Windows 11 has just introduced a new feature in testing that brings a useful improvement to the taskbar, among a few other changes.
The main point of interest here is the work on the taskbar, which consists of an overflow feature present for Windows Insiders (testers) in the latest preview version 25163 (which just hit the Dev Channel).
What this does is bring up a button (with three dots) at the end of the taskbar icons (far right), and if you fill the taskbar with too many apps, any additional programs that are running (or pinned) can be accessed by clicking on these three dots. These excess apps will appear in a small bar just above the taskbar.
It’s a bit like the system tray, on the right side of the taskbar, which has that little up arrow icon that you can click to see the rest of the content.
This taskbar overflow menu allows all the same interactions with app icons as the taskbar itself, which means you can pin apps and so on. And it won’t be welcome either, disappearing when you select an app or click away from it.
Another change incorporated with build 25163 is a tweak to ‘Nearby Sharing’ (Microsoft’s take on AirDrop), allowing Windows 11 users to easily share files with other devices not only via Bluetooth, but now also with other PCs on the Internet. same network (thanks to UDP support).
The sharing window in the OS has also been improved to include OneDrive as an option, allowing you to share files directly to the cloud service (and grab them on whatever device you need from there).
Microsoft has also applied the expected series of bug fixes, and if you want to read the full list, check out the blog post about build 25163 (opens in new tab).
Analysis: Here’s another task for you Microsoft…
Taskbar overflow is a handy feature for anyone who likes to work with a ton of apps, and the design seems sensible to us. It will also be a boon for people who are short on screen real estate and may get into trouble more easily when juggling multiple apps.
While we’re on the subject of the taskbar, we might ask: Microsoft, could you bring back the option to not combine icons? Not everyone is worried about this, we realize, but not everyone wants different instances of the same apps stacked together either – and would it really be bad to offer the choice, as in Windows 10?
Anyway, our personal groans aside, back to the changes applied here – the sharing additions aren’t exactly big, but they’re worth it. And as for bug fixes, it’s nice to see that a little more work has been done in File Explorer to fix a memory leak when using tabs (and a crashing issue when dragging tabs as well).