Windows 10’s lock screen ruined? Not for everyone, but new feature rolling out is a love or hate thing
Divisive info cards are in the final stages of testing before release
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Windows 10is getting a new feature for thelock screen, furnishing it with some extras that you’ll either approve of or detest, if the reaction online thus far is anything to go by.
Ever-present leaker and keen delver into the hidden depths ofWindows 11preview builds, PhantomOfEarth, posted a screenshot of the new lock screen cards on X (formerly Twitter).
Additional lock screen cards such as finance and sports are rolling out for Windows 10 in KB5035941 (19045.4235), the feature can be enabled by running:vivetool /enable /id:48801541 pic.twitter.com/yNamIO4ZE5March 19, 2024
As the leaker explains, this is a feature rolling out inWindows 10in the Release Preview channel, with build 19045.4235, so not everyone will have it. But if it hasn’t reached them yet, testers can force the functionality to work using ViVeTool (a Windows configuration utility).
These lock screen cards show the current weather and other bits and pieces like scores from sports matches, stock market happenings, local traffic, and so forth. In other words, info you may – or may not – find useful.
As PhantomOfEarth points out, the weather card has been tweaked to make it look better, although there’s a sticking point here: you can either have all of these cards displayed, or none of them. There’s no option to pick and choose if you don’t want, say, the finance-related card.
Analysis: Bloat on the landscape
For those thinking – wait a minute, didn’tMicrosoftstop adding features for Windows 10, and there is a comment to that effect on X – well, the firmadopted that as a policy for a short while, beforehaving a rethink.
In short, work is still being done with developing new features for Windows 10, such as this particular addition – but don’t expect a massive amount to be piped through over the next year and a half ofWindows 10’s remaining shelf life.
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One cynical soul replying to the above tweet suggests the work that is being done is only there to make youupgrade to Windows 11, which is clearly very harsh, but the point being made is that there are folks who don’t like this change. They see these cards as rather pointless bloat that’ll slow down your PC a touch, perhaps.
Mind you, the info cards aren’t compulsory – you can turn them off if you don’t like them. Although as PhantomOfEarth says, it’d be nice if you could turn off selected cards, rather than just switching off the whole lot – choice is always good – but perhaps Microsoft will make it work this way in the future. We are still in the testing phase, after all, although this change will be coming to Windows 10 soon enough.
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Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - ‘I Know What You Did Last Supper’ - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).
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