Windows 11 Has a New Look
The Taskbar icons are now centered and smaller, but the Start button is still to the left of the other app icons. Windows gets tightly rounded corners, similar to macOS. The position of the Taskbar can be adjusted via the Taskbar settings menu (should you prefer to have the task bar to the left)
More subtle are the transparency, animations, and clean icon design that represent an evolution of the Fluent Design System. A couple of new materials join the translucent one called Acrylic: the opaque Mica, which is slightly tinted based on the background colour; and Smoke, which darkens other areas to make you focus on an important input region. Dark mode looks more consistent, and these materials change to reflect that mode.
Widgets in Windows 11
The new widgets deliver a personalized feed of news, weather, traffic, sports, and stock market data, powered by AI for customization and Edge for rendering. Later updates will let you expand the Widgets panel to fill the whole screen, and third-party content providers will be able to take advantage of this new feature.
Windows 11 Snap Layouts
Snap Layouts let you choose from a selection of window layouts (see above), easily populating them with app windows of your choice. Even more important than the extra layout choices are that these layouts are saved and accessible from the app taskbar icons, so you do not have to re-create them after doing something else on the PC.
Updated Default Apps in Windows 11
Focus session in Windows 11 Clock app.
Many of the old Windows’s applications, Paint, Photos, Notepad, Media Player, etc have or will be updated for the new look and in some cases get new features. A great case in point is the Clock app, which Windows 11 endows with a super productivity feature: Focus Sessions. With Focus Sessions, you can set boundaries for when you want undistracted time for getting work done.
Photo Apps in Windows 11
The Photos app in Windows 11 is remarkably capable not only for organizing and editing photos, but also for video editing with titles, transitions, effects, and more. The Photos app includes face recognition, auto-generated albums, and integrated maps for photos with location data—features that even some paid photo applications lack. New for Photos is an edge-to-edge photo view, multi-image view, and an improved cropping interface, along with the Fluent Design updates.
The new Media Player app handles both music and video, and replaces Windows 10's Groove app. Like that, the new player can handle FLAC audio and 4K video.
A Redesigned Settings App
The redesigned Settings app now features a persistent left menu. It saves you from having to back out of nested settings to quickly get to another group. Otherwise, you get most everything found in Windows 10's Settings.
Windows 11 Docking Mode
With Windows 11, when you dock or plug your laptop into a monitor, it remembers the last app layout you were using (see above).
New Sounds in Windows 11
The soundscape of Windows starting up, warning, notifications, and more have become gentler, more soothing, and shorter in Windows 11.
New Start menu options in Windows 11
You can now drag two applications on each other to group them into a sub group that will show when it is pinned in the start menu.
You can then open the group and rename the group name as you can see above with the browsers, MS Office folders.
Related Articles:
How to change settings for Taskbar on Windows 11 | Windows Central
Windows 11: Biggest Changes and New Features (pcmag.com)
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