June 24th has come and gone. Thankfully, Microsoft has fulfilled upon its promise of details regarding the upcoming version of the Windows Operating System. The cancelled Windows 10X, and Windows 10 Sun Valley projects, have been replaced by Windows 11. The day before the announcement, I had the happy opportunity to try out the leaked build in a Virtual Machine. Here’s Microsoft’s YouTube video introducing Windows 11:
And here’s a 60-second summary of the June 24th Event, also released by Microsoft.
Here are the main points to remember:
All-new appearance
The appearance of Windows 11 resembles a cross between Windows 10X and the Sun Valley interface, with maybe one or two whole new things showing up. Perhaps the most immediately noticeable difference is that the Start button and Taskbar icons are now positioned at the center, rather than the left hand side. Don’t worry… you can change this back if you like. There’s also a widgets flyout, all-new themes, and a few of the apps have been totally redesigned.
New Microsoft Store
There’s going to be an all-new Microsoft Store on Windows 11 – with Android Apps as well. Yes, Android Apps on Windows 11, through the Amazon Appstore, which brings apps like TikTok and Kindle to Windows! That’s not all, though: Microsoft is going to allow app developers to use their own commerce engines within the Microsoft Store – and if they use the Microsoft Commerce Engine, Microsoft will only take a 15% cut from their profit, compared to Apple’s 30%. If a developer uses their own commerce engine, Microsoft takes 0%! Another important thing to note is that now, Win32 apps can also be distributed through the store. Microsoft, at the event, did flash Zoom showing up in the store for a second, so that’s rather exciting!
MS Teams integration
This one hasn’t showed up in the Insider Preview build yet, but based on the released information, it looks like there’s going to be a videochat icon on the taskbar which will allow you to instantly chat or meet with your Teams contacts. For Microsoft, this is a very strategic way to get lots of people to use Microsoft Teams.
Here are a few other minor points to notice:
The Taskbar can now only be positioned at the bottom of the screen.
Tablet mode has been completely removed from Windows 11.
The right side of the Taskbar looks a lot like Chrome OS now. The Action Center has been replaced by two separate Quick Actions and Notifications panels. The Quick Actions panel has some very strong Chrome OS vibes…
That’s all for now, and see you next Windows Update!
