I never knew I needed this Windows 11 feature until Microsoft snuck it into testing

What you need to know

• Microsoft is working on a new feature in Windows 11 that allows you to drag an app from Windows Search to the Taskbar.
• Dragging an app into the Taskbar allows you to pin that app.
• Similar functionality already exists within Windows 11, but it requires you to drag an item from the Start menu's all apps list or pinned section rather than from Windows Search.

Pinning apps to the Windows 11 Taskbar could soon be a bit easier. Microsoft is working on a feature that allows you to drag an app from Windows Search into the Taskbar to pin that app. It's already possible to drag an item to the Taskbar to pin that app, but doing so requires dragging the app from the Pinned section of Start or from the Start menu's all apps list.

X (formerly Twitter) user phantomofearth discovered the change and shared a video of the feature in action. The most recent Canary build of Windows 11 includes the option. The feature is also rolling out to the Dev and Beta channels. The change is an undocumented one, so it may be a while before it ships to Windows 11. Microsoft could also decide against ever rolling it out.

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Return of the Taskbar

If you aren't a Windows Insider and can't wait to try new Taskbar features, you're still in luck. Windows 11 version 24H2, which is now available, includes several changes to the Taskbar and Start menu. For example, after using the "Windows key + T" keyboard shortcut, you can now type a letter on your keyboard to jump to an app that starts with that same letter. If you have multiple apps that begin with the same letter, you can toggle between them by pressing the letter key repeatedly.

That same Windows update makes a controversial change to the Start menu as well. Starting with Windows 11 version 24H2, the "Recommended" section of the Start menu can promote apps from the Microsoft Store. It is possible, however, to disable that behavior.

The Taskbar on Windows 11 has been through quite a journey. When Microsoft shifted from Windows 10 to Windows 11, the tech giant rewrote large parts of the operating system. As a result, some features that were only used by a small subset of users were removed. That's why you can't drag the Taskbar to the top of your desktop (unless you use an app like Start11).

Microsoft has added some features back to the Windows 11 Taskbar over the years, such as the ability to ungroup Taskbar items. The company has also rolled out new features that make the element of Windows more useful. Dragging an item from Windows Search into the Taskbar feels like a feature that always should have been in Windows 11, so I'm glad to see it in testing.

The rollout of the new Taskbar features spotted by phatntomofearth is somewhat more noteworthy because Microsoft did not release any new builds to Windows Insiders last week. Perhaps those at Microsoft were busy catching up on all the announcements from IFA 2024. Despite the lack of new builds, Windows 11 Insiders gained some new features, even if unnoted.