Cool trick! New Windows 11 beta release can 'Sense your presence'!

Microsoft has been working on Windows 11 and consistently bringing new features and optimizations on a regular basis. And now, it has released two new Windows 11 beta builds. The first is build 22624.1610 which comes with new and experimental features whereas build 22621.1610 has new features turned off. Interestingly, the former build has been released with a new privacy control feature called the Presence Sensor. This feature will give users more control over the information they share. Additionally, the build also brings a range of bug fixes.

Windows 11 beta build 22624.1610

The biggest introduction in this build is the presence sensor privacy settings and APIs. For the unaware, many laptops and other devices today are equipped with presence sensors which essentially detect when a user moves away from the device and automatically turns off the screen. Once the user is back, the device will turn on by itself. This enables the user in securing the device.

The latest Windows 11 beta version will allow all devices with this sensor to manage which apps get access to this sensor. So, if a particular app has this sensor enabled, it will turn off and on based on whether the user is near or away from the device. On the other hand, the device which does not get access to the sensor will show no such effect.

To access the menu, users can go to Settings, scroll to find Privacy & Security and look for Presence Sensing. From there, they can manually add or remove apps from the list. App developers will also be able to add enhancements to the apps and make them request and read user presence information.

Both the Windows 11 beta builds have also fixed an important bug that was causing a noticeable increase in explorer.exe crashes for some users in the last flight.

Microsoft also released Windows 11 build 22000.1879 (KB5025298) in the Release Preview Channel. This build is for Insiders and mainly offers bug patches.