Windows 11: Latest updates bring a wave of new features

[RV_]

Big news in this article about the new schedule for updates especially feature updates. And Windows 11 is coming together even more so.

Excerpt:

"Six months after it launched Windows 11, Microsoft is delivering an assortment of new features for its flagship operating system. But don't call this a feature update. Confused? I've got the details.

If you think you understand Microsoft's strategy for Windows feature updates, it's time for a reset. With Windows 10, Microsoft experimented with feature updates during the chaotic first year or two, even assigning marketing names to each big feature release: Anniversary Update, Creators Update, and so on. Eventually, they settled on a predictable schedule for feature updates, with major releases every six months, typically in March/April and September/October.

Those feature updates were designed to be delivered through Windows Update and are, for all intents and purposes, full Windows version upgrades.

Microsoft dialed back that schedule with the launch of Windows 11, committing to delivering these sometimes-disruptive feature updates only once each year, in the second half of the year. (That decision was also applied retroactively to Windows 10.)

Reasonable people might have assumed that the schedule change meant Microsoft was thereby committing to not delivering any new features outside of those annual end-of-year feature updates. LOL, as the kids like to say.

Windows boss Panos Panay rattled off a laundry list of "new experiences" (that's Microsoft-speak for features) at the end of February in a lengthy blog post.

Many of those changes will arrive this week as part of the March Patch Tuesday update. That's right on schedule for what would previously have been a semi-annual feature update. It also raises a bunch of questions, starting with the obvious one.

Is this a Windows feature update?

Well, no.

The new features rolling out in the March updates were previewed in the February 2022 non-security update (the 2022-02 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 for x64-based Systems [KB5010414]). Other new features will arrive as app updates from the Microsoft Store and through what Microsoft refers to as "servicing."

That might seem like enough to qualify as a feature update, but there's a crucial difference. This update checks in at a relatively lightweight 230MB on x64 systems. That's about one-tenth of the size of what a Windows 10 feature update used to clock in at.

The first official Windows 11 feature update is due in late 2022.

There's now a Weather icon at the far left side of the taskbar (where the Start button used to be), which shows the current temperature and a brief forecast.

What are these new Windows 11 features?

The new feature Microsoft has chosen to highlight is the Windows Subsystem for Android, which allows Windows 11 users to download and install a "curated" (that means small) selection of Android apps from the Amazon Appstore. This feature isn't installed automatically, and it doesn't require the latest Windows 11 cumulative updates -- more on that in a minute.

Another group of new features are focused on the Windows 11 taskbar. There's now a Weather icon at the far left side of the taskbar (where the Windows 10 Start button used to be), which shows the current temperature and a brief forecast. Clicking that icon opens the Widgets pane. If you don't want either one, you can hide the Weather icon by turning off the Widgets option in Taskbar Settings.

Windows 11 now displays a clock on the second display on multi-monitor setups. Some Windows watchers might argue that this is not a new feature but a bug fix, and it's hard to argue with that.

For audio calls using Microsoft Teams with a work or school account, the microphone button on the taskbar now allows you to mute and unmute your audio with a single click. Likewise, buttons at the bottom of every app window allow you to share that window (and only that window) with the current Teams call.

Two "redesigned" apps with very familiar names, Media Player and Notepad, are also available.

The Full article in the link below covers the below topics in bold:

What does the new Media Player app do?

What's in the new Notepad app?

What's the deal with Android on Windows 11?

Will Android apps from the Google Play Store work on Windows 11?

Did Microsoft bring Internet Explorer back?

Does any of this stuff work on Windows 10?

Are these surprise feature dumps going to be a regular thing?

The good news is that the big disruptive feature updates, which can take 30 minutes or more to install, will only arrive once a year. And with a 24-month support window for Windows Home and Pro editions, you can even move to an every-other-year schedule for PCs you manage.

But if you want a Windows version whose feature set is frozen and won't change from month to month, maybe you're best off sticking with Windows 10 for now."

The full article with much more is here:

https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-11-latest-updates-bring-a-wave-of-new-features/

 

Edited March 9, 2022 by RV_

[Chalkie]

Quote

The new feature Microsoft has chosen to highlight is the Windows Subsystem for Android, which allows Windows 11 users to download and install a "curated" (that means small) selection of Android apps from the Amazon Appstore. 

I find this interesting since the apps in the Amazon Appstore are already generally "curated" for Amazon devices.

[RV_]

Gary, Apps on Windows are not a big thing for me. You? That's why I do Surface Pro computers, they run all of regular Windows 10 and 11 programs. I also have Amazon Fire TV 4k sticks and the Fire latest 2021 HD 8 Plus tablet and an old Fire HDX b.3" tablet just for use as better readers for Kindle books and playing music in the Bathrooms with our two Bose Soundlink mini systems. We also have two Amazon Echo Show 5 2021 2nd Gen in the garage and Kitchen, and the old Echo dot in my office and Lynn's office. I also just bought a new 27 AIO as my old 2720 is now an eight year old system that is not Windows 11 Compatible so it is time to upgrade my hardware. I just ordered this today: https://www.ebay.com/itm/124958033451

I just sold Lynda's old Lenovo 21" AIO and we loved the touch screen display on it. And way back when in 2014 when we had 11.6" Windows tablets she had the  Lenovo and it had the best screen over my Dell 11.6" Pro tablet back then. She has a Dell AIO 27" i5 10the gen now and I am hoping I will love the Lenovo screen again. It has Windows 10 so I can migrate at my leisure. I called Lenovo and verified it is Windows 11 Compatible.

Gary are you running Windows 11 yet? What do you think? I am switching all me systems over eventually.

 

[docj]

On 3/8/2022 at 8:19 PM, RV_ said:

The new feature Microsoft has chosen to highlight is the Windows Subsystem for Android, which allows Windows 11 users to download and install a "curated" (that means small) selection of Android apps from the Amazon Appstore.

I run Bluestacks in order to run Android games on my pc's.  Would the ability to do this through Windows 11 have any advantages over Bluestacks?  Specifically, we play Wordscapes on my wife's Dell because it has a touch screen!

[RV_]

We don't play any games here since the 80s and Simon etc. Lynda was into Sudoku for a few years abut I have never been a computer or phone gamer Since Zaxxon on PC and the usual suspects on Commodore systems 64 and 128. I don't do any surfing on my phone and we both use our Surface devices and main AIO desktops for all our computing. We are dull as far as gaming goes. The only Android Apps I use are Squarehome to make the Android 10 phone launcher and home screen the tiles exactly like the last Windows Mobile 10 had, then the streaming Apps like Sling TV and Netflix among others and the Kindle reader app. I also have all those for Windows on all my computers.  I won't do Apple, tried their iPhones once, and don't do Android tablets and detest their file system. Linux is a pain with touchscreens and other issues although I did get a lot of entertainment out of the Rasperry Pi years ago and Linux Raspberry Debian for it. I love Windows and use Amazon's version of Android a lot as we have Fire tablets for readers and music in the bathrooms. File system still sucks on it as well as straight Android. I can still deal with Registry editing and Windows Powershell, cmd, etc on my PCs but rarely need to.

You are in the majority Joel, I also post Windows news that some others might be more interested in than me.

For those who don't know it here is a link to Bluestacks: https://www.bluestacks.com/

 

Edited March 12, 2022 by RV_