Microsoft explains why certain Windows 11 features are missing

On December 1, 2025, Microsoft released KB5070311, the latest non-security update for Windows 11 versions 24H2 and 25H2. As usual, being a non-security update, it brought a lot of new features to the operating system. However, as it turned out, not all changes in the changelog are actually available in the update.

Microsoft recently changed the release notes to clarify that two widget-related features are not available in KB5070311 and will arrive in later updates. Those include the following:

• [Widgets] You can choose a default dashboard in Widget Board settings. When live weather is showing, the Widget Board opens the first dashboard in your navigation bar instead of the most recently used one, making the experience consistent. To set your default dashboard, open the full-page Widgets Settings by selecting Settings in the navigation bar, then move your preferred dashboard to the top.
• [Widgets] Dashboard icons in the Widget navigation bar now show numbers that correspond to the number of alerts from that dashboard. Navigation bar badges clear automatically when you leave a dashboard, making it easy to track what’s new.

Interestingly, this is not the first time Microsoft has updated the changelog for KB5070311. In December, the company said that taskbar animations were no longer available (no explanation provided), and the ability to AI-categorized photos in the Microsoft Photos app using semantic search was removed as well (again, without explanations).

At the same time, Microsoft added a word about the Recommended section in File Explorer for your frequently used files and the AltGr layer for the Arabic 101 keyboard layout.

While it is nice to see proper communication from Microsoft, the company has recently been struggling with putting out consistent changelogs. Enthusiasts have been tracking all sorts of mistakes and mentions of non-existing features in Windows 11 preview builds and cumulative updates. Add to that the fact that not a single month goes by without a major Windows bug (some of which are quite hilarious) introduced by the latest Patch Tuesday updates, and you get quite a grim picture of the current state of Windows affairs.

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Posted Saturday 24 January 2026 at 6:27 pm AEST (my time).

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