Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26300.7877 – What Actually Changed and Why It Matters
The latest Insider Preview in the Dev Channel drops a handful of tweaks that most users will notice right away, plus a couple of polish items that feel more like “nice‑to‑have” than anything else. This rundown explains the practical impact of each change and points out where you might want to give feedback.
Context‑menu icon now matches the default app
When you right‑click an executable, batch file or command script, the “Open” entry now shows the same icon that launches the program by default. The visual cue helps avoid the occasional mix‑up where a generic Windows shield was displayed even though the file opened with a third‑party tool. Users who rely on quick right‑click actions have reported fewer moments of “wait, is this the right app?” after the update.
If you prefer the old look, you can still roll it back by disabling the toggle in Settings => Privacy => Search and Windows Insights, though there’s little reason to bother unless you’re chasing a perfectly consistent UI.
Simplified Device Card on Settings Home
The “Device info” card that first appeared in June 2025 finally got its act together. It now lists CPU, RAM and storage in a clean row instead of a cramped block, and tapping it takes you straight to Settings => System => About where the same details appear at the top of the page. The change is purely cosmetic, but for anyone who’s ever copied hardware specs from the About screen into a support ticket, the new copy‑paste button saves a few clicks.
Enterprise‑managed devices still see the older, policy‑driven version of the card, so if you’re on a corporate laptop you won’t notice any difference.
Taskbar and system‑tray animation tweaks
Microsoft polished the hover animation for grouped icons on the taskbar and tightened up the logic that shows tray icons when auto‑hide is enabled. The effect is subtle—more fluid cursor movement rather than the occasional “ghost” icon that lingered after an app closed. If you’ve been annoyed by disappearing system‑tray icons on a cramped screen, this should feel less jittery.
File Explorer jump‑to‑Desktop bug fixed
A handful of insiders reported that opening a new Explorer tab could fling the whole window to the Desktop view, wiping out any open folder hierarchy. That glitch has been patched, so each new tab now respects the last active location instead of resetting to the root. The fix matters for power users who keep multiple tabs pinned to deep directory trees; it eliminates an otherwise baffling loss of context.
Nearby Sharing more reliable with large files
The background service that shoves files over Wi‑Fi Direct has been tweaked to handle bigger payloads without timing out. Users who tried sending a 2 GB video across two laptops in the same room used to see “Transfer failed” after a minute; the new build keeps the handshake alive until the transfer finishes. The improvement is welcome, but the feature still feels niche compared to simply using a shared folder or external drive.
Paint gets freeform rotate
Paint finally got a proper rotation tool. You can now grab the handle above a shape, text block or selection and swing it to any angle, or type an exact degree value from the Rotate menu. The addition is more of a novelty than a professional‑grade feature—if you need precise transformations, Photoshop or even MS PowerPoint does it faster—but for quick doodles it’s a pleasant surprise.
Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26300.7877 (Dev Channel)
Hello Windows Insiders, today we are releasing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26300.7877 (KB5077232) to the Dev Channel.
Announcing Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26300.7877 (Dev Channel)
