Windows 11 Insider Experimental Preview Build 26300.8493

Release date: 15 May 2026

As a reminder, these release notes apply to those who are in the Experimental channel, formerly known as the Dev Channel. As we begin the transition to the new Windows Insider Program, all new build release notes will be labeled under the new channel names, even though Insiders in the Dev Channel may not yet find themselves having transitioned to Experimental. See the Windows Insider Blog for more details.

Changes and improvements gradually being rolled out

[Taskbar]

  • Alternate Taskbar Position

    • You can now change the position of taskbar on your screen. In Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar Behaviors, you can select the side of the screen you want your taskbar on: bottom, top, left, or right. In these other positions, tooltips, flyouts, and animations will still come from the taskbar, and most customization settings like small taskbar and never combine taskbar icons will work with all locations.

    • Support for touch gestures, Search box, and Ask Copilot in alternate locations is in progress. Auto-hidden taskbar and touch optimized taskbar are not yet supported.

      Screenshot of the taskbar in the left-aligned position. Screenshot of the taskbar in the left-aligned position.

  • Smaller Taskbar

    • We’re introducing a smaller taskbar for users who want to maximize screen space, especially on smaller devices. While the default taskbar remains unchanged, this setting provides a more compact experience with smaller icons and a reduced taskbar height, giving you more room for your apps. Core elements like Start, Search, and the system tray scale appropriately to stay aligned and consistent. 

    • To change your taskbar size, go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors > Show smaller taskbar buttons. When set to Always, both the icons and the taskbar height become smaller.

      Screenshot that shows side-by-side comparison of the standard and smaller taskbar heights on the same device and resolution, showing the additional screen space gained. Side-by-side comparison of the standard and smaller taskbar heights on the same device and resolution, showing the additional screen space gained.

  • We’re also working on improving taskbar settings to make resizing easier, these enhancements are currently in progress.

Feedback: Share your thoughts in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Desktop Environment > Taskbar.

See the in-depth blog for more information about Taskbar improvements.

[Widgets]

  • As we continue to make Widgets feel less distracting, we’ve made a small but meaningful visual update to taskbar badging. For those that have taskbar badging on, the badge color will now match your Windows accent color instead of always appearing red, reducing the sense of urgency that something needs your immediate attention.

    Screenshot showing the Taskbar badge color will now match your Windows accent color instead of always appearing red. The Taskbar badge color will now match your Windows accent color instead of always appearing red.

  • We’re also testing out quieting down a user’s experience based on their level of engagement. For example, a user who highly engages with Widgets likely has their settings set to a state that works best for them, as compared to a user who barely engages with it and would benefit from having the experience quieted down with taskbar badging turned off as it is for new users who experience it as quiet by default.

  • Please share your feedback to let us know how these changes are working for you or if you encounter any issues with your quieter Widgets experience.

Feedback: Share your thoughts in Feedback Hub (WIN + F) under Widgets.

We've started making changes to make Windows Search Box more relevant, starting with making it easier to find your files and apps:

  • Files and apps more reliably appear ahead of web suggestions when your content is a stronger match

You can expect to see additional relevance improvements in upcoming releases.

[Voice access and Voice typing]

  • Fluid Dictation is now available in Spanish & French for Windows Insiders! It makes voice-based dictation smoother and smarter by automatically correcting grammar, punctuation, and filler words as you speak, reducing the need for manual editing. This experience is powered by on-device small language models (SLMs) to ensure fast and private processing. You can try out fluid dictation from Windows voice access or Voice typing (Win +H).

[Windows design]

  • We are introducing consistent solid (donut) spinners across key Windows scenarios including Boot, Logon, Restart, Shutdown, and Update. This update replaces legacy spinner visuals to deliver a more cohesive and modern experience aligned with Windows design standards. Users will now see a unified spinner behavior with corresponding status text (e.g., "Restarting", "Working on updates", "Welcome") across these flows, improving perceived reliability and visual consistency.

[File Explorer]

  • Fixed an issue in the previous flight where Properties wasn’t invoking correctly for the Recycle bin and some other scenarios.

[Run]

  • Fixed an issue where the refreshed Run dialog didn’t navigate through your history if you pressed the up / down arrow keys on first launch.

[Other]

  • This flight contains the first of a set of optimizations to improve logon performance that we expect to flight in the Windows Insider Program over the next few months. Note that this is part of an ongoing effort – we plan to flight additional logon optimizations to WIP, measure real impact, and use that data to drive the next round of improvements.
  • Improved reliability when switching between multiple desktops.
  • This update improves the reliability of Simple Service Discovery Protocol (SSDP) notifications to help prevent the service from becoming unresponsive.
  • Improved reliability of running dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth command.
  • Improved reliability of PC remaining asleep if it had been asleep prior to an update

Known Issues

[Reset PC]

  • Resetting your PC may get stuck when using “Reset this PC.” To complete the reset successfully, choose the cloud download option (Cloud PBR) instead of local.

Reminders for Windows Insiders in the Experimental channel

  • Updates are based on Windows 11, version 25H2 via an enablement package (Build 26300.8493).

  • Many features are rolled out using Controlled Feature Rollout technology, starting with a subset of Insiders and ramping up over time as we monitor feedback to see how they land before pushing them out to everyone in this channel.

  • For Windows Insiders who want to be the first to try new features, see the available list of features to toggle on at the Feature flags page under Settings > Windows Update > Windows Insider Program.

  • The desktop watermark shown at the lower right corner of the desktop is normal for Windows Insider pre-release builds.

  • Features and experiences included in these builds may never get released as we try out different concepts and get feedback. Features may change over time, be removed, or replaced and never get released beyond Windows Insiders. Some of these features and experiences could show up in future Windows releases when they’re ready.

  • Some features in active development we preview with Windows Insiders may not be fully localized and localization will happen over time as features are finalized. As you see issues with localization in your language, please report those issues to us via Feedback Hub.

  • Check out Flight Hub for a complete look at what build is in which Insider channel.

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