Windows Backup app debuts with a taskbar update users begged for

No, Windows 11 is still not able to move your taskbar. But Microsoft is testing another feature users want: the ability to ungroup and badge your apps and windows in the taskbar.

We’d like to say that Microsoft’s Windows 11 Insider Preview build 23466 for the dev channel includes some nifty new things. Windows features announced by Microsoft this week, including RGB lighting controls, improved widgets, and more. This is not the case. Instead, there is even more – but the taskbar update is there thankfully, as is the new PC migration/restore feature. (Sorry, the next Windows Copilot AI-powered tool will debut in June.)

Essentially, Microsoft is make Windows 11 more like Windows 10 via the option to create ungrouped badges (called “never combined mode”) in the taskbar. Let’s face it: Windows 11 shows a tiny little progress bar icon on Windows 11 to show how many windows or instances of a given app are available, and it’s impossible to scan it. Pinning and ungrouping the windows like this solves this problem. (As explorer correctora fantastic free program that restores many missing features of Windows 11.)

The “Never Combined” mode was one of the most requested features, Microsoft said, probably for good reason.

Discover Windows Backup

Microsoft is also launching a new Windows Backup app, taking the migration process Microsoft detailed earlier and making it a formal app. Windows Backup is designed not only to store your apps and data in the cloud, but also to preserve the disposition of migrating all your data to a new PC. Files, folders, apps, and credentials will all be stored in the cloud, tied to your Microsoft account. (If you want to test this, Microsoft recommends setting up a new build on a second PC or using a virtual machine.) It’s not a substitute for traditional backup software.

Microsoft also detailed numerous tweaks and changes in its blog postsome of which we have included here:

• Creating voice access text: You can now say “fix that” or “spell that” or “click it” to guide your voice interactions with your PC.
• Disable specific notifications: If you generally ignore notifications from an app, Windows will detect this and offer to turn them off altogether.
• Reorganization of the Start menu: “We’re trying a different model for ranking the most recently used files in the Recommended section of the Start menu that takes into account the last time the file was used, the file extension, etc.,” Microsoft said. “This means you can’t see files only in reverse chronological order of when they were last used.”
• View your Wi-Fi password: Forgot Wi-Fi password? Now you can see it in the Settings menu.