Microsoft is working to improve the experience offered through Windows 11 in aspects such as sound management and the display of colors through the screen. This in itself is not surprising, especially with the update deployment model employed by the company since the release of Windows 10, which apparently opens the door further to the introduction of certain radical changes during the operating system’s life cycle.
About sound management, Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25309 for the developer channel (Dev Channel) has incorporated a new audio mixer that can be accessed from the Quick Settings available on the same taskbar. Its main characteristic is that allows you to adjust the volume per applicationthus saving having to open the window or put the focus on the application to adjust it, in addition to providing fast and on-the-fly switching between connected sound devices and recognized by the operating system.
In addition to per-app volume control and sound device selector, Microsoft has made it easier for users to enable the Windows Sonic experience with a quick access list of installed spatial sound technology. Additional spatial sound technologies such as Dolby and DTS can be found in the Microsoft Store.
Another interesting aspect of Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25309 is the addition of the Automatic Color Management (ACM), a hardware-accelerated system-level color management supported by some displays that feature SDR. The feature is available in the advanced screen settings and makes app and system colors appear more accurately.
ACM enablement requires a driver adjusted to WDDM version 3.0 or later, the use of a dedicated Radeon RX 400 or later or an integrated Ryzen processor on AMD, a dedicated DG1 or higher or an integrated Alder Lake processor or later on Intel, while NVIDIA the ground is set to Pascal (GTX 1000) or later.
We remind you that these new features have been introduced in the Windows Insider developer channel, so the improvements in sound management and color display are not yet present in the stable branch of Windows 11. However, it is a good sign. See that Microsoft is working on streamlining the use and experience offered by its operating system.