Microsoft’s new Start menu for Windows 11 has arrived in preview form — and the reaction from long‑time users is loud, highly polarized, and focused less on aesthetics than on control.
Background / Overview
Microsoft shipped the redesigned Start menu as part of the optional KB5067036...
Microsoft has quietly begun turning on a dramatically redesigned Start menu for Windows 11 as part of the 25H2/24H2 servicing wave — a single, vertically scrollable launcher that promotes the full All apps list to the main surface, adds Category/Grid/List views for app discovery, and surfaces a...
Microsoft has quietly begun replacing the familiar Windows 11 Start menu with a much larger, single-page design that rearranges pinned apps, promotes Microsoft’s recommendations, and folds the complete app list into the main surface — and it’s rolling out now as part of the late‑2025 feature and...
Microsoft hat das Start‑Menü von Windows 11 neu gestaltet — und die Reaktion der Anwender ist so deutlich, dass der Markt für Drittanbieter‑Tools sofort an Fahrt aufnahm. Viele Power‑User und IT‑Administratoren sehen die neue, dreigeteilte Start‑Ansicht als Rückschritt in puncto Dichte...
Microsoft has quietly begun pushing a redesigned Start menu to a much wider audience of Windows 11 users, and the change — while not radical in visuals — is a fundamental rework of how apps, recommendations and phone integration appear in the shell. Microsoft says the refreshed Start is being...
Windows 11’s Start menu has quietly been the single most polarizing element of Microsoft’s latest desktop OS: some users tolerate it, many dislike its restrictions, and a vocal minority refuse to accept its defaults. If the PCMag UK guide you handed me is right, there’s a lot you can do before...
Microsoft has quietly pushed another round of incremental but consequential updates across the Windows 11 ecosystem — a Start menu redesign that changes how users find apps, stronger driver validation for Wi‑Fi 7 hardware, a new Microsoft Store multi‑app install flow, and a string of practical...
Microsoft's multi-month redesign of the Windows 11 Start menu quietly crossed a new threshold this month: the updated single‑page, Categories layout is appearing on far more machines after installation of the January 2026 cumulative update (KB5074109), but the new experience still exposes a...
Windows 11’s Start menu has quietly graduated from “compact launcher” to “nearly full-screen workspace,” and that change is already producing a growing mix of praise, confusion, and support headaches across consumer and enterprise devices.
Background / Overview
Microsoft folded a substantial...
Microsoft’s November 2025 Windows 11 refresh has finally delivered the long‑teased Start menu overhaul — but the change is not subtle: the Start menu is now a single, vertically scrollable surface that combines Pins, Recommendations, and the full All apps index, and on many screens it occupies...
Windows 10’s Start menu design still solves a practical problem Microsoft hasn’t fully recreated in Windows 11, and a handful of community tools let you restore that familiarity — most notably ExplorerPatcher, a free, actively developed utility that can bring the Windows 10 Start menu and much...
Microsoft has pushed the redesigned Start menu to the broad Windows 11 population as part of the November 11, 2025 Patch Tuesday cumulative update (KB5068861), bringing a long‑requested single, scrollable Start surface, multiple All‑apps views, tighter Phone Link integration, and a raft of...
Microsoft’s new Start menu for Windows 11 25H2 can be surfaced immediately on most fully patched PCs — but doing so requires understanding Microsoft’s staged rollout model, verifying exact servicing builds, and weighing the trade-offs of using a third‑party feature‑flag tool like ViVeTool to...
Microsoft’s rebuilt Start menu for Windows 11 is rolling out as part of Microsoft’s October/November 2025 servicing preview, and you can either wait for the supported server‑side activation or enable it immediately on machines that already have the updated servicing bits — but doing so requires...
Microsoft's quiet tweak to the Windows 11 Start menu has given users a long-requested way to remove the "Recommended" feed — but it's come with an unexpected and, for many, unacceptable trade-off: disabling the new toggle also turns off File Explorer's Recent files and the taskbar Jump Lists...
Windows 11’s October preview (KB5067036) is shipping attractive UI changes — a redesigned Start menu, colorful battery icons and fixes for Update & Shut Down — but an emerging, strange regression is putting one of the OS’s core utilities under a microscope: multiple reports show Task Manager’s...
Microsoft has begun rolling out a substantial visual and interaction overhaul to the Windows 11 Start menu as part of the October 28, 2025 optional preview (KB5067036), replacing the two‑pane experience with a single, scrollable app surface, new categorized and grid views, tighter Phone Link...
Microsoft's latest preview update for Windows 11 — KB5067036 — delivers the most significant Start menu overhaul since the OS launched, promoting a single, scrollable, and more adaptive Start experience that Microsoft says will make app discovery faster and more intuitive for both tablet and...
Microsoft’s long-running experiment with the Windows 11 Start menu has finally produced a visible, usable redesign — and the October 28, 2025 preview (KB5067036) makes it clear Microsoft is trying to fix the single biggest usability gripe users had with Windows 11: the split, click-heavy Start...
The Windows 11 Start menu has frustrated a lot of people for a long time — its rigid, overly simplified layout and limited customization feel like a step backward from the flexible menus of Windows 7 and 10. Microsoft has nudged the design forward in stages — restoring app folders in the 22H2...