Windows 11’s 3 most requested features released today, enable them using these steps

Windows 11’s August Optional update, if Windows Update is not offering it yet. Restart once it finishes.

After rebooting, check Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors and Settings > Personalization > Start. If you see a Taskbar position option or a Start menu size dropdown, the feature has already reached your PC, and you can skip straight to the sections below.

However, the chances are that you may not see anything new yet, and that is expected.

Microsoft ships new Windows features through Controlled Feature Rollout, or CFR. The code for all three features is already on your PC as soon as KB5120998 finishes installing, but Microsoft keeps it switched off remotely for most devices while it watches for crashes and bug reports from the first wave of PCs.

Your device has the feature. Microsoft just has not flipped the switch for you yet. Now, we will tell you how to manually switch these features on.

How to install ViVeTool

ViVeTool is a small, free command-line tool that allows you to flip those switches instead of waiting for Microsoft’s server to do it. It only changes feature flags already built into Windows. It does not install anything hidden or alter your data, and everything it changes can be reversed the same way it was enabled.

1. Download the latest ViVeTool release from its for the first time since the OS launched in 2021.
   
   

   Before the update:

   
   

   

   
   

   After the update: 

   
   

   

   
   
   
   
   • Go to Settings > Personalization > Taskbar > Taskbar behaviors.
   
   
   • Under Taskbar position, pick Left, Top, Right, or Bottom.
   
   
   • Under Taskbar size, switch from Default to Small if you want a slimmer bar in addition to repositioning it.
   
   
   
   

   

   
   

   Search box and the

How to resize and customize the new Windows 11 Start menu

The Start menu changes get rid of a complaint , showing only your own apps, settings, and files.

Before the update:

After the update:

• Go to Settings > Privacy & security > Search.


• Find Show suggested search results and expand it.


• Turn off Web Searches to stop Bing results from appearing in Search.


• Turn off Microsoft Store to stop app suggestions from showing up alongside local results.
  

  

With both toggles off, Search only returns what exists on your PC, and queries with no local match won’t return anything, instead of falling back to a web result.

And perhaps one of the most important cleanups, Search home is also less cluttered now, leading with your recent searches instead of promotional tiles and MSN feed. Fortunately, this is the new default, and there is no toggle needed to enable it.

Each result also shows a label showing whether it is an app, a file, a setting, a web result, or a Store suggestion before you click it.

When will these features arrive without needing ViVeTool

Microsoft doesn’t publish a timeline for when a Controlled Feature Rollout finishes, and it varies by feature, hardware, and region. Going by how past optional updates played out, taskbar repositioning and the Start menu changes each took roughly three to five weeks to reach most PCs after their initial rollout began. The new Windows Search experience has generally moved faster once out of the Experimental ring.

The safest bet is the next mandatory Patch Tuesday update, coming on September 8, 2026. Microsoft brings all features added to the August optional rollout into that release for everyone, but that too has the same CFR limitations. Personally, I have already updated my daily driver PC with the optional update and all the ViVeTool commands as well. I haven’t noticed any issues so far.

Have you been waiting for these updates to come on your PC?

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