The developer showcase always brings some neat announcements, but there were some we almost missed.
Source: Microsoft
Microsoft Build is the best time of year to be a Microsoft fan, and this year was no exception. We got many big announcements from the annual developer event this year, including Windows Copilot, the option to restore pinned apps across Windows 11 devices, and even Bing becoming the default search experience in ChatGPT. Beyond the huge announcements though were some smaller ones that we caught tuning into keynotes and breakout sessions. In case you missed them, we rounded up some of our favorites that might’ve flown under your radar.
1 Windows Copilot’s transcribe feature
Source: Microsoft
Microsoft talked a lot about Windows Copilot during Build this year. The initial reveal showed how the feature would be incorporated into Windows 11. It would sit on the desktop and could be useful for switching a PC over to a dark mode, listening to music on Spotify without having to open the app, and even organizing your windows, all with just simple text prompts.
However, chief product officer Panos Panay also discussed the option to transcribe audio with Windows Copilot, which really caught my attention. This has the potential to be a breathtaking feature, especially for journalists. Of course, Panay didn’t show off a live demo during a keynote — just a pre-recorded one — but the simplicity of being able to just drag and drop audio into Copilot and have it turn it all into words really deserved more fanfare.
2 Redesigned File Explorer
Source: Microsoft
The File Explorer is one of Windows’ most critical areas, so of course Windows 11 delivered a big redesign for it. But we also saw a freshly redesigned File Explorer in the teaser video for Windows Copilot. It was just a short, brief look, but it was exciting for Microsoft fans.
This had been previously reported, but Build was the first time we actually saw what it would look like. We’ll be getting a new address and search bar, file and folder actions are being moved down, and Microsoft will implement a cleaner navigation tree, just to name a few. This gives the most critical Windows 11 app a more modern look, and its reveal really slipped through the cracks at Build.
3 A new WhatsApp desktop app on Windows
Source: Microsoft
Millions of people around the world use WhatsApp, so it was surprising that Microsoft’s announcement of the WhatsApp desktop application was fairly small. Even app owner Meta made an appearance.
The app will use less battery, RAM, and CPU, and has deep OS integration so it can run in the background. The new app doesn’t require you to stay tethered to the mobile app either, so you can use it when your phone is off. Heck, there’s even support for group calling, and Meta is using Arm64 architecture to maximize app performance and add support for features like background blur in Windows Studio Effects.
4 A new option to kill apps from the Windows 11 Taskbar
Source: Microsoft
Though it’s been in testing (and hidden in the Windows 11 Canary builds for a while under a developer menu), the company is now introducing a way for you to force quit apps on the Windows 11 Taskbar. This was actually highlighted in one of Microsoft’s breakout demo sessions (and spotted by The Verge). It’s not a huge change, but it means that future versions of Windows 11 will give you fewer headaches when a specific app is misbehaving. Goodbye, Ctrl+ Alt + Delete.
5 Native support for opening archive file formats
Last up is something that Microsoft really buried deep in the main AI announcements, tucked behind a few words in a blog post penned by Panay. The exec mentioned that you can “get improved performance or archive functionality during compression on Windows.” Yup, that means native support for archive formats like rar and 7-Zip. This means you’ll have to worry less about using a third-party app for such a common unzipping task. In fact, The Verge heard from Microsoft that this should be coming soon in a new build.
There were still so many more announcements
And those are just a few of the many cool announcements we got at Build 2023. There was so much that we at XDA are looking forward to in the future on Windows. There will be native controls for RGB accessories in the settings app and even the option to restore pinned apps on your taskbar across your synced devices!
Come Build 2024, I might be paying even closer attention to see what else Microsoft is teasing right under our noses.