{"id":1185,"date":"2025-04-10T01:16:06","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T01:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/?p=1185"},"modified":"2025-04-10T01:16:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T01:16:20","slug":"microsoft-is-giving-the-windows-11s-start-menu-an-upgrade-that-could-fix-one-of-its-biggest-flaws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/2025\/04\/10\/microsoft-is-giving-the-windows-11s-start-menu-an-upgrade-that-could-fix-one-of-its-biggest-flaws\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft is giving the Windows 11’s start menu an upgrade that could fix one of its biggest flaws"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Windows takes a step backward to move forward<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019d be hard-pressed to find someone whoisn\u2019t<\/em>displeased withWindows11 in some shape or form, but Microsoft is developing a newWindows 11Start menu that\u2019s bound to make a lot of people happy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bluesky userphantomofearth, who dives into Windows Insider builds, discovered the new Start menu in a recent build. The menu offers a larger, more streamlined look that finally displays all of your apps in one place. More importantly, you can finally axe the Recommended feed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new Windows 11 Start menu<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

PreviousWindows 10users have been asking for this back forever now, which makes sense why people are so excited. Going a step backward is obviously a step forward for Windows, which surprises (let me check) no one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be clear, I am still using Windows 10 for my gaming PC for these exact issues\u2026 and also Microsoft put aridiculous hardware requirementon Windows 11. (At least I get to experience the silliness on each laptop I review.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, I love that I don\u2019t need to go through two different menus just to see my appsand<\/em>that I don\u2019t need to see the (generally) useless Recommended section anymore. However, a list of all the apps in alphabetical order isn\u2019t exactly clean, either. It just makes it more accessible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Getting the apps front and center is nice and all, but I\u2019m more excited about the overall customization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the new UI, you can easily switch between seeing \u201cAll\u201d apps alphabetically, all apps in a Name Grid, and then in Categories. This isn\u2019t anything new, but the Category setting previously felt useless because I\u2019d have to click into the Start menu, click All, then<\/em> click on the category with the app I want, and finally click the app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, now with Categories, you’d get an instant, clean look at all my apps in the Start menu on one page with little-to-no scrolling. This isn\u2019t revolutionary by any means, but Microsoft makes Windows hard to love. Heck, that\u2019s why some folksditched Windows 11 for Linux.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if the Categories aren\u2019t your style, you can now pin more apps, up to 8 per row. And you\u2019re not stuck with 3 rows anymore, you can technically customize all the apps you see on your Start menu by doing this. So, folks who are very particular will have a field day customizing their Start menu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If all you care about is ditching the Recommended section, however, you can disable it in the Personalization section in the Settings. Or at least whenever this update becomes available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technically, this feature was found in both the 23H2 and 24H2 versions of Windows 11. All that means is that we\u2019ll likely see these new features soon, ideally in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Windows takes a step backward to move forward You\u2019d be hard-pressed to find someone whoisn\u2019tdispleased withWindows11 in some shape or form, but Microsoft is developing a newWindows 11Start menu that\u2019s bound to make a lot of people happy. Bluesky userphantomofearth, who dives into Windows Insider builds, discovered the new Start menu in a recent build. … Continue reading Microsoft is giving the Windows 11’s start menu an upgrade that could fix one of its biggest flaws<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108],"tags":[126],"class_list":["post-1185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-microsoft","tag-windows-11"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1186,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185\/revisions\/1186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.batterymap.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}