Windows 11 24H2 gets a more streamlined taskbar and some much-needed bug fixes in Microsoft’s latest update

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• Windows 11 24H2 just got a new optional update (still in testing)
• It makes useful tweaks to the taskbar, Start menu, File Explorer and more
• Microsoft also provides fixes for a range of bugs in this preview release

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Windows 11 24H2 has just received an optional update which comes with some useful tweaks to the interface.

This is patch KB5046740 and it’s in preview – so as ever, you might come across glitches if you install it – and the main changes on the desktop are applied to the taskbar and Start menu.

Beginning with the taskbar, Microsoft has streamlined the system tray – on the far right of the bar – with the date and time being displayed in a more compact fashion. The year is no longer shown (as, let’s face it, that’s pretty much redundant anyway), so you only see the day and month for the date, allowing for the time and date to be shown in a small square (instead of the longer rectangle needed to also fit the year in).

The overall effect is a more neatly-sized system tray, especially when you consider that Microsoft has also made it so that when ‘Do not disturb’ mode is on, the bell icon (for notifications) no longer appears in the tray. Again, that saves space and you can still open the notifications center by clicking on the date and time area.

On top of that, a taskbar bug has been fixed whereby if you have the bar set to ‘automatically hide,’ the search box turns into an icon.

As Windows Latest, which spotted all these changes, also points out, Microsoft has tinkered with the Start menu so that you can right click on pinned apps to produce a jump list.

If you’re not familiar with the jump list, it offers quick access to common functions used with the app in question, or files that’ve been recently opened by the app – it’s basically a handy bank of shortcuts.

Elsewhere, KB5046740 adds a fresh bit of functionality to File Explorer’s context menu, so when you right click on a file, there’s a new Phone link option – selecting this shares the file in question to your smartphone. Also with File Explorer, Microsoft has fixed a bug which caused some weirdness with too much spacing between the icons in the left panel.

In fact, a collection of bug fixes is applied here, including the cure for a Windows Update fail, and the resolution of a problem where the Windows clipboard history got deleted, leaving it blank.

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Analysis: An option you should probably pass on

It’s worth noting that with those tweaks to the system tray in the taskbar, if you don’t like the new space-saving measures, you can turn them off and revert to normal (displaying the full date, with year) if you wish.

This update represents a solid polish of the Windows 11 interface, and also applies a raft of bug fixes which are handy, too. Speaking of bugs, however, we should remind you that this is a preview update, and as such, still in testing – so it could have glitches of its own (or said bug fixes may not work, or they could have unintended side effects).

For this reason, we generally recommend steering clear of preview updates, unless you’re really desperate to get the functionality therein. Just think of them as a glimpse of what you’re going to get soon, anyway, because this update will become the December patch for Windows 11 next month (in just over two weeks, on December 10, in fact).

If you follow Microsoft’s update schedule closely, like us, then you’ll likely recall that in December, the company takes a break for the holidays, so while there’s a main cumulative update issued (on December 10, as noted), there’s no preview or optional update for Windows 11 coming later in December. The next release will be the finished patch for January, which will likely be a minor affair.

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