Microsoft has officially released the 2022 update to its Windows 11 operating system to a wider audience. This is the first of many major Windows 11 updates, adding numerous novel features while simultaneously fixing the list of shortcomings that plagued the OS upon its initial release.
However, Microsoft isn’t done with the OS, and as soon as the new update went live to more people, the company added even more improvements and features to the preview builds of Windows 11.
Here are the 5 most exciting new features coming to future updates of Windows 11.
Functional search box
The current iteration of the Windows 11 search box is not as useful as it could be. Essentially, the current search box taunts you by letting you click on it, but before you start typing, it opens another window where you can actually type a search query. It seems in the next update to Windows 11, the company plans to do away with the dummy search box and give us one that actually works.
This is a very minor issue that likely only affects people with varying degrees of OCD, otherwise known as perfectionists. Nonetheless, this change is likely to leave the entire operating system feeling more cohesive and user-friendly, two aspects that many users would say the infant operating system still lacks in some areas.
More refined Widgets
Windows widgets are… a point of contention, in the nicest terms possible. Apart from feeling relatively spammy with all the ‘news’ articles it forces upon you, the interface is also just completely lackluster. The revised widgets interface is now full-screen, which adds a little more immersion to the feature. However, this means that instead of overlaid spam immersion, you’ll have full-screen spam immersion.
However, Microsoft has now allowed independent developers to start making custom widgets that will appear on the Microsoft Store. This will hopefully go a long way toward the widgets interface feeling less spammy and more functional.
Seconds on the clock
This is another nifty feature that many have probably been hoping for. In a time where every second counts, Microsoft may soon add seconds to the clock in the notification banner. If you’re in the preview channels, you’ll already be able to enable and play with this feature, but there isn’t terribly much to say about it at this stage. It’s a seconds counter on your home screen; that’s pretty much it.
Better task manager
The built-in task manager utility is already quite the feature, now that it has a search box to field your search queries. The major updates coming to task manager in the future are mainly a more intuitive layout and a slightly more modern approach to dialog boxes. Be warned, though, you shouldn’t enable any testing features for a utility like task manager. This is a utility that always needs to be running at its peak, and enabling test features may decrease its efficiency.
Animated icons
Part of the reason that Windows 11 sometimes feels so lackluster compared to other operating systems from rival companies is that it’s relatively immobile and, for lack of a better word, dead. This new innovation brings a lot more life into the OS ecosystem through animated icons in the Settings app. This is sure to make the operating system feel even more immersive and, for lack of a better word, alive.
So much more
We’re incredibly excited to see these new updates rolling out in the future, among many others. As soon as that happens, we’ll be here to guide you through them. If you’re still new to Windows 11, we have a whole host of guides and tutorials that you can follow, including our guide for how to fix the Unexpected Store Exception error. No more blue screen of death.
