In addition to performance improvements, Microsoft has been testing the news and weather widget for the taskbar, which is designed to serve your latest updates using Microsoft Edge and Windows Search infrastructure. Search bar is partially broken when using early bits of the new taskbar.dllįor consumers, end result is a more reliable taskbar experience and a more responsive one too, because it won’t be dependent on File Explorer any longer.Īs shown in the above screenshot, the new taskbar.dll doesn’t seem to be working properly and it renders a broken search bar.Īt the moment, it’s unclear if this change could also enable a slightly quicker launch time for jump lists (right-click menu), a problem which was pointed out by Google engineer and acknowledged by Microsoft in 2020.

By reducing dependence on Explorer, Microsoft should be able to protect it from potential issues which might be caused by File Explorer. It could also allow the taskbar to run more smoothly. Explorer still contains the taskbar code, but in future, it would be possible to switch to the DLL implementation, which will reduce the dependence on Explorer.exe. It’s worth noting that only parts of the taskbar are currently being moved from Explorer.exe and the taskbar is not getting its own process anytime soon.

In the latest preview builds, references to “taskbar.dll” have been spotted, which appears to suggest that Microsoft wants to maintain a separate process for the taskbar in future.

Windows explorer task manager