Windows 11 Insider Beta Preview Build 26220.9739

Release date: 16 October 2026

Changes and improvements

We're introducing a refreshed Gaming Task View experience in XBOX mode, featuring a new navigation bar that provides quick access to Exit to Desktop and Power Options. This update makes key system actions easier to access while gaming.

Gaming Task View showing the new navigation bar with Exit to Desktop and Power options.

Magnifier now understands each of your displays

More and more of the work people do happens across more than one screen. You draft on one display and keep source material open on another. You fill in a form while a reference document sits beside it. Those extra displays can be more helpful when each one can do its own job, and now Magnifier supports exactly that.
To use this update, set your monitors to Extend in System > Display, not Duplicate, so Windows treats each screen as its own space.
Every screen keeps its own view at its own zoom. In earlier versions of Magnifier, zooming in stretched a single magnified view across all of your displays, so one screen's zoom followed you everywhere and screen edges blurred together. With this update, each monitor's boundary is respected, and each monitor can have its own zoom percentage. Your writing screen can be at 300% while your reference screen stays at 150%, and the magnified view no longer spills from one display into the next. This behavior matters because different tasks and screen resolutions often require different levels of magnification to remain comfortable to read.

Setting the zoom on each screen is easy. Choose whichever method feels natural:

Move your mouse pointer onto the screen you want to adjust, then press Windows key + Plus (+) or Windows key + Minus (-), or hold Ctrl + Alt and rotate your mouse wheel.
Set the percentages directly in Accessibility > Magnifier.
Drag the Magnifier toolbar onto a specific screen to adjust that screen from its on-screen controls.

Magnifier with Zoom per display enabled, allowing each monitor to maintain its own zoom level.

Per-monitor zoom is turned on by default. If you prefer the classic behavior where a single zoom spans all of your displays, you can turn per-monitor zoom off at any time from either the Magnifier toolbar or Accessibility > Magnifier. You can turn it back on whenever you like.

Keep the view that matters, right where you need it

As you move your mouse from screen to screen, the magnified view naturally follows your pointer. Sometimes this might cause you to lose sight of the content that you're actively working on.
Viewport locking keeps that view in place. For example, you might be drafting an email based on a section of a document open on another display. Position that display so the paragraph you need is in view, press Ctrl + Windows key + K, and the screen holds its view steady while you move your cursor over to write. The locked screen stays fully live and interactive, so you can glance back, click, or copy from it whenever you need to, and its view stays put until you release it.
A message appears on the screen when it's locked, so you always know what's being held. To lock or unlock a screen, point your mouse at that screen and press Ctrl + Windows key + K again. To release everything at once, press Windows key + Esc to dismiss all locks. You can change the lock shortcut to Ctrl + Alt + P in Accessibility > Magnifier.

Magnifier's multiple display controls include independent zoom and view locking options.

Key file information, such as name, location, and date, now appears in a consistent layout on the File Explorer search results page, making search results easier to scan.

Improved family safety messaging when applications are blocked because of age-restricted parental controls.

Improved shutdown reliability, reducing the chance of a hang on shutdown in certain cases.
The dialog for certain system messages, like low battery and permissions, should use the expected modern design again.

Updates are based on Windows 11, version 25H2 via an enablement package (Build 26220.9739).
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Features and experiences included in these builds might never get released as we try out different concepts and get feedback. Features might 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.
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