There has been many blogs about the new features of 2106 R2 including Background Process and how multithreading is being utilized.  I haven’t seen any of them that shows the new icon that has appeared.

Once this icon is selected it will open a dialog that will display anything such as color schemes that are being processed while a user continues on with their work.  Or sit their idle taking up screen real estate.

Unfortunately I haven’t found a way to move this dialog from the lower right corner.