5 upcoming Home windows 11 additions that I am most enthusiastic about

Again within the

Windows 10
days, there was a time frame during which Home windows growth felt rudderless. Microsoft’s cadence of bi-annual characteristic updates had slowed to a crawl, new additions like Timeline and My People felt haphazardly carried out at greatest, and there was no signal of a transparent and overarching imaginative and prescient for the platform.

This all modified with

the release of Windows 11
in 2021. With then-Govt Vice President and Chief Product Officer at Microsoft Panos Panay on the helm, a serious Home windows rejuvenation try took maintain on the firm. Described by executives as “the following technology of Home windows” and a “reinvestment” within the working system, new options and enhancements started hitting the OS at a gentle tempo, as did a complete Fluent Design visible overhaul of many user-facing shell parts.

Regardless of Panay departing from Microsoft again in fall 2023, Home windows 11 has maintained a comparatively aggressive and accelerated growth state. Except for the flashy

AI-based Copilot+ features
that require a PC with a neural processing unit (NPU), the bottom Home windows 11 expertise continues to see enhancements made at a elementary stage, too.

I have been taking part in round with a few of Home windows’ upcoming additions by way of the Home windows Insider Program, whereas counting on a utility often known as ViVeTool to assist allow hidden and experimental options which are nonetheless actively in growth. Listed below are 5 upcoming Home windows 11 options that I am personally probably the most enthusiastic about, and that I can not wait to see hit platform stability within the coming months.

A much more customizable Begin expertise is on the best way

Since its debut in 2021, I’ve by no means been the most important fan of Home windows 11’s Begin Menu. Except for not making the very best use of area, I discover it to be too inflexible and too simplistic. Fortunately, Microsoft has heard our collective complaints, and has announced that an all-new Begin Menu design is on its means. To date,

I’m enjoying this refreshed design
— I like that my complete library of apps is accessible on a single display screen, and I like that I can toggle off the really helpful part if I so please. The short

Phone Link
entry button is a pleasant contact, and the

Apple App Library-esque organization
possibility can also be welcome in my eyes.

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2

The return of seconds in notification heart

A Home windows 10 staple is about to re-debut on WIndows 11

Certainly one of my favourite Home windows 10 options has all the time been the big digital clock plastered on the calendar taskbar flyout, which makes it straightforward to reference the present time right down to the second. Sadly, this second-by-second clock did not survive the large Home windows 11 shell rewrite, and I have been clamoring for its return since 2021. With

Windows 10 set to reach end of life
later this yr, Microsoft seems to be throwing a bone to longtime followers of the OS who’ve resisted upgrading their PCs till now. For me, displaying seconds inside the management heart and calendar interface is a kind of small additions that I did not absolutely respect till it was gone.

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3

A brand-new Drag Tray

Quickly, sharing recordsdata and media can be a far simpler affair

Home windows 11 has its personal native sharing API, which permits for system-wide file and knowledge share integration throughout surfaces just like the Share Sheet and the right-click context menu. Sadly, nearly all of third-party builders have not tapped into this characteristic, and most desktop PC customers merely drag-and-drop recordsdata and media from one app window to a different. Microsoft’s upcoming drag tray characteristic seems to be to streamline the sharing course of, by introducing a brand new context-aware bar on the prime of the show when dragging a file on display screen. When interacted with, the drag tray expands, permitting you to shortly drop your file right into a appropriate app, ship the file to your cellphone, or invoke the total share sheet web page. In my testing, the characteristic is surprisingly intuitive, and I discover myself using it each with my mouse cursor and with my finger.

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Microsoft is gearing as much as convey glanceable applets to your locked PC

Ever since

Windows 8
in 2012, Microsoft has supplied third-party app builders an API for tapping into lock display screen content material. This permits apps to show climate situations, new emails, calendar updates, and different data in a glanceable ticker view close to the system clock and date. Over the previous couple of years, we have seen a

renaissance of lock screen widgets
throughout platforms like iOS, iPadOS, and Android, and Microsoft seems to need in on the motion. In an upcoming replace, full-sized desktop widgets can be pinnable on the lock display screen, with choices to rearrange, reorder, scroll, and modify widgets from inside the Settings app.

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5

Clearer battery life indicators

Microsoft has redesigned the system tray’s battery icon

In an effort to enhance the legibility of your PC’s battery standing, Microsoft has redesigned the battery iconography inside the Home windows 11 taskbar. This new design, which is presently in preview, extends the scale of the battery icon, introduces yellow and pink colours for power-saving and low energy, respectively, and facilities the lightning bolt image. These are all good quality-of-life adjustments that enhance accessibility, however my private favourite new addition is the flexibility to show the present battery proportion on the taskbar. I all the time toggle this setting on when organising a brand new cellphone, pill, or Mac, and I am pleased to see it lastly make its technique to PC.

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