Microsoft has a new app called PC Manager, which will give users an overview of their system's health. The app can help users clean temporary files, manage their running apps, and keep an eye on updates, all in the same place. Screenshots of the app were shared online by Twitter user Aggiornamenti Lumia, who often shares early looks at Microsoft products in development.
Based on the screenshots, the app has two main sections. The Cleanup tab lets detect temporary files including things like system logs, and delete them to free up space. Of course, that's not really new considering you can already clean up your files using the Settings app. Similarly, the app lets you see your running processes to see what might be using system resources, something you'd usually do with Task Manager. It can also suggest disabling some apps from running at startup in order to improve performance.
The Security tab lets you check for potential security threats on your PC and make sure it has the latest updates from Windows Update. There's also a Browser Protection option here, which seems to be the catch with this app.
Aside from bringing all of these capabilities under the same app, this seems to be yet another way for Microsoft to try and push users to switch to its own Edge browser. Indeed, when suggesting actions to take to improve your PC's performance, one of the screenshots shows that one of the "potential issues" that may need to be fixed is setting your default browser back to Edge.
Of course, there are still useful features here, and many users might appreciate a centralized hub for managing their PC and ensuring it's running smoothly. Still, most of the capabilities of the app are found elsewhere throughout Windows 11, so this seems like yet another way for Microsoft to try and convince users to switch to Edge.
The PC Manager app has seemingly been available in China for a while, and you can actually download it here. However, as Aggiornamenti Lumia clarified in a later tweet, the app has been submitted to the Microsoft Store, which could see it become more widely available. We'll have to wait and see if Microsoft tries to promote the app to Windows 11 users.
The article has been updated to indicate that the PC Manager app isn't completely new and was already available in China prior to today. We apologize for the oversight.
Source: Aggiornamenti Lumia (Twitter)