TL; DR
- Microsoft has published the first Windows 11 Insider Preview.
- It includes the new taskbar, widgets, and other features, but there is no Android support.
- Only install it on your own PC if you are familiar with the risks.
You can finally try the future of Windows for yourself, although one of its signature features is currently missing. Neowin reports that Microsoft released the first Windows 11 Insider Preview with many of the new interface features, but none of the vaunted Android support mentioned during the introductory event.
Microsoft hasn’t said why Android compatibility is missing from the Windows 11 Insider Preview, but it has promised the feature will be available in the “coming months,” along with the integration of Teams and other promised additions.
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Instead, the focus is on core interface upgrades. The Windows 11 Insider Preview includes the new centered taskbar (you can restore the old left-aligned buttons), widgets, improved multitasking, and the new Microsoft Store. You can even try a dynamic refresh rate feature that automatically lowers the frame rate in certain situations to save power for laptops, similar to what you see on certain high-refresh smartphones.
Not that you really want to have this Windows 11 Insider version on your primary PC. Microsoft warned of several defective functions in the preview. For example, the taskbar does not appear on multiple monitors while Settings do not launch after upgrading to Windows 11 from a PC with multiple accounts. Search doesn’t always work properly and widgets can behave badly.
Hence, you will likely want to limit the Windows 11 Insider Preview to a secondary system that you can afford to forgo. That’s a good thing, too – a lot of you want to run Android apps on your PC, so it doesn’t make that much sense to try the early Windows version until mobile software is an option.