Microsoft readies next Windows 11 feature drop with gaming, emoji, and lock screen updates

Windows 11 is set to gain a handful of new features and improvements in the coming weeks as part of Microsoft's continuous innovation strategy, which aims to deliver new features on a consistent basis. The latest Insider Release Preview Channel build gives us our first look at the next wave of features the company intends to roll out in the coming weeks.

The first notable change is the introduction of a dynamic emoji panel button on the Taskbar, which will appear whenever you begin typing into a text field. This should make it easier for users to discover the emoji panel if they're unaware of the already available keyboard shortcut (Win+.).

Microsoft is also reintroducing a big change for gamers on Windows 11 with the new gamepad keyboard. The feature entered testing a handful of weeks ago but was pulled to address some last-minute issues. It is now expected to begin rolling out very shortly and makes it easier to type using a controller on Windows 11.

The lock screen is also set to get a big upgrade, allowing users to customize the widgets that appear there. Up until now, those lock screen widgets have been fixed and unable to be configured by the user. Now, the user will be able to head to the Windows Settings app to choose which widgets appear there and in what order.

Microsoft is adding several features to Copilot+ PCs. For Intel or AMD-powered devices, you'll soon be able to use Windows 11's new real-time language translation feature, and Snapdragon PCs will soon have access to a new natural language feature in voice access that lets you talk to the voice access feature like a human.

Here's the complete list of new features provided by Microsoft:

• New! We are enhancing communication on AMD and Intel®-powered Copilot+ PCs with live captions and real-time translation. This change brings the ability in live captions to translate more than 44 languages into English, including speakers in real-time video calls, recordings and streamed content.
• New! On Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs, we’re bringing the ability to do real-time translation to Chinese (Simplified). Supported languages include 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.
• New! With this update, we will gradually make available the Settings homepage for commercial customers on PCs managed by an IT administrator. The feature will show some existing cards relevant to enterprise-managed PCs like “Recommended settings” and “Bluetooth devices” as well as two new enterprise-specific device info and accessibility preferences cards

• New! We are rolling out “top cards” under Settings > System > About. These top cards provide an easy way to view your PC’s key specifications—processor, RAM, storage, and GPU—helping you understand your PC’s capabilities at-a-glance.
• New! Natural Language Commanding in voice access provides users with the flexibility to speak commands naturally, using filler words and synonyms, rather than rigid, predefined commands. Available initially on Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs.
• New! We are introducing Chinese support for voice access. You can now use Voice access to navigate, dictate, and interact with Windows using voice commands in Simplified Chinese (zh-cn) and Traditional Chinese (zh-tw).

• New! A new experience to improve the discoverability of the emoji and more panel in Windows 11 with the introduction of a new system tray icon on the taskbar.
• New! We are changing the way Task Manager calculates CPU utilization for the Processes, Performance, and Users pages. Task Manager will now use the standard metrics to display CPU workload consistently across all pages and aligning with industry standards and third-party tools. For backward compatibility, a new optional column called CPU Utility is available (hidden by default) on the Details tab showing the previous CPU value used on the Processes page.
• New! Introducing the ability for web developers to easily utilize their existing web content to build dynamic and interactive widgets that can be added to the widgets surfaces in Windows 11.

• New! We’re bringing support for lock screen widgets to devices in the European Economic Area (EEA). You can add, remove, and rearrange lock screen widgets such as Weather, Watchlist, Sports, Traffic, and more. Any widget that supports the small sizing option can be added here. To customize your lock screen widgets, navigate to Settings > Personalization > Lock screen.
• New! We have enabled the Gamepad keyboard layout for the touch keyboard in Windows 11. This change introduces the ability to use your Xbox controller to navigate and type. This includes button accelerators (example: X button for backspace, Y button for spacebar) additionally the keyboard keys have been vertically aligned for better controller navigation patterns.

With these features now in testing in the Windows Insider Release Preview Channel, that usually means the company intends to begin rolling these out broadly in the next handful of weeks, likely beginning with the April Patch Tuesday updates.

Of course, as is always the case with new Windows 11 features, these do roll out gradually, so you may not see them all right away once rollout begins. If you want to try these new features out today, you can join the Windows Insider Release Preview channel.