The search bar is among the improvements to the task manager in the new version of Windows 11

One of the improvements of the Windows 11 22H2 update was a redesign of the task manager with a reorganized user interface, an updated Windows 11-style look, and other features. Laying this foundation has apparently given Microsoft the freedom to work on other task management improvements, some of which have appeared in Construction preview for this week For Windows Insiders in the beta channel.

The most significant of these changes is the presence of a new search bar for running processes, so you can easily view the specific processes you’re looking for while excluding the rest. This is useful for organizational and aesthetic purposes – it can find needles in the haystacks while also removing the hay so the needle doesn’t fall out and lose it again.

The new Task Manager’s dark mode support can also be toggled independently of the theme setting you’re using for Windows. These themes will be applied to the task manager as well as the pop-ups within it. Switching to efficiency mode now includes a “Don’t ask me again” checkbox if you regularly switch individual processes into and out of efficiency mode and don’t want to be asked for confirmation each time.

We don’t know when (or if) these changes will come into public releases of Windows 11. Microsoft often uses Windows Insider channels to A/B test multiple versions of a feature or to gather data about still-in-progress changes that could go away without being officially released.

But the presence of the changes in the beta channel means that it will eventually be released as a minor update to Windows 11 22H2 in the next few months. The more beta Dev channel has moved to an all-new major build number for Windows 11, which means it will become the basis for the Windows 11 23H2 update sometime next year.

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List image by Microsoft