14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is planning several big changes in Windows 11, including unlinking Immersive Shell from the Explorer process.
The main benefit of this change is as obvious as it gets: by separating the two components, Microsoft significantly improves the system stability, as users can kill the explorer.exe without an impact on other Windows components.
The change was spotted by the makers of Start Is Back, one of the most popular third-party Start menu apps for Windows, though at this point, it doesn’t seem like the work on the separation is complete.
In other words, Microsoft needs to further polish the change in the upcoming builds, though it could go live for users in the production channel with the release of the next Moment update for Windows 11.
“Interesting feature in dev 25252: ImmersiveShellInShellAppRuntime (id:39319758). Moves immersive shell out of explorer. Does not start ShellAppRuntime.exe yet, but finally, all this metro hodgepodge may be a bit more reliable,” the official StartIsBack Twitter account explained.
Needless to say, this change is currently available only for insiders, as Microsoft is otherwise continuing the rollout of the most recent Windows 11 feature update for devices out there.
According to the latest rollout update published in early October, users can now download and install version 22H2 by manually checking for updates, obviously unless a safeguard hold has already been enabled.
“We are entering a new phase of the rollout for Windows 11, version 22H2 and we are increasing its availability to all who check for updates on eligible Windows devices. Note that, if we detect that your device might have an issue, such as an application incompatibility, we might put a safeguard hold in place and not offer the update until that issue is resolved. Information regarding safeguard holds is available below on this page,” Microsoft said at that point.