Microsoft has quietly started screening an intriguing improve to the Home windows 11 Start off menu that could introduce a floating panel entire of “companion” widgets. Windows watcher Albacore uncovered the new Begin menu attribute in the most current take a look at versions of Home windows 11 that Microsoft has introduced publicly.
Whilst Microsoft has not but introduced this function, the “Start menu Companions” show up to be a way to allow for developers to increase the Home windows 11 Begin menu with widget-like features that life inside of a floating island that can be docked following to the Commence menu. It seems to be like developers will be in a position to develop applications that give widget-like info by way of adaptive playing cards — a system-agnostic way of displaying UI blocks of details.
These companions will be configurable in the most important Home windows 11 Configurations part, with the capacity to set up numerous companions and toggles to empower or disable them. Albacore mentions that these companions appear to be incredibly world wide web-centric, much like the widgets inside of Windows 11.
If Microsoft decides to move forward with this Commence menu aspect, it could be the respond to to the reduction of the Dwell Tiles that were eliminated in Windows 10X and Home windows 11. Reside Tiles, the animated and flipping icons from the Windows Phone times, made available widget-like details on the Start out menu but weren’t extensively supported by application developers. Microsoft initially introduced them in Windows 8, again when the enterprise was making an attempt to bridge the hole with its Windows Cellphone OS. Live Tiles ended up made to be “glance and go,” so you could swiftly seem at a phone or Get started menu and see the information you needed.
