Summary
- Windows 11’s new Start menu layout might include a full list of apps without additional clicks, improving ease of use.
- Users can customize their Start menu by turning off the pinned apps list and choosing between different display options.
- Microsoft is focused on enhancing Start menu and taskbar personalization in upcoming Windows 11 major updates.
The Windows 11 Start menu is a notable departure from everything Microsoft has done before. A lot of people got used to its unique layout, but many still resent Microsoft for hiding the app list away with several clicks. Now, it looks like the company is finally figuring out how to make it better.
Windows 11 is trying out a new (and, in my opinion, wildly improved) start menu. The new design has familiar elements, such as the search bar above as well as the list of pinned apps. The Recommended section, which holds a number of frequently accessed files, is still there, but if you keep scrolling further, you’ll find the full list of apps sitting right there without having to click anything else. You can sort the apps list by folders and categories, you can make it a grid similar to the pinned apps list, or you can just make it the classic list that you currently get by clicking the tiny button that sits right above the apps list.
If you’d rather not have the pinned apps list either, you can also turn that off and be left with just the regular apps list if that’s what you want. If you do decide to keep the pinned list, it’s now a maximum of two rows rather than three, so it will take up less space. You can also choose to have your whole pinned apps list displayed if you want. The actual start menu is also now ever so slightly wider—enough so you’ll immediately notice, but not so much so you’ll forget about it ten minutes later. The improvements we’re seeing here are all really small ones, but they will probably make for a very improved experience for a ton of users. Myself included, to be honest—while I got used to the Windows 11 start menu over the years and I don’t “hate” it, I would take an easier-to-use start menu any day.
Microsoft has been hard at work at making both its Start menu and taskbar way better for its next Windows 11 major update, and we’ve already seen some of those efforts. Just last week, the company added a few changes to the actual taskbar, allowing for smaller icons—in theory to allow you to fit more icons in the taskbar, but I’m sure a lot of people will toggle them on anyway just because they look nicer this way. With how inflexible Windows 11’s taskbar has been since the OS was released back in 2021, it’s good to see Microsoft reverse course and actually start adding a number of personalization features, as “minor” as they might be. If you want more personalization, Start11 allows you to do a lot more stuff to it, but it’s an unofficial solution that not everyone might be willing to use.
This is currently present in Insider builds. As we usually tell you, you shouldn’t install an Insider build that might be broken just because you want to try out some features earlier than everyone else. They tend to be unstable, and they might not behave well on a PC that you use for important stuff. This might arrive as part of Windows 11’s next major update, 25H2—no promises since it seems to be a “hidden away” feature that needs to be turned on via Registry hacks.
Source: phantomofearth (Bluesky)
