Is it that time of year already? Windows users will be familiar by this point with annual operating system updates that add new features and improvements, and this year's batch are just around the corner. What changes can we expect this time?
Here's a few highlights:
Customisable Lock Screen Widgets - In addition to the usual background photo and clock, you will be able to add widgets to your device lock screen with information like weather reports, news and other non-confidential information.
Photos in search results: If you search for images via your taskbar, these will appear in a neater grid format.
Refined Windows Hello design: If you use Windows Hello to log in to your device using biometrics, you'll notice design improvements to the interface.
Search index notification: It will now be clearer if your device is still finding the files on your device, and therefore that search results may be incomplete.
More Control Panel settings move into main Settings area: Microsoft announced about 10 years ago that the old "Control Panel" would be disappearing and replaced with a new Settings interface. Amazingly, that process is still ongoing. A few more bits are transitioned this time, including additional keyboard, language and time settings.
AI Actions in File Explorer: Right click to use AI actions in File Explorer to search and edit images or summarize documents.
These changes will be slowly rolling out to users over the coming weeks. Later this year, there will also be another feature update that will bring some design improvements to the start menu.