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The Windows 11 Paint app gets dark mode and more in a new Dev and Canary Insider update by John Callaham Many Windows 11 users have been waiting patiently for the company's Paint app to add a dark mode. Some people were not so patient. Mod developers have been putting in a dark mode feature in Paint via third-party apps for a while now. Today, the long wait is over, at least if you are a member of the Windows Insider program. Microsoft revealed today that Insiders in the Dev and Canary channels can download the new version (11.2304.17.0) of the Paint app. Yes, it does finally include a dark mode. Microsoft stated: With this update, we are introducing support for dark mode in Paint. By default, Paint will adapt to your system theme preferences, but you can change this option yourself on the brand-new settings page. In addition to the new dark mode, the new Paint app for Dev and Canary Insiders includes some new features and improvements for its zoom mode: The classic presets are still available, but you can now also zoom in and out with finer granularity increments on the zoom slider or set a custom zoom value for even greater precision. We are also introducing a new fit to screen option to quickly optimize zoom to match your window size. Microsoft has also made changes to the Paint App's Image Properties dialogs: They now match the style of the new Windows 11 design and fit in with the new Paint app backdrop as well as many accessibility and usability improvements to dialogs throughout the app. We have also improved access key and keyboard shortcut support throughout the app for improved accessibility and productivity with keyboard. There's no word yet on when these features will be available for all Windows 11 users. Hopefully the rest of us won't have to wait too much longer to get the dark mode in the Paint app.

Windows 11 Insider Canary build 25375 adds Microsoft Endpoint DLP on Windows on Arm by John Callaham Microsoft has released the latest Windows 11 build for Insiders on the Canary channel today. The new build 25375 adds support for Microsoft Endpoint DLP on Windows on Arm. Here is the changelog: What’s new in Build 25375 Support for Microsoft Endpoint DLP on Windows on Arm (Arm64) builds You can now extend Microsoft Endpoint Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies and actions to endpoints running Windows on Arm (Arm64) which allows you to detect and protect sensitive data in files part of your digital ecosystem. This enables you to introduce policy controls for scenarios such as when an information worker using a Windows endpoint powered by Arm chipset from accessing sensitive files and trying an egress action such as copying to a USB, or copy to clipboard, notepad, etc. As part of your DLP Policy definition, you can leverage the current conditions and actions that are already available for use and there is no additional setting involved. Ensure your ARM64 endpoints are onboarded to Microsoft Endpoint DLP by using any of our supported onboarding methods. For developers You can download the latest Windows Insider SDK at aka.ms/windowsinsidersdk. SDK NuGet packages are now also flighting at NuGet Gallery | WindowsSDK which include: .NET TFM packages for use in .NET apps as described at aka.ms/windowsinsidersdk C++ packages for Win32 headers and libs per architecture BuildTools package when you just need tools like MakeAppx.exe, MakePri.exe, and SignTool.exe These NuGet packages provide more granular access to the SDK and better integration in CI/CD pipelines. SDK flights are now published for both the Canary and Dev Channels, so be sure to choose the right version for your Insider Channel. Remember to use adaptive code when targeting new APIs to make sure your app runs on all customer machines, particularly when building against the Dev Channel SDK. Feature detection is recommended over OS version checks, as OS version checks are unreliable and will not work as expected in all cases. You can check out the full blog post here.

You can stop waiting; there will be no Windows Insider preview builds this week by John Callaham It's a very rare week when there are no Windows Insider builds to download on any of the preview channels. However, this will be one of those weeks. Microsoft has confirmed that it does not plan to launch any Windows Insider builds today or for the rest of the week. It's the big announcement: no #WindowsInsider preview builds are releasing this week. Have a great weekend wherever in the world you may be! pic.twitter.com/mtLXj1zd1q — Windows Insider Program (@windowsinsider) May 19, 2023 The news, as always, came from the company's Windows Insider Twitter account. The reveal didn't offer an explanation for this decision. The last Insider Preview release was on May 11, when Microsoft released new Release Preview builds for Windows 10, Windows 11 (original version), and Windows 11 (current version). It released a build for the Beta channel on May 9. The last builds for the Canary and Dev channels were launched on May 4. It's possible that Microsoft is getting ready to launch the big "Moment 3" update very soon for all Windows 11 users, and that the Windows team is too busy to work on the Insider channels at the moment. However, this is just pure speculation on our part. Microsoft did release a new Windows Subsystem for Android version to members of the Insider program earlier this week. It added features like package verification for apps with anti-virus protection, along with a way for app developers to change and allocate memory for their apps to get better performance. We expect to hear a lot about what Microsoft has in mind for the future of Windows in just a few days when the company starts its annual Build developers conference. That will happen starting May 23 and you can expect full coverage from us about the big announcements

Windows 11 Insider Canary Preview Build 25357 released with new Facebook widget by John Callaham Microsoft has released a new Windows 11 Insider build for people who are in the Canary Channel. The new build number is 25357. It adds a new Facebook widget for folks to try out. Here is the full changelog: What’s new in Build 25357 New Widget: Facebook Facebook is rolling out a preview version of their widget. To give it a try, download the Facebook app from the Microsoft Store or update to the latest version of the app. Then open the widgets board and navigate to the widgets picker by clicking the “+” button at the top-right of the board to pin your widget. The Facebook widget As you give this and other new widgets a try, please let us know what you think through the Widgets feedback link in the widgets picker. You should expect to see additional new widgets as more developers create and release widgets for their apps. If you’re a Windows developer and interested in creating a widget, watch our tutorial video here. For an overview of the Windows widgets experience and design guidance for creating your own widgets, see Windows widgets. For more information on creating a Win32 widget provider, see Widget service providers. For information on PWA widget providers, see Build PWA-driven widgets. Changes and Improvements [General] The new volume mixer experience in Quick Settings mentioned here is now available for all Insiders in the Canary Channel. You can check out the full blog post here.

New Windows Photo app update for Canary and Dev Insiders adds a slideshow feature and more by John Callaham Microsoft has made a surprise update to its Windows Photos app. The update is for people who are in the Canary or Dev Insider channels. It includes a number of new features, along with some other improvements and bug fixes. Here is the changelog: New Slideshow Experience This was a top feature request we received from the community since launching the new Photos app in Windows 11 last Fall. You can now relive your memories and view photos in a slideshow format, complete with transitions, animations, and 25 original music soundtracks to choose from. Click on any photo to start the slideshow or choose multiple photos to watch them together. Timeline Scrollbar This was another top feature request. We are re-introducing the timeline scrollbar to the All Photos, OneDrive, and iCloud Photos gallery views which groups photos by year and month. With the scrollbar, you can now easily jump to any point in time and find the photos you want. Spot Fix Use the Spot Fix feature to remove blemishes or unwanted areas in your photo Other Fixes and Improvements Auto Enhance is now available for use without having to install the 93MB add-on. When importing photos from external devices, you can now drag and drop to choose the photos you want and use the quick toggle to confirm the files that have been selected. Hidden iCloud Photos will no longer display in the gallery. Fixed an issue where audio on video files is muted by default. The app now plays the audio by default and persists user settings across videos. Copying and pasting a photo from the Photos app into Outlook and Teams now inserts the image inline by default instead of adding an attachment. Multi-select photos: hold down the SHIFT key while selecting photos in the gallery now selects multiple consecutive photos in a row; holding down the CTRL key selects multiple non-consecutive photos. Windows Insiders in the Canary and Dev channels can now update their Photos app to version number 2023.11050.2013.0 or higher to get the new version.