Windows 11 could get big changes to one of its most important apps

Windows 11’s Settings app could get a major overhaul if changes noticed during testing are anything to go by.

A number of tweaks to the Settings panel were posted to Twitter by a trusted source for all things Microsoft, Albacore, who discovered the various additions in the latest preview build for Windows 11 (version 25300).

For starters, the ability to create a virtual hard disk (VHD) has been seen in Settings, under Storage > Disks & Volumes, although this functionality is hidden. In other words, it’s not in testing yet, just lurking in the background, ready to go live in beta at some point (unless it gets scrapped, and the same goes for all the features highlighted here that are similarly hidden) .

There’s also a home page for the Settings app, but right now it’s filled with almost nothing except a notification about when Windows updates were last checked. Again, this is a pre-test, so to speak, so expect it to get much busier (and actually useful, we hope) in the future.

Albacore further pointed out presence detection options tucked away in the Privacy and Security menu, allowing the user to allow apps to use this capability and keep a log of the recent activity of the software that did so. (This feature detects when the user leaves or returns to the device, and turns it on or off, if necessary, with supported hardware).

Newwin (opens in new tab) further reports that an update is coming to the keyboard section of Settings that will allow those using more than one keyboard language to change the order in the input language flyout and choose a default language to use on the login screen right after startup.

Analysis: preparing for a boatload of changes

So that’s quite a bit of work Microsoft has done under the hood of Windows 11. Remember all these capabilities and interface customization are hidden in preview builds so even testers can’t see them (not without poking around and messing around with configuration tools).

It’s a good bet that there are quite a few other such hidden bits of functionality in the Settings panel that haven’t been discovered yet, and Microsoft might try to do a pretty thorough overhaul of the app in the future, if these clues hold. something to go by.

Of course, the features in question are hidden for good reason, and if they’re enabled, they’re likely to be unstable and generally clunky, if they work at all. So these are really best not to use, as they simply serve as a helpful indication of what Microsoft’s future plans are for Windows 11.

It’s also worth noting that we recently saw another hint of a possible incoming change in the form of a new (hidden) recovery option, namely the ability to perform an in-place upgrade to fix problems with your PC directly from Settings ( which would be quite a time saver).

This settings panel revamp will most likely debut in the major update to Windows 11 due later this year (23H2), as we already know that work on that major upgrade has already begun (at least that’s what credible rumors suggest).