Windows 11 is always evolving, and now that Microsoft is aiming to roll out features more than once a year, we’re going see changes more frequently. Microsoft is now testing an update to the Start Menu.

Microsoft released Windows 11 Build 22621.1483 (KB5023778) to Windows Insiders in the Preview Release Channel. There are a few changes here that haven’t appeared in the other channels yet (like Dev and Canary), which is a bit strange, considering the Release Preview Channel is supposed to be the final round of testing before a change rolls out to everyone.

This update adds notifications for your Microsoft account in the Start Menu, which appear above the Lock and Sign out buttons when clicking your profile picture. The example Microsoft provided shows an alert for backing up your files. Windows 11 already shows similar alerts in the Settings app and notification tray, but now you might see them in yet another place.

The blog post explains, “This is only available to a small audience right now. It will deploy more broadly in the coming months. Some devices might notice different visual treatments as we gather feedback.”

Microsoft is also testing a button in the search bar in the taskbar that directly opens the Bing Chat experience in Microsoft Edge, and a lighter color for the search bar when you set Windows to a custom color mode. The rest of the Preview Release Channel build is mostly just bug fixes.

Since the changes are already in the Preview Release Channel, they could roll out to all Windows 11 PCs in as soon as a few weeks from now.

Source: Windows Blog