- Windows 11 experienced a test change to rationalize the taskbar
- The tweak made the date and time in the more compact system set
- Microsoft has abandoned the idea because of the negative comments of the testers, but it seems short seen, and I do not know why the choices were not provided here
Windows 11 will not get a simplified date and time panel in the taskbar, an idea that has been introduced in preview versions in the past, and the reason is simple – the testers hated this more rationalized look (apparently).
The rejig of the display of the date and the hour abandoned the year, so he only showed day and the month, as well as the abandonment of the AM or PM label from the time. The result was a measurement of space saving in the system plateau – releasing the width of an icon – which worked quite effectively, I thought, to rationalize this part of the taskbar (bottom right of the office).
Zac Bowden of Windows Central remembered that this change had been interrupted in the tests – then did not reintroduce – and asked on X at the moment when he could come back, receiving a response from Brandon Leblanc from Microsoft (senior product manager for Windows).
The comments we obtained that were not pleasant. This is why disappeared.July 12, 2025
As Leblanc indicates, there was clearly a lot of negative comments on this idea, and therefore it was abandoned.
There was another adjustment of the space economy accompanying this change, by which the bell of notifications did not appear in the system set when the mode “not disturbing” was on. This too has been rebuilt.
Analysis: An intermediate route is not worth the efforts?
Do we need the year indicated in the display of the clock in the taskbar? I would say that not (although it can be practical for time travelers, perhaps-the newspapers being more difficult to find these days for this very important year). As for the indication of knowing if it is in the morning (AM) or in the afternoon (PM), there may be more cases for that, although still, I do not think that it is necessary (and I use the clock of 24 hours anyway, making it redundant, of course).
I appreciate that some people do not like the look of the new information on the clock and the date of alliance, and that’s fair. So, my question for Microsoft is: why not have the choice of what configuration you want? This seems to be a compromise simple enough to allow people to choose, and in fact an option to have the more compact affair, or the standard date and time, was present in the return test when. (You can switch ‘Show the time and day in the system set under the date and time options in the Settings application).
Choosing what you want – isn’t that the best of both worlds? And if Microsoft was concerned about the change of confusion of people, the company could simply have made the traditional form by default – and the compact mode a modification for which you needed to oppose (by changing the relevant parameter).
I do not see how it was not the chosen path, frankly, unless Microsoft thought only so few people wanted the new arrangement (abandoned) that it was not worth the effort to implement the tweak (or that it unnecessarily increased the options of the taskbar, because there are already not bad).
Even if it was the case among the testers that the change was almost universally hated – which I can only suppose was the case – Microsoft must remember that these Windows initiates are more hardcore amateurs whose views may not reflect the wider computer public. Indeed, looking at part of the online reaction, it is clear that there is a certain feeling that the compact view for the date and time was appreciated in certain environments (and yes, still shot in others, to be fair).
Am I just cicking here? Yes, to a certain extent, and of course, it is far from being the biggest problem with Windows 11 – it is a small comparison fry, naturally – but it always seems strange to me that Microsoft has not at least compromised here and does not give the choice.
