- Microsoft is working on several new improvements for Windows 11.
- Some of these new changes include an option to remove the date and time and the notification counter from the Taskbar.
- Soundscape page to manage theme sounds from the Settings app and new shortcut for open screen recorder.
Microsoft is presently testing several features for upcoming Windows 11 releases. The business specifically intends to restore the option to turn off the time and date as well as the notification counter from the System Tray in the Taskbar.
Previous iterations of the operating system included the ability to suppress, conceal, or delete the date and time from the System Tray. However, as the firm is still developing the new Taskbar interface, that is not an option for Windows 11.
As of this writing, the feature is still hidden and difficult to manually activate. To enable or disable the feature, the Registry indicates that the responsible option is theHideSystrayDateTimeValueNamekey.
Additionally, it may be possible to turn off the notification counter that shows up in the Taskbar’s lower-right corner with later operating system upgrades. Nevertheless, you will notice an aspect that will maintain the number at zero rather than completely eliminating it. (This feature is also hidden and cannot be manually activated.)
Installing and managing themes with sound schemes was possible in the Control Panel’s previous iteration. The desktop experience on Windows 11 can also be customized with themes, although controlling associated noises still requires access to the Control Panel. This is anticipated to change in subsequent releases, though, as the firm intends to move the sound options to a new Soundscape page accessible via the options app’s Sound section. You can only see the entry at the moment because the page is broken, but this is yet another hidden feature.
Lastly, Microsoft also intends to incorporate the shortcut Windows + Shift + R to start the Snipping Tool in screen capture mode. Additionally, the business has stated that when the Print key is pressed on the keyboard, the default snapshot setting will be changed in future versions to open the Snipping Tool in screenshot mode.
The development team is currently working on a number of other features that you may test and enable manually in addition to these settings. One of these features is a new interface in the Settings app that allows you to build virtual hard drives (VHDX) and ReFS Dev Drives. Additionally, the business is testing a few options in the Start settings page to allow or deactivate badge notifications in the Start menu and recent websites in the Recommendation area.