Microsoft confirms next Windows 11 feature drop with new Taskbar, Emoji, and Settings updates — here’s what’s coming to your PC very soon

Microsoft has issued a new Windows 11 Release Preview build which gives us our first look at the next feature drop that the company is expected to begin rolling out in the next handful of weeks. This next wave of features is all about quality of life improvements, with Taskbar updates and new Emoji headlining the release.

Windows 11 receives new feature drops on a monthly cadence as part of Microsoft’s “Continuous Innovation” update strategy, which see’s new features ship when they’re ready instead of annually as part of a larger Windows version update.

This next wave of new features includes the new Emoji 16.0 release, which adds a handful of new emoji’s such as a fingerprint emoji, harp emoji, and shovel emoji. These new emoji’s will appear in the Emoji panel on Windows 11, which can be accessed with the Win+. keyboard combination.

Also new in this next feature drop are improvements to the Taskbar. Microsoft is adding a built-in network speed test shortcut to the Taskbar, which can be accessed by right-clicking the network icon in the system tray. This release also brings in-box Sysmon support, though the feature is disabled by default.