Microsoft seems to have shifted a major portion of its Windows 11 development focus toward visual improvements. With the new Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25201, the company has now introduced “Expanded View in Widgets“. This change comes only a few days after introducing “Animated Settings Icons” and re-introducing the “Tablet-optimized Taskbar” in the previous Insider update to the Dev Channel.
Expanded View In Widgets and Game Pass Widget Update
Right now, when you take your cursor on top of the widgets area (that shows the Weather) on the (left of the) Taskbar, it slides open the Widgets menu. However, it currently takes up less than half of the screen as a tall-rectangular window. In the latest preview build, Microsoft has added an Expand Button that distributes this view to fill the entire screen.
When you close the widgets menu, Windows will remember your choice for the next time you open your widgets. That means if you close the menu in expanded view, the next time you open it, it’ll show you the expanded mode. The same goes for the regular mode as well.
Changes also include an updated Game Pass Widget (introduced last month) which will now allow users to Sign-in directly to their Xbox account. Once logged in, the widget will show the full range of Game Pass games available to the user. It’ll also show the recently played games, which users can click on, to get back to the specific game they want to continue playing.
However, just like some of the other changes to the Taskbar, the widgets menu expanded view, and updates to the Game Pass widget are also rolling out to a small number of Insiders as of now. Based on feedback from those users, the development team will decide if they want to continue with the features, and in case they do, will soon roll them out to the rest of the Insiders afterward.
Updated Search in File Explorer
The update also brings a massive change to File Explorer. Currently, users need to click “Enter” after writing file names, folder names, etc., in the search window to initiate a search and get results for the same. With the Build 25201, File Explorer can show search results in real time. That means the entire search result page will update with relevant results as you type in the search box. This should make finding files much quicker.
Source: Windows Blog
