Windows 11's Future Is Already Here: 9 Insider Features Every Windows User Should Care About

1) The taskbar can finally move. Windows 11 removed taskbar repositioning at launch, and users have complained since 2021. Now Settings > Personalization > Taskbar adds a position selector: bottom, top, left, or right. Icons auto-shrink when docked left or right. On top, you can choose left-aligned or centered. Search box, Copilot button, auto-hide, and touch-optimized mode don't work in non-bottom positions yet — but the direction is right. 2) Smaller Taskbar mode shrinks icons and taskbar height together, freeing up screen real estate for laptop and small-display users. 3) The Start menu finally supports manual resizing in three sizes: small, large, and auto (default). Three independent toggles let you show/hide Pinned, Recent, and All apps separately. You can also hide your name and avatar. 4) The search box now supports substring matching — type 'april' to find 'MeetingNotesApril'. File and app results also rank higher than Bing web results. 5) Widget notification badges now follow the system accent color instead of the default red. Microsoft is also testing engagement-based quieting: frequent users stay the same, occasional users get badges disabled by default. 6) Fluid Dictation auto-corrects grammar, punctuation, and filler words on-device via a small language model — no cloud upload. Available in Spanish and French (English was already supported). 7) Boot, update, and shutdown spinner animations are now unified into a consistent donut spinner with matching status text. 8) Performance improvements in Build 26300.8493: login optimization (rolling out gradually), multi-desktop switching lag fix, SSDP service reliability fix, DISM command fixes, and a fix for PCs waking from sleep after updates. 9) The Win+R Run dialog bug (arrow keys not cycling history on first open) is fixed. The Start settings page has been completely redesigned with all toggles visible at a glance.

If you're an Insider, go to Settings > Windows Update > Windows Insider Program > Feature Toggles to enable these changes now. Otherwise, look forward to the 26H2 stable release.