Optional Windows 11 September update adds tons of new preview features

AI actions in File Explorer

Along with some other improvements, File Explorer in Windows 11 will be getting some new AI-powered features:

• Right-clicking on image files will now present some AI actions, including Visual Search (search the web using an image), Blur Background (performed via Photos app), Erase Objects (also via Photos app), and Remove Background (via Paint). As of now, these actions are only available for JPG, JPEG, and PNG files.
• You can now generate summaries of documents stored in OneDrive/SharePoint using Copilot without having to open each one individually. (Requires an active Microsoft 365 subscription as well as a Copilot license.)
• The Click To Do context menu now features the latest and most widely used AI-powered actions, as well as more concise summaries via the Summarize action.

Improvements in Windows Settings

Here are some of the improvements coming to the Settings app:

• A direct navigation link to the Agents page in Settings is now available from agent search results. (Only for Copilot+ PCs.)
• The redesigned Advanced Settings page (located at Settings > System > Advanced) now replaces the For Developers page, making it easier to find various options.
• Several time, language, and keyboard settings have been relocated from the Control Panel to the Settings app. These include adding additional clocks, customizing date/time formatting, and keyboard repeat rate and cursor blink rate settings.
• New keyboard shortcuts have been added for quickly inserting an en-dash character (Windows key + Minus) and em-dash character (Windows key + Shift + Minus).

Accessibility and accessories

Here are a few highlights for external devices and accessibility features that are built directly into Windows 11:

• Xbox controller support has been improved. Short pressing the Xbox button now opens Game Bar, long pressing it now opens Task View, and holding it turns off the controller altogether.
• Windows Narrator now features Braille Viewer, which shows text on screen along with its Braille equivalent on a refreshable Braille display. It’s accessible by using the Windows key + Ctrl + Enter shortcut, then the Narrator key + Alt + B shortcut.
• Windows Voice Access now supports natural language commands, allowing you to use filler words and synonyms instead of strict, rigid, predefined command structures. This is currently only available for Intel and AMD-powered Copilot+ PCs.
• Windows 11 now has a seamless plugin passkey manager, which is accessible via Settings > Accounts > Passkeys.

Other Windows 11 bug fixes

In addition to new features, here are some noteworthy bug fixes:

• In File Explorer, accented backgrounds are removed in the “Open with” list, overlapping icons and text is fixed when using increased text scaling, and cloud files launch faster now.
• An issue when starting Hyper-V virtual machines with TPM on Arm64 devices has been fixed.
• An issue where some characters didn’t display correctly when Chinese IME was being used.
• An issue where you couldn’t connect to shared files and folders when using the SMB v1 protocol over NetBT was fixed.

There is still an issue where DRM content can fail to play in Blu-ray/DVD apps (but not in streaming apps like Netflix).