Microsoft has launched a brand new Home windows 11 Insider construct with the redesigned Get started menu that they first introduced previous this month, and after spending time with it, I feel the corporate has after all mounted probably the most largest causes folks disliked the Home windows 11 Get started revel in.
The adjustments are rolling out in Home windows 11 Insider Preview Construct 26300.8553 within the Experimental channel, along Construct 26220.8544 for Beta customers. Then again, handiest the previous is getting those adjustments for now. The replace brings the brand new Get started menu customization controls that Microsoft in the beginning defined in its “Making Taskbar and Get started extra non-public” announcement.
To be fair, the Home windows 11 Get started menu used to be one of the crucial disliked Get started menu since Home windows 8. The complaint used to be justified, and it got here from two instructions.
- First, customization used to be stripped away. We misplaced Reside Tiles, versatile layouts, full-screen mode, deeper group choices, or even easy controls like resizing.
- 2nd, efficiency become a widespread grievance. The Get started menu felt slower than it will have to, particularly on lower-end {hardware}, the place opening Get started from time to time got here with visual animation lag.
This replace fixes the customization aspect virtually utterly. Efficiency is bettering, too, however that fight isn’t over but.
Fingers-on with the brand new Home windows 11 Get started menu
The largest exchange I believe here’s immense keep an eye on.
The corporate says, “It’s your selection, and it will have to be simple to make.” After trying out it, I see that philosophy takes form, and possibly a bit too neatly, as we’ll see later.
Microsoft has added section-level toggles that help you independently display or disguise Pinned, Fresh, and All sections. The whole lot is now controlled via a unmarried redesigned Get started settings web page.
The Get started menu has 3 sections: Pinned apps, Really useful, and All apps. Whilst the previous Get started menu settings web page gave us choices to show off Really useful utterly, the brand new Get started menu settings web page offers us the method to flip off all 3 of them, whilst converting Really useful to Fresh, which is a genius transfer taking into consideration the negativity round getting ideas from Microsoft!
I’ve by no means been partial to Really useful within the previous Get started menu and feature all the time grew to become it off. However this new Fresh part is beginning to glance fascinating. To be transparent, it has virtually the similar customizations as the sooner Really useful part, however I believe it’s extra real-time and displays the recordsdata I latterly opened.
You’ll, in fact, customise Fresh to turn simply the just lately added apps, recordsdata, or each. Or you’ll flip it off utterly.
Now, for the fascinating bits. The Get started menu settings web page now permits you to flip off Pinned apps and All.
Here’s what the Get started menu seems like with out Pinned apps:
Turning off the toggle for Fresh will make it much more fascinating:
Sure, there’s numerous white area after we flip off Pinned and Fresh, however Microsoft has given a repair that we’ve been requesting goodbye. The Get started menu used to be getting too large and overlaying virtually all of the display.
So, now, Microsoft has given 3 alternatives for the scale of the Get started menu:
Automated is the choice we have now on all common PC’s the place the Get started menu adapts to check the display measurement, nevertheless it used to be all the time too large for my liking. The method to make the Get started menu smaller is possibly my maximum favorite exchange on this replace.
However, we mustn’t fail to remember that All apps within the Get started menu already has it’s personal customizations. Here’s what it seems like in Grid view and Checklist view, with Pinned and Fresh grew to become off:
I see myself slanting in opposition to the Class view with the small measurement enabled. However I additionally know individuals who use just a handful of apps and don’t wish to see the whole checklist (or grid) at the Get started menu, and for them, disabling All and Fresh and simply holding the Pinned apps is a godsend.
After all, when you don’t just like the small white area beneath, you’ll all the time activate Fresh, and the resemblance to the unique Home windows 11 Get started menu is, dare I say, nostalgic:
Funnilly sufficient, disabling All and Pinned apps and manually taking away every Fresh app, whilst now not disabling it, would display an empty Get started menu:
And if you’re questioning, that is what the Get started menu seems like when the whole thing is grew to become off:
Spotted the absence of my identify and profile image? That’s as a result of we additionally get a toggle to cover the identify and profile image at the Get started menu:
Take into account that, that is insane ranges of customization, and it’s one thing handiest Microsoft can do (see what I did there).
That mentioned, Microsoft nonetheless isn’t permitting freeform resizing. You can’t drag the sides like that you must with Home windows 10. As an alternative, you’re opting for between predefined sizes.
Then again, I’m extremely joyful with all of the new adjustments to the Get started menu, and the one factor closing is the efficiency aspect of items.
A local Get started menu remains to be within the works
Microsoft has begun rolling out the brand new Low Latency Profile CPU spice up in the course of the Might 2026 non-compulsory replace KB5089573.
After enabling Low Latency Profile by myself device, Get started surely feels smoother.
The menu opens quicker, animations really feel much less uneven, and one of the crucial micro-stutters that become customary over the previous few years are decreased.
However that is nonetheless a workaround for a deeper factor. The true efficiency repair is an absolutely local Get started menu.
Microsoft has already showed it’s rebuilding extra core Home windows parts the usage of local WinUI 3 frameworks. We just lately reported on Microsoft’s broader push towards local Home windows programs, together with the Get started menu itself, as a part of the corporate’s effort to make Home windows really feel quicker and extra responsive once more.
We didn’t get to look any main additions to the Get started menu, as Microsoft already labored on 5 other Get started menu designs, however for the primary time since Home windows 11 introduced, I opened the brand new Get started menu and felt like Microsoft used to be taking away restrictions as a substitute of including them.
There may be nonetheless paintings left to do, particularly round responsiveness and function. However after years of court cases about wasted area and restricted customization, this “redesign” after all appears like a Get started menu constructed for desktop customers once more.
And I believe that is a very powerful Home windows 11 interface replace in a very long time.
