What you need to know
- Microsoft starting rolling out the latest feature drop for Windows 11.
- This feature drop includes improvements to Windows Widgets, Snap Layouts, Copilot, Inking and more.
- Unsurprisingly, Microsoft is touting new AI features as top billing for this release.
- This update will also enable the ability to uninstall Bing and Edge from Windows 11 in EEA markets to comply with the Digital Markets Act.
Right on cue, Microsoft has released the next Windows 11 feature drop for all users running Windows 11 version 22H2 or version 23H2, available to download starting today for those who manually request the update. This feature drop focuses on yet more quality of life improvements to the overall OS, including updates to Snap Layouts, Copilot, Widgets, and more.
Top billing for this release is a new AI powered Snap Layouts feature that uses machine learning to identify your most commonly used apps, and automatically suggest snap layouts based on the apps you have open. This interface will appear whenever you hover over the maximize button in an app.
Microsoft is also making changes to the Widgets Board, now allowing users to outright disable the news feed for those who don’t want to see MSN stories appear there. This means the Widgets Board can now be used as a true widgets panel, free from any clickbait headlines.
Other quality of life changes coming in this feature drop include the ability to digitally ink directly into text fields across the OS, which should make using Windows with a pen easier. There are also a handful of AI features coming to apps, including generative erase in the Photos app, and the ability to automatically remove gaps in audio in video files using Clipchamp.
Windows Copilot gets an upgrade
Microsoft is touting several improvements to Windows Copilot launching with today’s feature drop. These improvements include more plugins that enable additional abilities such as making a dinner reservation with friends using OpenTable, or managing your shopping with Instacart.
Over the next month, Microsoft will also enable new skills within Copilot that will tie the assistant more closely with Windows. The following skills are being added to Windows Copilot over the coming month:
- Turn on/off battery saver
- Show device information
- Show system information
- Show battery information
- Open storage page
- Launch Live Captions
- Launch Narrator
- Launch Screen Magnifier
- Open Voice Access page
- Open Text size page
- Open contrast themes page
- Launch Voice input
- Show available Wi-Fi network
- Display IP address
- Show available storage space
- Empty recycle bin
Windows 11 becomes DMA compliant
Last month, Microsoft announced that it would be making changes to Windows 11 to make it compliant with the Digital Markets Act in countries that fall under the European Economic Area. Today’s feature drop includes these changes, however they may not be enabled for everyone just yet.
“We’ll start enabling DMA changes via our controlled feature rollout technology in February’s optional non-security releases and we will post a public update on DMA progress soon,” said Aaron Grady, Partner Group Product Manager, Windows.
Microsoft has until March 4th to enable the changes for everyone running this latest feature drop, as that’s the legal deadline date set out by the EU. Curiously, Microsoft doesn’t mention any of the changes it’s making to Windows 11 to comply with the DMA in today’s feature drop announcement post.
As a refresher, here are the changes coming to Windows 11 to comply with the DMA:
- Ability to uninstall Bing from Windows Search.
- Ability to replace Bing in Windows Search with a third-party search provider.
- Ability to uninstall Microsoft Edge.
- Ability to disable or replace the news feed in Widgets with a third-party provider.
Insiders in the Release Preview channel have been testing today’s feature drop for a couple of weeks, and have reported seeing these changes in the build. So if you don’t see it right away, you’ll likely see it begin showing up over the next week or two.
How to get the Windows 11 February feature drop
To download the update today, simply head to Windows Update and ensure the “Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available” toggle is switched on. Then, hit check for updates, and you should see the update ready to download.
If you don’t see the update right away, that’s because Microsoft is making the update available in waves, so you might need to keep checking back. Microsoft anticipates the feature update will be broadly available by the April 2024 Patch Tuesday updates.
