Operating system Windows 11 promises to radically update the approach to working on a computer and, of course, will offer a lot of different innovations. The main ones are more than obvious and literally on the surface – for example, the square Windows logo, a major redesign of the Start menu, rounded elements, fresh animations and modern icons. However, the changes that were initially hidden from the eyes of users or went unnoticed turned out to be much more interesting. I managed to make a small selection of such functions, and they more comprehensively change the long-term experience of the familiar operating system.
Media controls will be more modern and compact
The design of Windows pop-up menus when listening to music or changing the sound volume has not changed dramatically for a very long time, since Windows 8. The already archaic Metro interface today began to be used in the operating system in 2012, continued to exist in 2015 after the release of Windows 10, and finally that will be a thing of the past with the arrival of Windows 11 – almost 10 years later. A completely revamped music player and volume slider was discovered by developer Ahmed Walid in the C-Chell shell components, and apparently their visuals were copied from the canceled Windows 10X.
The design echoes the rest of the graphical features of Windows 11, including rounded corners and a dramatic background blur. Thus, Microsoft will bring the appearance to a common look.
Windows 11 will retain the classic Start menu with transparent tiles
Netizens reacted ambiguously to the reimagined Start menu in Windows 11. Some people really did not like the new location in the center of the taskbar, which resembles macOS and Chrome OS, some also complained about the almost useless functionality of the menu, repeating the same taskbar with pinned applications. Luckily for Windows 10 fans, the old version of Start can be reverted.
The classic version of the menu with live tiles remained in the Windows 11 registry. It is located in the following path:
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionExplorerAdvancedStart_ShowClassicMode DWORD=0x1
The taskbar will now support three sizes
In recent generations of Windows, the taskbar was adjusted in two sizes: users could choose between small and large buttons without having any other settings. In Windows 11, it was simplified a little and at the same time added a third size – medium. The innovation will allow you to choose the most suitable height depending on the screen diagonal and will pleasantly complement the overall personalization of the operating system.
Windows 11 can emulate x64 applications on ARM architecture
Windows 11 computers running ARM processors will be able to emulate 64-bit applications. Windows 10 for ARM currently supports running optimized standard UWP apps or emulating the x86 platform, which means that you can only work with predominantly old 32-bit programs. With x64 compatibility, Windows 11 should become more popular on ARM.
For the first time x64 emulation on ARM became available in late 2020 for testers through the Windows Insider Program, but the feature never made it to stable Windows 10.
There will be new applications – “Windows Terminal” and Power Automate Desktop
Windows 11 will ship with at least two new pre-installed applications. Windows Terminal will replace the outdated Command Line, bringing together popular command line shells such as PowerShell, the Azure Cloud Shell, and Linux distributions under Windows Subsystems for Linux (WSL). The utility supports single window tabs, profiles with background images, custom color schemes and custom actions.
Power Automate Desktop is a proprietary tool for automating routine tasks and processes from Microsoft. It is used to create automatic execution of a series of actions, ranging from recording ordinary mouse clicks on objects to accessing online services.
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