Microsoft is testing desktop widgets in the latest Windows 11 Insider preview. One is a search bar right on the desktop. It could prove genuinely helpful, but it could also be a new weapon in Microsoft's fight against Google Chrome.

Figure 1: the latest windows 11 insider preview

Figure 1 shows that, the "Select" Windows 11 Insiders who install preview build 25120 should see a search bar near the top of the desktop. Unlike queries in a window's taskbar, which look for apps, local files, and websites, the new search bar only seems to bring up web results. Using it may prove quicker and easier to access than booting up a web browser. [1]

"Today, Windows exposes this type of content in the Widgets board. To begin assessing this general idea and interaction model, the first exploration in this area adds a search box displayed on the desktop that enables you to search the web."

You can remove the search box by right-clicking the desktop, selecting "Show more options" and toggling off "Show search."

The search box is the only new feature in Windows 11 Build 25120, but the update includes a short list of fixes:

• Suggested actions should appear for more date and time formats now.
• Addressed some issues with certain formats when copying a date and/or time.
• Improved overall performance and reliability of the feature.
• Fixed an issue that could crash Settings when opening and looking at the battery usage graph.
• Improved performance of displaying Wi-Fi networks after enabling Wi-Fi from the Wi-Fi section of Quick Settings.
• Addressed an issue leading to some unreadable text in the Performance page when a contrast theme was enabled.
• Fixed an issue which could cause Windows Update to stall and roll back updates for WSA users.
• Did some work to address a stutter in the progress wheel animation when upgrading to a new build. [2]

Microsoft says the search box is the company experimenting with “lightweight interactive content on the Windows desktop.” This could be a harbinger of more add-ons for the desktop, which would please quite a few people we would wager. Widgets were a popular feature of Windows 10, but in Windows 11 they’re anchored to the left-side of the screen. They also are all contained within a block that pops out when you click a taskbar icon, and it disappears when you click anything else. There’re customization options (above), but they’re quite limited. [3]

References:

1. https://www.techspot.com/news/94691-web-search-bar-appears-latest-windows-11-preview.html
2. source: https://www.windowscentral.com/windows-11-search-box-testing
3. https://www.extremetech.com/computing/335919-microsoft-begins-testing-web-search-box-on-windows-11-desktop

Cite this article:

Sri Vasagi K (2022), Microsoft Has Started Rolling Out a New Window 11, Anatechmaz, pp. 300