If you are a Windows 11 user, you may have run into the same problem I have with the Notification Center. You want to turn on notifications in case you miss something, and while it's a pain to customize them individually so they don't bother you, you also want to be left alone.

Well, it looks like Microsoft is adding another way for apps to break into your notification bar in the form of a new API that will soon be available to app developers. This API will allow apps to automatically ask for permission to pin an app to the taskbar or to become the default app.

That would not be annoying at all.

In a recent Microsoft UX blog post (opens in new tab), the company announced a "principled approach to app pinning. This is intended to "give users control over their Windows PC experience" by giving them the authority to deny app permissions. Microsoft is being kind.

The blog post notes that this API will launch a new pop-up window, letting you know that a new app wants to be pinned to the taskbar (or whenever an app is automatically updated).

The API allows developers to not only ask for permission to pin their apps to the taskbar without being prompted, but also to ask for permission for the default app. In other words, other apps will be given the same opportunity to step into the limelight as a pop-up asking "Do you want this to be your default browser?" when Internet Explorer is inadvertently opened.

This will be offered as an extension to the current ms-setting: URI scheme (open in new tab) and will soon include a new "settings deeplink URI" feature that will allow apps to be sent directly to the appropriate default app settings menu.

This will be useful for first-time users or those who don't know how to navigate the settings menu (search for "default" in the start bar), but will be a real nuisance for people like me who often switch between many different apps daily.

This change will be introduced to the Windows Insider Dev Channel flight in the next few months or so, and if it is well received, it may be introduced to the desktop as well.