Another secret feature has been spotted in one of the latest Windows 11 Insider preview builds. Discovered by X user phantomofearth and reported by Tom’s Hardware, it appears that Microsoft is trying out a ‘Drag Tray’ for sharing files. When you pick up a file and drag it toward the top of the screen, a tray will drop down with different sharing options.
The feature was found in Build 22635.4805 but it’s not included in Microsoft’s release notes, which means there’s no saying if or when it will make it to the general release of Windows 11. Anything that makes sharing files easier is a welcome feature, however, so fingers crossed that Microsoft gets it working well and decides to push it to everyone.
To try the Drag Tray out for yourself in the latest Beta CU, run vivetool /enable /id:45624564,53397005 and reboot.
(as usual, you’ll need to enable 48433719 if this doesn’t work.)
— phantomofearth ⛄ (@phantomofearth) January 25, 2025
The design of the Drag Tray, which you can see in action in phantomofearth’s X post, has been likened to smartphone sharing menus. As well as displaying all of your sharing options, it’s also big and easy to spot, making it accessible for people who are used to the big icon-based operating systems of smartphones. Technically, macOS does file sharing in a similar way, except it’s delivered through a normal desktop-style “double click and choose from a drop-down menu” interface.
Another change related to accessibility is the addition of some instructions to the Windows Snap menu, a feature that lets users tile their windows in a variety of combinations. The menu now says “Choose where to move this window” to ensure that even new users know what is happening when they purposefully (or accidentally) trigger the menu to appear. It’s unclear whether this was added based on user feedback or not.
There are probably mixed opinions out there about companies like Microsoft making their desktop operating systems more and more like mobile operating systems. It’s likely the right move in terms of attracting more users — but then again, there are certain functions best suited for desktop and others that shine on mobile.
At the very least, any extreme changes in the smartphone OS direction should be optional. Maybe one day we’ll be faced with a prompt to choose whether we want the “desktop-style” OS or the “mobile-style” OS when we set up a new PC. Anyway, there’s no word yet on whether the Drag Tray will make it past the test phase, but phantomofearth did share how to download it if you want to try it out for yourself.
