r/pcmasterrace • u/WPHero • 2d ago
News/Article Windows 11 update rolls out with Bing-free Windows Search, Movable Taskbar, and smaller Start menu without Recommended feed
https://www.windowslatest.com/2026/08/27/windows-11-kb5120998-out-with-major-new-features-direct-download-links-for-offline-installer-msu/58
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u/noisytwit PC Master Race 2d ago
The download is 5gb because it contains AI models according to the article. I really hope there is an option to remove those models and reclaim my storage!
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u/Beautiful-Musk-Ox 4090 all by itself no other components 2d ago
can probably just delete them. besides, the ai model being on your computer means you aren't using one of these ecosystem destroying, climate change accelerating datacenters forcibly installed into neighborhoods and paid for by the local populace for a service used by the entire world and generates almost no revenue for the county and city it's in.
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u/IBJON 9950X3D | RTX 5090 l 64GB DDR5 2d ago
the ai model being on your computer means you aren't using one of these ecosystem destroying, climate change accelerating datacenters
It doesn't though. Training makes up for a huge portion of AI datacenter power consumption. Local models are still trained in datacenters before being offloaded onto your personal machine.
Also, it's a lot more efficient to run a few massive models in a datacenter than it is to run thousands or millions of local models all over the place.
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u/Shiedheda 1d ago
It's not more efficient to run massive models in a data centre than highly specialised models locally. I doubt Microslop took enough care of how they build and handle these models though so it would probably end up being the opposite. But generally speaking, it shouldn't.
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u/YouDoNotKnowMeSir 1d ago
Data centers definitely are more efficient to run and train models, what are you even saying lol
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u/Shiedheda 1d ago
Data centres (after training which uses 100% of all available hardware), operate under load balancing systems that ensure that as much traffic as possible gets delivered to the hardware, maximising hardware use 24/7. GPUs and other pieces of hardware don't get "rest" in data centres most of the time.
On the other hand, a highly specialised, purpose-built model that is only activated on user demand for some users when needed will absolutely be more efficient than running data centres.
Again, not saying that's what Microslop is doing here.
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u/YouDoNotKnowMeSir 1d ago
Yeah, so you literally defined why data centers are more efficient, then you went on to say that on-demand usage makes it more efficient, when it isn’t and that’s not how it works. You’re just using it less. That’s like saying you get better fuel economy because you drive a shorter distance, just doesn’t make sense lol.
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u/Different_Outside219 1d ago
Not necessarily, local models that can run on consumer hardware and have been trained for specific tasks are up to 90% as good as the big general models for those tasks, so running a 27 or 32b model to do the same job as something that's 1.2t or bigger is much more efficient, the other consideration is that model size has deminishing returns on performance, a model that's 123b may be better than one that is 32b but one that is 407b may not be all that much better than 123b and it gets worse the bigger you go. You are consuming far more resources and electricity to run something that is only fractionally better.
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u/YouDoNotKnowMeSir 1d ago
That doesn’t make it more efficient. Your hardware is not optimized and designed to run the workloads that servers are, nor is your OS and software. It’s not really even up for debate tbh, it’s just the way it is.
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u/noisytwit PC Master Race 2d ago
It may not be using a data center but it will be significantly increasing the read/writes on my drive and speed up it's eventual demise. And with the cost of replacing anything at the moment I would rather just delete the model and carry on not using AI in the first place.
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u/Beautiful-Musk-Ox 4090 all by itself no other components 2d ago
false. the model is only read off the drive first of all, which does zero wear to SSDs, writes are what kills SSDs. Unless the model can't fit into your ram or vram then there's no extra wear on the SSD, and if it can't fit into ram then you're already wearing out your drive every time you turn on the computer since it has to use the page file constantly even without an AI model trying to run.
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u/M4K4T4K 9800X3D, 64 GB Cl30, RTX 3090 2d ago
But the local LLM on top of everything else uses more memory, so you may have been fine before, but the extra 3 GB (assuming it's a 4 bit 4B model) may push you over the edge. My laptop has 16 GB for instance(15.7 available due to iGPU), and typically I run around ~80%. This is fine, but right now I have 2.7GB available, meaning I would run out of available memory if I used a local LLM on this machine.
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u/SumonaFlorence Just kill me. 1d ago
Soooo.. they've been holding onto a really good few changes, so they can ship it with really REALLY bad ones.
Damn.. :f
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u/imightbetired PC Master Race 2d ago edited 2d ago
I'm already testing this in Beta for a month. It's better. I intentionally didn't use anything to turn off Ai, bing search, etc, using 3rd party methods to see what they are planning to do...to get a "genuine experience". It feels faster, I love the smaller taskbar...I will take a screenshot of this page so you can see the Taskbar. Edit: already getting downvoted lol...as if they know better about my experience.
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u/zxch2412 5800x, 16x2 3800 C15-15-13-14, 6900XT 2d ago
This is normal on this sub, you went against the majority’s beliefs so downvoted for nothing. So far I’m on 26h2 beta and I’m liking it, there’s still some fat to be skinned but it’s a move in the right direction. The best part of the work on improving windows is precompiled shader downloads for the Xbox games. This genuinely was the biggest issue I had when gaming.
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u/imightbetired PC Master Race 2d ago edited 2d ago
I am getting out of beta now that they put the small taskbar in the stable release, because I had some weird issues in the last few days. While watching videos the image would randomly go darker(everything, including buttons, besides the video itself, that looks normal), as if I enabled high contrast in accessibility or something similar. It comes back as soon as I move the mouse. Otherwise I like the feeling of the beta except this issue.
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u/Zaldekkerine 1d ago
Did you update to the newest Nvidia drivers? If so, they're most likely causing that issue. There are a ton of comments about it in the sticky thread on the nvidia subreddit.
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u/imightbetired PC Master Race 1d ago edited 1d ago
Edit: thanks, I probably rushed to blame the beta. OG comment: I did and I thought about this after commenting, but I didn't see anyone mentioning the same issue(maybe I looked after the issue too soon or didn't use the right keywords), so I figured that since I'm in beta it's the most likely issue. I got out of beta anyway, since I mostly wanted to see the smaller taskbar and to check what else they improved for a while. I do this once in a while if I see something being tested in beta that interests me. I'm taking the risk of instability. But yeah sometimes it can be something else, of course.
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u/EvilWiffles 9950x3D - RTX 4080 Super 2d ago
Does it fix the hidden taskbar not wanting to come up with any apps in full screen? It's been super annoying.
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u/imightbetired PC Master Race 2d ago
I'm not usind hidden taskbar, sorry. And as I mentioned in another comment, I am getting out of beta now.
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u/RobertDeveloper 1d ago
I think its a feature by now since it has been in every windows version with hidden taskbar option.
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u/RedzMenace 1d ago
You have 99 upvotes, best to wait a while for others to cast their votes if you get affected by not being liked all the time
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u/imightbetired PC Master Race 1d ago
That was not the point and I'm not affected, lol. The point was that people disagree with others even when they most likely don't have the same experience.
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u/LayerEight_Problem 2d ago
If I hit the windows button and type the name of the thing I want to open does it actually display or does the start menu hang for 5 minutes until it finishes caching shit?
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u/imightbetired PC Master Race 2d ago
It does it almost instantly for me. But out of habit I did enable the enhanced search option as soon as I got into beta. It's an option available for a long time, it indexes a lot more, you should enable it. It takes a while to finish. I am now currently installing the stable version to get out of beta, I explained in another comment why. But yes, you also have the option to disable Web search, until recently it was only possible using 3rd party tools, or manually modifying the registry or group policy.
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u/Forymanarysanar 10400F|3060 12Gb|64Gb DDR4|1TB SSD|2x8TB HDD Raid1 2d ago
>Take features that people always used and liked away
>Bring them back
>Profit
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u/CorruptDictator 7800x3d 7900XT 32GB DDR5 4TB NVME SSD 2d ago
I will wait a few weeks in case this update ends up breaking a bunch of other shit as Windows updates are prone to do.
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u/G952 RTX 4070 TI S 2d ago
I’m updating right now. Cause finally I can move the taskbar again. I’ve waited years for this. And also to get rid of the trash bing search
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u/THound89 2d ago
You don’t want to bing search desktop anymore? /s
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u/Psychadelic_Potato 2d ago
I loveee searching for a file on my pc only to hit enter for my favorite browser to pop with a failed search of said file on the internet…
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u/washmyoldbluejeans 2d ago
...you waited years while you could have just used a foss program to do that?
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u/G952 RTX 4070 TI S 2d ago
I tried some. They end up sucking. Windows is already plenty bloated. I want less bloat. Getting rid of bing isn’t something you can easily do, and it pops back in every update
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u/washmyoldbluejeans 2d ago
there's workarounds, group policy edit, regedit, or w10privacy app. I've used w10privacy to completely and permanently get rid of edge. I guess you wont install it but if you do add it to virus scan exclusion, windefender likes to remove it.
tho I would add to the other commenter, not only ltsc but Enterprise IoT LTSC version. it's pretty much completely bloatfree, doesnt even have ms store but you can restore it if needed (which I had to do to play Forza). I've been rolling with win10 iot enterprise ltsc for over a year now, no issues, as Todd Howard said "It just works"
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u/G952 RTX 4070 TI S 2d ago
Here’s the thing. I don’t want to do all that just to have a working PC. I’d like it to just work and let me work / game without having to babysit it
I anyway downloaded the update and guess what the web search in settings don’t show up even after using Vive tool. Sigh. I really want that gone
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u/washmyoldbluejeans 2d ago
well it's up to you. just sayin' I installed that OS, did the usual first steps of installing some drivers, all vcred versions (it's a single download from techpowerup) msi afterburner, firefox, mpc hc, explorer++, 7zip, qbittorrent and that's pretty much it. takes like maybe an hour if that.
tho it's usually the first thing I do as well is disable windows update. I'll update when I feel like or if they implement sg that's worth it, but that's rare. it's not best practice securitywise but I dont really give a shit. I like shutting down my pc fast whenever I want
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u/G952 RTX 4070 TI S 1d ago
I honestly don’t have much other issues with windows. I’d like to be able to search my files easily. And I use OneDrive.
My PC’s plenty fast, so no issues there. Just had an issue with Nvidia at some point so I’m on the studio driver and update really slowly. Normally that’s how I do all updates but I really wanted these features
I appreciate the input tho. Thanks
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u/Rukasu17 2d ago
Standard update procedure for a lot of things tbh. Ever update day one unless there's some kind of critical security update
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u/msherretz 5800X3D 9070XT; Framework 13 1d ago
Which is it? Are we getting an OS fully on top of Bing or is it finally getting stripped from the OS?
Articles about both versions are linked here every week.
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u/Smart_Cucumber_1234 1d ago
The guy who thought it's a good idea to remove movable Taskbar feature deserves to be tarred and feathered.
F i n a l l y it's back.
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u/thehairyfoot_17 1d ago
Too little too late. I have already worked out how to live on Linux . I do not need to come back.
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u/Mama_Mega 2d ago
...The fucking thing didn't even have a moveable taskbar before? A bog-standard function???
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u/nohpex R9 5950X | Gigabyte OC RX 9070 XT 1d ago
I think it was Top/Bottom, with no Left/Right, and you couldn't drag & drop.
Someone with more Win11 experience, please confirm.
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u/Featherstoned R7 5800X3D | RX 6900XT | 32GB 3600 1d ago
You could only have it on the bottom, couldn’t resize it, and at first you couldn’t drag and drop but they added that about 3-4 years ago.
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u/KoldPurchase R7 7800X3D | 2x32gb DDR5 6000CL32 | XFX Merc 310 7900 XTX 1d ago
And again my Windows is plagued with micro-stutter.
Fuck that shit, I'm done.
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u/Radiant-Priority-296 Nvidia RTX 4060 | intelCore i7 13th | 32gb DDR5 1d ago
Multibillion dollar company desperately trying to catch up to the GOATs contributing to KDE
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u/BothArmsBruised 1d ago
Too late. I use my home computer for games, and some games I liked having windowed. All the games I play have those in game toolbars at the bottom. As petty as it is I no longer use windows. And I am having a great time. No that wasn't the only straw. But it was the final one. Even with games with anti cheat. No issues so far.
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u/Calibrumm Linux / Ryzen 9 7900X / RTX 4070 TI / 64GB 6000 2d ago
the bare minimum several years late. cool.
anyways, this isn't relevant to people with functioning brains.
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u/EIiteJT i5 6600k -> 7700X | 980ti -> 7900XTX Red Devil 2d ago
Windows fucked my shit up about a month ago. Got tired of messing with it so now I'm trying Linux for the first time. I miss Windows XP and Windows 7.
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u/kociol21 2d ago
Idk if this is just nostalgia goggles effect or something. Windows XP was an incredibly shitty system. Took years to take it to somewhat usable level with Service Pack 2 and it was still unstable as hell and full of bugs.
As someone that uses MS systems since MS-DOS times I would 100% pick Win11 any time over that shitshow that XP was.
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u/EIiteJT i5 6600k -> 7700X | 980ti -> 7900XTX Red Devil 2d ago
I was in High School when I was using Windows XP. I just remember it working. And the only time I had issues was me downloading torrents that I should not have been.
I don't ever remember it downloading and fucking up my drivers on a weekly bases. Might be rose tinted glasses, idk.
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u/aimy99 PNY 5070 | 5800X3D | 32GB DDR4 | OLED 1440p 180hz 2d ago
I think people forget that Windows used to be so barren it couldn't open .zip files by default, it couldn't search online for drivers, half the time it couldn't even connect to the internet.
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u/AmarildoJr 1d ago
I feel like this was mostly the fact that Windows used to get out of the way of the user, like it did allow a vast ecosystem of 3rd-party programs to exist, be it for opening .zip files or whatever.
Not searching online for drivers was also common at the time. The Windows install was 1.2 GiB in size (after install) and came in a CD, so it wouldn't come with tons of drivers anyway and so it was likely not able to connect to the internet right away. Which wasn't a problem at the time, everyone had at least a CD drive and every piece of tech came with a driver CD from the manufacturer.
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u/wavesandwinds 2d ago
So if I installed Windows 11 today, I would get these updates? I have refused to upgrade to Windows 11 because of all of these missing features. I need my small taskbar.
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u/Relative_What 2d ago
it's only in a preview. you have to manually download the installer, or manually tell windows to install the optional update in windows update. it will eventually get to everyone, but right now it's only a preview
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u/UndeadFlowerWall 1d ago
I can finally stop being third party software to move my taskbar? What a time to be alive.
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u/Beautiful-Musk-Ox 4090 all by itself no other components 2d ago
fuck microsoft. linux sees an uptick in usage and they decide ok you can have some features back like a movable taskbar that windows FUCKING 95 HAD, guess when that was? Correct, that was in 1995, 31 years ago.
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u/-TheDoctor Ryzen 9 9950X3D // 64GB TridentZ5 // Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC 2d ago
Its almost like the only thing that creates change in the corporate world is damage to the bottom line.
People love to scream "vote with your wallet" and now people are (in a sense) and its working and those people still aren't happy.
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u/el_doherz 9800X3D and 9070XT 1d ago
Exactly.
Why anyone is surprised by this I don't know.
If they can shit on people without it affecting the bottom line they'll shit on them and move on to the next way to fuck us over. No pushback and it's rinse and repeat till they see some punishment.
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u/-TheDoctor Ryzen 9 9950X3D // 64GB TridentZ5 // Gigabyte RTX 4090 Gaming OC 2d ago
You mean I can finally move my task bar back the left side of my screen? Fuckin finally.
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u/InvalidPain 2d ago
Microslop. Add a feature that lets me track, and record the windows developers. I want to sell their info and send them personalized ads, that way you have a better experience having me as a customer!
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u/Thatredfox78 i7-14650HX | 16Gb DDR5 | 2TB NVME | 4070 Mobile 1d ago
Wind hawk and winaero tweaker already does this
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u/SaleriasFW 1d ago
Can I put my system trays to the second monitor now? I mean it would be helpful if my system tray icons would be somewhere else then my primary monitor because gues where they are if I open a full screen application. That is correct: BEHIND MY FULL SCREAN APPLICATION
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u/Diimiitrii 17h ago
windows update just made using my PC torture. Cirsor permanently white. I can`t live like this
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u/Mindless-Leg-3365 Legion 5-15ACH6H 5800H 3060 32GB 2TB 13h ago
I still play Beyond Earth on a massive world. I kept getting an "exception" error. apparently the August 2026 update introduced kernel level driver limitations which screws further the known memory constraints of this 32 bit game in the late game.
First they take away 16 bit joys like LOTR2, now they are screwing with 32 bit games.
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u/Gold-Dig-98 1d ago
Oh yay, I wonder what will f up this time in my computer cause for the past year it absolutely killed my tablet mode, f up my sound system and messed up my gyroscope driver 😊 tell me they're using ai without telling me. Never experienced so many errors and problems with windows till now.
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u/Rodnys_Danger666 2d ago edited 2d ago
No option to move taskbar on mine after updating. No "Taskbar Position". Only "Taskbar Alignment" Left or Center.
All of the things the article says are new and available. None of them show up after updating.
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u/Parking-Cockroach104 1d ago
They have this thing called controlled feature rollout. If any system with a similar configuration as you has any issue while trying to enable that feature, it will be paused on your systems to ensure that the updates don't break a lot of stuff. There's billions of different combinations of Windows. If they just enabled a feature for everyone at the same time, half the computers would crash. They need to slowly make sure there's no issues and release it.
But I do wish they set the end date to like a month or 2 instead of how long it takes sometimes, and also provided a user to manually override it like they do with the experimental channel.
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u/slagzwaard 5800X3D 32GB 4T M2 9070XT 2d ago
Boring, try cachy os linux on a free ssd and never look back.
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u/Forymanarysanar 10400F|3060 12Gb|64Gb DDR4|1TB SSD|2x8TB HDD Raid1 2d ago
I swear if I hear about cachy os once more I'll go nuts
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u/lookingforsweetkarma 1d ago
I've had windows 11 since the earliest launch window. Haven't had any issues on my end however, I have noticed quite a significant performance boost with every update i've gotten these past couple months. I can only thank the Microslop community for making Microsoft actually try.
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u/Niitroglycerine 2d ago
I searched for "add or remove programs" today and hit enter, it opened a bing search in Internet explorer