Microsoft is rolling out a new preview build of Windows 11 to its Canary channel (its earliest testing outlet) and is doing some work on the potentially divisive Widgets panel.
This is build 26200, where only a few changes have been applied, two of which are related to widgets.
The main driver of innovation here is Microsoft’s new idea of allowing developers to send notifications from widgets to taskbar buttons. In other words, when something happens with a widget, it waves to you from the taskbar.
Of course, not everyone wants their taskbar widget buttons to behave this way. Fortunately, Microsoft includes an option to turn off this behavior.
Also note that this is a limited rollout to begin with, and in fact, most people won’t see these widget notifications yet. This feature is available only to users in the European Economic Area (EEA) during testing. Of course, depending on feedback, its rollout may become more widespread in the future.
Another related tweak in build 26200 is that Microsoft is changing the widget buttons to make the icons on the taskbar more obvious.
Elsewhere on the taskbar, another icon is changing. This time it’s the energy saver icon located in the system tray (far right). A few months ago, this changed in testing to look different on a desktop PC connected to a power socket, but now Microsoft has decided to revert to the old look (leaf icon).
Finally, Microsoft notes that this preview build, and other development and beta channels, also have a strange known issue where Copilot starts automatically after restarting the PC.
The software giant explains that this has nothing to do with the autostart behavior at boot time that was previously tested in preview builds, and that rollout has apparently been halted since March (although another I heard that it has reopened in some locations).
So this is another bug, and Microsoft says it expects a fix to be implemented soon. Meanwhile, Copilot’s increased profile is, to no one’s surprise, something the company is definitely pushing forward with.
Analysis: Not everyone likes a more active taskbar
Are widget notifications a nuisance? Sure, you can think of them that way, but as I said, as long as you’re given the option to turn them off, it’s not that big of a deal. If you want it, you can get it, but if you don’t, just hit the off switch. fair enough.
Many people don’t want to have a widget effectively wave to them from the taskbar every time something new pops up with a widget in the panel. However, this taskbar-based waving seems to be a direction Microsoft is considering more deeply. We also recently saw an idea where the Copilot button could run an animation along with its icon to draw attention to the fact that AI can help with the work you’re doing on your desktop.
This only pertains to copying text or image files, which is currently being tested, but in this case there is no way to turn it off.
All of this could possibly indicate that the taskbar will become more lively and animated in the future. Again, this is not something everyone will appreciate.
If this is the path the taskbar takes heading into the next generation of Windows (which could be Windows 12), then hopefully Microsoft will also give Windows users enough granular control over the bar’s highlighting features and animations. . Dialed back properly.
