The newest preview construct for Home windows 11 exhibits off a brand new Settings homepage, full with recent backup capabilities for the OS.
That is construct 22631 within the Beta channel, and the Settings homepage is a serious transfer that’s been within the works for some time (it was beforehand seen in earlier check channels).
The homepage exhibits some standing particulars alongside the highest – the identify of the PC, web connection standing, and when Home windows Replace final checked for updates – and a bunch of panels with numerous bits of information beneath.
These panels (Microsoft calls them ‘playing cards’) embrace cloud storage particulars (OneDrive) – and the way full it’s – and a personalization panel that provides the flexibility to rapidly change the Home windows theme or coloration mode.
One other vital card presents up beneficial settings, offering entry to not too long ago used settings, or ones that you simply use loads based mostly in your previous historical past of tweaking Home windows 11.
Microsoft has additionally carried out panels for Xbox (with particulars like your Sport Go subscription, in case you have one), and a card for Bluetooth units to offer you fast entry to all of the peripherals you would possibly hook up wirelessly with.
The opposite large introduction here’s a revamped backup system for restoring your Home windows 11 surroundings to a brand new PC (or your present one, ought to the OS by some means crash and burn irrevocably).
The Home windows Backup app is readily available for beta testers to again up their PC. When restoring Home windows 11, the app will pull in all of your settings and customization, in addition to your pins on the taskbar and Begin menu, and Microsoft Retailer apps. (Third-party apps from elsewhere will nonetheless get their pins saved on, however you’ll be directed to obtain the related installer from the net while you first fireplace them up).
Elsewhere in construct 22631, there’s been a change to Dynamic Lighting whereby the Home windows 11 accent coloration will be synced together with your RGB peripherals, a neat little contact.
As anticipated, there are a bunch of bug fixes and different minor options, all of that are summarized in Microsoft’s weblog put up concerning the preview construct.
Evaluation: Time is of the essence
The theme right here is timesaving. The brand new Settings homepage allows you to simply modify customization parts, and alter generally used settings in a single click on, multi functional place (slightly than having to hunt in several Settings submenus, and let’s face it, these could be a little bit of a maze to navigate at occasions, maybe requiring Googling to search out issues).
One other main timesaver is the flexibility to have all of your bits and items the place you left them when restoring your PC from the Backup app. Having to redo all of your customization and pinned parts is an actual drag – a doubtlessly prolonged course of, and chances are you’ll even neglect stuff – so that is very useful.
With these options progressing to the Beta channel, they’re coming near arrival now. The subsequent step is the Launch Preview channel, and from there, it’s a brief hop to what’ll certainly be inclusion within the Home windows 11 23H2 replace due later this yr.
