Microsoft is making the new Windows 11 Task Manager a bit more colorful with a future update, making it so that the app uses your chosen theme color in more areas. The update was announced during this month's Windows Insider webcast, and it's another step in bringing the Task Manager more in line with the Windows 11 design. Windows Insiders have already been testing a whole new design for this feature for a couple of months, but it's about to change even more.

Currently, when you open the Task Manager in the Processes view, you'll see a list of your apps and the resources they're using. The resource usage is indicated by varying shades of yellow and orange, with the accent color getting progressively darker. However, with this new update, this page will start following the system-wide Windows 11 theme color (or accent color, as Microsoft calls it). As you'd expect, that means you'll see varying shades of your chosen color to represent the resource usage intensity of your apps. You can see a few examples shown by Microsoft below:

For many years, the Task Manager in Windows has remained visually unchanged, but Microsoft is working on some big changes for the next Windows 11 feature update. The ability to use your theme color is just one part of those changes. Starting with build 22557, which was rolled out in mid-February, Windows Insiders have been able to try a completely new design, with tabs now being displayed on the side of the window, new modern icons, and the ability to follow the light/dark theme setting on your PC, making it feel more consistent with the rest of the OS. With the upcoming update, it will follow the accent color, too.

Of course, the general public has yet to see any of this, and these changes will all arrive at once. We're expecting the first major Windows 11 update to arrive at some point in the second half of 2022, which isn't that far off. The new Task Manager is just one of the features Windows 11 users can look forward to - there are also improvements to touchscreen devices and much more.


Source: Microsoft (YouTube)