Next month, Windows 11 users running on the latest version may see feature updates coming to several apps in the system. These include the mute/unmute option in the Taskbar, Android apps support, redesigned apps of Media Player and Notepad apps.
Windows 11 Experience Packs
Microsoft moving away from the general big Windows Update is a good thing, as making users wait for a long time for new features isn’t bearable. So instead, the company has chosen to launch Experience Packs, which will be rolled out regularly through Microsoft Store, just like individual software updates. These may carry important upgrades to apps that had to wait for months to experience through Windows Update. Microsoft is gearing up to launch its first Experience Pack set in February, including updates to Media Player, Notepad, and others. While it’s a simple redesign for Notepad and Media Player, a major feature we may notice is the support for mute and unmute of voice through Taskbar. This has been tested in the Dev channel earlier and now coming to the broader public. Hoping to eliminate the need for switching between video conferencing apps for mute/unmute, this support is currently available only to Microsoft Teams and will come to others gradually. Next up is the support for running Android apps in Windows 11. With an update to the latest Windows OS, bumping the Build to v22000, we shall a wider rollout of Android apps support in Win11. Using the Windows Subsystem for Linux and Windows Subsystem for Android, Microsoft will run all Android apps natively in Windows 11. So far, these apps have been smooth and been running as the apps from Windows Store or Win32 ones. These can be pinned to the Taskbar and receive notifications from Action Centre. Moreover, there’s the ability to seamlessly copy-paste data from Android apps to Windows apps.
