Microsoft teases new Windows 11 feature, calling it a ‘game-changer’

By Arif Bacchus Published August 5, 2021

Microsoft isn’t done yet with new Windows 11 features. A day after teasing a new Snipping Tool, Windows and Devices chief Panos Panay just revealed a new Focus Sessions feature for Windows 11 — hinting at new ways for the operating system to help you stay productive and creative.

The short 14-second Focus Sessions teaser clip highlights a completely redesigned clock app for Windows 11. In addition to the usual timers, alarms, world clock, and stopwatch, the clock app looks to now be the home to a special “Focus” section. These are where you’ll find focus-themed hubs for setting timers, checking tasks, checking your daily focus progress, and even listening to songs on Spotify.

Recommended Videos

Another first look from the team…#FocusSessions on #Windows11 coming soon. This has been a game-changer for me, especially with @Spotify integration #Productivity #Creativity #WindowsInsiders pic.twitter.com/HfJh4niDiS

— Panos Panay (@panos_panay) August 5, 2021

Judging from the video, Windows 11 users can begin Focus Sessions by selecting a task, a song from Spotify, and then setting a timed-focus mode goal with optional breaks in between. The session will then begin, show a countdown timer, and can be tracked against overall daily progress. That daily progress will show a daily goal, a streak, as well as focus minutes and hours from the day before.

Overall, this seems to be a very interesting new Windows 11 tool. Apple’s highly talked about Focus Mode in MacOS Monterey doesn’t seem nearly as complex. It doesn’t offer a Spotify integration, or the ability to track your focus goals. Rather, Apple’s implementation is all about syncing focus across devices and using A.I. to only allow notifications from different app types and different modes of work.

Microsoft didn’t share when this Focus Sessions feature will come to Windows 11. Panay mentioned that it would be “coming soon,” and Brandon LeBlanc, a Windows Insider Program manager, detailed in a Tweet that, “it is new and coming soon to Windows Insiders.”

Windows 11 is still in beta testing with Windows Insiders. Since this is the second tease from Panos Panay in two days, you can expect even more new features to be added to the operating system over time.

Microsoft is targeting a holiday 2021 release for Windows 11. The operating system can be installed on most devices right now in a few simple steps via either the “Dev” or the “Beta” channel of the Windows Insider program.

Former Computing Writer

Arif Bacchus is a native New Yorker and a fan of all things technology. Arif works as a freelance writer at Digital Trends…

Topics

Computing

Windows 11’s controversial AI Recall feature is coming to your Copilot+ PC very soon

The Surface Pro 11 on a white table in front of a window.

As AI strides on, it inevitably finds its way onto our personal devices, with tech giants announcing new features that rely on accessing our private information and media to serve us better. While some might find this useful, others are bound to find it creepy, and one such feature is Microsoft's controversial AI Recall, which takes screenshots of everything you do on a Copilot+ PC so it's easier to trace back your steps and find something specific later. After being announced last year, and then witnessing a few delays, Recall is finally rolling out to a broader group of Windows 11.

Microsoft recently announced Recall is coming to Windows 11 with the latest Release channel update with build 26100.3902 (KB5055627). The feature's availability in the Windows 11 Release Preview channel, which succeeds the Beta channel in the Windows Insider program, means it is in the initial phases of being available to a wider audience of folks who own Copilot+ PC. This category of PCs currently includes a whole wide range of laptops with specialized hardware in the form of a neural processing unit (NPU) dedicatedly for running AI tasks, though we might see desktops joining the club soon.

Computing

Windows 11 and 10 users find new inetpub folder after April update

Shutdown menu in Windows 11.

Windows 11 and 10 users have reported a mysterious 'inetpub' folder after installing Microsoft's April 2025 updates, as Bleeping Computer reports. Although the folder is typically associated with the Internet Information Services (IIS) web server, it's now appearing on systems without it installed. Microsoft has confirmed that the behavior is intentional but has not fully explained why.

The unexpected folder is empty, and you can find it in the root of the C: drive even if you don't have IIS installed. If you had IIS installed (web server platform by Microsoft), it would use the inetpub folder to save logs, website content, and server-related files. So, it's weird you have one without the other after installing Windows 11 KB5055523 update or Windows 10 KB5055518. The SYSTEM account owns the new inetpub folder, meaning an elevated process made it.

Computing

I hope these 3 long-lost Microsoft Windows 8 features stay gone forever

Windows 8 Start screen

If you used a Windows computer in the early 2010s, chances are you experienced Windows 8. Whether it was a good experience is another matter entirely, though. If you ask me, it was a bit of a disaster.

For me, updating to Windows 8 was an unexpected jumpscare. Maybe you had a similar experience; perhaps you just updated your computer one day to discover that the beloved Start Menu vanished without warning. In its place, you saw a full-screen tile interface that probably made you feel like you were using a phone rather than a desktop.