The next major update to Windows 11 – not the 2023 annual update, which will come later – is rolling out today, and rumors are swirling about what will be included with this upgrade.
PhantomOfEarth, a regular leaker on X (formerly Twitter) with their ear to the ground on all things Windows, pointed out what else is coming with the September 26 update (later today).
The new volume mixer with quick settings will also roll out on September 26 https://t.co/6ewwk4F1hZ pic.twitter.com/1DMzbinvxFSeptember 22, 2023
Of course, it’s already known that the star of the show will be the Copilot AI. However, as tweeted, another big piece of the puzzle – at least for me, and quite a few other people – comes in the form of the never combine option on the taskbar.
That’s the taskbar choice you get with Windows 10 to tell the operating system not to stack (combine) windows from the same application. (So, for example, if you have multiple browser windows open, they won’t all be lumped into the same item on the taskbar, stacked – and never combined, they will remain separate icons on the bar).
PhantomOfEarth also made it clear that another neat trick is coming to the taskbar, namely the ability to right-click an app on the bar and end the task there. Oh, and also the feature to hide the time and date from the taskbar if you want.
And the new Volume Mixer, which offers new functionality including adjusting the volume of programs running per app, will also roll out later today with the September 26 update.
Analysis: A winning never combination
Of course, the centerpiece of this update – technically Moment 4 for Windows 11 22H2, with the 23H2 update coming later this year in Q4 – is undoubtedly Copilot. The introduction of the AI assistant in Windows 11 is of course a huge step, and one that may turn out better than I expected. (I still feel like it’s a bit of an exaggeration, but I’m ready – and happy – to be proven wrong).
For me, though, I’ve been putting off an upgrade to Windows 11 due to the lack of that feature to keep apps separated on the taskbar. That may sound a bit petty, but I have a workflow within Windows, and it involves never combining anything on the taskbar, and leaving that option out is just too annoying and jarring for my basic way of working with the operating system.
I couldn’t really believe it when Microsoft removed this choice with Windows 11. Apparently fiddly bits deep in the interface meant it wasn’t a simple implementation for the newer operating system, or at least that’s what the software giant told us.
So until now I’ve refrained from upgrading, but now that this new feature is here, I’m immediately hitting the upgrade button, with one caveat. That said, I will start the upgrade on my Surface (second PC) first, before my main desktop installation. But the latter will come soon enough (unless I find other things to hate about Windows 11 when I actually start using it properly – abandon that thought, of course).
Anyway, it’s good to see that there are a lot of things coming for Windows 11, even if it does make me think a bit about what’s left for the 23H2 update, which seems less important than this at the moment ‘Momental’ (presumably smaller than annual) upgrade.
So that’s all a bit confusing, but hey – I’m not going to argue about getting super important features faster, that’s for sure (although I wouldn’t say never combining has been exactly ‘fast’, of course).