Two months in, Windows 11 is still a work in progress

Once we reviewed Home windows 11 practically two months in the past, it was apparent that some areas of the operating system were still under construction. Lots of the built-in apps had been nonetheless in want of updates, and a handful of options that had been promised again at Home windows 11’s unveiling in June had been nonetheless both in preview or lacking fully.

Home windows 11 now has two months of updates underneath its belt. Lots of these have targeted on fixing the OS’s early issues, however others have slowly added options to convey it nearer to what Microsoft initially introduced. We have coated lots of these updates as they have been launched. However if you happen to’re nonetheless on the fence about upgrading and you have not been following carefully, we have put collectively a fast checklist of bug fixes and options which have come out since Home windows 11 was launched, issues Microsoft has been testing since early October, and some issues that we nonetheless have not seen.

Accessible to the general public

The preliminary launch of Home windows 11 was construct quantity 22000.194 (you possibly can see this quantity by working “winver” from the Run field or the Begin menu’s search bar). As of the November 2021 replace, construct quantity 22000.348, the next issues have been added, tweaked, or mounted:

• Ryzen efficiency points: Each Microsoft and AMD have launched software program fixes for issues that affected newer AMD Ryzen processors, significantly these with greater core counts. Independent testing verifies that the patches largely convey Home windows 11’s Ryzen efficiency according to Home windows 10’s, although there should still be some room for enchancment.
• Many, many different bug fixes: It might take too lengthy to enumerate the complete checklist of bugs that Microsoft has mounted within the first few Home windows 11 updates (although Microsoft has complete lists here and here), however patches have addressed all the things from taskbar rendering issues to virtualization points to printing bugs, in addition to fairly just a few crashes. There’s at all times extra to repair with any software program as massive and sophisticated as Home windows, however rolling the working system out to a wider swath of the general public has given Microsoft loads of knowledge to make use of for fixing bugs.
• Beauty stuff: Is it a giant deal that newer Home windows 11 updates have put the “blue” back in “blue screen of death” or that they’ve added Microsoft’s bright, bubbly new emoji designs? Probably not. However altering small stuff like this weeks or months after the official public launch of a brand new working system actually reinforces the notion that Home windows 11 was a aircraft that took off whereas it was nonetheless being constructed.

Presently testing

These apps and options can be found to check in some type, often via the Home windows Insider Program’s Beta or Dev channels, however they have not been launched to most of the people simply but.

• Android apps: The Windows Subsystem for Android will convey Amazon-backed Android apps to Home windows 11 programs, supplied they’ve the correct virtualization options enabled and meet an much more stringent set of {hardware} necessities than Home windows 11 itself. The preview, obtainable to Home windows Insider Beta channel customers, solely formally helps a small subset of Android apps, however individuals are already arduous at work sideloading other apps from Amazon’s and Google’s shops.
• A brand new Media Participant: The present Groove Music app is slated to get replaced with a new Media Player app, merely known as “Media Participant” as an alternative of “Home windows Media Participant.” The brand new app will deal with video information along with music when it is launched, however that will not be for some time—this app is just obtainable to Dev channel Home windows Insiders and never the more-stable Beta or Launch Preview channels. Customers of the legacy Home windows 7-era Media Participant app will nonetheless be capable of entry it even as soon as the brand new app is put in, at the very least for now.
• A extra nimble Home windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL): Home windows 11 nonetheless ships with its personal model of WSL, which provides fairly just a few options in comparison with the Home windows 10 model. However Home windows 11 customers also can entry a version of it in the Microsoft Store, the place the corporate guarantees sooner updates that do not require upgrading to a brand new model of Home windows. Whereas at the moment a “preview,” Microsoft says that it will definitely intends for the Retailer model of WSL to be the first model.
• Microphone standing and muting: Like Android apps, it is a function that Microsoft confirmed off in June however did not find yourself delivery within the preliminary model. Everytime you’re on a name, a microphone icon will seem in your taskbar, and you’ll see which app is utilizing your microphone and mute and unmute your self straight from that icon with no need to make use of the app itself. That is at the moment only available for Microsoft Teams calls in Dev builds of Windows 11, however Microsoft says that different apps will be capable of add help for the function if they need.
• A tweaked Your Cellphone app: A “coming quickly” toggle within the Your Cellphone app reveals off a tweaked UI that we first glimpsed back in September. The replace would not actually change the performance of the app, nevertheless it provides a nifty persistent column for notifications. Sadly, the app would not embody many practical upgrades—like some sort of iPhone help or the flexibility to open apps or mirror your telephone’s display on a greater variety of non-Samsung, non-Microsoft Android telephones.