Windows 11 is due another monthly update in a week, and this February release will pack some notable new features.
Rolling out on February 10, this next update promises functionality which allows you to resume using more apps from your Android phone on the desktop of your PC, and a nifty security feature has been made more viable to use, among other additions.
1. Smart App Control finally works as it should for enablement
As previously seen in preview builds, Windows 11 is getting the ability to be able to turn on (or disable) Smart App Control at will.
In case you’re not familiar with Smart App Control (SAC), it’s a security feature that scrutinizes any app being installed on the PC, checking the software against Microsoft‘s threat intelligence database. If the system finds anything suspicious with an app, it’ll flag this up and block you from installing it, possibly saving you from a lot of malware-related heartache later on.
The problem with this feature was that if you ever turned it off, you couldn’t reenable it – not without reinstalling Windows 11. Why? I explain that in more depth here, but needless to say, if you didn’t realize this was the case, you could end up losing a useful feature when you temporarily turned it off to get around a false positive (an app detected as potentially problematic, but one you’re sure is actually safe).
After the February update, you’ll be able to turn this feature on or off at will, in a much saner fashion than was the case before. This is important, as SAC is a useful security feature, and being able to accidentally ‘lose’ it was a mystifying sting in the tail for this ability.
2. Cross-device resume comes to more apps
As the name suggests, this is a feature that lets you pick up where you left off, and resume what you were doing in an Android app when you get to your Windows 11 PC.
Cross-device resume is already available for Spotify, Office apps (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) along with certain browsers. In the case of the latter, on your smartphone, Microsoft Edge was already supported (naturally) along with Samsung‘s browser, and now with the February update, the Vivo Browser is, too.
Those using Samsung smartphones, as well as Honor, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi handsets, are also getting the ability to resume any files opened in the Copilot app (files that are stored online, that is).
These are useful extra powers, and I’m expecting that the choice to resume using files on your PC in this way is going to be gracing a lot more apps this year.
3. Voice Access and typing bolstered
Voice Access is getting a new wizard to make it easier to set up this powerful Windows 11 functionality, which will be useful for novices to this feature. Furthermore, with voice typing, the February update is bringing in the facility to let you specify the waiting time before a voice command is run (so it can be near-instant, should you wish, or you can have a lengthy pause before execution).
4. File Explorer gets a niche speed boost – but I’ll take any boosts, frankly
While this is an improvement rather than a new feature, I think it’s worth mentioning that File Explorer – the app behind your desktop files and folders – is getting a performance boost.
File Explorer is well known for being one of the most problematic parts of Windows 11 in terms of sluggishness – I know I’ve experienced this myself on one of my PCs in particular (an older laptop). So, any speed boost is welcome, and while all we’re getting here is faster performance when accessing folders over a network in File Explorer, that’s still worthwhile having for some folks.
On top of that, I’ll take the positive indication that Microsoft is more broadly working on pepping up different facets of File Explorer.
Other goodies
In the February update, Microsoft is also introducing new ‘device info’ cards for the Home page of the Settings app, which show you at-a-glance highlights of the main spec of your PC (CPU, GPU, RAM and storage).
And for those with a musical inclination, Windows 11 will also receive MIDI improvements, and that includes “full WinMM and WinRT MIDI 1.0 support with built‑in translation, shared MIDI ports across apps, custom port names, loopback, and app‑to‑app MIDI”.
There are some other bits and pieces too, though note that these features aren’t guaranteed to land next week – although they’re expected to, it’s always possible that something might be hit with a last-minute delay. It’s also worth remembering that some changes will roll out gradually, so you may not get everything immediately after downloading and installing the February update, but it’ll be coming in the pipeline.
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