Microsoft is finally ready to begin shipping its new Start menu for Windows 11 that was first announced earlier this year. As of this week, Microsoft is now testing the next major feature drop for Windows 11, and in it is the new Start menu along with Taskbar and File Explorer updates, and general quality of life improvements.
The next feature drop is now in testing with the Windows Insider Release Preview Channel, which is the last stop before a feature drop becomes generally available. That means these new features are expected to begin rolling out to production PCs imminently, possibly as soon as next month if all goes to plan.
The new Start menu is more customizable too, letting you switch the apps list between the new category view and classic alphabetical list view, as well as letting you disable the Recommended feed and pinning more apps instead. Or, you can outright remove both the Recommended and Pinned areas, and just have your apps list.
It also includes an updated Phone Link panel, which exists next to the Start menu and gives you quick access to your smartphone. You can see recent photos and notifications, and jump into replying to texts or viewing your phone screen right from the Start menu. It’s an overall major upgrade compared to the old Start menu.
Alongside the new Start menu, Microsoft is also preparing to roll out improvements to the Taskbar and File Explorer. The Taskbar is set to gain an updated battery icon that’s larger, turns yellow when battery is low, and lets you show your battery percentage on the Taskbar.
The Taskbar is also gaining more animations, which will be most notable when you hover over open apps on the Taskbar. Now, their app previews will display with a pretty animation that makes Windows 11 feel a little more complete. This is something previous versions of Windows had, and it’s finally been restored on Windows 11.
File Explorer is gaining new features too, including a new Recommended feed that shows recently opened or downloaded files, and activity from shared files. You’ll also see options to ask Copilot about files as you hover over them in this new feed area.
You can check out the full changelog for this next feature drop below, and if you want to install it today, you can enroll into the Windows Insider Release Preview Channel to get it now. Otherwise, the wait should only be a few more weeks at most. There’s a lot of goodies here, so be sure to read everything!
New features and fixes
- [Start menu] New! The redesigned Start menu, built to help you access your apps more quickly and smoothly. Its redesigned layout makes it easier than ever to find what you need.
- Scrollable ‘All’ section: The main page now includes a scrollable “All” section, making it easier to find apps.
- Category and grid views: Switch between two new views—category view, which groups apps by type and highlights frequently used ones, and grid view, which lists apps alphabetically with more horizontal space for easier scanning. The menu remembers your last selected view.
- Responsive layout: The Start menu adapts to your screen size. Larger displays show more pinned apps, recommendations, and categories by default. Sections like Pinned and Recommended expand or collapse based on content. You can customize these views under Settings > Personalization > Start.
- Phone Link integration: A new mobile device button next to Search lets you expand or collapse content from your connected phone. This feature supports Android and iOS devices in most markets and will roll out to the European Economic Area (EEA) in 2025.
- [Voice access]
- New! Fluid Dictation in voice access makes voice-based dictation smoother and smarter. It helps correct grammar, punctuation, and filler words in real time. Powered by on-device small language models (SLMs), it offers fast and private processing. Fluid Dictation is on by default—just open the voice access app to start. To turn it on or off, go to Settings or say Turn on Fluid Dictation or Turn off Fluid Dictation. You can use it in most text input apps, but it’s disabled in secure fields like passwords or PINs Fluid Dictation is available in all English locales on Copilot+ PCs.
- New! You can now configure a delay before a voice command is executed. To set this up, go to Voice access settings > Wait time before acting, and select the option that best matches your preferences.
- New! Voice Access now supports Japanese, expanding accessibility for more users. You can now navigate, dictate, and interact with Windows using voice commands. With this update, Windows users who speak Japanese can enjoy a hands-free, voice-powered PC experience.
- Fixed: Voice access unexpectedly stops working, showing error code 9001.
- [Agent in Settings] New! The new agent in the Settings experience now supports French.
- [Settings] New! The “Email & accounts” section is now called “Your accounts.” You manage all your accounts under Settings > Accounts.
- [Click to Do]
- New! The prompt box in Click to Do streamlines interaction with Copilot, helping you work more efficiently. You can type a custom prompt directly into the text box, which sends your prompt and selected on-screen content to Copilot. Suggested prompts appear below the text box and are powered locally by https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/ai/apis/phi-silica. These suggestions are available for text selections in English, Spanish, and French. This feature isn’t currently available in the European Economic Area (EEA) or China.
- New! You can now translate on-screen text with Microsoft Copilot with Click to Do. When you select text that is in a different language from your Windows display language or preferred language setting, a translation suggestion appears. After selecting the option to translate the text, the translated text will appear in the Copilot app. You can see the supported regions and languages in Microsoft Copilot. This experience is not yet available for customers in the EEA (European Economic Area) or China.
- New! Click to Do provides unit conversions for length, area, volume, height, temperature, and speed. When you hover over a number + unit, a floating tooltip will show you the conversation. When you select the number + unit, the context menu opens with additional conversation options. You can also access more conversions via the Copilot app. This experience is not yet available for customers in the EEA (European Economic Area) or China.
- New! By pressing and holding two fingers anywhere on your Copilot+ PC with a touch screen, you can simultaneously launch Click to Do, select the entity under your finger and see relevant actions.
- New! You can now select objects in Click to Do using Freeform Selection, Rectangle Selection and Ctrl + Click. To use Freeform Selection Mode, select the Freeform button on the toolbar. Then use your pen or finger to draw freely around the items you want to select. To use the Rectangle Selection Mode, select the Rectangle Selection button on the toolbar. Then drag a box around the items. Everything inside the rectangle will be selected. You can also use Ctrl + Click to select multiple types of items—such as text and images—by holding down the Ctrl key and selecting each item.
- New! Click to Do can now detect tables. You can now highlight any simple table and send it to Excel, copy or share it. With a table in any application, you can press Win + Click to invoke Click to Do, or Win + Q or right swipe and tap to select the table. Once selected, you’ll see the actions you can take like Convert to table with Excel. Just click, capture and continue. This is available on Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs, with support for AMD and Intel-powered Copilot+ PCs coming soon. You’ll need the latest Microsoft Excel application installed on your PC to see Convert to table with Excel and a Microsoft 365 Subscription. This change is not yet rolling out to Windows Insiders in the EEA (European Economic Area).
- New! Live Persona Cards from Microsoft 365 now appears in Click to Do. To view a profile card, press Win + Click on an email address from your organization.
- New! Visual cues now make key items, such as emails, tables, and more, light up on your screen as you launch Click to Do.
- Fixed: Click to Do may unexpectedly invoke sometimes when pressing Windows key + P.
- [File Explorer]
- New! Recommended files in File Explorer Home are now available in personal Microsoft accounts and local accounts. Recommended files show content such as files you frequently used, have recently downloaded, or added to your File Explorer Gallery. This change is not yet rolling out in the EEA (European Economic Area). If you would prefer not to see the recommended section in File Explorer Home, this can be turned off in File Explorer Folder Options. When turned off, folders pinned to Quick Access will display instead.
- New! When you hover over a file in File Explorer Home, commands such as Open file location or Ask Copilot This experience is available if you’re signed in with a Microsoft account. Support for work and school account (Entra ID) will be available in a future update. This change is not available in the EEA (European Economic Area).
- New! StorageProvider APIs are now available for cloud providers to integrate with File Explorer Home. Developers can learn to enable the system to query for suggested files.
- Fixed: The File Explorer context menu may unexpectedly switch back and forth between the normal view and Show More Options on each right click.
- Fixed: When opening a folder from another app (for example, opening the Downloads folder from a browser), your custom view — including sorting files by name, changing the icon size, or removing grouping — unexpectedly resets back to default.
- Fixed: The body of the File explorer window may no longer respond to mouse clicks after invoking the context menu.
- Fixed: Extracting very large archive folders (1.5gb+) may fail with a Catastrophic Error (0x8000FFFF).
- Fixed: File Explorer may become unresponsive when opening Home.
- [Taskbar]
- New! The battery icons are now improved to display colored icons to indicate charging states, simplified overlays that don’t block the percentage bars, and an option to turn on battery percentage. A green battery icon shows that your PC is charging and is in a good state. A yellow icon indicates your battery is less than or equal to 20%. You can also enable the ability to see the battery percentage next to the battery icon in the system tray. To turn on this feature, go to Settings > Power & battery and toggle on the “Battery Percentage”
- New! When you hover over an open app icon on the taskbar, a thumbnail preview of the app window appears with a new “Share with Copilot” button beneath this preview. Selecting it allows Copilot Vision to scan, analyze, and offer insights on the content displayed by the app at that time. This option can be turned off if preferred under Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors, using the checkbox “Share any window from my taskbar”.
- Fixed: If you hover over an app icon on the taskbar, and then click the window preview, the preview may dismiss and not bring the window to the foreground.
- [Lock screen] New! The new battery icons, featuring color indicators and battery percentage, now appear in the lower-right corner of the lock screen.
- [Microsoft 365 Copilot] New! A new Microsoft 365 Copilot page is added to the Get Started experience for commercial devices managed with an active Microsoft 365 subscription. This page helps you discover and engage with Microsoft 365 Copilot more easily.
- [Windows Setup Experience] New! You can now name your default user folder during set up. On the Microsoft account sign in page, press Shift + F10 to open Command Prompt. Type the following command: “cd oobe”, press Enter. Then type ““SetDefaultUserFolder.cmd ”. Enter a folder name of your choice and proceed with the MSA sign-in. The folder name cannot be more than 16 characters and only Unicode characters are supported. The custom folder name will be applied if valid. If not, Windows will automatically generate a profile folder name from your Microsoft email address.
- [Logging into your PC] Improved: Made underlying changes to help improve the performance of loading the taskbar when unlocking your PC after coming out of sleep. This should also help with cases where the password field and other login screen contents didn’t render when transitioning from lock screen to login screen after sleep.
- [Windows Update]
- Improved: Addressed underlying issue which can cause “Update and shutdown” to not actually shut down your PC after updating.
- Improved: Addressed underlying issue which can cause Windows Update to fail to install with error 0x800f0983.
- [Remote Credential Guard] Fixed: Remote Credential Guard scenarios between the latest Windows 11 builds and Server 2022 (and below) may unexpectedly fail.
- [Display and Graphics]
- Fixed: Apps and browsers may have partially stuck onscreen content when other maximized / full screen apps are updating in the background. This is noticeable particularly when trying to scroll the window content, as only some parts update.
- Fixed: After recent updates, some videos and games may be unexpectedly red.
- Fixed: If Connected Devices Platform Service has been disabled, Settings may crash when trying to open Settings > System > Display (including if launched using the menu when right clicking the desktop.
- [Input] Fixed: An issue related to microsoft.ink.dll and relevant APIs can result in pen and handwriting not working correctly in apps or app crashes recently due to unexpected exceptions being thrown.
- [Open and Save Dialog] Fixed: Certain apps may become unresponsive when launching the Open or Save Dialog.
- [Administrator Protection Preview] Administrator protection aims to protect free floating admin rights for administrator users allowing them to still perform all admin functions with just in time admin privileges. This feature is off by default and needs to be enabled via OMA-URI in Intune or via group policy.
All of these new features are expected to roll out to both Windows 11 version 24H2 and Windows 11 version 25H2 once they reach general availability. We’ll keep you posted as to when that happens. In the meantime, what new features are you most looking forward to? Let us know in the comments.
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