Microsoft has re-released a newish Skype feature called Meet Now as a button in the latest version of Windows 10’s taskbar.
The Meet Now button is aimed at taking on Zoom’s popularity and pushes the Skype fast meeting setup feature upfront into the notification area or system tray of the taskbar in Windows 10. It makes it easier for users to set up video meetings without requiring signups or downloads.
“In the coming weeks you will be able to easily set up a video call and reach friends and family in an instant by clicking the Meet Now icon in the taskbar notification area. No sign-ups or downloads needed,” Microsoft explained of the feature.
Microsoft first rolled out the feature to Windows Insiders on the Dev Channel in September and has now re-released it to Insiders on the Release Preview Channel in the Windows 10 20H2 Build 19042.608 (KB4580364). It’s also available in the Beta channel.
It comes after Microsoft released Windows 10 20H2 to the general public earlier this week, opening it up to ‘seekers’ who manually opt to install the latest Windows 10 feature update.
The Meet Now taskbar icon came to Windows 10 versions 1903 and 1909 via the KB4580386 cumulative earlier this week.
However, the feature hasn’t yet made it to Windows 10 version 2004, the May 2020 update, but it should soon. Given that Windows 20H2, the October 2020 Update, is a minor feature update to version 2004, it should arrive at the same time for the newest version of Windows 10 as a common cumulative update, just as it did for versions 1903 and 1909.
The Meet Now button is the only new feature in this 20H2 preview, which otherwise brings a long list of fixes detailed in a blogpost.
Among them is a solution to problems using Group Policy Preferences to configure the homepage in Internet Explorer. Microsoft has also given admins the ability to use a Group Policy to enable Save Target As for users in Microsoft Edge IE Mode.
Microsoft fixed an issue with users opening untrusted URL navigations from legacy Internet Explorer 11 by opening these URLs in the Windows 10 Defender Application Guard security feature using Microsoft’s Chromium-based Edge – the browser that ships with Windows 10 20H2.
Another Edge fix addresses problems when using the full suite of developer tools in Edge for remote debugging on a Windows 10 device.
There are also fixes for those using Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) and Windows Virtual Desktop (WVD) on Windows 10.
And there’s a fix for a bug preventing Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL2) from starting on Arm64 devices. The bug occurs after installing the October 13 cumulative update for Windows 10 version 2004 KB4579311.
