Here Are All of Windows 11’s New Features

Microsoft’s subsequent model of Windows is formally right here. 

Windows 11 might be out there this vacation season as a free replace for anybody who owns a more moderen Windows 10 PC. The revamped desktop working system contains the interface makeover that’s lengthy been rumored, higher sport options introduced over from Microsoft’s Xbox consoles, and a brand new app retailer that provides entry to Windows and Android apps.

Let’s dive in.

Welcome Home

Windows 11 has been radically modernized, with a contemporary coat of paint for the darkish and lightweight themes and rounded corners to prime off each window. Microsoft Chief Product Officer Panos Panay described the brand new home windows in a Thursday press occasion as wanting “like a sheet of glass.”

The Start Menu has been moved to the middle of the Taskbar. There’s a search bar embedded inside so you could find paperwork and apps, plus a advisable part to leap again to what you have been doing. The Start Menu additionally depends on “cloud power” to know what you have been engaged on and the place you final left off throughout units.

Windows 11 introduces new Snap Layouts, an improve to the Snap characteristic initially launched in Windows 7. Carmen Zlateff, partner director of the Windows user experience, confirmed off the brand new characteristic. When you hover over the standard spot to maximise the window, you may select from pre-determined window layouts to pin completely different apps and paperwork as you want. The choices will rely upon the general decision of your display screen, and Windows will maintain on to that structure for those who’re working between completely different desktops. In addition, desktops might be assigned their very own wallpapers and app shortcuts, so you may have a special profile for each type of scenario that you simply use your PC for (work, gaming, and so on.).

Widgets are additionally official on Windows 11. A button on the taskbar will reveal a widgets structure you can customise with feeds for the climate, calendar, and shares. You also can curate your personal information feeds, from native publications to extra well-known international shops.

Microsoft customers who depend on the two-in-one convertible units will see new modifications that may make it simpler to change between modes. Microsoft refined the best way the working system handles going from pc to pill mode. With the Surface pill, as an example, the pill UI will interact as quickly as you detach the keyboard. If you rotate the system, the remainder of the Windows 11 interface will observe swimsuit. There’s additionally a brand new contact keyboard that works and acts like those you’re used to in your iOS and Android cellular units, plus voice typing and new haptics for styluses so as to add extra tangible experiences throughout the board. For people who depend on a laptop computer linked to an exterior monitor for work however prefer to unhook for play, Windows will decrease the apps as a substitute of preserving the desktop.

Brand New Storefront

With the brand new interface modifications in Windows 11, Microsoft additionally redid its app retailer. All Windows apps might be simply discovered, together with Progressive Web Apps, Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps, and Win32 apps. Microsoft will enable app builders to decide on their commerce platform and in-app cost methods, permitting them to maintain 100% of income. (Ahem, Apple.)

Android apps from Amazon’s Appstore may even be built-in inside the OS. So you’ll be capable of entry apps like Ring, TikTok, and Kindle, with out the standard rigamarole required to do this type of emulation. An Amazon account might be required, however in any other case, it’ll feel and look like a Windows app—probably much like the scenario we’ve now with Google’s Chrome OS and Android apps from the Play Store.

Great for Games, Too

What would Windows be with out its gaming legacy? Windows 11 has new options to enhance your gaming expertise, carried over from the Xbox consoles. Windows 11 will allow Auto HDR to assist replace the lighting and shade profiles on video games to a excessive dynamic vary. From the demonstration that Microsoft confirmed off, Auto HDR could make seemingly ageless titles like Skyrim seem like contemporary experiences.

Windows 11 may even introduce Direct Storage. The API is designed to assist pace up sport loading instances and enhance the efficiency of video games by eliminating storage-related bottlenecks. It’s a characteristic that’s already in use on the Xbox Series S and X.

Lastly, Xbox Games Pass might be constructed proper into Windows 11. For a month-to-month subscription, you may entry the library of cloud-available video games proper out of your PC. There are cloud-saving talents, and Microsoft may even enable crossplay with different units.

Microsoft’s Messages

In what can solely be described as a response to Apple’s cross-device messaging platform (and a approach to one-up Google on what it hasn’t been capable of accomplish within the messaging realm), Microsoft spent a little bit time extolling the virtues of utilizing Teams to attach with pals, household, and colleagues. The demonstration confirmed Teams integration instantly in Windows, with one app to facilitate cross-platform textual content chat, voice calling, and video calling.

Windows 11 might be out there to everybody later this yr. Until then, Windows Insiders could have entry to a preview construct to organize for its arrival, and can be capable of test that out beginning subsequent week. Not each Windows PC will be capable of run Windows 11, although. You can try this tool to see in case your PC might be suitable with Windows 11. Otherwise, you might have to improve—for those who even wish to use Windows 11 in any respect.