JUNE 2022 PCWorld 91right corner of the window, and then
choosing which of a small number of
templates you’d like the window to fit into.
You can use the remainder of your display to
house the other windows.
Let’s be fair: Sites like PCWorld.com are
designed to accommodate smaller displays,
and there’s a lot of extra white space to the
left and right that can be used for ads or left
blank. Snap View can be an efficient use of
that space. About the only thing Microsoft
didn’t seem to anticipate with Snap View are
ultrawide monitors, which might benefit from
three or four vertical columns rather than the
default two.
Windows 11 also removed Timeline (to the
chagrin of some [fave.co/3BSSuxL]), which
makes the whole experience cleaner.Center. In Windows 11, you
have to know that an icon
like OneDrive is one button,
the clock and date is
another, and the Action
Center is itself opened by
clicking the volume control
or battery icon.
A number of people still
have quibbles with how
Windows 11 represents
individual controls. For
example, the volume slider
doesn’t tell you which
device is being used for
audio unless you click the
small caret menu to the right. You can’t tweak
Focus Assist without opening its
corresponding Setting menu. But the Action
Center itself doesn’t require further, er, action
except in a small variety of cases, and it’s
aesthetically consistent with the rest of the
Windows 11 OS. It’s a step forward.
SNAP VIEW
This has been a small but important
improvement to Windows 11 since the
beginning, especially important as
(hopefully!) more and more people move to
multiple large external monitors (fave.
co/2Zazegw) in addition to their primary
display. The improved Snap View allows you
to snap your window by hovering over the
traditional “full screen” icon in the upper
Windows 11’s Snap View formatting changes depending on the
display, so you may see columns that favor one side or another, rather
than the equal proportions shown here. But it’s still great.