Windows 11 Feature Tracker: April 15, 2025 (Premium)

For this first version of the Windows 11 Feature Tracker, I’m expanding on the list I had previously created in multiple ways. This tracker documents the features Microsoft has been testing in Windows 11 since January in the Canary, Beta, and Release Preview channels, the features it has been testing in Dev since last September, and the new standalone app features it’s been testing since January.

This kind of thing is, by definition, incomplete. But please let me know if I’m missing anything important, or if anything listed as being unreleased is, in fact, available publicly.

Key:

• ? All Windows 11 PCs
• ? Copilot+ PCs only
• ? Microsoft account required
• ? Microsoft 365 or Copilot Pro subscription required
• ? EEA only
• ? New to this list since my original write-up or not otherwise included in that article

? Features in testing but not yet released in stable

This list is incomplete, but it indicates that there are still at least two dozen major new Windows 11 features that Microsoft is testing but has yet to release to the public in stable (the General Availability channel).

? Click to Do (Preview)

First availability: Dev channel build 26120.2510, December 6, 2024
Requirements: Copilot+ PC (Snapdragon X or x64)

This feature lets you interact with on-screen text or images using Actions.

Available text actions include: Copy (to Clipboard), Open with, Search the web, Ask Copilot, Summarize, Create a bulleted list, and Rewrite (with Casual, Formal, and Refine options).

Available image actions include Copy (to Clipboard), Save, Share, Open with, Ask Copilot, Visual Search with Bing, Blur background with Photos, Erase objects with Photos, and Remove objects with Paint.

This feature is tied to the Settings: App Actions feature noted below.

?? Copilot in Windows 11: Keyboard shortcut

First availability: Beta channel build 22635.5160, March 31, 2025
Requirements: n/a

You can once again launch Copilot in Windows 11 using the Windows Key + C keyboard shortcut. As with the physical Copilot key, you can customize what this does to a limited degree in Settings > Personalization > Text input. You can also press and hold Windows Key + C for two seconds to toggle Copilot’s Press to talk feature (see below).

?? Copilot in Windows 11: Press to talk

First availability: All Insider channels, March 10
Requirements: n/a

Press to talk lets you interact with Copilot in Windows 11 using your voice. Just press one of the following shortcuts for two seconds to enable this feature:

• Copilot key
• Alt + Spacebar
• Per above, Windows Key + C

To disable Press to talk, tap the Esc key.

? File Explorer: Recommended files

First availability: Dev channel build 26120.3380, March 10, 2025
Requirements: n/a

This will replace the Quick access section in File Explorer Home (but not Quick access in the File Explorer navigation pane).

? File Explorer: Shared tab in Home

First availability: Dev channel build 26120.1843 (late September 2024)
Requirements: Microsoft account sign-in, all Windows 11 product editions

This tab will display files that others have shared with you through OneDrive and your Microsoft account.

? Microsoft account: Recovery notification

First availability: Dev channel build 26120.3380, March 10, 2025
Requirements: Microsoft account sign-in, all product editions

Windows 11 will display a notification banner if your Microsoft account lacks a secondary email or recovery phone number.

?? Narrator: Speech recap

First availability: Beta channel build 22635.5160, March 31, 2025
Requirements: n/a

Speech recap helps you keep track of what Narrator previously said. You can use this feature to access spoken content, follow along with live transcriptions, and copy what Narrator last said to the Clipboard. Each of these features has an associated keyboard shortcut.

?? Notepad improvements

First availability: Canary and Dev channels, March 13, 2025
Requirements: Summarize feature requires Microsoft account and a Microsoft 365 consumer or Copilot Pro subscription

Notepad is getting two new features:

• Recent files. A new “Recent” item in the File menu displays a sub-menu with recently accessed documents.
• Summarize. You can select text in a document, right-click, and choose Summarize from the context menu (or type Ctrl + M, or select “Summarize” from the Copilot menu) to generate a summary and customize it to length.

This update came to the Beta and Release Preview channels on March 20, 2025.

? OneDrive: Resume from phone

First availability: Dev channel build 26120.3281, February 14, 2025
Requirements: Microsoft account

OneDrive will display a notification banner if you were previously working on a file in the OneDrive mobile app on a smartphone.

?? Paint: Cocreator improvements

First availability: Canary and Dev channels, March 17, 2025
Requirements: Copilot+ PC

The Cocreator side panel is simplified and more intuitive, with a new Creativity slider, Select style drop-down, and Try again button.

This feature came to the Beta and Release Preview channels on March 20, 2025.

?? Photos

First availability: All Insider channels, March 24, 2025
Requirements: n/a

The Photos app is testing several new features.

• The Scan text feature recognizes text in images and supports over 160 languages. It supports three text actions: Copy text (to Clipboard), Select all text, and, now, Search in web with Bing.
• New “Show subfolders” and “Hide subfolders” items in the Filters menu.
• New Copilot button in the toolbar so you can share photos to Copilot and get editing tips, image insights, and framing suggestions.
• JXL file format support.

?? Quick Machine Recovery

First availability: Beta channel build 26120.3671, April 3, 2025
Requirements: n/a

Microsoft announced Quick Machine Recovery (QMR) as part of its Windows Resiliency Initiative at Ignite 2024 last November.

You can learn more about this new system recovery option here.

? Recall (Preview)

First availability: Dev channel build 26120.2415, November 22, 2024
Requirements: Copilot+ PC (Snapdragon X or x64)

Originally the marquee feature of Copilot+ PCs–that title goes to Click to Do, now–Recall runs in the background and captures images of your activities so that you can later find and jump back into what you were doing previously.

? Settings: App Actions

First availability: Dev channel build 26120.3576, March 17, 2025
Requirements: Copilot+ PC (Snapdragon X or x64)

App Actions help Copilot in Windows 11 interact with Microsoft and, over time, third-party Windows apps. (A related Copilot Actions feature was announced at Microsoft’s April consumer AI event that helps Copilot interact with third-party web apps and services.)

This feature is tied to Click to Do, above. If you don’t want to see the built-in actions for Paint and Photos (and, later, other apps) when using Click to Do, you can disable them here.

?? Settings > System About

First availability: Beta channel build 22635.5160, March 31, 2025
Requirements: n/a

The System > About page in Settings now displays a “Frequently Asked Questions” section so you can “make informed decisions about your PC with ease.”

?? Share: Drag tray

First availability: Dev channel 26200.5518, April 3, 2025
Requirements: n/a

When you start dragging a local (non-cloud-hosted) file, Explorer will display a new Drag tray at the top of the screen so you can drop it into one of the displayed app icons or the “More…” icon to open the Share pane.

?? Share: Edit a shared image

First availability: Beta channel build 22635.5160, March 31, 2025
Requirements: n/a

When sharing an image file, the Share pane will display an “Edit” button to access “in-line image editing capabilities, such as cropping, rotating, and applying filters, as well as the ability to compress images to reduce file size for easier sharing.”

? Share: Share directly to supported apps

First availability: Dev channel build 26120.3360, February 28, 2025
Requirements: n/a

This feature lets you select one or more files in Explorer, right-click, and then choose File > app name to share directly to a supported app instead of first invoking the system Share pane.

? Snap: Inline messaging for Snap suggestions

First availability: Dev channel build 26120.3281, February 14, 2025
Requirements: n/a

The Snap flyouts now display informational text about Snap suggestions for user education.

?? Snipping tool improvements

First availability: Canary and Dev channels, March 13, 2025
Requirements: n/a

Snipping Tool gets two new features:

• Draw & hold. When using the Ballpoint pen to mark up an image, you can now draw a line, arrow, rectangle, or oval and hold the mouse cursor still for a moment to convert the hand drawn lines into well-formed lines or shapes. You can then resize, move, or adjust the line or shape as needed.
• API support for developers. Developers can now invoke individual Snipping Tool features–instead of the whole app–from their own apps. You can learn more about this feature on the Microsoft Learn website.

This update came to the Beta and Release Preview channels on March 20, 2025.

? Start: Snap group recommendations

First availability: Dev channel build 26120.3380, March 10, 2025
Requirements: n/a

The Recommendation section in Start will display Snap group recommendations in addition to previous recommendation types.

?? Start: Show mobile device in Start

First availability: Dev and Beta channels, January 28, 2025
Requirements: n/a

Phone Link now integrates with the Start menu via a separate pane that appears to the right. This pane lets you connect an Android phone or iPhone to the PC, see a few phone features directly (connectivity, Bluetooth, battery life), access a few Phone Link features (Messages and Calls for all phones, plus Photos for Android phones), view three recent items, and share files from the phone.

? System tray: Improved battery display

First availability: Dev channel build 26120.3000, January 24, 2025
Requirements: n/a

The battery icon in the system tray supports two new features. It will use a green or yellow color to indicate the battery status when charging. And you can optionally enable a battery percentage display next to the battery icon.

?? Taskbar: Icon scaling

First availability: Beta channel build 26120.3671 and Dev channel build 26200.5518, April 3, 2025
Requirements: n/a

The Taskbar will now auto-scale depending on how many icons it is displaying. There is also a new option in Taskbar settings to configure how/when icon scaling occurs: When taskbar is full (the default), Never, or Always.

? Windows Hello: Modern user experience

First availability: Beta channel build 22635.4440, November 1, 2024
Requirements: n/a

Microsoft announced a more modern new Windows Hello user experience as part of its Windows Resiliency Initiative at Ignite 2024 last November. But it had previously previewed the experience in the Beta channel before bringing it to the Canary channel on November 20. It then landed in the Dev channel on November 22.

? New features released today in stable

It’s Patch Tuesday, so Microsoft announced the latest monthly cumulative update, KB5055523, a so-called quality update with numerous new features, especially for Copilot+ PCs, and security updates. Here’s what’s new from the tracker.

? Live captions: Real-time language translation

First availability: Dev channel build 26120.2705, December 18, 2024
Requirements: Copilot+ PC
Type of deployment: Controlled Feature Release (CFR)

Previously available on Snapdragon X-based Copilot+ PCs, you can now get real-time translations of 44 languages into English in Live captions.

Those with Snapdragon X-based Copilot+ PCs can now get real-time translation of 26 languages–Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, German, Greek, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish, and Swedish–into Chinese (Simplified) as well.

There was an update to this feature in the Dev channel on March 10, 2025.

? Lock screen: Lock screen widget configuration

First availability: Dev channel build 26120.3360, February 28, 2025
Requirements: European Economic Area (EEA) only, all product editions
Type of deployment: Controlled Feature Release (CFR)

Windows 11 users in the EEA can now configure which (if any) widgets–Weather, News, Finance, and/or Sports–appear on the Lock screen.

? On-screen Keyboard: Gamepad layout

First availability: Dev channel build 26120.2130, October 18, 2024
Requirements: n/a
Type of deployment: Controlled Feature Release (CFR)

This update adds a Gamepad layout to the on-screen (virtual) keyboard.

? Paint: Cocreator

First availability: Dev channel build 26120.2510, December 6, 2024
Requirements: x64 Copilot+ PC

This feature shipped in stable for Snapdragon X-based Copilot+ PCs in June 2024.

? Photos: Restyle image and Image creator

First availability: Dev channel build 26120.2510, December 6, 2024
Requirements: x64 Copilot+ PC

These features shipped in stable for Snapdragon X-based Copilot+ PCs in June 2024.

? Search: AI-powered search

First availability: Dev channel build 26120.2992, January 17, 2025
Requirements: Snapdragon X Copilot+ PC
Type of deployment: Controlled Feature Release (CFR)

This feature received several updates over several pre-release builds between January and March 2025. It is now rolling out in stable on Snapdragon X-based Copilot+ PCs only with support for:

• Document, photo, and settings search in Search and File Explorer
• Cloud-only OneDrive-based photo search in File Explorer

You can learn more about this feature on Microsoft Support.

? Settings: System > About

First availability: Dev channel build 26120.3380, March 10, 2025
Requirements: n/a
Type of deployment: Controlled Feature Release (CFR)

The System > About page in Settings now displays “Top cards” for system components like storage, graphics card, installed RAM, and processor.

? System tray: Emoji and more icon

First availability: Dev channel build 26120.3380, March 10, 2025
Requirements: n/a
Type of deployment: Controlled Feature Release (CFR)

Windows 11 now displays an icon for the Emoji and more pane in the Taskbar system tray.

? System tray: Windows Studio Effects icon

First availability: Dev channel 26120.2200, October 25, 2025
Requirements: Copilot+ PC
Type of deployment: Controlled Feature Release (CFR)

Windows 11 now displays an icon for Windows Studio Effects in the Taskbar system tray when you are using an app that accesses the camera. When you click this icon, Quick settings appears with the Studio effects page open so you can interact with each of the available effects.

? Voice access: Natural language commands

First availability: Dev channel build
Requirements: Snapdragon X Copilot+ PC
Type of deployment: Controlled Feature Release (CFR)

Voice access normally supports what Microsoft calls “rigid, predefined commands.” But those with Snapdragon X-based Copilot+ PCs can now use a new Voice access feature called Natural language commanding to speak commands naturally, using filler words and synonyms too.

Voice access also supports Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese now, too, across all Windows 11 PCs.