Microsoft published a new release preview build for its Windows 11 operating system on August 14, 2026. The changes in these builds will find their way into the previews for the September 2026 update for the operating system. Most users will receive them on September 8 or later, as rollouts to stable systems begin on that date.
The big new feature, or should I say old feature, of the release brings back some of the taskbar customizations that Microsoft removed when it released Windows 11 about five years ago.
Windows 11 users who install the update on their device will regain the option to snap the taskbar to any screen edge. Up until now, Windows 11 limited this to the bottom position on the screen. Third-party workarounds and hacks offered options to bypass this restriction, but sometimes at the expense of stability.
The second taskbar related change introduces the option to make the entire taskbar slimmer to free up a few pixels for other content on the screen.
To manage these, do the following once the feature becomes available:
- Taskbar position: Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors > Taskbar position.
- Taskbar size: Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors > Taskbar size.
The update includes several other changes that are noteworthy:
- Start menu: pick between a large and small Start menu under Settings > Personalization > Start > Start menu size.
- Start menu Recommended: is renamed to Recent.
- Hide the name and profile picture in Start under Settings > Personalization > Start > Hide your name and profile picture on Start.
- Hide or show Pinned, Recent and All individually.
- Windows Search offers better hints about the type of result, e.g., app, setting, files, or web results.
- Option to disable Web and Microsoft Store suggestions in Windows Search under Settings > Privacy & security > Search.
- Windows indexes the most used folders automatically, which you can stop under Settings > Privacy & security > Search > Automatically find additional relevant locations.
- File Explorer Home should launch faster and is more responsive.
- Update progress indicators are shown throughout Windows for a “more consistent and modern experience”.
- Administrator Protection is introduced to “protect free-floating admin rights for administrators”.
- Switching between virtual desktops is now “smoother and more responsive”.
- Reliability improvements.
You can check out the full list here.
We want control of the start menu back. 🙄
M$ continues to ignore it’s users and focus on advertising and data collection revenue while Linux OS’s like ZorinOS continue to get easier to migrate to and more user friendly by adding features we actually use like the “r-click pin to dash”.
If not for my focus on cutting edge pc game graphics I would happily get rid of windows completely.
Guess it’s all good and fine, but I don’t use any of the features noted as being “improved.”
The Start Menu–never has been an issue since I use a third party replacement; indexing is turned off in lieu of using a third party replacement for file searching; maybe once or twice have I used the MS Store; update indicators, virtual desktops, etc.?
Reliability–I can say Windows 11 has been more reliable, but I’m not so sure if it’s Windows; I think it’s because I stopped “cleaning” all the junk files from the computer by using three reputable programs to presumably make the drive squeaky clean.
In reality, I would say those cleaners were vaporizing essential files for updates and OS stability. And I don’t goof around tweaking settings in the registry much anymore. Since I stopped all that nonsense, the OS runs much better.