Windows 11 is getting these new features in March 2023

Martin Brinkmann
Feb 23, 2023
Updated • Feb 23, 2023
Windows 11 News
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Microsoft plans to launch the second feature drop update for Windows 11 version 22H2 next month. Feature drops, also called Moments updates, are smaller updates that introduce new features and other improvements regularly in the operating system.

The update has been pushed to the Release Preview channel of the Windows 11 operating system already, and this marks the last step before it is released to the stable Windows 11 population.

Ashwin reviewed the new search and taskbar experience yesterday, but these two improvements are just two of the new features of the update. This article provides you with an overview of the new features that will become available in March 2023 for all Windows 11 version 22H2 users.

Microsoft plans to release a third feature drop update for Windows 11 and is testing some of its functions in development builds currently.

Features of the second Windows 11 Moments update

  • Windows Studio Effects is now accessible directly from the Quick Settings menu on the taskbar, provided that the device supports a neural processing unit (NPU)
  • The Search icon is restored, even on devices on which it has been disabled. Users who do not want it need to remove it again in the Taskbar preferences.
  • Quick Assist is now accessible via Settings > System > Troubleshooters and the All Apps Start Menu listing.
  • Energy Recommendations are now found under Settings > System > Power & Battery > Energy Recommendations.
  • Some visual changes to system tray icons.
  • New touch-optimized taskbar support for 2-in-1 devices. It features two modes: collapsed and expanded. Collapsed shrinks the taskbar's size to make room for apps. Expanded is the regular mode, that is also enabled automatically when a regular keyboard is disconnected. Both modes can be set via Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar beaviors.
  • Braille support improvements. Support for new braille displays is now available, and there are new braille input and output languages in Narrator.
  • Voice access is more flexible and supports interactions with additional user interface controls, according to Microsoft. Voice access support is now also available for spin controls, thumb controls and split buttons.
  • Voice scrolling enhancements, e.g., to scroll to the extreme left or right of a page.
  • AI-powered recommended content is now displayed in the Start Menu for devices that joined Azure Active Directory. Content includes information on meetings, files that a user collaborated on and more.
  • Tamil Anjal keyboard support.

Some features of the Moments 2 update are not mentioned by Microsoft in the update notes. General consensus is that the majority will make it into the stable feature drop.

Twitter user PhantomOcean3 published a video recently that demonstrates the new features of the Moments 2 update. You can play it below, or watch it on YouTube instead.

The main features that Microsoft did not mention in the release notes are the following ones:

  • Option to display seconds in the taskbar clock.
  • Improved File Explorer search.
  • Widgets improvements, including the ability to use them without Microsoft account and full screen support.
  • Improved account settings with cloud storage information.
  • Snipping Tool screen recording capabilities.
  • Notepad with tabs.

There is a chance that some of these features won't make it into this update. Last minute bugs or fine-tuning may move certain features to the next Moments update instead.

Now You: Do you find any of these features interesting?

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Windows 11 is getting these new features in March 2023
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Microsoft plans to release new features and improvements for Windows 11 in March. Here is an overview of what you can expect.
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Ghacks Technology News
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Comments

  1. Bing Crosby said on March 2, 2023 at 12:24 am
    Reply

    New update sucks. Caused way more problems than it solved. No thanks Microsoft

  2. chesscanoe said on February 28, 2023 at 10:19 pm
    Reply

    I updated to Windows 11 Home x64 version 22H2 Build 22621.1344 KB5022913, and now if the Taskbar is overflowing, a right click on the extreme right of the Taskbar presents a choice of Task Manager or Taskbar settings.

  3. OldGamer said on February 25, 2023 at 9:19 pm
    Reply

    Oh, yes nice features… but you forgot something…
    Whattabout this ;

    ” Users of Windows 11 on “unsupported hardware” report that since the most recent Patch Tuesday (monthly) Cumulative Update, an ugly watermark message began appearing on the Windows Desktop screen for the Windows 11 22H2 Update operating system. The bottom-right corner has a permanently-overlaid message that reads “System requirements not met. Go to Settings to learn more.”

    This is visually similar to the watermark you get when you haven’t activated Windows with a valid license.

    Hava a nice day.

  4. Anonymous said on February 23, 2023 at 7:50 pm
    Reply

    Still catching up to Windows 7 features? Windows 11 is horrible.

  5. John said on February 23, 2023 at 6:51 pm
    Reply

    Nothing strikes me as interesting. Hope it all works as advertised and doesn’t break anything.

  6. chesscanoe said on February 23, 2023 at 3:05 pm
    Reply

    The only thing of interest to me is seconds display in the taskbar, and that is very low priority for me.

    1. Mystique said on February 24, 2023 at 3:37 am
      Reply

      I’m pretty sure you can do that from build 25247 and up.

      Open Settings on Windows 11.

      Click on Personalization.

      Click the Taskbar page.

      Click the “Taskbar behaviors” setting.

      Check the “Show seconds in system tray clock” option to enable the feature.

      1. Mystique said on February 24, 2023 at 3:42 am
        Reply

        I don’t use or want to use windows 11 because its half baked and immature. It seems like its the theme for windows 11 to not have any real cohesive idea or direction. just a bunch of random tweaks added or removed. There is no real consistency, this was evident in window 8 upwards but has just been gradually becoming worse.

    2. Anonymous said on February 23, 2023 at 9:28 pm
      Reply

      Ditto except I’m not worried about seconds on the taskbar clock.

      An OS is essential to a computer. the question is “what do you use the OS for”. Is it and end in itself or is its purpose to run the programs you need. It is good that some things can be tinkered for personal preference but every change adds complexity. As we all experience, complex things are less easy than simple things – a recipe with 5 ingredients is far easier than a recipe with 83 ingredients. The 83 ingredient recipe is far simpler to create and modify than Windows. Less complex and more reliable please MIcrosoft. We are not going to get both.

      1. andrew said on March 7, 2023 at 5:12 pm
        Reply

        At last someone who thinks that computers should be simple machines that help humans be more productive.

    3. chesscanoe said on February 23, 2023 at 4:09 pm
      Reply

      “Full screen clock” from the Microsoft Store can show seconds and does not have to present full screen for Windows 10 & 11. For my purposes, it is a far more visible two click solution to seeing date and time in the tiny Windows 11 taskbar.

      1. John G. said on February 23, 2023 at 9:10 pm
        Reply

        @chesscanoe, imho it’s better add the seconds to taskbar than installing an app. However we have been waiting decades for such an easy thing to add. There are hundreds of third party software that fix the incompetence of the development team of Microsoft. :S

  7. Anonymous said on February 23, 2023 at 1:53 pm
    Reply

    Still no option to avoid stacking different windows of the same program in the taskbar?

    1. Lee Powers said on March 14, 2023 at 8:13 pm
      Reply

      Yes, thank you. Since moving to windows 11 my workflow has been hampered by this combining of icons of the same type, and now the new Notepad updates have seriously messed me up because even if I turn the tabbing off, all of the notepads just show as “notepad” when I hover over them in my task bar. I have multiple clients I work for each day and I keep many notepads open over the course of a day to track my tasks, but now they are all useless as it takes me forever to find the one I want. Notepad was the last app they had not messed with and now it’s seriously messing up my workflow. I have to find a different text editor for basic stuff now but I prefer one without any formatting options so I can use it to quickly strip Word formatting. ARGH.

    2. jazzy said on February 23, 2023 at 4:43 pm
      Reply

      note pad with tabs, it took until 2023.. sigh

      1. John G. said on February 23, 2023 at 9:07 pm
        Reply

        @jazzy, please just think, seconds in taskbar in 2023… :/
        @basingstoke, W10 productivity is awesome, it hast the perfect taskbar, the perfect explorer’s menu, the perfect speed doing common things like copying a big file (yest, it’s faster in W10, even in Linux Ubuntu is faster than in W11). My father still has W7 and he is happy because it’s working like a charm including old official government sites, zero failures. Really awesome.

    3. John G. said on February 23, 2023 at 2:38 pm
      Reply

      It seems that the W11 development team guys are unable to do the apparently easy things done by dozens of third party software fixing taskbar, fixing all the poor improvement and solving the low productivity of W11 with dozens of tweaks. I hope we can set the seconds at taskbar soon. Thanks for the article! :]

      1. basingstoke said on February 23, 2023 at 4:13 pm
        Reply

        Thanks for clarifying John, but this does seem like a pretty niche thing, I’ve not known many who want something like this. Weirdly enough it happens on my Windows 7 computer sometimes with notepad files, in a way that is logical, but I can’t figure out what does it.

        On an unrelated note, I found an autohotkey shortcut for “Pinning” windows to foreground, so maybe the thing “anonymous” is looking for is going to need to be 3rd party as well.

        Certain things windows developers thought of, (for example, “aero shake”… who needs it? but Microsoft thought about minor things like that once upon a time), choosing what gets merged at the taskbar seems very niche.

    4. basingstoke said on February 23, 2023 at 2:35 pm
      Reply

      Could you elaborate on what you mean?

      1. John G. said on February 23, 2023 at 2:41 pm
        Reply

        @basingstoke, I think that he (@anonymous) meant an option to not combine items of the same app in the icons of the taskar.

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