Windows 10 Insider build 20221 brings Skype Meet Now button to the Taskbar

Microsoft has just released the Windows 10 preview build 20221 for Insiders in the Dev Channel, and the main new feature is the addition of a shortcut to Skype’s Meet Now feature in the Taskbar. The Meet Now button will appear in the system tray and make it easy to set up or join a video meeting in Skype.

Please note that this new Meet Now button in the Taskbar will only show up for a subset of Insiders who will install this latest build. Microsoft will eventually make it available for all Insiders in the Dev channel once it has fixed all the issues reported by early testers.

This new build also brings a notable change for the People app, which will no longer appear as a standalone app in the Start Menu. While the app isn’t going away, the Windows Insiders team explained that this app is mostly opened right from the dedicated shortcuts in the Windows 10 Mail and Calendar apps.

The Your Phone app is also getting a new Notifications pinning feature today. “With notifications pinning, you can easily pin to save important notifications that will stick to the top of your feed so they are readily accessible and distinguished from the rest of your notifications,” the team explained. This feature will roll out to all Insiders and the installation of this new build isn’t required to get it.

Lastly, this new build also brings some fixes for Windows Update, the Start Menu, the Action Center, as well as the Windows Subsystem for Linux. You find the full details about new features, bug fixes and known issues in the build 20221 below:

What’s new in Build 20221

Introducing Meet Now in the Windows 10 Taskbar

Earlier this year we introduced Meet Now in Skype. Meet Now makes it easy to connect with anyone in as little as two clicks for free and each call can last up to 24 hours. Today, we’re excited to share that we are extending this capability in Windows 10 by bringing Meet Now right to the taskbar. You can now easily set up a video call and reach friends and family in an instant by clicking on the Meet Now icon in the notification area (system tray) of the taskbar in Windows 10. No sign ups or downloads needed.

Create a meeting:

Join a meeting:

This feature is rolling out to a subset of Insiders in the Dev Channel at first, to help us quickly identify issues that may impact performance and reliability. Rest assured they will be gradually rolled out to everyone in the Dev Channel.

Changes and Improvements

• As some Insiders may have noticed, we’re adding a notification to let you know when an app registers to run at startup (Settings > Apps > Startup Apps).
• With most of the launches of the People app coming directly from within the Mail and Calendar apps in Windows 10, the People app no longer appears as a standalone app in Start. It remains as an inbox app and can be launched to manage your contacts from the button in the Mail and Calendar apps.

Fixes

• We fixed an issue where the new Manage Disks and Volumes section in Settings wasn’t blocking the ability to change the drive letter of the system volume.
• We fixed an issue that could result in Start menu, and Action Center being totally transparent when certain apps were open in the background.
• We fixed an issue that could result in a crash when opening the Power menu in Start while running Magnifier at a high zoom level.
• We fixed an issue that could result in a virtual desktop thumbnail in Task View showing an empty desktop even after moving an app over to that desktop.
• We fixed an issue when typing with an IME into text fields in certain apps that could result in input no longer being accepted.
• We fixed an issue that could result in the Chinese Pinyin IME candidate pane getting stuck on the first letter when typing into certain games.
• We fixed an issue that could result in Windows Update getting stuck at “Downloading – 0%” for a long time.
• We fixed seeing generic errors when using wsl --install in the Windows Subsystem for Linux.
• We fixed a bug where the Linux kernel would not be installed when using wsl --install in the Windows Subsystem for Linux.

Known issues

• We’re looking into reports of the update process hanging for extended periods of time when attempting to install a new build.
• We’re working on a fix to enable live preview for pinned site tabs.
• We’re working on enabling the new taskbar experience for existing pinned sites. In the meantime, you can unpin the site from the taskbar, remove it from the edge://apps page, and then re-pin the site.
• We’re investigating reports of some Office applications crashing or missing after updating to a new build.
• We’re working on a fix for an issue resulting in Settings crashing for some Insiders when opening Manage Disks and Volumes.
• We’re investigating reports of some devices experiencing a KMODE_EXCEPTION bugcheck when using certain virtualization technologies.
• We are investigating an issue affecting Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 distros where users can receive the error: “The remote procedure call failed” on startup.
• We’re investigating a bug where the vEthernet adapter in Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 distros becomes disconnected after a period of use. For full details please follow this Github thread.

Skype has seen increased usage since the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic, and Microsoft said back in May that it wants the app to coexist with Microsoft Teams. Skype is still preinstalled on all Windows 10 PCs, and it makes sense for Microsoft to make the app’s new Meet Now feature more discoverable. However, this test may well not be welcomed by Insiders who never use Skype. Do you think Microsoft is pushing too hard with this new Meet Now button in the Taskbar? Let us know in the comments below.