Windows 11's Latest Update Surprises With Speed And Lots Of New Tricks

The latest Windows 11 update has drawn praise for focusing almost exclusively on new features and performance improvements, rather than deeper AI integration, indicating a possible pivot by Microsoft. Some recent updates and comments from Microsoft leadership focused almost solely on AI, and many users were vocal about their disappointment. It seems Microsoft may be listening to user input more closely, since the uproar.

Some of the new features coming in the next Windows 11 update will roll-out more gradually, while others will arrive with the normal Patch Tuesday cadence. The two Normal rollout features are improved BitLocker reliability, preventing system hangs when entering the recovery key, and Secure Boot improvements. The Secure Boot Improvements include increasing coverage of devices eligible for automatic Secure Boot certificate updates, which should ensure that more users seamlessly receive new certificates without needing to worry about certificate expiration.


The Gradual rollout features run the gamut. There's new Emojis (version 16.0, to be exact), expanded Backup & Restore functionality for organizations, and Quick Machine Recovery now turns on automatically for devices that are not part of a domain or enrolled in enterprise endpoint management.

The Taskbar is getting a built-in network speed test along wit some fixes for the overflow menu. The Accounts page now includes easy access to the Microsoft account benefits page as well. The Taskbar's Search has also been improved with the addition of numbered group headers, hover-preview functionality, and a new magnifying glass icon. File Explorer has also added an Extract all button to the command bar when browsing non-ZIP archives, more reliably displays devices on the Network page, and even allows a new File Explorer instance to be opened by just middle-clicking or holding Shift instead of needing extra steps.

Camera Settings now include pan and tilt, Widget Settings now open a proper page instead of a small dialogue, and Storage Settings has updated visuals. The Windows Update settings page is now more responsive, login and lock screens are more reliable, and even the Printing service has performance improvements to "reduce slowdowns during high-volume printing". Sleep functionality, specifically the time it takes for your PC and display to wake up from Sleep, has received a performance patch too. Also, desktop backgrounds now support .webp images, for those of you who don't know you can just save those as a .PNG instead.

Last but not least, this update also implements native Sysmon functionality and new Remote Server Administration Tools for Windows 11 Arm64 devices. All told, it looks like Microsoft is really locked in on its promises to improve the performance of Windows 11. These patch notes being filled with fixes and performance improvements is certainly a refreshing change of pace.