Last week, Microsoft released a new Windows 11 preview build in the Beta Channel. It introduced some interesting changes, including a simplified tray area that lets you turn off the notification bell icon and switch to a shorter date/time format. Sadly, as often happens in the Windows Insider program, Microsoft had to pause the rollout of that feature.
Although the build itself is still available for everyone to download, the simplified tray area is no longer rolling out. In a now-updated blog post, Microsoft says it turned off the updated tray due to unnamed issues:
We have temporarily disabled the more simplified system tray with shortened date/time change to address several issues. We will begin re-enabling this in a future flight.
Here is how Microsoft describes the now-disabled (temporarily) change:
We are trying out a more simplified system tray to highlight the date/time in a shortened form and to show the notifications bell icon based on DND status. Without the notification bell icon, you can get to your notifications by clicking the date and time to Notification Center.
You can revert to the long form of the date/time and bell icon visuals by toggling the values in the Settings via Settings > Date and Time under “Show time and day in the system tray” and Settings > System > Notifications under “Notifications”. These settings are also accessible through the context menu shown by right clicking the system tray clock/bell icon button.
The updated tray area appears to be the only feature Microsoft reverted in build 22635.3930. Other changes are still available (some are rolling out gradually and require force-enabling with the ViVeTool app for those who do not want to wait). Those include taskbar thumbnail animations, shared content in File Explorer, new taskbar shortcuts, and more. You can learn more about Windows 11 build 22635.3930 in our dedicated coverage.
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