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After about a bazillion user requests, Windows finally lets you move the audio volume pop-up

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...oh, and Microsoft is still plugging away at Recall.

Windows 11
(Image credit: Microsoft)

Rejoice, for Microsoft has repented. At last, you can move the audio volume pop-up in Windows. At least, you can in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.4452, released yesterday.

Actually, you can now configure all of the hardware indicators, including brightness, volume, airplane mode, and virtual desktops, choosing between the existing default, which is bottom centre, top left and top centre.

In other words, we're talking about the overlays that pop up when you hit the volume or brightness keys on your keyboard. Until now, they popped up bottom centre with no options to alter that. Now you can choose from three locations.

OK, this is not exactly revolutionary. But as Microsoft itself says, this is a "highly requested setting," and, generally, added configurability is always welcome.

Of course, these kinds of beta builds of Windows typically come with a raft of tweaks and optimisations, and Insider Preview Build 26120.4452 is no different. Among other highlights, Microsoft continues to plug away at the controversial and sometimes problematic Recall feature.

Windows Recall now has a home page. (Image credit: Microsoft)

For the new build, Microsoft is "making it easier and faster for you to find and reconnect with the apps and websites that matter to you by introducing a new personalized homepage to Recall. The new homepage brings your recent activity and top-used content front and center, enabling you to easily get back to your previous tasks."

Once you opt in, the homepage will display your most recent snapshots captured by Recall, plus a "curated view" of the top three applications and websites you have spent the most time on in the past 24 hours. As before, you can manually configure exactly which apps are captured by recall. That means you can make sure really sensitive apps, like banking, for instance, are excluded.

Elsewhere, other fixes include an issue that was causing the Windows Vista boot sound to play on start up instead of the correct Windows 11 sound, and some niggles with File Exporer.

You can find out more at the Windows Insider Blog page for the new build.

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Jeremy Laird
Jeremy Laird
Hardware writer

Jeremy has been writing about technology and PCs since the 90nm Netburst era (Google it!) and enjoys nothing more than a serious dissertation on the finer points of monitor input lag and overshoot followed by a forensic examination of advanced lithography. Or maybe he just likes machines that go “ping!” He also has a thing for tennis and cars.

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