Windows 11's final "Moment Update" has these new features
Microsoft is preparing the fifth Moment Update for its Windows 11 operating system. Currently available in the Release Preview channel, Moment Update 5 is included in the February 2024 optional updates for Windows 11. Then in March 2024, it will be released as part of the monthly cumulative updates for Windows 11 on March 12, 2024.
This overview lists all important features and changes that the Moment Update 5 introduces. Note that some of the listed features may roll out over time, even though they are part of the update.
Moment Update 5 highlights
The final Moment Update introduces compliance with the European Union's Digital Markets Act. It gives users from the EU control over certain features, including the ability to uninstall Microsoft Edge, turn off Bing in Windows Search, and disable news in Widgets.
The feature drop includes a number of changes for all users. This includes various AI updates in integrated tools, support for using Windows Ink in text boxes, and several smaller changes.
AI changes and new AI features
Moment Update 5 is not the update that turns Windows 11 into the AI operating system. Still, Microsoft continues its push of AI tools, features, and services into the Windows 11 operating system.
Windows Copilot's icon is moved to the right side of the taskbar. It replaces the traditional hidden Show Desktop button there by default. A new setting in the taskbar preferences restores Show Desktop, but you need to enable this manually.
The Copilot icon remains in the same location, but you may hide it or turn off Copilot in Windows altogether, if you prefer to do so.
Copilot's interface may also be a bit wider now and it works on all connected monitors.
Windows 11's Snap Assist feature may show suggestions now for certain layouts. Hover over the maximize button of a window to see available layouts. Apps may be shown in some of them, and when you select these options, Windows will automatically show these in the areas on the screen.
Widgets changes
The Widgets Board of the operating system has offered some customization options up to this point. You could pick interests to populate the news section and also show or hide other widgets.
What Windows 11 users could not do until now was to turn off the news feed entirely. This changes with the release of the update. Now it is possible to hide the news widget to only display others in the Widgets Board.
Do the following to remove the News widget:
- Open the Widgets Board with a click on the icon.
- Select the preferences icon in the top right corner of the interface to open the options.
- Locate "Show or Hide Feeds" and click on it.
- Toggle Microsoft Start to off. This disables the entire News feed in the Windows Board.
Now it is possible to disable all widgets. Microsoft is opening the Widgets Board for third-party services. This could, in theory, introduce other news providers to the Widgets Board in the future. A link to the Microsoft Store is already provided to install third-party widgets.
Fun fact: if you uninstall Microsoft Edge, you get a blank Widgets Board.
Application updates
Several built-in tools receive new features after installation of the Moment Update 5.
- Snipping Tool -- the screen capturing tool supports adding shapes to images now.
- Notepad -- is getting an "explain with Copilot" context menu option. This can be used to get an explanation for the selected text from Copilot.
- Mobile Devices -- there is a new option under Bluetooth & devices > Mobile devices in the Settings app called "Allow this PC to access your mobile devices". One of the first features is the ability to access photos taken with the mobile device quickly.
- Settings app -- features a new "get Copilot" ad on the homepage. There is also a new option to repair the Windows installation using Windows Update). You find it under System > Recovery in the Settings. This lets you repair Windows without the need to prepare installation media or using the "reset" option.
- Windows Spotlight is set as the default provider for background images (wallpapers). This is only the case if the default Windows wallpaper was set as the background image prior to installation of the update.
- The Microsoft Store has a new "arcade" section. It lists games that you may play without installation.
Smaller changes
The following list contains smaller updates.
- You may now give your PCs a descriptive name for the Nearby Sharing feature to improve identification. This is located under System > Nearby Sharing > Your device is discoverable as "...". Note that when you turn on Nearby Sharing, that Windows 11 will turn on Bluetooth and Wi-Fi automatically, if disabled.
- The Share feature of the operating system supports third-party services now, including WhatsApp, X and several more.
- Windows 365 Boot & Switch is getting a new dedicated mode. This supports booting into Windows 365 Cloud PCs from devices directly after sign-in. This also supports faster account switching.
- Task View is getting some improvements for Windows 365. There is a new option to disconnect from a Cloud PC and new indicators that reveal if the PC if you are on the local desktop or the Cloud PC's desktop.
- Narrator got support for natural voices, which users may add under Settings > Accessibility > Narrator under Narrator's voice. This feature is limited to some languages. You may preview and select one out of multiple available languages.
- Voice access may now be used to control Narrator and support for creating custom commands. Commands include opening a folder, file, or application, pasting text or media, or clicking with the mouse.
Closing Words
Moment Update 5 will be the last update of its kind. Microsoft is switching again to yearly feature update releases. The next one, Windows 11 version 24H2, will be released in the second half of 2024.
Now You: what is your take on the features listed above?
danger danger danger ai and copilot is taking over pc’s and microsoft is not doing any thing about it it stopped you from printing and scanning or running some of the app’s that is not microsoft and it in the end of this mess it will stop you from ging any were in the net and this is not hear say it happen to me and 185 people that i know i am not a nut i am a tec microsoft thow your safe being out the windows injoy the theft from al and copiolt
HDMI has random issues as well, CPU usage is sometimes at 100% for most than ten minutes freezing the whole new brand computer. Sounds like a personal problem to me.
CPU usage is sometimes at 100% for most than ten minutes. You’re Hilarious!!
Take your computer to best buy they might help you. John G. The Noob !!
Where are your “Facts” John G. ??
For the Lulz…
@SudoMakeJohnASandwich
Nice to found someone with your high accurate sense of humor, nicely appropriate for a Linux user.
Please read this thread, and all similar threads, that I have read nearly all of them with no solution.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/windows-11-bug-process-uses-100-of-the-cpu/63cbb923-7248-4674-9be8-37d7c9e1cb02
This bug/issue still persists today, I suffer this bug in my new computer with the latest W11.
Opinion:
iPhones are better than Android phones.
Fact:
George Washington was the first president of the United States.
You still seem to miss the point again John G.
I asked you to prove that Windows 11 is the Worst OS ??
And you still to this date have NOT done this yet.
Only your point some bug/issues that still persist today.
Bugs/Issues does not make Windows 11 the worst OS !!
You don’t think that bugs or issues can be fixed with a Updates on the OS or Bios Updates?
Where are your “Facts” John G. that Windows 11 is the Worst OS ??
I asked you for facts that Windows 11 is the Worst OS ?
You have NONE other than a website !
For the Lulz Again…
No problems here with W11. It’s the best Windows yet. 10 was very good too, had no issues. Very similar, but 11 is just a bit better.
That’s my opinion and that’s a fact too!
Windows 10 and 11 becomes useable but only when you use Shutup10++ and install Simplewall. Simplewall tames Windows Update so you can update windows only when you choose to give Windows the permission to update from Simplewall > Settings > Rules > Allow Windows Update.
https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10
https://github.com/henrypp/simplewall
So many things no one needs, wants or would ever use. A big, useless mess. Waste of resources for all, let us once again rejoice and be thankful for what we’re about to receive.
“Moment update?” That doesn’t mean anything.
Microsoft is anti-customer trash and so is Windows now. Why would you debase yourself by putting up with it?
With all due respect to Ghacks readers… I tried using this Win11 crap, but it doesn’t work. Very bad, nothing works, lots of bloatware, high RAM usage, high CPU usage, high DISK usage, logs being constantly written to the System. Edge, Defender, Copilot, just junk. I went back to Linux.
@Leonardo
I tried using this Win11 crap, but it doesn’t work. Very bad, nothing works, lots of bloatware, high RAM usage, high CPU usage, high DISK usage.
If nothing works why are you able to turn on the computer and Windows 11 is starting, and running?
You do understand that Windows 11 has requirements?
Just like any other Linux OS, Mac OS or Windows OS.
And why Leonardo are Linux users very defensive if you point out a flaw in the Linux OS?
Help! No matter, Firefox will not load the Favicon for gHacks; I have some thirty bookmarks in my toolbar for sites that are visited at least weekly. Poor gHacks is that black line world. Any ideas.
I installed Firefox on a new machine running Windows 11; it’s the only thing keeping the entire setup from being very good, not excellent as there are some other tweaks needed, but very nice.
I hope this new Moments doesn’t flup everything up!
Icon working fine here on FF 123. Just open a new window and load up the site and it will load the favicon. If it doesn’t, I don’t believe you.
@Bobo–I’m not sure if your method worked or if it was the update to FF123. On my laptop, Windows 10, the favicon now appears. I wasn’t really watching, so the update may have been the solution; however, when I opened a new window, I noticed the favicon had loaded–thankfully!
To check further, I went over to a desktop and tried the update as well as opening a new window and opening a new private window. No cheers. The favicon didn’t load. The cache has been cleared, etc. I tried all the tricks I could find on the Internet.
What to do? It doesn’t really make much sense to me. On two other sites, I had to log in before the favicon would appear.
Thanks for the tip!
Any others? [I know it’s not a “help” site–feel a bit embarrassed.]
You have to open a new window, not a new private window. Then load ghacks. It’s that simple.
@Bobo–Yes, I tried a new window first; when that didn’t work, I thought maybe a new private window would work. It didn’t.
Try making a new bookmark https://www.ghacks.net/latest-posts/
Here is part of the problem: [I think]
One should be able to load and see the favicon by entering the following:
https://www.ghacks.net/favicon.ico
If you try this with gHacks, a message appears saying the image cannot be displayed because it contains errors.
As a test, one can go to the Yahoo home page with the favicon.ico added and see the results:
https://www.yahoo.com/favicon.ico
or
https://www.themarginalian.org/favicon.ico
Any site will load/show the favicon with /favicon.ico added.
So, either there is a mistake in the website coding or there is some type of block that prevents the favicon from properly loading–despite the ability by most users to instantly load the favicon.
Try deleting favicons.sqlite, make a backup first.
@Bobo–Thanks, I saw that option, technique as an “alternative to Favicon Reloader.” It said to make sure FF is closed first. I went to about:profiles to see what Profile was in use and found the file, but I decided to leave it as is.
It’s basically what I did when saving/moving bookmarks from the previous installation; then, open all tabs. It doesn’t take long, but I sort of doubt it’s going to work.
I may install Waterfox and ignore FF for the rest of my computing life. I sometimes use WF on a Windows 10 laptop. I used WF this morning to see if it’s something worthy of the change. It was a refreshing experience for the hour or so I was on it.
Hmmmm . . .
@Bobo–I think I tried that and variations; let me see. Nope. Quite odd b/c I don’t think this has ever happened. I guess I could make a new profile and start over, but the FF install was on a clean install of Windows, so I rather doubt that will work. In other words, I started with a fresh FF profile.
And of course, removal for Edge and Bing is a feature that won’t show up on W10 unlike their newer BS, right?
@Anonymous “And of course, removal for Edge and Bing is a feature that won’t show up on W10 unlike their newer BS, right?”
Wrong.
Nothing I would use except undoing what they ruined. Another copilot black pattern…
If only this really was the final Moments update…
For me removing Edge and turning off Bing is helpful and great news. I never really liked widgets, or any of the automatic connectivity to internet and file sharing, for search, trending services.
W11 is the worst OS ever at this point.
+1
I hate it with a passion.
Can you prove, that W11 is the Worst OS John G ?
Or just that just your opinion John G ?
Brave of you to stay anonymous. Actually John G’s opinion is shared by the vast majority of people posting to this fine site. New around here?
Actually John G’s opinion is shared by the vast majority of people posting to this fine site.
So it is a shared Opinion 45 RPM ?
I’ll just keep using the Anonymous name, it clearly makes you Butt Hurt.
You just can’t take it when someone using a Anonymous name can you?
Funny as hell to watching you crying and complaining on this website.
Actually, the vast majority of people Reading this site are not posting very much because they are not experiencing the issues that the ultra-posters. Since 10240 I would say every release has gotten better. Windows 11 is the best yet.
It gives me zero problems, it’s stable and fast (a bit quicker than 10), the printer works well, HDMI and DisplayPort work with my 2 monitors … no issues. CPU only goes to 100 when I start Nightly, currently 52 windows (the one I’m typing in has 91 tabs) but only the last active tab of each window loads … so 52 tabs. The fans spin up for 10 seconds), the rest of the time it’s at 5 to 10% and Never freezes.
I’ve been on windows since ver 3.0, skipped a few: Millenium, Vista, 8 and have not experienced all those difficulties that some of you encounter over and over. I wonder why ?
@Stu
If you see a penguin in your screen named Tuz, probably you are using Linux, not W11. Just for laughs is another possible explanation.
@Anonymous, it’s not my opinion, it’s a fact. I also have Ubuntu LTS in an old computer, dual boot with W10, and they both give me zero problems. The newest computer, that was a gift by my father when I finished my studies, works with W11 and it’s the worst experience ever, bloated as hell, printers are getting mad each update, HDMI has random issues as well, CPU usage is sometimes at 100% for most than ten minutes freezing the whole new brand computer. W11 has converted a new brand machine in a pile of trash. These upcoming holydays I will install Ubuntu 24 and W10 too in the new one, W11 is a nigthmare. Opinions always have an origin, do you know?