Overview of Released and In-beta Features of Windows 11

Microsoft released the new operating system Windows 11 in June this year, and officially pushed it out in October. But two months later, Windows 11 is still an unfinished job. Over the past few months, Windows 11 has been pushed with a number of feature additions and bug fixes, but it still lacks some of the elements Microsoft promised.

In recent times, Microsoft's technical team has been partially focused on fixing early issues with the OS, while some have been slowly adding some of the new features that Microsoft originally announced.

Features that have been officially released

The main features that Microsoft has added, tweaked or fixed in the Windows 11 operating system since October are

Performance optimizations for Riptide processors: Both Microsoft and AMD released software patches to address compatibility issues between Windows 11 systems and the performance of the new generation of AMD Riptide processors. Independent testing has confirmed that the patches allow Riptide processors to run under Windows 11 with the same performance as Windows 10, but there is still room for improvement.

Some bug fixes: Microsoft has addressed many issues including taskbar rendering, virtual printing errors, and system crashes with several updates. A large and complex operating system software like Windows always has a lot of problems and public releases give Microsoft a lot of user data to fix bugs.

Appearance update: The recent Windows update switched the blue screen of death interface back to blue and added more lively emojis to the system. But these small object tweaks just show that Windows 11 is a plane that took off before it took shape.

Currently testing features

Some Microsoft apps and features are currently available for testing through the Windows Insider Program's Beta or Dev channels, but they have not yet been officially released to the public.

Android app support: Microsoft has introduced a Windows subsystem that runs Android apps in the new OS, allowing Windows 11 users to install the corresponding Android apps through the Amazon App Store or Microsoft Store. However, it requires more user hardware and BIOS/UEFI virtualization to be enabled. The current preview version of the ability to run Android apps on Windows 11 is only available to Windows Insider users in the Beta channel, and only a small number of Android apps are supported.

New media player: Microsoft has also added a new Media Player to Windows 11, replacing the Groove Music app, which is Microsoft's default music player in Windows 10 and 11. The app is called "Media Player", an obvious nod to the classic "Windows Media Player". The app is currently only available to Windows Insiders who are registered in the Dev channel.

Linux Subsystem for Windows (WSL): Like Windows 10, Windows 11 also has a Linux subsystem for Windows. But it adds more new features than the version in Windows 10. Windows 11 users can currently download a preview version of WSL from the Microsoft Store, and the company says that eventually the preview version of WSL in the Microsoft Store will become the official version.

Microphone status and mute feature: Microsoft showed this feature in June, but it didn't end up in the initial Windows 11 release in October. The microphone icon will appear in the taskbar when the user is on a call. Users can see which application is using the microphone and can also turn on or unmute it by clicking on the icon. This feature is currently only available for the Microsoft Teams app in the Dev version of the Windows 11 operating system, but Microsoft says that other apps can add support for the feature as well.

Your Phone app UI tweaks: The user interface of the Your Phone app in the Windows 11 operating system has been tweaked, with the most significant changes to the notifications feature. But the app doesn't have many feature upgrades, lacks some support for the iPhone, and can't open apps or mirror the phone's screen on non-Samsung, non-Microsoft Android phones.

Features not yet implemented or should be implemented

Microsoft Win11 is over two months old and has released a big list of new and being tested features.

Dark mode: Microsoft promised a partial redesign of Windows 11 this August, but there's still no Dark Mode. It's also unclear when dark mode will become a reality.

Other application updates: Windows 11 has done a lot of work to unify Microsoft's design language and its built-in applications, but built-in management tools like Notepad, Writing Pad, Device Manager or Registry Editor are all still stuck at the old design level. For Microsoft to fully commit to changing the design language, it can't just tweak a few superficial elements.

A more flexible taskbar: Microsoft should give users the option to put the taskbar on the left or right side of the screen, and should also let users open files by dragging and dropping them to taskbar applications.