Security News > 2023 > July > New Windows 11 build ships with more Rust-based Kernel features
Microsoft announced that the latest Windows 11 build shipping to Insiders in the Canary channel comes with additional Windows Kernel components rewritten in the memory safety-focused Rust programming language.
Windows GDI is an API layer that sits between user-mode applications and Windows drivers, allowing applications to request graphic output functions and have them relayed to the driver through the kernel.
The new Rust-based Windows kernel implementations are just starting to roll out with the Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25905 to the Canary Channel and are not yet accessible to all Insiders in the Canary Channel.
Microsoft Azure CTO Mark Russinovich first revealed in May that Redmond started re-writing parts of the Windows 11 kernel in Rust.
Today's Canary build also comes with a long list of new features that have already been rolled out to Insiders in the Dev channel, including Dev Drive, Backup and Restore improvements, Dynamic Lighting, the Windows App SDK version of File Explorer and Gallery, and more.
Windows 11 is getting a built-in passkey manager for Windows Hello.