The Windows 11 system tray is getting a privacy update

VPNs have become an essential part of our security and privacy setups in recent years. With more and more online scams surfacing all the time, encrypting our online traffic offers us a way to add an extra layer of safety to prevent prying eyes from seeing something of ours that they shouldn’t. This may be why Microsoft is working on adding a new VPN icon to go in the Windows 11 system tray.

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The new VPN icon for Windows 11 has been spotted in the latest Windows Insider build version 25247. Although the feature is still in an early stage of development it looks like it will allow you to see whether or not your computer is connected to a VPN or not.

However, it does look like there is still a lot of work for Microsoft to do on the feature before it gets a wider rollout. As you can see in the images below, the current version of the icon seems to indicate that the VPN indicator is somehow only connected to a wired connection rather than Wi-Fi, which is much more common these days. Another shortcoming of the feature in its current state is that it doesn’t seem to recognize third-party VPN apps such as NordVPN or Express VPN.

VPNs of course offer a variety of advantages for users on top of merely securing your internet traffic. For example, they offer a way for users to access geo-restricted content that might not be available in their area. This means many users have been using VPNs to watch the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

With this feature still in such a rough state and VPNs becoming more and more prevalent in today’s modern internet use, it is likely that we will have to wait a while before we see this privacy-focused feature added to the Windows 11 system tray.

In other recent Microsoft news, the EU Commission is investigating the software giant related to antitrust issues concerning how it bundles Microsoft Teams in with the Microsoft 365 productivity suite.