Minecraft 1.20 pre-release 7 patch notes: All you need to know

The seventh pre-release for Minecraft version 1.20 has just been released. Mojang has been working diligently on finishing the Trails & Tales update for the community, and the pre-releases are one of the final stages. Once they're concluded, the update can be released. As such, most of them focus mainly on bug fixes and other minor changes. The big additions were tested in snapshots and betas or previews.

Fortunately, this is very easy for Java players to take advantage of. Read on to find out what the patch notes look like and how to download everything.

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Minecraft's latest pre-release is finally here

To improve safety, Mojang programmed Minecraft to detect symbolic links used inside world directory. Other changes include:

• If the target of a symbolic link is not on the user-configured approval list, the game will not download the world.
• It should be noted that the world directory itself can still be linked in this scenario.
• The list of allowed symbolic link targets is located in the file 'allowed_symlinks.txt', It can be found in either client or server top directory.
• The file consists of entries with the following allowed. There are one per line:
• Lines starting with # are considered comments and are thus ignored.
• [type]pattern, a tag where the type could be glob, regex, or prefix.
• prefix matches the start of the path up with a given pattern.
• regex matches the regular expression against the entire path.
• glob uses OS-specific mechanisms, so it will be different for the platform.
• It should be noted that paths will use OS-specific separators when they need to.
• Finally, pattern uses default prefix type.

Furthermore, a worrisome glitch has been patched. Prior to the update, Bamboo Mosaic Slabs and Stairs were not in the #slabs and #stairs block and item tags. That has since been remedied, so they're in the proper location now.

The 1.20 update is coming soon (Image via Mojang)

Here's how Java players can take advantage of the latest pre-release:

1. Open the Minecraft Launcher.
2. Navigate to the Installations tab.
3. Check to enable Snapshots. This is how you would be able to install the latest snapshot if those were still being rolled out. Since they're not, the latest "snapshot" is the pre-release.
4. Head back to the Play tab on the Launcher.
5. Click to start a new world.

Keep in mind that these are not official versions of the game, and they can contain issues. Mojang strives to remove all of these, but they are not infallible. Be sure to back up any worlds you don't want to lose before you enable the pre-release.

Unfortunately, there's currently no equivalent for Minecraft Bedrock Edition, but be on the lookout for the latest betas and previews. Until the update comes out on all platforms, this is all Bedrock users can take advantage of.