The Windows Forecast is a look at the future of Windows that comments on the latest news for Windows Insiders, as well as other major announcements in the Windows space each and every week. My name is João Carrasqueira, and I've been covering the world of Windows professionally since 2018. If there's something you'd like to see covered, you can reach me at joao@xda-developers.com

2025 is off to a strong start for Windows 11. In the first month or so of the year, Microsoft has already introduced a ton of new features for Windows Insiders across different channels, giving us all plenty of reasons to look forward to future updates. Let's break down some of these exciting changes.

Improved Windows Search (thanks to AI)

You can find things more easily... hopefully

One of the big features Microsoft has begun testing is an improved Windows Search feature on Copilot+ PCs. Leveraging the power of the NPU, Windows Search can now understand semantic language, so you can search for things by describing them instead of searching for a literal file name or quote. That includes the ability to search for photos that have a specific theme, for example, so it should make it easier to find the things you want if you have a lot of files and don't know where to start.

I'm not sure this is the improvement Windows Search needs, but it's nice to see nonetheless. I'd rather know that Microsoft has focused on things like addressing how sometimes typing too quickly in the Start menu can eat up the first character of your search, or how search results often open web searches instead of apps on your PC. That's the actual annoying part of Windows Search, in my opinion.

Still, an improvement is an improvement, and this new semantic search even works inside the Settings app. It's not clear when it will become widely available, but with many other Copilot+ features in the pipeline, I suspect we'll see a blowout of Copilot+ improvements in the coming months.

Customizable lock screen widgets

Giving users control? What a wild concept

It's been a long time now since Microsoft started adding more detailed information to the Windows 11 lock screen withsuch as stocks, sports, and so on. All of this was kind of forced onto users collectively, so you could turn them all off or leave them all on. Now, you can choose which of these widgets actually appear, so if you don't care about sports, you can remove that from your lock screen.

What's even cooler is that you can add basically any widget that supports the small size option, so you can make your lock screen truly as useful as you want it to be.

Like all cool things Windows does, there's a caveat here, which is that this feature is currently in testing only for users in the European Economic Area, likely as an effort to abide by the Digital Markets Act. Microsoft does say this will be coming to users in other regions eventually, so let's hope that's not too far off.

Music production is getting even better

MIDI is finally getting an upgrade

Years ago, I remember researching laptops for music production and hearing that Windows PCs were simply not good for it due to audio delays or something of the sort. While I'm no expert, it seems like Microsoft has acknowledged some potential issues with the audio implementation in Windows, specifically the MIDI protocol that's used for creating music.

With the introduction of the MIDI 2.0 protocol, the first major update since 1983, Microsoft has not only implemented the latest version of the protocol, but also upgraded the standard MIDI 1.0 implementation to meet "modern expectations". That means faster transport along with a faster USB driver, built-in loopback, and more. All of this should improve the music production experience on Windows 11 very significantly and hopefully address the issues some people had with it.

While I'm not a music producer by any means, it really is great to see Microsoft acknowledge and cater to the needs of actual professionals in fields that are so often dominated by Apple.

Bring your phone and PC even closer

Even iPhone owners get some cool stuff

Rounding out the big upcoming improvements is the improved cross-device connectivity with Phone Link, particularly when it comes to iPhones. Microsoft had already been testing a sidebar on the Start menu that gives you quick access to your linked Android phone in Windows, but now, this is also being enabled for iPhones. That means you can see things like battery status, messages, calls, and recent activity from your phone directly on the Start menu.

What's more, Microsoft has added the ability to quickly send files from your PC to either your Android or iOS device directly from the Start menu as well. It's pretty impressive how much Microsoft has invested into bringing your devices together to improve the transition between them.

I still just can't justify using these features, but maybe it's because I work from home. I always have my phone readily accessible, and I have no reason to waste battery on a persistent Bluetooth connection that I just don't need. For messaging, I use cross-platform services so I have PC apps that already work. And for calls, the built-in microphone on my computer wouldn't provide as good of an experience as just using my phone. I see these continuous efforts as a bit of a waste, but I have to imagine there are plenty of people out there using these features considering Microsoft has been improving them a lot.

Windows 11 keeps getting better

As much as we like to complain about the things Microsoft does wrong with Windows 11, it's hard not to appreciate the improvements the company is working on right now. This is a lot of cool stuff that's coming soon, and it's not even mentioning some of the smaller things like adding a battery percentage to the taskbar and improved guidance around snapping windows.

It's always nice to see Windows get continuously better, even when I've switched to macOS as my primary operating system. I still use Windows frequently, so any and all improvements are welcome.