Seven built-in Windows 11 apps just picked up a wave of new features and bug fixes, covering Calculator, Camera, Clock, Media Player, Paint, Photos, and Sound Recorder. Alongside the updates, the inbox apps now have dedicated release notes published on Microsoft Learn, so you can track each app’s changelog in chronological order instead of digging through individual build announcements.
Quick answer: Update the apps through the Microsoft Store to get Paint 11.2605.61.0, Clock 11.2605.9.0, Calculator 11.2605.9.0, Camera 2026.2605.7.0, Media Player 11.2605.14.0, Photos 2026.11060.2004.0, and Sound Recorder 11.2605.1.0. The full per-app release notes live on Microsoft Learn.
App versions at a snapshot
| App | Version |
|---|---|
| Calculator | 11.2605.9.0 |
| Camera | 2026.2605.7.0 |
| Clock | 11.2605.9.0 |
| Media Player | 11.2605.14.0 |
| Paint | 11.2605.61.0 |
| Photos | 2026.11060.2004.0 |
| Sound Recorder | 11.2605.1.0 |
Paint (version 11.2605.61.0)
Paint gets the biggest practical change here: you can now control how transparent the eraser is. Saving also behaves more predictably, since opening a rotated JPEG and pressing Save now overwrites the original file instead of unexpectedly switching to a “Save As” prompt.
| Change | What it does |
|---|---|
| Adjustable eraser transparency | Sets how transparent the eraser is |
| Cleaner stamp brushes | Removes color shifts and artifacts from stamp-style brushes |
| In-place JPEG save | Save overwrites a rotated JPEG instead of prompting Save As |
| Damaged file handling | Shows a clear error instead of closing when opening a bad image |
| Classic selection | Selection outline hides while you move, resize, or rotate |
| AI panel spacing | Fixes missing spacing at the bottom of the AI image panel |
| Light theme hover | Toolbar split buttons now show a clear hover highlight |
| Faster ribbon | Streamlined toolbar layout for a small startup speed boost |
| Stability fixes | Fewer background crashes, stable shutdown, fixed layer removal glitch |
Clock (version 11.2605.9.0)
Clock has the longest changelog of the group. Timers now keep counting upward after they hit zero, showing a negative figure like -00:27:31 so you can see how far past the mark you are. The Countdown Widget supports three simultaneous countdowns, up from two, and alarms add a 15-minute snooze interval.
Focus Sessions gained an “Off” option so you can skip a daily goal entirely, completed tasks no longer clutter the task list, and a rounding fix stops daily progress from showing a minute short. World Clock comparisons load dates as you scroll, country and city names are refreshed, and the Newfoundland time zone now correctly uses St. John’s.
Several smaller fixes round it out. Pressing back in clock comparisons no longer jumps the date to 1926, disabled alarms stay looking disabled when edited, and the polar “midnight sun” icon no longer shows a moon during all-day daylight. Screen reader behavior also improves, with no double-announced timer values and correctly read countdown names.
Calculator (version 11.2605.9.0)
Calculator focuses on accuracy and accessibility. A rare rounding issue is fixed, so a calculation that should equal zero, like sqrt(2.25) – 1.5, no longer leaves a tiny leftover value.
- Settings text shows the correct colors in the High Contrast Aquatic and Desert themes.
- Right-to-left languages such as Arabic and Hebrew now orient the graph, number pad, equation fields, and scroll buttons correctly.
- Upgrading from much older versions no longer leaves outdated settings that stop the app from opening.
Camera (version 2026.2605.7.0)
The Camera app improves zoom and device support. The zoom slider now works on the latest cameras, respects your system zoom settings, and updates instantly when you change them. It also shows the full range of zoom levels on devices that zoom in finer increments, fixing an issue where only three steps appeared.
| Change | What it does |
|---|---|
| Front camera fix | Resolves a block on the front-facing camera on certain wide-angle devices |
| More video resolutions | Previously hidden resolutions are selectable, with a warning instead of removal |
| QR link fallback | Copies a scanned link to the clipboard with a notification when no app matches, while still offering a Store search |
| Smarter defaults | Follows your system settings when you haven’t set a preference |
Media Player (version 11.2605.14.0)
Media Player adds custom caption styling tied to your Windows caption settings, with a quick link to open those settings directly. A new “Indexing” banner in the play queue explains why some items may not appear yet while your library is still being scanned.
- Better file-type recognition means more files play without issues.
- Playlists can no longer be saved with a blank name, and empty playlists look cleaner.
- A crash when editing the play queue during a session switch is fixed.
- The “missing codec” dialog now gives clearer guidance on what to do.
Photos (version 2026.11060.2004.0)
Photos introduces optional AI watermarking. AI-generated or edited images can carry a visible Copilot watermark, and you choose Never, Always, or Ask Every Time in Settings, with a confirmation when saving. The watermarking is off by default.
- Tiny images like 16×16 pixel art zoom in far more and stay crisp instead of looking blurry.
- Detected text in an image can be navigated and selected with the arrow keys, Shift+Arrow, Home/End, and Ctrl+A, with a clear focus highlight.
- A crash during text recognition is fixed, and the app now recovers gracefully.
- Tabbing through the navigation bar skips hidden controls, so it takes one Tab to move past it instead of three.
Sound Recorder (version 11.2605.1.0)
Sound Recorder fixes a handful of recording quirks. The live waveform now displays correctly when you record through a Bluetooth audio device, and a non-working horizontal scrollbar no longer appears at the bottom of the waveform unless you’ve zoomed in.
- The Mark button is ready immediately and no longer looks grayed out until you hover over it.
- Markers are turned off for WAV recordings, since that format can’t store them, so they’re no longer lost silently.
- Quickly pressing Delete and Enter to remove several recordings no longer triggers a “file doesn’t exist” error.
- A memory leak that occurred each time a recording started is resolved.
How to get the updates and confirm they installed
Note: Each app now keeps its own changelog on the Microsoft Learn documentation, listed in chronological order, which makes it easier to confirm exactly which features and fixes shipped in the version you’re running.
