Microsoft released a new Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22509 to the dev channel, and it’s already available to download. The new build comes with a “good set of improvements including new layout options for Start, clock and date will now show on secondary monitors, and Settings changes”, says the blog post.

Many people complained that basic things such as the clock weren’t visible on secondary monitors when a user connected multiple monitors. This was particularly frustrating for a lot of power users, since Windows 10 and even macOS show the time and date by default on all monitors.

Windows 11 Start menu changes build 22509

Source: Microsoft

The Start menu has also received a few changes, and the layout is ever so slightly more flexible this time around. Users will now have the ability to configure the Start menu to either show more pinner apps or more recent documents and recommendations. While this still isn’t a fully configurable Start menu, it’s one step in the right direction.

Microsoft also added more Control Panel settings in the Settings app, adding things such as Network discovery, File and printer sharing, and public folder sharing in a new page under Advanced Network Settings.

It’s great to see Microsoft listening to direct feedback and improving the operating system, but this won’t be enough to encourage more users to make the switch to it. According to recently published research, only 0.21% of all Windows users have updated to Windows 11. You may argue that it’s still a large number of people since there are billions of Windows devices out there, but the adoption rate has been very low compared to Windows 7 and Windows 10. The TPM and CPU requirement may be one reason to blame for the low adoption rate, and the report also claims that Windows XP is on 3.62% of devices, whereas Windows 11 stands at a measly 0.95% of the devices.

Here are all of the changes and improvements that Microsoft added in the latest Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22509:

  • Starting in this build, you can right-click on Start to quickly access Start settings and choose the “More pins” or “More recommendations” layout option to show an extra row of either pins or recommendations, respectively.
  • When a secondary monitor is connected, your clock and date will now also be displayed on the taskbars of the secondary monitor or monitors for glanceability. [We are beginning to roll this change out, so it isn’t available to all Insiders just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.]
  • For apps that send notifications for calls, reminders, or alarms that leverage Windows notifications in the OS, 3 high priority notifications will now be shown as stacked and shown at the same time. This means at any given time, you might see up to 4 notifications at the same time – 3 high priority notifications and one normal priority notification. [We are beginning to roll this change out, so it isn’t available to all Insiders just yet as we plan to monitor feedback and see how it lands before pushing it out to everyone.]
  • As part of our ongoing effort to bring over settings from Control Panel into the Settings app:
    • We have moved the advanced sharing settings (such as Network discovery, File and printer sharing, and public folder sharing) to a new page in Settings app under Advanced Network Settings.
    • We’ve made some updates to the device specific pages under Printers & Scanners in Settings to show more information about your printer or scanner directly in Settings when available.
    • Some of the entry points for network and devices settings in Control Panel will now redirect to the corresponding pages in Settings.
  • Added a new option to the Installed Apps page in Settings to sort the list from Name (Z to A), and accordingly, updated the previous “Alphabetically” option to now be called Name (A to Z).
  • We’ll now remember if you turn on Bluetooth or Wi-Fi while in airplane mode. Next time you use airplane mode, the radios will reflect your preference and stay on to make it easier to keep listening to headphones and remain connected while travelling.
  • Windows Sandbox now supports reboot inside of its virtualized environment (for example, if you were to click the Restart option under the Power button in Start).