Windows 11 December Update Packs 16 New Features: What You Get This Patch

December’s Patch Tuesday for Windows 11 (rolling out now as KB 5072033 / 25H2 update) brings a handful of meaningful improvements, not a radical overhaul, but enough tweaks that many users will feel something is smoother or more polished. Here’s a breakdown of what’s new (or improved) in this update.

Easier Drag Tray Control & Improved File Sharing

If you didn’t like the “Drag Tray” that appears when you drag files to the top of your screen for quick sharing, there’s good news. The update lets you disable the Drag Tray via Settings → System → Nearby Sharing - no registry hacks or third-party tools needed anymore.

Additionally, Drag Tray now supports multi-file sharing - you can drag multiple files at once and get smarter app/destination suggestions to share or move them.

Cleaner Settings: Device Info, About Page Redesign & Mobile Device Hub

Settings gets friendlier: there’s a new Device Info card on the main Settings page summarizing CPU, RAM, GPU, and storage, so you don’t have to dig through menus.

The “About / Info” page is now redesigned: it shows a desktop-background thumbnail, an easy rename option, and reorganized sections (Device info, Windows info, etc.).

If you connect mobile devices often, the new Mobile Devices hub lets you link, manage, or remove phones and tablets from one place. It's a bit more streamlined than before.

File Explorer: Dark Mode, UI Tweaks & Consistency Fixes

Dark-mode fans get a nicer File Explorer: dialogs (copy/move/delete/confirm), progress bars, and other UI components now match the dark theme more consistently.

That said, there is a known issue: some users observe a brief white flash when launching File Explorer under dark mode. Microsoft is aware and reportedly investigating.

Virtual Workspaces & Developer-Friendly Settings

A new Virtual Workspaces section lives under Settings → System → Advanced. It centralizes toggles for virtualization features like Hyper-V, Windows Sandbox, and Virtual Machine Platform. Comes in handy if you run VMs or sandboxed environments.

Also, various keyboard and input settings like cursor blink rate, key repeat rate, and character repeat delay have been migrated from legacy Control Panel panels into Settings for easier access.

Better Gaming & Handheld Support, Copilot+ Features, and Pen Improvements

If you game or use a Windows handheld PC, you get improvements: the Xbox Full-Screen Experience (FSE) which was previously limited to some devices is now being enabled on more Windows 11 handhelds.

For pen-enabled devices, there’s now haptic feedback when using a stylus. Subtle vibrations accompany certain interactions like closing windows or UI touches, aiming to make pen use feel more tactile.

On devices eligible for Copilot Vision / Copilot+ features: Microsoft added a new “Share with Copilot” option on the taskbar. Hover over an app, choose that option, and you can trigger Copilot Vision to analyze the app window. This will be useful for summarizing content, translating, or extracting data.

Visual Consistency: Start Menu + Search Alignment, Widgets, and Spotlight Tweaks

The Search panel and Start menu have been visually realigned, matching height and padding so switching between them feels smoother and more cohesive.

The Widgets board and desktop-background controls got small tweaks: You can now right-click a Spotlight image to get options like “Next background” or “Explore background,” making changing wallpapers faster and more intuitive.

Security Fixes and Stability Improvements

Besides features, December’s update patches 57 security vulnerabilities, including a critical zero-day exploit in the Cloud Files Mini Filter Driver that could allow local privilege escalation.

The Takeaway

This December update isn’t about flashy new gimmicks. It’s about smoothing out the rough edges, cleaning up the UI, fixing longstanding annoyances, and expanding features to more devices (handheld-PCs, Copilot-ready machines, pen-enabled devices). If you’ve been skipping updates lately, this one is worth taking, especially for the security patches, File Explorer dark-mode improvements, and the more streamlined Settings.