What's New
TopBar V2
- 🎉 When you're in the Performance view of the TopBar and the notch is in the normal/default size, it now displays the real-time CPU and RAM usage of any application or program you are currently working on. For example, if you are watching a video on Edge or coding in Visual Studio, you see the active CPU/RAM usage of them. It is highly optimized and uses very low system resources.
- In the GIF demo below, I am clicking on different programs' windows and that makes the TopBar's Performance notch display the active window's details.
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Just like the Folders section, you can now drag and drop files over the TopBar in order to add/pin them to the Apps section. Additionally, any file or app you add to the Apps section will have its native icon/thumbnail that you normally see in the File Explorer.
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You can now assign any custom color to the folders you add to the TopBar, making it easier for you to personalize it and find what you are looking for faster. Your changes are saved and remembered in the app's settings.
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You can now select multiple files/apps/folders when using the plus icon to add them to the TopBar; Previously this could only be done one by one.
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You can now search inside each of the folders you've added to the TopBar by right-clicking on them and selecting "Search". You can drag and drop the search results to other apps or right-click/Tap-Hold on them to open them in File Explorer, improving the overall user productivity.
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Improved the TopBar's ability to stay on top of other windows.
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Improved keyboard navigation in the TopBar: you can now use arrow keys to navigate it.
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You can now display up to 2 clocks in the TopBar's notch when it is in the default size. Simply right-click or tap + hold on any clock in the TopBar and choose to add or remove it from/to the notch.
🛡️ New TopBar Feature: Acoustic Sentry
It is a decibel‑triggered environment audio watchdog security capability. Arm it, and it quietly listens to the ambient sound level; the moment the environment crosses a threshold you define, it captures high‑fidelity audio to disk, then waits out a cooldown before it's allowed to trigger again. It keeps working whether the workstation is locked or not. Use it to detect unusual or suspicious sounds in your environment when you are away from your device.
Tip
Example Scenario: You are away from your home and the Acoustic Sentry is armed on the device at your home. If a loud noise occurs, such as a window breaking, or door unlocking while you are away, the Sentry will automatically capture the audio and save it to the designated folder. You define how long it should record for each incident and control all aspects of it. Set the save location to OneDrive and then listen to the recordings from anywhere in the world. Your own private secure monitoring solution.
Highlights
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Decibel‑triggered capture: Set a custom trigger level (in dBFS). When the ambient level reaches or exceeds it, recording begins automatically.
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Arm / Disarm: A single toggle opens or releases the microphone. The mic is only ever held open while a session is armed, nothing is captured or monitored when idle.
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Manual stop: End the in‑flight capture at any time without waiting for its duration to elapse.
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Custom capture duration: Choose how many seconds each capture lasts once triggered.
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Cooldown / cadence control: A configurable gap (timeout) governs how often a capture can repeat, so a continuously loud room doesn't record endlessly.
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Cycle limit: Cap how many captures a session performs before it disarms itself, or set it to unlimited.
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Custom output folder: Save captures anywhere you like, with Browse / Open / Reset controls. Defaults to a named folder in your user profile: %UserProfile%\Harden System Security Sentry.
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Works while locked: Capture is bound to the process rather than the desktop, so it continues across lock/unlock.
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Highest audio quality: Recordings are written as lossless WAV PCM at the microphone's native sample rate and channel count (24‑bit), no resampling, no fidelity loss.
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Live level graph: A lightweight, scrolling meter shows the ambient level in real time and turns red the instant it crosses your trigger, so you can read the threshold straight off the graph. The meter only runs while the Sentry view is expanded and armed; it costs nothing otherwise.
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Very efficient and low system resource usage.
Clear, actionable error reporting
When a session can't be armed, the status area tells you exactly why:
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Microphone muted, detected up front; the Sentry refuses to arm on a device that can't hear anything, instead of silently recording nothing.
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Access turned off, surfaces a one‑click "Open mic settings" shortcut to the Windows microphone privacy page.
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No microphone found / unsupported format, explained plainly.
Other Changes and Improvements
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Updated dependencies to the latest versions.
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In the BitLocker management page, when entering Startup PIN, there are now real-time checks as you enter the new PIN to make sure the minimum and maximum PIN length is respected. Also, there is now a 2nd area where you must enter the PIN in order to confirm that the PIN you selected is correct. These changes help you set up BitLocker with more confidence. Completes the following request: #1205
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Updated the Microsoft Edge Security Baseline to the latest available version which is currently 151.
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Added Windows Server 2022 Security Baseline for completeness to the list of baselines you can apply to the system.