New Windows 11 Start Menu will merge pinned and recommended sections for easy access
Microsoft is revamping the Start Menu on Windows 11 to streamlining the user interface. It will merge the pinned and recommended sections into a combined section.
The change has been spotted in the latest Insider Preview build and is expected to enhance usability, potentially drawing back users from Windows 10, which offers a more intuitive Start menu experience.
Microsoft's new design features a wider layout, which will give users more space to pin their favorite apps to the Start Menu for quick access. It also has an option to display all pinned apps without the need to expand the view, this is a notable improvement from the current setup that requires users to navigate through multiple clicks.
Users will be able to remove the Recommended section, which lists recent apps and files that they had accessed or installed, something which had been requested by users for a long time. The option will be available under the Settings app > Personalization > Start section.
Ever since its launch, critics have pointed out that Windows 11 Start Menu lacks options to customize the experience, which made it one of the more frequently criticized aspects of the operating system, and has led to users opting for third-party Start Menu replacements like Start11. Previously, users had to access the apps list separately on Windows 11 Start Menu, creating a disjointed experience. By consolidating these features, Microsoft aims to significantly enhance the overall functionality and user experience.
This update is expected to be officially announced in the coming weeks. But it may take a while before the new Start Menu comes to all Windows users.
Source: Windows Central
Advertisement
Not related, more than to highlight how much Windows sucks: I used a command prompt to get the old and good context menu back because I copy and paste and delete etc a LOT in my everyday work. This results in a massive memory leak in Windows File Explorer. It crashes a few times per day, unless I remember to open taskmanager every once in a while to restart Explorer myself. By the time I remember to check, it usually is chugging away 1 or 2 Gigs of RAM. I only SUSPECT the culprit is my outrageous misuse of my computer by changing the context menu like some criminal that should be locked away for a million years for violating the EULA in this barbaric fashion. The computer is not mine, it belongs to Microsoft. I agreed to this when I installed Windows. I should be ashamed of myself. It could also be that the same thing would happen with the new fancy ultra-garbage context menu, not gonna find out because it’s beyond unusable crap.
For my Start menu needs, I gladly paid Stardock to save me from that sad comedy Microsoft thinks is a start menu. In fact, I paid Stardock TWICE: 5 licenses for the old version and 5 more for version 2. I will pay again when another version comes out, without hesitation.
Whilst modern Windows is very buggy, applying the registry change to skip the new context menu and reverb straight to the old/fallback menu – does not cause memory leaks. I work in an IT environment and not only do we have numerous staff here using that fix, but we also deploy it to various customers, without issue.
None of this info helps you, but your issue is probably a compounded one – because the context menu thing by itself, doesn’t cause these issues.
I only use Windows 11 in a Virtual Machine for tax software (USA). I use Open Shell, Windows 7 Style and a classic taskbar, no plank. I think they should be flexible and provide all kinds of different options.
Microsoft needs to fix themes from requiring signature so users don’t have to take risk of installing UXThemePatcher or SecureUxTheme. It will make installing themes from VSthemes or DeviantArt lot easier.
Do we need any more evidence that the Windows team is full of morons? How can they get the UX wrong every time when it’s staring them in the face? Lots of people gave feedback on what they really wanted out of the Windows Start menu and taskbar, and yet they keep coming up with the stupidest crap.
Directions are given to the coders by managers and approved by marketing. The poor coders must have zero motivation to do a great job considering all the oddball changes that are made. If one coder fixes something, that may actually damage their annual review. It’s sad.
I think they brough back a lot of the idiots who worked on Windows 8 because it does seem that the Windows team could care less about feedback from users. Most of these changes seem to just be for the developer to put on their resume. Look what I did to change Windows even though nobody really wanted them.
Who says those idiots left in the first place? Windows UX looks bad since 8. It hasn’t improved. If 8, 10 and 11 didn’t happen, the design of 7 would have persisted.
They have changed the menu so much since Windows 8 that at this point nobody is sure what is the standard anymore. Some people that use 3rd party replacements go for the Windows 7 style menu, some go for the Windows 10, but the one in 11 is just too weird. It’s like they are trying to incorporate mobile touch-oriented design on a desktop with mouse and keyboard.
In comparison, Mac OS has been about the same for over 20+ years. I recently used a Mac for the first time and while it was hard to get used to its weirdness, I saw it looked and worked the same I’ve been observing it since around 2008 when I learned about its existence. People don’t want change and don’t need it when the change itself is not needed.
I think Microsoft are falling for the same delusion that Mozilla are with Firefox – they constantly change the UI in big ways, but underneath it’s still the same old and outdated code and still suffering from the same problems. I don’t know if they are trying to lie to users that “things are changing and it’s getting better because of that” or they are lying to themselves. Or some people whose job at either company is so irrelevant that they come up with problems and then sell the solution in hopes that they will retain their relevancy is the cause of it.
Windows 7 had the last good menu and overall UI. Nothing should have changed from that. If Windows 8 never happened with its backwards design and UX and then Windows 10 wouldn’t have still retained the ugly, flat rectangular look from 8, then the appearance might have just kept naturally evolving from 7 with removing of the gloss and some of the gradients and going for the design philosophy of Windows 11 earlier.
The problem is Windows is so big and influential, that after Windows 8, everything started copying that ugly flat rectangular look. Websites got redesigned, 3rd party programs did too, there are still programs that haven’t been updated to blend in with Windows 11.
This is how Wise Program Uninstaller used to look before the ugliness of Windows 8/10 took over. It used to be nice and sleek:
https://i.ibb.co/0RKkFHB2/image.png
And this is how it looks after it was influenced by the ugly flat and rectangular design direction:
https://i.ibb.co/bMztkY7W/image.png
Before it had more colors, there was a lot of gray background, scrollbars had a design, things were easier to see and differentiate from one another.
Then it was made to look like Windows 8/10 – a perpetual beta test with a UI that looks like some early alpha snapshot with placeholder UI just so one can say “it has some UI”. There is so much white, it’s blinding and confusing, you can’t tell where one section of the UI ends and another one begins. It’s like the work of some amateur who hasn’t studied GUI & UX. And you don’t have to be a master chef to be able to say when the food sucks. If it wasn’t for Windows 8/10, this would have never happened.
I hope MacOS and Linux gain more market share, MacOS needs to be less expensive and thus more accessible to people and Linux needs some kind of a marketing push or something to gain at least 10% of world market share before it becomes taken into consideration and program developers start building native versions and use its UI as a guide for their own UI.
I’ve been trying Linux since 2008, stuck for a month with it around 2010 and have been using it full time as the only OS on my computer since 2024 and I can say that the UI hasn’t changed that much. Only the Gnome DE has made massive changes, KDE, Cinnamon, Mate, XFCE look the same and if they are the driving factor, it would be much better, but Gnome frankly looks kind of as bad as Windows now – too simplistic and most elements are hidden behind a hamburger menu like it’s some mobile app and not a full-fledged desktop program.
@Allwynd: Your analysis in your first paragraph nailed it.
I have been using Open-Shell Menu for years now, I won’t see the mess M$ is making.
@pHROZEN gHOST
I hope it works for you in the foreseeable future. I remember when in Windows 8, people found out how ti copy files over from Windows 7 and enable the start menu and Microsoft was the most swift to issue an update that broke that.
In the future, I can imagine them being pissed off for users using 3rd party tools and release updates that completely break them.
What I’ve noticed is since Windows 8, the popularity of 3rd party tools that replace parts of the UI to make them as functional as they USED TO be has increased drastically. And now I’m seeing even more tools than ever before. This is the result of Microsoft making even more undesirable changes and taking away even more freedom for customization from the users.
I think it will only get worse and worse from here on.
@Allwynd In the future, I can imagine them being pissed off for users using 3rd party tools and release updates that completely break them.
Why do you think MicroSloth removed the theming engine and all the classic taskbar code from 11? In an effort to keep user from modding the UI. But StartAllBack reimplements all the classic taskbar code, but I still don’t see why no one has been able to reimplement classic theming. I hear it has to do with the major disadvantages M$ made to the Desktop Window Manager (DWM). … A slight improvement to the 10 & 11 UI can be made by using Win Arrow Tweaker to run the hidden MS Arrow Light theme, which has some classic UX like grippers on the scrollbars etc. Another appearance improvement you can do is continuing to use (now classic) versions of programs like Office 2010 & Acrobat XI which I still run because they were released prior to UI taking a major down turn in appearance.
That’s my thought exactly.
In 7 you could install a 3rd party theme and it changed everything. Now you need a theme for the start menu, a theme for the taskbar, a theme for windows and modern apps don’t get changed at all.
It’s why I left Windows and moved to Linux. I can change my themes with ease, install new ones and the OS doesn’t behave like malware.
I say it with a hand on my heart that those whobstill use Windows are just ignorant. Either they don’t know how bad they have it or refuse to accept it due to pride and not wanting to admit they are wrong.