Programs that are pinned to the Start menu in Windows 11 will in future support jump lists, for example to display the most recently opened files with a right click. These and many other innovations are now in test mode and will be delivered as an optional update in November.
Update from November 22, 2024: The following updates are now also available to non-insiders:
Following the original article from November 15, 2024.
The corresponding updates for both version 23H2 and version 24H2 are available in the Release Preview Channel for Insiders. Apart from the included bug fixes, the range of functions is practically identical. However, all innovations are in “gradual rollout”, which means that they are not automatically active, but are gradually activated by Microsoft.
As usual, the changelogs can be found on the Windows Insider Blog:
These are the innovations:
- [Startmenü] New! Right-clicking apps that you have pinned to the Start menu displays Jump Lists for apps that have Jump Lists.
- [Taskleiste] New! A shortened date and time appear in the taskbar. Additionally, the notification bell icon may not appear if you have the Do Not Disturb switch turned on. If you don't see the bell icon, click the date and time to view your messages in Notification Center. To return to the long form date and time, go to Settings > Time and Language > Date and Time. Then enable the toggle for “Show time and date in taskbar.” To view the bell icon, go to Settings > system > Notifications. Turn on the toggle for “Notifications.” You can also access these settings via the context menu. Just right-click the clock or bell icon on the taskbar.
- [Touchscreen] New! This update adds a new section for touchscreen edge gestures. Go > Settings > Bluetooth & Devices. There you can choose whether you want to deactivate the touch gesture on the left or right edge of the screen.
- [Maus] New! (only for version 23H2) With this update in the settings > Bluetooth and devices > Mouse Added the option to disable enhanced mouse pointer precision. There is also a new option to change the direction the mouse scrolls.
- [Task-Manager]
- New! The Disconnect and Log Out dialogs now support dark mode and text scaling.
- New! The Performance section now displays the type for each disk.
- [Eingabemethoden-Editor (IME)] New! After installing this update, the IME toolbar will be hidden when apps are in full screen mode. This only occurs when the IME toolbar is active and you are typing Chinese or Japanese characters.
- [Datei-Explorer] New! You can share content to an Android device using the context menu in File Explorer and on the desktop. To use this feature, you need to install and configure Phone Link on your PC.
- [IFilters] New! Windows Search runs IFilter in Less Privileged App Containers (LPAC). LPACs are like app containers, but have more permissions by default. A process running in an LPAC only has access to the resources it needs. The process does not have access to sensitive system components and data. This reduces the potential damage that a compromised process can cause.
- [Seite „Dynamische Beleuchtungseinstellungen“]
- New! The page displays a wildcard message if there is no compatible device connected to your computer. Additionally, the brightness and effects controls are disabled.
- New! This update adds Forward, Backward, Outward, and Inward options to the ripple effect. The Gradient effect now has a Forward Direction option.
- [Narrator] New! We've added new features to Narrator's review mode. The Skip Inserted Links (N') option allows you to follow a link to the text. This is especially helpful when learning through long emails, news articles, and wiki pages. Use Jump to Lists (L') to quickly access a list on a web page or in a document. To try out these new features, you must first enable Narrator (Win Key + Ctrl + Enter), then enable Scan Mode by pressing Caps Lock + Spacebar, and finally use the new “N” and “L” keyboard shortcuts. Please note that scanning mode is enabled by default on most web pages (such as news articles, wiki pages, etc.).
- [Sprache in Windows] New! We've improved our speech recognition and text-to-speech experience on Windows. Users of Narrator, Narrator Access, Live Captions, Live Translation, and Narrator may see a message asking them to manually update their voice files. The language files are published separately via the Microsoft Store.
- [Einstellungen] New! Tailored Experiences is now personalized offerings in the Out-of-Box Experience (OOBE). You can find it on the Recommendations and Offers page. Go to Settings > Privacy & Security. Here you can disable the setting that sends data about your device to improve Windows.
About the author
Martin Geuss
I'm Martin Geuß, and as you can easily see, I feel at home in the Windows world. For more than 17 years, I've shared with the world what's on my mind about Windows and other Microsoft products, and sometimes it's even interesting. The most important motto of my work is: From me – for you!
