Microsoft makes another tweak to Windows 11’s taskbar – but it’s probably not the change you were hoping for

(Image credit: Shutterstock / Khosro)

Microsoft has added a new icon to the Windows 11 taskbar
It allows you to use Windows Studio Effects in compatible apps
Windows Studio Effects is exclusive to Copilot+ PCs

If you’ve downloaded the latest Windows 11 update, which was released as part of the monthly ‘Patch Tuesday’ batch of fixes, you might have noticed a new icon in the taskbar and wondered what it is. Well, wonder no more: it’s a shortcut for the AI-powered Windows Studio Effects feature.

Windows Studio Effects is a suite of effects that use artificial intelligence to improve the quality of your video calls. It can blur the background, make it look like you’re looking directly at the camera (rather than looking at the screen), improve the lighting, and make sure you’re always in frame (as well as applying more creative filters).

You might not have used Windows Studio Effects before – they are a relatively new batch of effects introduced as part of Microsoft’s AI push, and this change appears to be an attempt to introduce them to a wider audience. The icon will appear when you use an app that makes use of Windows Studio Effects – which will include pretty much any tool that uses your device’s webcam.

Clicking the icon brings up the effects for you to easily turn on – and if you hover over the icon, it will tell you which app is using the webcam. This is a handy privacy feature, as it means apps shouldn’t access your webcam without you knowing.

However, there are plenty of Windows 11 users (including myself) who are waiting for Microsoft to make changes to the taskbar that bring back some of the functionality that previous versions of Windows had – especially the ability to drag files onto app icons in the taskbar to open them in the app. Microsoft instead adding icons for features a lot of people don't use is disappointing, to say the least.

Easier access, but is it enough?

As I mentioned, Windows Studio Effects was introduced as part of Microsoft’s campaign to get more people to use AI features – something the company has invested heavily in. It was advertised as one of the big selling points of Copilot+ PCs – a new breed of Windows 11 devices that meet certain hardware requirements (16GB of RAM and a CPU with an NPU) to run AI tasks locally on the device, rather than via the internet.

Because of this, Windows Studio Effects is exclusive to Copilot+ PCs, so if you don’t see the new icon, then it’s likely due to your PC not meeting the requirements.

Therein lies part of the problem for Microsoft if it wants more people to use Windows Studio Effects. Making the feature more easily accessible by putting an icon in the Taskbar is a good first step, but by limiting the feature to certain PCs is going to reduce its reach.

Of course, what Microsoft would like in that case is for people who are desperate to use Windows Studio Effects to go out and buy a new Copilot+ laptop. But that’s the other problem – is this a feature that will get people excited about AI? And excited enough to buy a new laptop?

I just don’t think so. Some features, such as blurring the background and auto-focusing the camera, can be done by other apps without the need of an NPU (neural processing unit), while other features, such as the creative effects, are fun, but hardly essential. If you use your device for making video calls as part of your work, you’re unlikely to want to enable them. Worse, the eye contact feature ends up being a bit creepy, with unnatural-looking eye contact causing an uncanny valley effect.

So far, the Copilot+ PCs we’ve tested have been some of the best laptops you can buy thanks to their performance and battery life, but the AI features are the least impressive bits about them – which is a problem as Microsoft envisions these as key selling points – especially as other key Copilot+ PC features, such as the controversial Recall feature, either don’t work that well, or have yet to be released.

So, no matter how easy Microsoft makes it to launch these new AI features, people are going to continue to ignore them until the company gives us a good reason to – and so far, it’s been failing to do just that.