desktop and choose “Personalize”.
2. On the Personalization settings page, choose “Background”.
3. Under the “Personalize your background” dropdown, select “Spotlight collection”.

Upon enabling Spotlight collection, you will see an inspiring picture from Whitehaven Beach in Australia on your desktop as well as the Spotlight icon.

Updated entry point for Widgets on your taskbar

We are trying out showing the Widgets entry point on the left side of your taskbar with live weather content. You can also open the Widgets board by simply hovering over the entry point.

Introducing Voice Access

Voice access is a new experience that enables everyone, including people with mobility disabilities, to control their PC and author text using their voice. For example, voice access supports scenarios like opening and switching between apps, browsing the web, and reading and authoring mail. Voice access leverages modern, on-device speech recognition to accurately recognize speech and is supported without an internet connection. Voice access supports English-U.S. language only, so the Windows display language should be set to English-U.S., otherwise voice access may not work as expected.

Install the Windows Subsystem from Linux (WSL) from the Microsoft Store

WSL is now available in the Microsoft Store. This is the same WSL you know and love but just a different delivery mechanism. Installing WSL from the Store will make it easier to get the latest WSL updates in the future. You can learn more about the Store preview at  this blog post or by  watching this video.

Changes and Improvements

• Starting with today’s build we’re rolling out an underlying platform change to improve the overall performance and reliability of the input switcher for Insiders using multiple keyboard languages and layouts. In addition to this, we’re updating the input switcher to now have an acrylic background. If you have any feedback for the input switcher, please file it in the Feedback Hub under Input and Language > Keyboard and language switching. [We are beginning to roll this change out, so it isn’t available to all Insiders just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.]
• Updated the context menu in File Explorer to make these options top level based on feedback:
  • “Install” when right clicking on font files and .inf files.
  • “Install certificate” when right clicking on .cer files.
  • “Map network drive” and “Disconnect network drive” when right clicking on This PC.
  • “Disconnect” when right clicking on network drives.
• The ability for personalized combinations of emoji based on face and skin tones of family members, couples with heart, kissing, and people holding hands which we began rolling out with  Build 22504 is now available to all Insiders in the Dev Channel.
• Starting with  Build 22509, we began rolling out a change to display your clock and date will now also be displayed on the taskbars of the secondary monitor or monitors. This is now available to all Insiders in the Dev Channel.
• We’ve added a new extra-large candidate height option for Simplified Chinese IME users under Personalization > Text Input in Settings.

Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22518