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Windows 11 taskbar is getting fixed (but not in a hurry)

December 28, 2021
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Windows 11 is receiving further attention in terms of ironing out bugs with the taskbar, and there’s been some fresh buzz from the grapevine suggesting that a major change to drag and drop functionality won’t appear until late in 2022.

Windows Latest pointed out that the major development in the works requested by many – the ability to drag and drop apps onto the taskbar, to swiftly and easily create shortcuts to the most commonly used programs – is still underway as previously rumored, with Microsoft testing the feature internally.

The word from sources at Microsoft is that this capability will come to preview builds in a few months, but won’t arrive in the release version of Windows 11 until later in 2022 – it’ll come as part of the 22H2 update.

This aside, Microsoft is also busy on minor fixes for the taskbar, and that includes resolving an issue whereby the battery icon tooltip sometimes mistakenly shows a charge level above 100%. This fix has been applied with the latest preview build 22523 (which emerged a couple of weeks back), and so it should be delivered in a cumulative update soon enough.

Other taskbar bug squashing in that preview build includes fixing an issue where app icons could overlap with the date and time display on secondary monitors, and the solution for a gremlin with ARM64-powered PCs which caused the taskbar’s core UI (search box, Start menu) to become unresponsive.

Analysis: Microsoft dragging (and dropping) its heels – but better late than never

The Windows 11 taskbar has drawn a lot of criticism for some of the changes made by Microsoft in terms of options for tweaking this part of the UI, and in particular losing the drag and drop functionality which is a simple and core part of the Windows experience, let’s face it.

As to the timeframe of the potential return of this feature – and remember, this is just rumored, and only the plans apparently underway at Microsoft currently (which could presumably change) – it’s a little disappointing that we may not get drag and drop back until much later in 2022, in theory.

That said, remember that there isn’t a 22H1 update, as Windows 11 has dropped to a once-per-year cadence for delivering major upgrades, but it’s a long wait until what could be September or October 2022 (or possibly even later) for this feature to make its much-requested return.

We had hoped that maybe Microsoft could squeeze this move in with some kind of a feature pack update beforehand – or online service pack as the company has renamed these with Windows 11 – but it seems not, and drag and drop will only be in testing when it comes to the near-term future.

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December 14, 2021
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Protecting your Microsoft Teams calls and messages will soon be easier than ever thanks to a new update coming to the service.

After months of planning, Microsoft has revealed that end-to-end encryption (E2EE) is finally set to launch for its video conferencing software soon.

This should make it harder for outside forces such as hackers or fraudsters to gain access to Microsoft Teams and the chats within, hopefully keeping private or valuable information being discussed safe.

Teams security

According to an entry in the Microsoft 365 roadmap, full E2EE will be coming to Teams calling by March 2022.

“End-to-end encryption is the encryption of information at its origin and decryption at its intended destination without the ability for intermediate nodes to decrypt,” the company noted.

“End-to-end encryption would be an optional mode of real-time media collaboration where one-to-one Teams calls between two parties would be end-to-end encrypted.”

The update is classified as general availability, meaning it should be on offer to all Microsoft Teams users across desktop and mobile – including both Android and iOS.

Microsoft revealed back in October 2021 that it was trialling E2EE in Teams as it looks to boost security for its video call platform.

Rival Zoom was forced to up its security protections after several high-profile “Zoom-bombing” incidents saw outside parties able to gatecrash what should have been private calls.

The update will mean that Teams users will soon see an encryption indicator in the upper left corner of the software which shows that their calls are encrypted. Microsoft Teams will also display a security code for the call which both parties can verify on their respective ends.

However it seems that some Microsoft Teams features, recording, live caption and transcription, Call park, Call Merge, Call Companion, Call transfer and the ability to add a participant to make a one-to-one call a group call won't be available when E2EE is enabled.

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December 9, 2021
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Windows 11 has a new preview build which reintroduces the weather widget to the taskbar, plus it adds new voice features on the accessibility front.

Windows 10 users are familiar with the ‘News and interests’ widget, which shows the local weather (and temperature) on the taskbar, and by default when hovered over, highlights a full weather report, breaking news, sports and other miscellany which can be customized (or you can turn it off).

This was ditched from the taskbar with Windows 11, but now with the latest preview build 22518, Microsoft has brought back a weather widget, which is billed as a new ‘entry point’ for widgets on the taskbar.

It sits on the far-left of the default taskbar, and displays the weather just as with ‘News and interests’, and when hovered over pops up the widgets board, complete with whatever widgets you’ve loaded up, plus the headline news panel underneath.

This replaces the old (default) scheme of things with Windows 11, whereby the widget board had a normal-sized icon grouped with the Start button in the middle of the taskbar. Shifting it to the left to sit on its own, and giving it a full weather display, makes it far more prominent as was the case with Windows 10.

Other changes brought in with build 22518 include voice access, a feature that allows for control of core elements of Windows 11 using just your voice. So you can give voice commands to open/close or switch apps, to search via your web browser, plus they can be used to interact with buttons or menus, or to control the mouse, or dictate text.

There’s a lot of functionality here, and Microsoft has provided a full list of voice controls you can peruse. Note that this is only available to testers with Windows display language set to English-US.

Finally, Microsoft has brought the Spotlight collection to the desktop, so those enticing pics you get on the Lock Screen can appear as your background, and these will be switched for other “beautiful new desktop pictures from around the world” every day.

Analysis: Unnecessary clutter returns… But voice features are great

The ‘News and interests’ widget proved pretty controversial on Windows 10, and not popular with some folks, so there will likely be a number of Windows 11 testers grimacing to see its effective return to the taskbar. While it’s tucked away on the left, it’s quite a large presence on the taskbar, and sometimes an annoying one when you accidentally brush the mouse over it, and the panel pops up briefly.

Of course, it’s still only in testing, and might not make the cut for release based on feedback – we shall have to see. And you can still hide the widgets icon if you prefer, so there are options to deal with it, as ever. (It reverts back to a small icon if you’re using a left-aligned taskbar, sitting next to the Task view icon, by the way, as it would obviously be way too jarring for it to displace the Start button in that layout).

While the weather widget may remain divisive, implementing a whole new level of voice control with Windows 11 is great to see. Many of the controls here, incidentally, appear to have been brought over from Nuance’s Dragon speech recognition package; if you recall, Microsoft bought Nuance back in April 2021. This looks like the start of Microsoft really ramping up voice controls with Windows 11.

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December 8, 2021
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Microsoft is giving its iconic text editor a visual redesign for Windows 11 along with new features to help programmers and others who rely on Notepad in their day-to-day workflows be more productive.

According to a new blog post, the redesigned Notepad for Windows 11 is now rolling out to all Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel and the software giant is encouraging users to submit any suggestions on what can be improved further to its recently launched feedback portal.

Right off the bat, Notepad users will notice that the application now has a completely updated UI that aligns with Windows 11's new visual design including rounded corners, Mica and more. However, one of the most requested new features in Notepad is dark mode.

By default, Notepad will adapt to your system theme preferences in Windows 11 but you can change this option in the software's brand-new settings page which is also the new home for font options.

Find and replace and multi-level undo

The current version of Notepad which ships with Windows 11 houses the text search tool and the find and replace tool in two separate pop-up windows that can be accessed using two different keyboard shortcuts. Thankfully though with its new Notepad redesign, Microsoft is combining these two tools into one floating bar that is much more streamlined and should help improve users' productivity.

Another big change in the next version of Notepad will replace the software's old undo system that only allows users to go back once with multi-step undo. Just like with other modern applications, users will now be able to undo multiple actions which will give them a bit more flexibility when writing.

Despite all of these new features, Word Wrap is still turned off by default in Notepad but it can now be accessed more easily right from the View menu.

As Microsoft's redesigned Notepad app is currently being tested by Windows Insiders, it will likely roll out to other Windows 11 users in an update sometime next year.

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Via The Verge

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December 2, 2021
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Microsoft is adding a video editor to its mobile app for Office that will allow users to create more than just documents using its office software.

According to a new post in the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, a simple video editor will begin rolling out to the Office mobile app for Android beginning this month.

Microsoft's new video editor in Office will enable users to create short video clips and of course edit them before sharing them with the people in their network.

While there are already plenty of video editing apps for Android such as KineMaster and PowerDirector, the company's new update for Office will make it possible for its customers to create short video clips using an app they already have installed on their Android smartphones without the need to download additional software.

Stock Images — (Image credit: Microsoft)

Premium creative content

If you're looking to add a bit of visual flair to your projects in Excel, Word, Outlook and PowerPoint, last year Microsoft announced the addition of premium creative content to Office. With this feature, Microsoft 365 uses can easily add high quality, curated images, stickers and icons to both their personal and professional flies.

To get started, simply select Insert, scroll down to Pictures and click on the Stock Images option. From here, you'll be able to pick from a wide variety of content in addition to stock images including Cutout People, Icons and Stickers.

Microsoft also recently added Cartoon People in Office to allow users to create artwork and tell stories using a diverse set of characters and scenery. Cartoon People can be found in the premium content library under Icons and they can easily add a bit more to your documents and presentations.

While Microsoft Office is nowhere close to Adobe's Creative Cloud, the addition of a video editor and premium creative content in the software giant's office software makes it possible for users to channel their inner visual creativity in a place where they wouldn't normally expect to be able to do so.

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November 7, 2021
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Working together with others outside your organization in Microsoft Teams will soon be possible thanks to a new update to Microsoft's online collaboration tool.

Workgroups often extend beyond one's organization with employees connecting with multiple external stakeholders including customers, vendors and partners. However, up until now, users had to rely on different software or even personal apps to collaborate with them.

Not only does this require employees to use multiple apps which takes longer and can reduce their productivity, it also creates security risks for both workers and their companies.

For this reason, Microsoft is currently working on two updates that leverage Microsoft Teams Connect and the secure access capabilities of Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) to make cross-organizational collaboration easier for businesses.

Cross-organizational collaboration

The first update involves shared channels which allow individuals and teams across multiple organizations to work together in Microsoft Teams. When this feature becomes available in preview early next year, shared channels will appear within each Member's Teams tenant alongside other teams and channels.

Users will also be able to schedule a shared channel meeting, use other Microsoft apps like Office and share each channel with up to 50 teams and as many organizations as they need. Meanwhile, admins can use cross-tenant access settings in Azure AD to configure granular and differentiated trust relationships for external collaboration with different organizations.

Microsoft is also working on another update scheduled to rollout by the end of this year that will enable Teams users to chat with others outside their network including those using Teams personal accounts. They'll be able to invite any Teams user to chat using an email address or phone number while remaining within the security and compliance policies of their organization.

Cross-organizational collaboration is the Teams update many users have been waiting for as it will allow Microsoft's collaboration tool and video conferencing software to become a one-stop-shop for all of their business dealings both internally and externally.

Looking to improve your Microsoft Teams experience? Check out our roundups of the best business webcams, best headsets for conference calls and best video conferencing software

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