Windows 11 is one step closer to fixing laptop touchpads and the Start menu

Microsoft released a slew of Windows Insider Builds last night, continuing a trend of non-Friday releases. The tech giant says that it is "working on getting all flights back on track." But in the meantime, we have several updates and improvements to look at.

Latest Windows Insider BuildsBeta Preview Build 26220.8925Experimental Preview Build 26300.8935Beta (26H1) Preview Build 28020.2539Release Preview Build 26100.8942/26200.8942Release Preview Build 28000.2597

In total, five different updates were sent to Windows Insiders.

Because of how the revamped Windows Insider Program is structured, many of the changes seen in the most recent builds have already entered testing to certain users. But with so many build paths to keep track of, it's easy to miss a few features or only focus on what's shipped to your PC specifically.

The biggest changes will roll out to Beta Channel Insiders in the form of Build 26220.8925. That update brings touchpad improvements, an upgraded Start menu, and welcome tweaks to File Explorer.

The update also improves accessibility and includes a refreshed Windows 11 Account Control Flyout.

Build 26220.8925: Changes and improvements

Touchpad

We're adding new gesturing-related functionality to precision touchpads in Settings. These features should be widely available across applications. WinUI3-based UI requires new WinAppSDK versions for complete functionality, and we're in the process of bringing the necessary changes to versions 1.8 and 2.0.

Scroll and zoom speed: control the baseline speed for these gestures.

Accelerated scrolling: repeatedly scrolling increases speed, allowing quick traversal of long documents.

Start menu

This update brings a number of improvements for the Start menu as first outlined in the Making Taskbar and Start more personal Insider blog.

Renamed Recommended to Recent in Start and the Settings page.

Added section-level toggles to independently show or hide Pinned, Recent, and All.

Added the optio…