Windows 11 Build 22598 Released With Upgraded Media Player

Windows 11 Insider UpdateWindows 11 Insider Update

Microsoft has now released Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22598 for both Dev and Beta channels of the program. This means that as long as both these channels receive the same builds, you have a window to switch to the Beta channel from the Dev channel through the Windows Insider Program Settings page.

Build 22598 can be installed through Windows Update and by performing a clean installation using the ISO image provided by Microsoft.

Before we show you how to upgrade to this build, let us first discuss the new features and improvements in this flight, as well as the issues you may encounter.

New in Windows 11 Build 22598

New and Improved Media Player

Note: This is currently only available on the Dev channel and not Beta.

With this flight, the Media Player will also be upgraded to version 11.2203.30.0. This version includes some significant new features for the app that not only provide more control but also enhance the user experience.

The app provides two different view types on the artist page; one page shows you all the albums in a grid, and the other shows all the songs, grouped by album. Furthermore, quick action buttons have also been added to albums, artists, videos, and playlists that are visible when you hover over them.

MP artistPage 1024x723 1
Media Player in the album details view. Source: Microsoft

A new context menu has also been introduced to the “now playing” screen from which you can now open new files without having to navigate to other locations, access the album or the artist page, etc. You can also access the “Video enhancements” feature from which you can adjust the contrast and the brightness of the video.

MP videoEq
Video enhancements dialog box. Source: Microsoft

Windows Spotlight as Default background

Windows Spotlight is a series of backgrounds that change automatically at set intervals. Not only that, but you can also read about the image, like it, or unlike it through a details flyout (context menu) on the corner of the screen.

Windows Spotlight with context menu
Windows Spotlight with context menu

However, you previously had to navigate to the Personalization Settings page and set Spotlight as your background.

Now, anyone performing a clean install of build 22598 and above will have Spotlight as the default background upon startup. Of course, if you are upgrading to 22598 to a previous build, you will still have your old background.

Alongside this change, Microsoft is also trying to display 4K Windows Spotlight backgrounds, but this is currently only being tested out with a limited number of Insiders.

Other New Features

  • [General]
    • Build 22598, as well as all future builds, will now be offered to Windows Insiders in China on Lenovo computers. Microsoft suggests that you keep your PC connected to the internet for a minimum of 15 minutes to allow the Lenovo PC Manager to automatically update to the latest version available.
    • Experimentation with auto-launching of the Get Started app with a limited number of Insiders.
  • [Taskbar]
    • The tooltip on the volume icon has been updated to inform you when spatial sound is activated.

Other Improvements and Fixes

Other changes and fixes have also been made with this flight:

  • [General]
    • Devices using Windows Information Protection (formerly EDP) policies can now access controlled data via protected apps such as Outlook, Word, Microsoft Edge, etc. as expected.
  • [Taskbar]
    • An issue where if you used keyboard focus on the taskbar, hovers like previews would stay up during all taskbar interactions, has been fixed.
    • An issue that was causing taskbar badges to come back after explorer.exe crashes even if you had them turned off in Settings has been fixed.
    • Microsoft made a fix for an issue where some mouse move events weren’t being passed to apps for icons in the system tray.
    • An issue where hovering over some app icons in the system tray wasn’t showing previews or tooltips has been addressed.
    • App icons in the system tray should now be showing more reliably when opened again in this build.
    • An issue that was delaying or preventing the show hidden icons flyout from opening has been fixed.
    • An issue where the Chinese characters weren’t displaying in the taskbar calendar when the Lunar calendar was turned on has been taken care of.
    • An issue where the visual indicator around an app icon when sharing a window might not go away once you’d stopped sharing has been addressed.
  • [Start menu]
    • A crash when selecting the More button in Start’s Recommended section has been fixed.
    • An underlying issue that could lead to Start crashing on launch when invoked with a gesture has been addressed.
    • An issue that was causing the buttons and labels in Start to be the wrong colors while using contrast themes has been fixed.
    • An issue where if you swiped to scroll through the contents of a folder in the pinned section of Start, it would unexpectedly close Start, has been addressed.
  • [File Explorer]
    • An issue that was causing the context menu not to render completely sometimes and be transparent has been fixed.
  • [Input]
    • The performance of launching the touch keyboard on the login screen has been improved.
    • An issue where if you had selected text with touch in certain apps like Settings, the backspace key in the touch keyboard would have to be tapped twice for it to delete has been fixed.
    • Voice typing should no longer stop responding if you repeatedly press the Windows Key + H shortcut keys.
    • An issue for people with many input methods, where the currently selected one might not be in view when you opened the input switcher, has been addressed.
    • The link at the bottom of the Chinese (Simplified) IME appearance settings has been fixed, so it points to Settings >> Personalization >> Text Input.
    • An issue where the emoji panel’s background image and color might not be rendered correctly after using options in Settings >> Personalization >> Text Input has been fixed.
  • [Settings]
    • An issue where high DPI options in the Compatibility tab of the properties for an executable weren’t working has been fixed.
    • Narrator should now read the view options we added in Settings >> Apps >> Installed apps.
  • [Windowing]
    • Returned the missing animation when pressing Windows Key + D or clicking the Show Desktop button.
    • An issue when using snap layouts with touch, which could lead to an acrylic sheet getting stuck on top of the window, has been fixed.
    • The thumbnails in Task View should no longer be inverted when using Hebrew or Arabic display languages.
    • An Explorer.exe crash when invoking Task View was fixed.
    • If you have a lot of windows open, they should no longer become superimposed on top of Desktops in Task View.
    • An issue when using ALT + Tab with a screen reader, where if you ALT + Tabbed back to certain app windows, the focus would be set to a pane within the window, rather than the whole window, has been taken care of.
    • An underlying issue where accented color title bars (when enabled) for certain apps and File Explorer were only displayed when the windows were maximized has been addressed.
    • A rare issue that could lead to the system hanging when changing the resolution sometimes in certain games has been mitigated.
    • An issue causing white pixels in the corners of some apps when using dark mode has been fixed.
    • Some work has been done to address an issue where certain app windows wouldn’t move to the expected area after selecting them using snap assist.
    • A glitch was fixed in the animation when using snap layouts at the top of the screen to snap windows.
  • [Live Captions]
    • An issue where the top of maximized apps (e.g., title bar window management buttons) couldn’t be reached with touch while live captions were positioned at the top has been addressed.
    • Live captions will now tell you when it’s done downloading and ready to caption.
  • [Task Manager]
    • Mitigated an issue causing the Performance page CPU graph to be colored as if Show Kernel Times was enabled, even though it wasn’t.
    • Did some work to further improve Task Manager reliability.
    • Added access key support for Run New Task (ALT + N), End Task (ALT + E), Efficiency Mode (ALT + V), and other buttons on each page. If you press ALT, the letters will display next to the button.
    • With a process selected, pressing the Delete key will now end the process like it used to.
    • CTRL + Tab and CTRL + Shift + Tab will now cycle through the pages in Task Manager.
    • An issue where the memory composition graph was blank instead of filed with the appropriate color has been fixed.
    • Mitigated an issue leading to the GPU graph on the performance tab not being displayed in some cases.
    • The icons in the status column of the Processes page no longer touch the side of the column.
    • An issue where “Efficiency mode” was missing the status column of the Users page has been addressed.
    • [Windows Subsystem for Linux ]
    • An issue that would prevent WSL2 from mounting the host file system on ARM64 has been fixed.
  • [Other]
    • An issue from the previous flight where the acrylic might not extend across the entire login screen has been fixed.
    • An issue that caused the volume and brightness keys that appear when you use your hardware keys to be cut off in the middle has been addressed.
    • Running powercfg /query should work now when launched from syswow64 or from a 32-bit process.
    • An apostrophe that wasn’t rendering correctly in the text when doing an offline scan from the Windows Security app has been fixed.
    • Removed an extra “be” in the text describing Smart Account Control in the Windows Security app.
    • An issue with certain language, which could lead to question marks displayed in the place of some text when upgrading to a new build, has been fixed.
    • An issue with certain language which could lead to question marks being displayed in the place of some of the text when upgrading to a new build has been fixed.
    • If you have increased the text size under Settings >> Accessibility >> Text Size and launch setup from a Windows ISO while booted into your currently installed OS, the text displayed in the setup window will now be increased to match your preferences.

With these new features, improvements, and fixes, there are also several new known issues we think you should know about before upgrading to it.

Known Issues

  • [General]
    • Windows Insiders running Windows 10 who join Dev or Beta Channels to get the latest builds may encounter a download error code 0xc8000402 while trying to download the latest build. As a workaround, Microsoft suggests subscribing to the Release Preview channel first, installing Windows 11 from there, and then switching back to the Dev or Beta Channel to receive the latest Insider Preview build. This issue is understood and will be addressed in an upcoming build.
    • Some Insiders have experienced an issue where explorer.exe is repeatedly crashing in the loop in the latest builds and unable to successfully load. This build includes another fix that may help some Insiders who were experiencing this.
    • When opening the Group Policy editor, an Administrative Template error will pop up. Click “Ok” to dismiss and continue using the Group Policy editor normally.
  • [Taskbar]
    • The taskbar doesn’t always automatically collapse after launching an app or tapping outside the expanded taskbar on 2-in-1 devices.
    • Some areas of the OS are not yet tracking the height of the expanded taskbar on 2-in-1 devices, so you may see overlapping components, such as widgets, overlapping with the taskbar.
  • [File Explorer]
    • Using the context menu option in File Explorer or on the desktop to rename, copy, paste, and delete may cause explorer.exe to crash when the context menu dismisses. As a workaround, if you are impacted, you will need to use other methods for the desired action, such as pressing the F2 function key to rename a selected file or folder.
    • The option “Add to Favorites” does not show when right-clicking on a file on Home. As a workaround, this option can be accessed by choosing “Show more options”.
  • [Widgets]
    • The widgets board may not open successfully when using the gesture from the side of the screen. If you are impacted, please tap the Widgets icon in the taskbar for now instead.
  • [Network]
    • Insiders have reported internet connectivity issues when certain VPNs are connected.
  • [Live Captions]
    • Certain apps on the full screen (e.g., video players) prevent live captions from being visible.
    • Certain apps positioned near the top of the screen and closed before live captions run will relaunch behind the live caption window positioned at the top. Use the system menu (ALT + Spacebar) while the app has focus to move the app’s window further down.

How to Install Windows 11 Build 22598

To install this update, you either need to be running Windows 11 and subscribed to the Dev channel, or perform a clean install using the ISO image provided by Microsoft.

Windows Update

If you have enabled Windows updates, you will automatically get a “New features are ready to install” prompt.

Follow the steps below to upgrade to this build:

  1. Navigate to the Settings app and then click Windows Update on the left.

  2. Here, click Check for update on the right side of the window.

    check for updates Windows 11
    Check for pending updates
  3. You will then see the following update available under Updates available to download:

    Windows 11 Insider Preview 22598.1
    
    
    
     (ni_release)

    Click Download and install.

    Download and install
    Click “Download and install”
  4. The update will now begin to download and then install. Once complete, click Restart Now.

    Restart now 3
    Restart PC to finalize the installation

Once the computer restarts, you can verify that the OS has been updated by typing in winver in the Run Command box.

Updated 3
Windows successfully updated to build 22598

Download Windows 11 Insider Build 22598 ISO Image

You can also download the ISO image for Windows 11 Build 22598 and perform a clean install. Here is how:

  1. Open the Windows Insider Preview Downloads page and log in with your Microsoft account registered with the Windows Insider program.

  2. Once logged in, scroll down and select Windows 11 Insider Preview (Dev Channel) – Build 22598 from the drop-down menu and click Confirm.

    select confirm 1
    Select ISO and confirm
  3. Now select the language you want to download it in and click Confirm.

    Lang confirm
    Confirm language
  4. Finally, click 64-bit Download to begin downloading the ISO image.

    Download insider ISO
    Download the ISO

You are now set to perform a fresh installation of Windows 11 Dev Build 22598 using the downloaded ISO image.

Learn how to create a multiboot USB installation media using Ventoy.

Rollback/Remove Windows 11 Insider Preview Update

If you do not wish to keep the installed preview update for some reason, you can always roll back to the previous build of the OS. However, this can only be performed within the next 10 days after installing the new update.

To roll back after 10 days, you will need to apply this trick.

Cleanup After Installing Windows Updates

If you want to save space after installing Windows updates, you can run the following commands one after the other in Command Prompt with administrative privileges:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup
dism cleanup
DISM cleanup

Windows 11 Insider Preview updates history

BuildRelease DateFeatures added
Windows 11 Build 2522719-Oct-22Improvements to Windows Update management, pop-up trailer preview in Microsoft Store, monoline icons in widgets board.
Windows 11 Build 252176-Oct-22Supports third-party widgets, new video calling experience in the taskbar, Simplified Chinese IME cloud suggestions, and Microsoft Store improvements
Windows 11 Build 2521129-Sep-22New Widget Settings and Widget Picker, New Outlook for Windows experience, Task Manager in the taskbar context menu
Windows 11 Build 2520621-Sep-22SMB authentication rate limiter and dynamic refresh rate
Windows 11 Build 2520114-Sep-22Expandable widgets board and sign-in option in Game Pass widget
Windows 11 Build 251978-Sep-22Tablet-optimized taskbar restored, animated icons introduced in the Settings app, system tray icons updated
Windows 11 Build 251931-Sep-22New Braille support for Narrator and Xbox subscription management from the Settings app
Windows 11 Build 2518824-Aug-22Intelligent touch keyboard when the physical keyboard detached
Windows 11 Build 2516928-Jul-22Added App lockdown feature
Windows 11 Build 2512625-May-22Improved account settings page
Windows 11 Build 2512018-May-22Added search widget on Desktop/
Windows 11 Build 2511511-May-22Added suggested actions feature
Windows 11 Build 226165-May-22Improved Xbox controller bar
Windows 11 Build 2259813-Apr-22Improved Windows Media Player, Windows Spotlight default background
Windows 11 Build 225936-Apr-22Homepage to Windows Explorer
Windows 11 Build 2257918-Mar-22Allows naming start menu folders
Windows 11 Build 225729-Mar-22Introducing Microsoft Family and Clipchamp
Windows 11 Build 225672-Mar-22Smart App Control, Focuses On Renewable Energy
Windows 11 Build 2255716-Feb-22Folders of pinned apps, DnD, Focus, Live captions, quick access to Android apps, pin files to Quick Access, and more.
Windows 11 Insider Preview dev channel updates history
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Subhan Zafar is an established IT professional with interests in Windows and Server infrastructure testing and research, and is currently working with Itechtics as a research consultant. He has studied Electrical Engineering and is also certified by Huawei (HCNA & HCNP Routing and Switching).

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