Microsoft is making Windows 11 a little bit worse for touch users — I hope they change this
An upcoming change will make it impossible to access your notification center with a single swipe.
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Over the last few weeks, an invisible update landing on someWindows 11PCs has changed one of the core touch gestures that is really messing with my workflow. I use Windows 11 across a wide variety of device form factors, including tablets, and I really like it. But a recent Windows 11 update that is now in testing has swapped the gesture for accessing the notification center with opening theWindows Copilotpanel instead, and it is infuriating.
Every modern platform has a system-wide gesture for accessing the notification center. On iOS and Android, it’s a swipe down from the top of your screen no matter where you are. On Windows, it’s always been a swipe in from the right. That was until a few weeks ago, when that gesture was changed to now open Windows Copilot instead, with no option to return it to its original behavior.
Huh, the swipe gesture to open notifications now opens Copilot instead on Windows 11 build 26100 pic.twitter.com/ymcUCPef9cApril 3, 2024
This update means there is now no easy way to access your notification center on Windows 11 when using a tablet device. Accessing the notification center is now a two-step process, first swiping up on the Taskbar to reveal the date and time button, then tapping that button to open your notifications. It’s so frustrating, as I often check my notification center multiple times a day on mySurface Go, and that swipe from the right was the quickest and easiest way to do it.
Now, swiping in from the right opens a feature I never use, and it sucks that I cannot change it back. Microsoft began testing this feature a handful of months ago in the Windows Insider Dev and Canary channel, and it seems to be enabled by default for everyone onWindows 11 version 24H2, coming later this year. Hopefully, Microsoft reverses this decision, or at the very least allows us to configure what that gesture does.
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Zac Bowden is a Senior Editor at Windows Central. Bringing you exclusive coverage into the world of Windows on PCs, tablets, phones, and more. Also an avid collector of rare Microsoft prototype devices! Keep in touch onTwitterandThreads
