The newest Windows 11 Canary build finally fixes the worst part about the clock

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Summary

  • Microsoft finally restores seconds to the expanded clock in Windows 11’s notification center in the Canary build.
  • File Explorer gains AI actions: Bing Visual Search, blur, remove background, and erase objects from right-click.
  • New settings show which apps use Windows’ generative AI and let you control app access.

Windows 11 is a weird operating system. In some areas, it actually removes features that were present in Windows 10, which makes it feel like a bit of a downgrade. Well, it seems that Microsoft has finally caught the hint (better four years than later, I suppose), as it’s finally adding features that went missing during the jump from Windows 10 to 11. One of those is the ability to see the seconds field for the system’s clock when you expand the time and date widget, and Microsoft is finally adding it back after years of being left without it, despite it being a part of Windows 10.

Image Credit: Microsoft

Over on the Windows Insider Blog, Microsoft discusses what’s new on the Canary branch. In case you’re unsure as to what that is, the Canary branch is a special testing build where Microsoft puts its newest updates. People on the Canary branch get all of Windows 11’s updates long before anyone else does, with the caveat that these new features can and will be riddled with bugs. They can even cause system instability, hence the term “Canary” relating to a coal miner’s canary checking for danger ahead.

For build 27938, Microsoft is adding the seconds field to the date and time widget. To clarify, Microsoft doesn’t mean the time you see in the taskbar; you can enable the seconds for that one already. No, what it’s referring to is when you click the time and date on the taskbar and open the window that displays the time alongside a calendar; that’s what’s getting the seconds functionality added to it.

It may seem like a pretty minor change, but there are plenty of fans of this feature who have called for Microsoft to add it. On the contrary, adding a seconds field to the time doesn’t seem like that taxing a job for Microsoft, so it’s a little mystifying that it took this long for it to get around to adding it. Either way, it’s here now, and we can now rejoice for exactly 30 seconds and know when to stop.

The update also introduces some AI actions into the File Explorer, which lets you perform a Bing Visual Search, blur the background of an image, remove background elements, or erase specific objects within the right-click menu. Plus, there are new controls for deciding which apps can use Microsoft’s generative AI tools.

If you want all the details, here are the full patch notes:

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