Windows 11 Insider update tests fixes for basic Start menu and taskbar functionalities

Windows 11 Logo
(Image credit: Microsoft)

Windows 11 has been out for nearly two months now and has had a bit of a varied launch. There were plenty of day one bugs, and Microsoft has been working to fix those, as well as all the new ones that are cropping up in the weeks since. Bugs, however, aren’t the only things making the Windows 11 launch a little rocky. 

Basic user interface oddness has added to Windows 11’s woes. Some are just aesthetic touches, like how the new task bar sits in the centre of the screen, which we can help you move back to the left if you like. There’s also the new right-click context menu, which aims to clean things up a bit. The context menu should get a bit more familiar with time, but we can help you bring that one back to the old ways too.

But Microsoft has proven that it is listening to customer feedback. A user suggestion for a volume scroll option on the official Windows Insider forums was implemented into Windows 11 just recently. Now, the Windows 11 taskbar is being looked at once more, but this time it’s back to fixing something that probably shouldn’t have been broken in the first place.

Window shopping

Windows 11 Square logo

(Image credit: Microsoft)

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In Windows 11, the date and time section currently only displays on the primary monitor, regardless of how many you’re using. The Verge reports there’s an update that’s being tested by Windows Insiders which brings the date and time back to secondary monitors. It’s one of those changes that folks seem to either not notice or be inevitably driven mad by. Regardless, you’d think it would be a built-in choice but users have been installing third party apps just to be able to check the time. 

Other features being toyed with by insiders include what looks like a continued phase out of the Control Panel in favour of a new Windows Settings menu, and a somewhat improved Start menu. Testers of the most recent build will find more Control Panel options have moved to settings, and are currently able to add more pins or recommendations to their Start menus. This little bit of customisation is pretty handy, but again perhaps should have been there at launch. 

For the general populous these changes may not be out for a while, or may not even make it to release at all. Though the ones I've highlighted here all seem like they probably should. It’s just another reason why, though we like Windows 11, we just don’t recommend upgrading yet

Hope Corrigan
Hardware Writer

Hope’s been writing about games for about a decade, starting out way back when on the Australian Nintendo fan site Vooks.net. Since then, she’s talked far too much about games and tech for publications such as Techlife, Byteside, IGN, and GameSpot. Of course there’s also here at PC Gamer, where she gets to indulge her inner hardware nerd with news and reviews. You can usually find Hope fawning over some art, tech, or likely a wonderful combination of them both and where relevant she’ll share them with you here. When she’s not writing about the amazing creations of others, she’s working on what she hopes will one day be her own. You can find her fictional chill out ambient far future sci-fi radio show/album/listening experience podcast right here.

No, she’s not kidding.