Start11, from the Windows customization company Stardock, now supports ARM processors on Windows 11 and Windows 10 devices. With the latest release currently rolling out, Start11 version 2.1 also adds some new features and bug fixes.
One of the big issues people have with ARM-based machines is that a lot of apps don’t support ARM natively. Most Windows apps are built with the x86 architecture by default. The original version of Start11 only supported x86 devices too. But in anticipation of the new Qualcomm-powered Windows PCs which run on ARM chips, Stardock is expanding the support for Start11. “With native ARM support for Start11 v2, this means that you can use the latest Windows 11 devices, powered by Qualcomm Elite chips, with Start11 v2 to make these new devices a more personalized and productive desktop,” Stardock announced on its blog.
The many controversial redesigns of the Windows 11 start menu popularized customizable third-party start menus. Start11 is one of the more popular solutions. It gives you multiple start menu styles and layouts on Windows 11 and Windows 10. One two-column Start11 style crosses the list-based start menu of Windows 7 with the grid-based approach of Windows 11. You can also align the start menu to the left or to the center. Unlike the default Windows 11 start menu, you can also reorganize and customize the sections of Start11 to make it your own.
The new update also patches some bugs the previous version had. The previous Start11 search didn’t index enough legacy control panel links. Start11 adds some extra features to the taskbar too, and sometimes this enhanced taskbar would disappear if you were running the networking monitoring app, Networx. With version 2.1, Stardock says “there are also updates for how folder paths are stored to be more resilient with deployments.”
Source: Stardock
