Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22518 Brings Spotlight Wallpapers to Desktop

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22518 is now available to participants on the developer channel. It brings a couple of new features and fixes quite a few problems.

What’s new in Windows 11 Build 22518

Spotlight collection backgrounds

The lock screen in Windows 10 and 11 shows a new image from time to time, this is Microsoft’s Spotlight. Windows 11 Build 22518 extends this feature with backgrounds from the Spotlight collection. Now you can configure the operating system to change the desktop background dynamically from the Settings application.

Head to Settings> Personalization> Background and choose the Spotlight Collection. This feature is currently available in the following countries: Australia, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, Spain, Sweden, UK, US Microsoft says it will add support for more countries in the future.

There is a tool called Windows Spotlight Extractor, which allows you to download the images for offline use, it also works with Windows 10.

Relocated widget button on the left side

The Widgets button has been moved to the left edge of the taskbar. Technically this is not new as I had the Widgets button on the left for a day or two, prior to the release of Build 22518. I believe this happened because the related application Windows Web Experience Pack was updated through from Microsoft Store.

When Windows 11 was released, people’s attention, including mine, was on the centered taskbar and the Start menu. It felt like the biggest change. The icons you have pinned are in the center of the taskbar, while on the right edge of the taskbar are the date and time, systray icons, and the Action Center. That’s a lot of things packed into one place. But, if you look at the left side of the taskbar, it has nothing. That is a waste of space. So from that perspective, I think moving the Widgets button to the left is an interesting change. It also makes sense, as the animation for the Widgets panel appears on the left side of the screen.

That said, I think some people may be upset by the change. Maybe you prefer the left edge to be flawless, or you just like to have all the icons in the center. Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be a way to move the Widgets shortcut to where it was. Microsoft should allow people to choose the position of the icon, rather than making changes in any way.

? If you don’t like widgets, you can remove the feature entirely.

Voice access

Windows 11 Build 22518 introduces voice access command support. Go to Settings> Accessibility> Voice and turn on the Voice Access option. The tool will download a voice model to understand your commands. Microsoft says that voice data is not shared with the cloud and is only processed locally on your PC. Once you download the model, an on-screen guide guides you through the setup process.

This will allow you to interact with your computer to perform tasks such as opening programs, moving the mouse pointer, clicking content, dictating and editing text, scrolling, switching between applications, etc. You can learn more about the commands in the announcement article.

Currently, Voice Access is only available for US English. If you don’t want Voice Access to keep hearing your microphone, you can mute it or turn it off. The feature has some known issues. The text creation commands have some inconsistencies. Voice Access is not yet compatible with Narrator, and it also has some trouble recognizing punctuation and symbols.

The Windows Subsystem for Linux can be installed directly from the Microsoft Store. The input switch has an acrylic bottom and its performance and reliability have been improved.

Notable fixes in Windows 11 Build 22518

Explorer will no longer crash if you have web shortcuts pinned to the taskbar. Network drives can be used as a source in Media Player. The Simplified Chinese ME should work correctly after an issue was fixed that prevented u-mode / v-mode / name-mode candidates from being displayed. The Japanese IME will no longer unexpectedly display candidates in landscape mode instead of portrait mode.

Snap Group Thumbnails will update correctly in Task View, when you move the group windows to another desktop. The setup app has better support for screen readers. Resolved an issue that caused setup to fail when trying to access options for added languages. Microsoft fixed an issue that caused a bug check with the SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION error for some users.

Build 22518 is not available for ARM64 PCs due to a bug that causes devices to roll back to the previous version while updating to the new build. See the official announcement for a list of known issues and fixes in Windows 11 Build 22518.

As a big fan of Bing images, I really like the new Spotlight option in Windows 11. I use the open source Muzei Live Wallpaper on my Android phone, along with the Bing Image of the Day plugin, to update the wallpaper all days.

Share your thoughts on the Spotlight Collection, Voice Access, and the new Widgets button position.

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