Microsoft pushed Windows 11 builds 26100.9267 and 26200.9267 to the Release Preview Channel on 14 August 2026 as KB5120998, and the headline item is that the Windows 11 taskbar position setting has moved one channel closer to everyone. Release Preview is the last stop before a build ships as a normal update, and this one went to both version 24H2 and version 25H2 builds.
The Windows 11 taskbar position setting, one step from release
We covered this feature when it reached the Beta Channel on 31 July. The control is unchanged: Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors > Taskbar position, where you pick bottom, top, left or right. Microsoft’s notes for this build say tooltips, flyouts and animations still come from the taskbar wherever you put it, and that most existing customization settings — never combining taskbar icons is the example Microsoft gives — carry over to the new locations. Most, it is worth noting, not all.
One gap is now stated flatly rather than as work in progress: the search box and the smaller taskbar are supported only at the top and bottom positions. Microsoft said in May that the search box would collapse to an icon in the meantime, so plan for a reduced search entry point if you move the taskbar to a side edge. The separate size control at Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors > Taskbar size shrinks both the icons and the taskbar height when set to Small, which is the one genuinely useful setting for the 14-inch laptops that sell in volume in India. Microsoft has also expanded the Taskbar behaviors section by default, on the reasonable theory that nobody was finding it.
Start menu gets size, privacy and naming changes
These are new in this build and did not appear in the Beta write-up:
- Start menu size — a small or large option alongside today’s Automatic default, at
Settings > Personalization > Start > Start menu size. - Recommended is now Recent — renamed in the menu itself and on the Start settings page.
- Hide your name and profile picture — a new toggle at
Settings > Personalization > Start. Small, but it is the setting you want if you ever share your screen. - Redesigned Start settings page — section-level toggles to show or hide Pinned, Recent and All independently.
Search gets two settings worth knowing about
Windows Search results now label where each result came from — app, setting, file, web result or Microsoft Store suggestion — before you click it. More usefully, a new setting at Settings > Privacy & security > Search lets you decide whether web and Microsoft Store suggestions appear alongside local results at all. That is the switch to look for if Windows Search sending your typing to Bing has been your objection to it.
The other new one deserves a closer look. Windows will now automatically index your most-used folders so their files turn up in search, controlled at Settings > Privacy & security > Search > Automatically find additional relevant locations. Microsoft frames this as convenience, and it is, but it is indexing decided on your behalf rather than by you — check that toggle after you update if you keep sensitive files in folders you open often.
WMIC is gone for good
Starting in August 2026, Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2 no longer include the Windows Management Instrumentation Command-line utility, and it is no longer available as a Feature on Demand. It was already absent from new installations of both versions. Anyone with old batch files that call wmic should expect them to break.
To be precise about the scope: this removes the WMIC utility only. Windows Management Instrumentation itself is unaffected and still supported — Microsoft’s guidance is to use PowerShell’s WMI support instead. WMIC has been formally deprecated since Windows 10 version 21H1, so this is a long-signposted removal rather than a surprise.
The rest of it, in brief
- File Explorer Home launches faster, and its Recommended carousel supports touch scrolling.
- Updated progress indicators across startup, sign-in, restart, shutdown and update installation.
- Administrator protection, first disclosed in October 2025, begins rolling out. It is off by default and enabled only through Intune or Group Policy.
- Switching virtual desktops is smoother; Task Manager app history is more reliable.
- Fixes for the Display settings page and for brightness not persisting after energy saver turns off.
- Post-quantum cryptography: ML-KEM can now be used standalone for TLS key exchange, not only in hybrid groups.
When will it reach your PC?
Not yet, unless you are in the Release Preview Channel. Microsoft classifies the personalisation changes above under gradual rollout, which means they arrive on devices over time rather than all at once, and its own note is that “feature availability varies by device and market.” Optional preview builds like this one normally fold into the following month’s cumulative update, but Microsoft has not committed to a date for this one, so treat September as the expected cadence rather than a promise.
If you are still on version 24H2, note that it stops receiving updates on 13 October 2026, so the taskbar you eventually get to move will likely be on 25H2 either way.
Sources: Microsoft Learn release notes, Windows Insider Blog
