Windows 11 build 25158 brings even more dynamic widget content

Microsoft is rolling out a new build of Windows 11 for Insiders enrolled in the Dev channel, that being build 25158. The main new addition in this build is expanding on the dynamic widget content Microsoft introduced in build 25136.

Now, the Widgets button on the taskbar can display a notification badge to warn you about breaking news or other content from your widgets. When you open the Widgets panel, you’ll also see a banner at the top highlighting the content that caused the notification to be displayed.

In a previous build, Microsoft had already made it possible for the button to display different kinds of content, such as updates on sports scores if you have the sports widget.

Another change Microsoft is making with Windows 11 build 25158 has to do with the search button on the taskbar. Select Windows Insiders will see different visual experiences for how search is displayed – some will continue to see a button, while others might see a bar that says “Search” or “Search the web”. Presumably, Microsoft is testing how these different approaches change engagement with Windows Search.

This replaces the search bar Microsoft has previously placed directly on the desktop, which is no longer available starting with this build. Other improvements available in this build include the ability to test DNS over TLS, and an updated Nyala font that supports syllables for the Gurage language orthography.

Aside from that, this build is mostly about fixes, and the full list of them is below:

Despite the long list of fixes, there are still a few known issues with this build. You can check them out below in case you want to be prepared>

Something else that’s worth noting with this release is that Windows 11 build 25158 is also available as an ISO file, so if you want to get the latest bits through a clean install, you can grab it from the Windows Insider downloads page. This build is part of an active development cycle, and while features being added now should make it to public releases of Windows, that isn’t guaranteed, and they make take over a year to show up if they do.