Microsoft has shipped WSL 2.9.12, a pre-release focused on making its native wslc container tool behave like the Docker CLI through new flags like --size, --all, and --all-tags. Alongside the CLI polish, it lands real fixes for the parts people actually complain about, most notably a virtiofs ownership bug that made every file look root-owned, plus a networking fix that left /mnt/wsl/resolv.conf without nameservers. Four installers are available now, though it rides the pre-release channel so expect some rough edges. It's a solid move toward containers-on-Windows maturing, but as with any pre-release it's really for developers who want to test things early.
Microsoft has released Windows Subsystem for Linux 2.7.14. The update bundles four major backported fixes addressing uninitialized memory leaks, out-of-bounds reads in interop messages, network exposure on the kernel daemon relay, and authorization bypasses in plugin mounts. By maintaining a dedicated release/2.7 branch for these hardening updates, the WSL team ensures stability without interrupting active feature development on the master track. You can apply the patch immediately by running wsl --update in PowerShell to secure your existing distributions without any manual intervention.
Microsoft shipped new Windows 11 Insider Preview builds, expanding desktop customization and security hardening across the Beta, Experimental, and Release Preview channels. The Release Preview flight now lets you anchor the taskbar to any screen edge, size the Start menu to your preference, and swap the "Recommended" panel for a cleaner "Recent" list. Behind the scenes, Memory Integrity will auto-enable on more eligible PCs this October, Administrator Protection blocks privilege escalation via just-in-time profiles, and post-quantum ML-KEM encryption joins TLS key exchange. Experimental branches do carry friction, including Easy Anti-Cheat launch failures and VMware display glitches, so stick to the Release Preview until the bugs cool down.
Microsoft released Windows 11 Release Preview builds 26100.9539 and 26200.9539 today, serving as the final quality checkpoint before general availability for Windows 11 24H2 and 25H2. The update deprecates the PC-to-PC migration feature, directing users to Windows Backup and OneDrive for data portability in a move that signals a strategic shift toward cloud-first identity. Enterprise-focused improvements include WinRE Wi-Fi reuse, which allows recovery devices to automatically reconnect to wireless networks using saved profiles, alongside a comprehensive Bluetooth reliability overhaul that fixes audio crashes and connection state bugs. Additional enhancements address accessibility concerns with Copilot key remapping, add Emoji 17.0 support, and refine File Explorer behavior, with no known issues reported for the builds.
Microsoft released two PowerToys Preview builds in 48 hours, headlined by a full WinUI 3 migration for Text Extractor in the September 10 v0.101.2522.0 release. The preceding hardening build resolved a six-month-old Command Palette keyboard regression and expanded the installer process termination list to prevent silent update failures. Command Palette responsiveness improved through prioritized list initialization, while Window Hopper's overlay visuals were restored to match the original dark card design. Expanded end-to-end testing for Environment Variables, Crop And Lock, and Workspaces signals a faster development cadence backed by deeper CI investment.
Microsoft released PowerToys Preview v0.101.2512.0, a maintenance-focused build that skips new features in favor of hardening the existing toolkit. The headline patch closes a long-standing Command Palette focus regression that frustrated users for six months, while an expanded installer process-killer list now covers 65 targets with case-insensitive matching to prevent silent update failures. To round out the release, the team added the first end-to-end test suites for Environment Variables and Crop And Lock, closing historical verification gaps across both modules. If you've been hitting that focus bug or struggling with broken upgrades, this narrowly scoped preview is exactly the stability patch you need.
Microsoft has released WSL 2.9.11, a focused pre-release update that stabilizes the Windows Subsystem for Linux Container (WSLC) runtime. The build introduces a transactional Restart() operation to the WSLC COM interface, allowing containers to restart atomically without losing port reservations or bind mounts. Two additional commits address Plan9 mount regressions, fixing read-only flag propagation issues and resolving attach failures caused by recent Windows updates. This drop follows a rapid succession of releases, signaling Microsoft's continued push to make wslc a viable alternative to Docker Desktop for Linux workloads.
Microsoft released five Insider Preview builds today, introducing two new channels for Windows 11 26H2 and 26H1 alongside updates for the 25H2 Beta stream. The headline feature is Cloud rebuild for Beta builds, which allows a full OS reinstall from WinRE without USB media by downloading images and drivers directly from Windows Update. Accessibility gets a boost in Experimental channels with per-display magnifier zoom, viewport locking, and Narrator math reading support for equations in Microsoft 365 apps. Other notable changes include Emoji 17.0, per-monitor sound slider activity levels, and a temporarily pulled-back Print Management feature, though users should watch for known bugs in mouse cursor customization and Easy Anti-Cheat.
Microsoft released PowerToys v0.101.2453.0 preview, bringing real-time search, modifier filtering, and bulk deletion to Keyboard Manager alongside a fully virtualized grid view for Command Palette. Peek now displays live folder counts with 63 percent less memory overhead, while ZoomIt finally resolves the silent-audio bug that broke recordings on spatial sound setups. The release closes a seven-year-old community request and trims allocation bloat across core utilities as Microsoft pushes toward the October 5 v0.102 milestone.
Microsoft PowerToys Preview v0.101.2432.0 delivering read-only SQLite database previews to Peek, Karabiner-style tap-versus-hold key remaps to Keyboard Manager, and expanded Adaptive Card support in the Command Palette. The quick six-day turnaround also brings display-independent pixels to Screen Ruler, adds Mouse Pointer Crosshairs to the Quick Access flyout, and overhauls the project's CI and testing pipelines. A notable chunk of the Keyboard Manager commit was co-authored with Claude Opus 4.8, marking one of the first public AI-assisted contributions to the open-source utility. While the v0.101 preview cycle winds down, the team is already pushing v0.102, which will migrate several modules to WinUI 3 and expand Command Palette with tabs and JavaScript extensions.
Microsoft has shipped Windows 11 version 26H2 (build 26300.9278) to the Release Preview Channel as an enablement package, confirming it shares the identical codebase with versions 24H2 and 25H2. The update brings back taskbar location moving and a compact small icon mode while dialing back Copilot integration across the system UI. With 24H2 Home and Pro reaching end-of-service on October 13, 2026, this enablement package serves as the necessary upgrade path to continue receiving monthly support. Public ISOs are available for download as of August 31, 2026, and commercial environments can deploy via WSUS and Azure Marketplace.
Microsoft released new Windows 11 Insider Preview builds on August 31, 2026, pushing Build 28020.2818 to the Beta channel and Build 28120.2824 to the Experimental channel for version 26H1. The most notable addition is a major upgrade to the Windows Recovery Environment that now automatically reuses saved Wi-Fi profiles during cloud rebuilds, sparing IT admins from manually entering credentials at the recovery prompt. Beyond enterprise fixes, the update brings Emoji 17.0 support, a visual refresh for the Magnifier toolbar, and state preservation to File Explorer Home, while temporarily pulling the modernized Print Management tool for further refinement. The 26H1 track continues as a targeted platform release for upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 silicon, with ISOs for the concurrent 26H2 feature update also becoming available starting today.
Microsoft has released KB5120998 for Windows 11, delivering builds 26200.9278 and 26100.9278 with long-awaited native taskbar repositioning across all four screen edges. The update overhauls the Start menu by renaming "Recommended" to "Recent," redesigns Windows Search with explicit source labels and auto-indexing, and introduces Microsoft Execution Containers alongside agentic process tagging for AI workloads. Enterprise admins gain rolling just-in-time admin privileges, while ML-KEM post-quantum cryptography now supports standalone TLS key exchange. However, Windows 11 24H2 Home and Pro editions hit end of support on October 13, 2026, and the legacy WMIC utility has been permanently removed from current builds.
Microsoft released PowerToys Preview v0.101.2373.0 on August 26, 2026, just one day after the v0.101 stable build, signaling the restart of active development on the main branch. The new preview introduces PATH-visible command-line shims for FancyZones, Image Resizer, File Locksmith, and PowerDisplay, making the utilities fully scriptable for automation and system administration. Additional patches improve installer reliability by closing running utilities before upgrades, fix Keyboard Manager persistence across restarts, and add a Claude Desktop manifest for Shortcut Guide lookups. As the team shifts focus toward v0.102, users can expect continued WinUI 3 modernization, tabbed Command Palette navigation, and native JavaScript and TypeScript extension support.
Microsoft PowerToys v0.101 has officially landed in stable, capping an unusually fast eight-day preview sprint with a feature-heavy release that clears a long-standing backlog. The update introduces Window Hopper for per-application window switching, integrates Microsoft’s Phi Silica on-device AI directly into Advanced Paste, and adds an opt-in compact mode to Command Palette. Beyond the headline features, the release formalizes a Stable and Insider update channel split, migrates Quick Accent and Mouse Jump to WinUI 3, and rolls out dozens of module-specific improvements across the utility suite. You can download the stable x64 and ARM64 installers directly from the GitHub release page.
Microsoft has published WSL 2.9.8, a substantial pre-release that bundles roughly 60 changes spanning versions 2.9.3 through 2.9.8. The update heavily focuses on bringing the wslc container CLI closer to full Docker compatibility, adding dozens of new flags for networking, mounts, image builds, and output formatting. Beyond CLI alignment, the release introduces container healthchecks, idle-terminate session VMs, configurable storage paths, and new enterprise-grade policies like ADMX controls and registry allowlists. Distro images for Kali, Tumbleweed, SLE 16.0, and Arch Linux have also been updated alongside critical networking and memory reclamation improvements.
Microsoft released new Windows 11 Insider Preview builds today across the Beta, Experimental, and Experimental (26H1) channels, confirming active development of three concurrent Windows versions. The Experimental 26H2 flight introduces highly requested per-app camera, microphone, and location permission toggles for traditional Win32 desktop applications, closing a long-standing privacy gap. Users can also test a WinUI 3–based AutoPlay dialog, auto-previewing of web-downloaded PDFs in File Explorer, and a new "Open Apps Maximized" accessibility toggle. Meanwhile, the Experimental 26H1 channel has officially removed the legacy WMIC command-line utility and pulled the experimental Drag Tray feature based on insider feedback.
Microsoft released PowerToys Preview 0.101.2323.0 as a pure maintenance drop focused on patching recent regressions. The update resolves a critical setting-persistence bug that could inadvertently disable all enabled modules when checking for updates. It also restores excluded-app filtering in Shortcut Guide and repairs automated issue triage logic that was misclassifying valid bug reports. Per-user and machine-wide installers are now available for x64 and ARM64 systems, with full download links and hash verification on the official GitHub release page.
Microsoft has released PowerToys v0.101.2312.0 Preview, a maintenance-driven build designed to harden the upcoming 0.101 stable release against usability regressions. Major fixes address a broken Win+Shift+/ shortcut for the Shortcut Guide, preserve transparency in SVG thumbnails, and add a regression test to prevent hardcoded API settings from breaking Advanced Paste. The update also resolves a Settings crash caused by legacy Screen Ruler measurements, moves the "New" feature badge to Window Hopper, and introduces a PoetSearch plugin for PowerToys Run. With four installer variants now available, this release prioritizes automated test coverage and defensive coding to ensure smoother adoption of the stable cycle.
Microsoft released Windows Subsystem for Linux 2.7.12 on August 18, 2026, delivering two targeted patches to the stable 2.7.x branch. The first fix aligns plugin-mounted folder permissions with your user session, resolving access denied errors for tooling like Docker Desktop and VS Code Remote. The second resolves a persistent issue where cross-volume distribution moves left VHD files owned by BUILTIN\Administrators, eliminating the need for manual ownership rewrites.
