Apple made a big splash in 2016 about the Touch Bar it added to its fourth-generation MacBook Pro laptops. But while it was a great idea, it wasn't used much in third-party apps, and most likely left you wishing you had function keys. Now, however, Microsoft has revealed details of its first attempt to rival this feature. It will be interesting because of its much larger size and dramatically increased usage.

Details of what Microsoft has dubbed the "Wonder Bar" were discovered by Liliputing (via TechRadar) in the developer tools for Windows 10X, a version of Windows 10 designed specifically for foldable devices

The wander was found in the developer tools of Windows 10X, a version of Windows 10 designed specifically for foldable devices.

The Wonderbar refers to a patch of the touchscreen that is exposed when a physical keyboard is attached or a virtual keyboard is enabled on Microsoft's upcoming dual-screen devices. In laptop mode, the keyboard covers most, but not all, of the lower display, allowing the operating system to use the still-exposed portion of the display for various functions.

We originally saw this feature when Microsoft showed off the dual-screen Surface Neo at its 2019 Surface event, but this is the first proper glimpse of what Microsoft intends to use this feature for.

First of all, the Wonderbar can be used as a touchpad for navigating and gesturing on the desktop.

It can also be used as a small secondary display for videos and photos, useful for all kinds of editing and productivity apps, or simply for multitasking. Some apps, like calculators, have an "always on top" mode, allowing you to do other tasks while keeping important apps close at hand.

The touch bar can also be used to manipulate media in the main window, again allowing an unobstructed view of what you want to focus on.

All of these other uses that developers can come up with are up to them to implement, so this is not a feature that will be available no matter what. However, the extra space will hopefully make the feature much more useful than the Touch Bar on Apple's MacBooks.