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Cumulative Update Preview KB5101684 for Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2 brings Voice Isolation, new touchpad gestures, Windows Hello upgrades, and more.
Neowin
@ivan_jenic ·
Jul 28, 2026 21:16 EDT
Microsoft has released Cumulative Update Preview for KB5101684 (OS Builds 26200.8973 and 26100.8973) for Windows 11 versions 25H2 and 24H2. KB5101684 brings some features that were already present in Insider builds, including Voice Isolation to Voice Access, new gesture controls for precision touchpads. The update also includes fixes for File Explorer, MDM enrollment, and File History backups over SMB, along with a servicing stack update to improve installation reliability.
Here’s the full changelog for the gradual rollout:
File Explorer
File sizes in the Details view now display using appropriate units (KB, MB, GB) instead of KB-only, making them easier to understand at a glance.
Middle click to open a folder in a new tab is now supported in the Address Bar and the Home page for a more consistent and efficient tabbed navigation experience across File Explorer.
This update eliminates a grey flash on load and unexpected scrolling to the top on the Home page in certain cases.
This update improves the appearance of file thumbnails in the Recommended section on the Home page so they’re crisper and easier to read.
Windows Search
This update improves app search to better handle typos and partial app names when finding installed apps.
This update improves Settings relevance to surface more useful settings higher in search results.
Voice Access
New! This update adds Voice Isolation to Voice Access, helping it better recognize your voice by reducing interference from other speakers and background noise. Voice Access now offers three speed recognition modes under Voice Access settings > Improve speech recognition:
Voice Isolation — Filters out other speakers and background noise (one-time voice setup required).
Remove background noise only — Filters out non-speech sounds like typing or door slams. No additional setup needed.
No filtering — Default microphone input with no additional processing.
To set up Voice Isolation, go to Voice Access settings > Improve speech recognition and select Voice Isolation.
New! This update adds Korean language support for voice access.
This update improves the realiability of starting Voice Access.
Widgets
New! Taskbar notification badges now use your Windows accent color instead of appearing red, helping reduce unnecessary attention-grabbing alerts.
New! This update also simplifies the Lock screen Widgets experience. For new users, Weather is now the only widget shown on the Lock screen by default.
Touchpad
Start menu
The update improves the reliability of Start menu view preferences, ensuring your selected view is retained.
This update improves keyboard navigation when keyboard focus was set to the apps list within Start menu.
Voice Typing
Fluid dictation is now off by default for new users. A teaching tip is also available when the feature is used for the first time.
Input
This update improves persistence of mouse cursor size.
Windowing
This update ensures system dialogs open at the appropriate size on small tablets.
Accessibility
This update improves the Magnifier experience on touch-enabled devices. The horizontal and vertical touch bars used to pan the magnified view are now off by default, so they no longer obstruct magnified content. If you use touch to pan, you can turn the bars back on in Settings > Accessibility > Magnifier.
Windows Hello
New! Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS) now supports peripheral fingerprint sensors. This update extends this secure sign in option beyond devices with built in fingerprint sensors to include desktops and other Windows 11 PCs, including Copilot+ PCs. To get started, plug in a supported ESS fingerprint reader, go to Settings > Accounts > Sign in options, and follow the prompts to enroll. This feature was previously disclosed in January 2026 (KB5074105) and is now beginning to roll out.
Fonts
This update restores support for Unicode variation sequences in the Myanmar Text font.
This update improves character shaping and rendering for Mongolian Baiti font, providing more accurate and consistent text display.
Account Control
This update refreshes the design of the Start menu account control and adds a badge that displays your subscription status. To view your account control, open the Start menu and select your account picture in the lower-left corner. This experience is available for users signed in with a Microsoft account. 1
Taskbar
This update improves reliability of loading the system tray area of the taskbar when using the taskbar on touch devices in a tablet posture.
AI Component
This update allows you to remove the Image Generation AI component from supported Copilot+ PCs where the component is installed.
Windows Setup
This update adds a parental controls notice during Windows setup that highlights available family safety features.
Power and Battery
This update improves the reliability of power settings by applying changes made in Settings to all power plans. This includes display, sleep, hibernate, power button, sleep button, and lid-close settings, helping ensure your preferences are consistently maintained.
This update restores the ability to set a threshold for when energy saver should enable within Settings > System > Power & Battery.
Windows Update
This update improves calculation of update progress progression in Windows Update Settings.
This update includes changes to update clean-up logic to improve system performance immediately following an update.
Sounds
This update improves system sounds when using Windows in dark mode.
Date and Time
This update improves detection for triggering time zone change notifications.
This update improves daylight saving time (DST) data accuracy for Middle East Standard Time (Beirut), Morocco Standard Time (Casablanca), Israel Standard Time (Jerusalem), and Greenland Standard Time (Nuuk).
Network
This update improves the reliability of DHCP renewals in a few scenarios, particularly in the case of NACKs received from the DHCP server, as well as on devices that use Modern Standby.
This update improves print time performance (page per minute) for IPPS (Internet Printing Protocol Secure) printers.
Clipboard
This update improves clipboard reliability in some Remote Desktop and Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) scenarios.
General Reliability
This update improves explorer.exe reliability, including when opening Jump Lists and recent files, when sharing files and folders, and when using Task View and multiple desktops.
This update improves the reliability of the Windows sign-in and lock screens, especially when system memory is low. It also improves the reliability of the Start menu and taskbar during startup.
1Feature availability varies by device and market.
This non-security update includes quality improvements. The following summary outlines key issues addressed by the KB update after you install it. Also, included are available new features. The bold text within the brackets indicates the item or area of the change.
Secure Boot
This update includes additional high confidence device targeting data, increasing coverage of devices eligible to automatically receive new Secure Boot certificates. Certificate deployment via Windows updates continues across supported PCs and non-managed business devices in the coming months.
App
This update improves the stability of Office applications used in virtualized environments. Users should experience a more reliable experience when working with and closing Office apps.
File Explorer
This update addresses an issue where files stored on a DFS mapped drive could be incorrectly treated as originating from the Internet after the device started while disconnected from the network and later reconnected. This could cause File Explorer’s Preview Pane to display the message, “The file you are attempting to preview could harm your computer,” or cause files copied from the DFS drive to receive an unexpected Mark of the Web.
Mobile device management (MDM)
This updates addresses an issue affecting newly provisioned or newly recovered Windows devices running versions of Windows released on or after July 14, 2026 (KB5101650). After enrollment in a mobile device management (MDM) service such as Microsoft Intune, affected devices could remain in an incorrect noncompliant state and be unable to access corporate resources.
Storage
This update fixes an issue that affects File History automatic backups to network shares using Server Message Block (SMB). Backups did not work because Windows showed a false “invalid credentials” error when connecting to SMB shares.
If you installed earlier updates, your device downloads and installs only the new updates contained in this package.
Here’s the full changelog for the normal rollout:
This non-security update includes quality improvements. The following summary outlines key issues addressed by the KB update after you install it. Also, included are available new features. The bold text within the brackets indicates the item or area of the change.
Secure Boot
This update includes additional high confidence device targeting data, increasing coverage of devices eligible to automatically receive new Secure Boot certificates. Certificate deployment via Windows updates continues across supported PCs and non-managed business devices in the coming months.
App
This update improves the stability of Office applications used in virtualized environments. Users should experience a more reliable experience when working with and closing Office apps.
File Explorer
This update addresses an issue where files stored on a DFS mapped drive could be incorrectly treated as originating from the Internet after the device started while disconnected from the network and later reconnected. This could cause File Explorer’s Preview Pane to display the message, “The file you are attempting to preview could harm your computer,” or cause files copied from the DFS drive to receive an unexpected Mark of the Web.
Mobile device management (MDM)
This updates addresses an issue affecting newly provisioned or newly recovered Windows devices running versions of Windows released on or after July 14, 2026 (KB5101650). After enrollment in a mobile device management (MDM) service such as Microsoft Intune, affected devices could remain in an incorrect noncompliant state and be unable to access corporate resources.
Storage
This update fixes an issue that affects File History automatic backups to network shares using Server Message Block (SMB). Backups did not work because Windows showed a false “invalid credentials” error when connecting to SMB shares.
If you installed earlier updates, your device downloads and installs only the new updates contained in this package.
Check out the full update history of Windows 11, versions 25H2 and 24H2 here.
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