Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22543 brings Natural voices for the Narrator, volume level indicator to the flyout

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22543 is now available in the Dev Channel. Microsoft has been steadily improving the accessibility features in Windows 11. Build 22538 brought some new options for Voice Access and Voice Typing.

Narrator

Windows 11 Build 22543 adds 2 new voices for the Narrator feature, which the company says sound more natural (than the usual robotic voices). The voice options are called Jenny and Aria, and can be installed from the Settings > Accessibility > Narrator screen. You can listen to a preview of the voices before choosing to download them. The update adds a couple of keyboard commands for the Narrator, to make it easier to switch to the previous/next voice (Narrator key + Alt + Plus or Minus) and punctuation reading mode (Narrator + Alt + Left or Right Bracket).

Note: The default Narrator keys are Caps Lock/Insert, you can combine them with the hotkeys mentioned above to access the options.

Volume control flyout, Media flyout and Mute button

Microsoft replaced the legacy on-screen indicator for the volume in Build 22533, with a new flyout, that appears above the Taskbar when you use the hardware keys to adjust the sound level. Build 22543 displays the volume level indicator in the flyout, so you no longer have to mouse over the pop-up panel to see the number.

The lock screen displays a media flyout that you may use to control the playback. It will use the Dark Theme for the pop-up panel. This feature is being A/B tested before general availability. Using the Mute hotkey, WIN + ALT + K, during an ongoing call, will bring a confirmation on the screen to indicate that your mic is muted or unmuted.

Snap Layouts, File Explorer

When you resize a Snapped window, the Snap Layout panel will blur the other windows with an acrylic effect and display their app's icon over them.

The Copy as Path in File Explorer, has a new keyboard shortcut, CTRL + Shift + C. The Storage Space Settings screen has been redone to match the OS' design.

The boot screen shows a progressive ring animation (instead of the dots) while the operating system is being loaded, but this is only displayed for full build upgrades (like Insider Preview Builds), and not for regular Windows updates. The new icon will be also used in other areas of the operating system in the future.

Fixes in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22543

Accessing the Performance Tab in the Task Manager does not crash the program anymore. In case you missed it, Microsoft introduced a new Task Manager with a fluent design in the previous Build, 22538. Opening pages that contain a PDF will not crash the OneNote app. Enabling HDR should not lead to an unresponsive UI. An issue that was causing File Explorer to crash when dragging and dropping files out of a ZIP archive has been addressed.  The bug related to double-arrow icons being displayed on the Taskbar (toggle hidden icons), has been patched out.

The known issues in this build are identical to those we have seen in the past few versions. It is strange that they have not been fixed even after  a couple of months since they were acknowledged as problematic.

Refer to the official announcement for more information regarding the fixes and bugs in it.

What bugs have you encountered in the recent Insider Preview Builds?

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