Windows 11 beta makes your lock screen even more useful

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Key findings

  • The Windows 11 lock screen now has media controls for easy customization without logging in.
  • The new update allows users to disable notification suggestions from certain apps.
  • Watch for bugs such as explorer.exe crashing when opening archive files in this update.



It seems Microsoft's latest focus with Windows 11 is making the lock screen more useful. Last month, we saw an Insider build that added some handy widgets to Windows 11's lock screen to breathe some life into the otherwise barren display. Now, Microsoft has added a way to control your media from the lock screen, which sounds like a really handy way to customize playback without having to log into your computer.

The new media controls

Photo credit: Microsoft


The latest beta branch for Windows 11 is now in preview and the highlight of the patch is the media controls added to the lock screen. Now Windows 11 can detect when you're playing media and adds a simple player to the lock screen. You can use it to pause and play, fast forward and go back, making it really useful to quickly adjust what's playing.

That's not all the patch includes, though. You can now disable notifications in a weird way that asks you if you want to disable a notification:


If you prefer, there is now an option to turn off suggestions for disabling notifications from specific apps. You can now press “…” within the notification to disable the notification, as you can with other notifications, or you can go to the notification senders list in Settings > System > Notifications and disable it there (called “Notification suggestions” in the list). Note – this entry will only appear in the sender list after you receive one.

Unfortunately, the update brings with it some nasty bugs. For example, the explorer.exe process may crash when you interact with an archive file, and you may encounter problems when you go to Home. Otherwise, if you want to try out this new update, sign up for the Windows Insider program to get it.


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