Microsoft has released Windows 11 KB5101684, the optional July preview update for Windows 11 version 25H2 and version 24H2. It takes both versions to OS builds 26200.8973 and 26100.8973, and it is a genuinely useful release: new touchpad gesture controls, a smarter Windows Search that forgives typos, background-noise filtering for Voice Access, Windows Hello support for plug-in fingerprint readers, and — for the first time — the ability to remove an AI component from a Copilot+ PC.
This is a “D-week” preview release, which means it ships in the last week of the month and carries no security fixes. If you are on Windows 11 version 26H1, this is not your update — that branch got a separate preview the same day, KB5101681, build 28000.2608.
What’s new in Windows 11 KB5101684
Touchpad gestures you can finally tune
Two new precision-touchpad controls appear under Settings > Bluetooth & devices > Touchpad. Scroll and zoom speed sets the baseline speed for those gestures, and Accelerated scrolling makes scrolling get faster the more you repeat the gesture, which helps when you are moving through a long document or a huge folder. Windows has been unusually stingy about touchpad tuning compared to macOS, so this is overdue. It follows the touchpad right-click zone controls that arrived earlier this month.
Search that handles your typos
App search now copes better with typos and partial app names, and Settings results are ranked to surface more useful entries higher. File Explorer gets a small pile of fixes too: file sizes in Details view now display in appropriate units (KB, MB, GB) rather than only KB, middle-clicking a folder in the Address Bar or on the Home page opens it in a new tab, the grey flash on load is gone, and the Home page no longer jumps back to the top unexpectedly.
Voice Access gets noise filtering
Voice Access adds Voice Isolation, which filters out other speakers and background noise so it recognises your voice more reliably. Under Voice Access settings > Improve speech recognition there are now three modes: Voice Isolation (needs a one-time voice setup), “Remove background noise only” (filters non-speech sounds like typing or a door slamming, no setup needed), and “No filtering”. Korean language support has also been added.
Fingerprint readers that plug in
Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security now works with peripheral fingerprint sensors, not just built-in ones. Microsoft’s release notes describe it as extending the option “beyond devices with built in fingerprint sensors to include desktops and other Windows 11 PCs, including Copilot+ PCs.” Plug in a supported ESS reader, go to Settings > Accounts > Sign in options and follow the enrolment prompts. Microsoft first disclosed this in January 2026 and is only now rolling it out.
You can remove one AI component — and Microsoft updated four others
The headline other coverage will run is that Windows 11 now lets you uninstall AI. Read the fine print. The release notes say this update “allows you to remove the Image Generation AI component from supported Copilot+ PCs where the component is installed” — one component, on supported machines, where it is present. In the same release, Microsoft pushed four AI components forward to version 1.2607.840.0: Image Search, Content Extraction, Semantic Analysis and Settings Model. Those are not removable.
One removable, four updated in place, is the honest score. It is still a real concession — being able to reclaim the disk space and the model that a feature you never asked for is using is exactly the sort of control Windows has been withholding — but nobody is opting out of on-device AI with this update.
A subscription badge in your Start menu
Less welcome: the Start menu account control has been redesigned and now carries “a badge that displays your subscription status.” Click your account picture in the lower-left of Start to see it. It only appears if you are signed in with a Microsoft account, and Microsoft’s own footnote says feature availability varies by device and market, so many Indian readers may not see it at all. A permanent status indicator in the most-used corner of the operating system is a marketing surface, whatever it is labelled, and it is worth naming as one.
The rest of it, in brief
- Widgets — Taskbar notification badges now use your Windows accent colour instead of red. New users get Weather as the only Lock screen widget by default.
- Voice Typing — Fluid dictation is now off by default for new users.
- Magnifier — The horizontal and vertical touch pan bars are off by default so they stop covering magnified content; re-enable them in Settings > Accessibility > Magnifier.
- Power and Battery — Settings changes for display, sleep, hibernate, power button, sleep button and lid-close now apply to all power plans. The energy saver threshold setting is back in Settings > System > Power & Battery.
- Windows Setup — A parental controls notice now appears during setup.
- Print — Faster pages-per-minute for IPPS printers.
- Storage — Fixes File History backups to SMB network shares failing with a false “invalid credentials” error.
- Reliability — Fixes for explorer.exe (Jump Lists, recent files, sharing, Task View), and for the sign-in and lock screens when memory is low.
- Date and time — Corrected daylight saving data for Beirut, Casablanca, Jerusalem and Nuuk.
The Secure Boot certificate rollout also widens here: the update adds “additional high confidence device targeting data,” increasing the number of PCs eligible to get new certificates automatically. That deployment continues over the coming months — if you want to know where your machine stands, see our guide to checking your Windows 11 Secure Boot certificate status.
When will it reach your PC?
KB5101684 is optional and will not install by itself. Go to Start > Settings > Windows Update > Advanced options > Optional updates and look for it under “Optional updates available”. A standalone .msu is also on the Microsoft Update Catalog for arm64 and x64 if you prefer offline installation. Microsoft says it is not currently aware of any issues with this update, and several of the changes above are on a gradual rollout, so a few may take extra days to show up after you install.
If you would rather not install an optional update, everything here will land in the August security update on Patch Tuesday anyway.
