Importance Score: 30 / 100 🔵
Microsoft Developing Redesigned Windows 11 Start Menu with Enhanced Customization
Microsoft is engineering a revamped Windows 11 Start menu design that aims to be more extensive and offer increased customization compared to the existing version. This updated Start menu, discovered by keen observers in recent Windows 11 preview builds, presents a larger interface and crucially allows users to disable the frequently requested “recommended” section, which displays recent files and applications.
Enhanced Features of the New Start Menu
Larger Layout and Customizable Elements
The “recommended” feed in the current Start menu has been a source of frustration for numerous Windows 11 users transitioning from Windows 10. Its prominent placement consumes considerable space, and not all users find immediate access to recent files and apps essential. The new Start menu design addresses this by presenting all content on a single, scrollable page. Furthermore, accessing the complete list of applications is now more intuitive, eliminating the need to navigate to a distinct area.
Improved App Access and Pinning
The “all apps” view has been refined for easier access and offers layout flexibility, enabling users to choose between a categorized display or a straightforward list, tailoring the user interface to their preference. This expanded Start menu also increases the number of applications that can be pinned, now accommodating up to eight icons per row, removing the prior restriction of just three rows and offering greater pinning capacity.
Testing and Anticipated Release
Microsoft has initiated testing of this new Start menu design within 24H2 builds of Windows 11. Significantly, the software company has also implemented this update in 23H2 versions. This backporting action suggests a strong likelihood that the redesigned Start menu will be rolled out to all Windows 11 users in the near future, potentially within the coming weeks or months.