Microsoft made its latest Windows 11 Start menu personalization changes available to Insiders on May 29, 2026, through Experimental build 26300.8553, adding new size controls, section-level visibility toggles, a renamed “Recent” area, and privacy options for hiding account identity in Start. The update is small in file size but large in symbolism. After years of treating the Windows 11 Start menu as a carefully curated surface, Microsoft is now testing something closer to user negotiation. The company is not surrendering control of Start, but it is admitting that the old bargain has worn thin.
The Windows 11 Start menu has always been more than an app launcher. It is Microsoft’s front door, billboard, document shelf, search entry point, cloud prompt, and sometimes an argument about what the company thinks a PC should be. That is why even modest Start menu changes tend to land with more force than, say, a Settings tweak or a new icon.
The new Experimental build gives Insiders a redesigned Start menu settings page, a choice between small and large Start menu sizes, and controls to show or hide the “All,” “Pinned,” and “Recent” sections independently. It also lets users hide their name and profile picture from Start, a small privacy improvement with obvious value for presenters, streamers, and anyone who has ever shared a screen and suddenly remembered how much identity Windows exposes by default.
This is not a return to the maximalist Start menu of Windows 10, nor is it the freeform tile playground of Windows 8. It is a more constrained evolution: Microsoft is giving users switches, not a canvas. But switches matter when the previous answer was, in effect, “use the layout we shipped.”
The most telling change is the renaming of “Recommended” to “Recent.” That sounds cosmetic until you remember how much distrust the word “recommended” has accumulated in Windows. “Recent” describes a user-centered behavior; “Recommended” implies a vendor-mediated one. Microsoft is not just moving pixels here. It is trying to lower the emotional temperature around one of Windows 11’s most disliked surfaces.
That is why “Recommended” was such an unfortunate label in Start. Even when the area contained legitimate recent documents or apps, it carried the scent of something algorithmic and imposed. It suggested that Windows knew better than the person sitting in front of the keyboard.
“Recent” is less ambitious, and therefore more honest. It tells users what the section is supposed to do without implying editorial judgment from Redmond. In an operating system already filled with Copilot prompts, account banners, OneDrive nudges, Edge entreaties, and Microsoft 365 cross-sells, semantic humility is not a trivial design choice.
The new section-level toggles go further. If an Insider wants a Start menu that is mostly pinned apps, they can move closer to that. If they want the app list visible but not recent items, that becomes possible too. Windows still defines the available modules, but users finally get more say over which modules earn space.
This is the kind of change that tends to look obvious after Microsoft makes it. Of course users should be able to hide sections they do not use. Of course a privacy-conscious presenter should be able to suppress their account photo. Of course Start menu size should not be a one-size-fits-all decision in an era of ultrawides, handhelds, tablets, and compact laptops.
The fact that these changes are arriving in 2026 tells us less about engineering difficulty than institutional priority. Microsoft has spent years rebuilding Windows around cloud identity, subscription surfaces, and AI entry points. It is now rediscovering that the PC’s most valuable interface is still the one users feel they own.
Build 26300.8553 is tied to Windows 11 version 25H2 via an enablement-package path, while separate Experimental branches are being used for 26H1 and future platform work. That distinction is not trivia for enthusiasts. It determines whether a build is a feature test on today’s Windows foundation or part of a more disruptive platform transition.
For years, Windows Insiders have had to read between the lines of Dev, Beta, Canary, and Release Preview. The new structure is supposed to make that clearer, but for now it also creates a vocabulary problem. “Experimental” can mean UI changes that may someday ship broadly, or it can mean testing on a Windows core that ordinary PCs may never receive.
That ambiguity is especially important this week because Microsoft is also warning Insiders testing 26H1 that they should move back to 25H2 before June 5, 2026, if they do not want to stay on that path. The catch is severe: moving back from 26H1 to 25H2 requires a clean install. That is not a casual toggle. That is a wipe-and-rebuild decision.
So the Start menu news arrives wrapped in a larger Insider Program reality. Microsoft is offering more granular feature testing at the same time it is splitting Windows development into more specialized tracks. For hobbyists, this is interesting. For IT pros who use Insider builds to understand what is coming, it is a reminder that the channel name alone is no longer enough.
That is a very different kind of Windows release from the annual cadence most users have grown used to. It is not “the next version of Windows for everyone.” It is a platform branch designed to support specific hardware innovation. Microsoft’s message is essentially that 26H1 is a road for certain future devices, not a highway the installed base should casually enter.
This is where the Insider Program can become dangerous for the curious. An enthusiast sees a higher version number and assumes it is newer, therefore better. In the old Windows world, that assumption was often safe enough. In this world, a higher number may mean “built for a different destination.”
The clean-install requirement to return from 26H1 to 25H2 makes that distinction concrete. If an Insider enrolls a daily driver in the wrong branch, the exit plan is not a quick settings change. It is backup, reinstall, restore, and hope nothing important was tied too tightly to the previous installation.
For enterprises, the lesson is sharper. Test rings need governance, not just enthusiasm. If Microsoft is going to use Windows branches to track hardware-specific foundations, IT departments will need to treat Insider enrollment as a configuration-management issue rather than a playground setting.
A user wants Start to open quickly, show the apps they care about, and stay out of the way. Microsoft wants Start to surface recent files, promote continuity across devices, reinforce account identity, and make Windows feel connected to the broader Microsoft ecosystem. IT wants Start to be predictable, supportable, and resistant to user confusion.
The new toggles are a compromise among those audiences. They let users remove friction without dismantling Microsoft’s model. They offer privacy without removing identity from Windows. They allow a smaller Start without restoring the old Windows 10 menu.
That compromise may be enough for many people. The Windows 11 Start menu has improved over time, and the ability to strip it down to a more focused arrangement will satisfy users who mainly want a launcher. But it does not fully answer the deeper complaint that Windows increasingly treats the desktop as a managed experience rather than a personal environment.
The most enthusiastic response to these changes will likely come from users who can now hide what they never wanted in the first place. That is both a win and an indictment. A personalization feature is useful; a personalization feature that feels like a delayed correction has a different aftertaste.
A PC is no longer viewed only by the person using it. It is projected into Teams calls, streamed to audiences, recorded for tutorials, mirrored in classrooms, and shared in support sessions. The operating system’s habit of displaying account identity in prominent surfaces can be harmless in private and awkward in public.
Microsoft’s own explanation frames the feature around privacy when presenting or streaming, and that is exactly right. The profile photo in Start may not be sensitive in the traditional security sense, but identity leakage is cumulative. A name here, an email address there, a recent document title somewhere else: the desktop can reveal more than users realize.
This is one reason the “Recent” change also matters. Recent files are useful, but they are context-sensitive. A document that is convenient at home may be inappropriate on a projector. A work item that is harmless inside a company may be sensitive during a vendor call.
The best privacy features are often not dramatic. They simply let users reduce accidental exposure without changing how they work. Hiding identity in Start fits that category, and Microsoft should apply the same thinking more broadly across Windows surfaces that appear during sharing and presentation.
Taskbar placement was one of the clearest examples. For many users, the inability to move the taskbar was not merely a missing preference; it was evidence that Windows 11 had prioritized visual consistency over muscle memory and workflow. The return of alternative positions signals that Microsoft now sees some of those omissions as debts to be repaid.
Start menu customization belongs in the same category. A centered, simplified Start menu made Windows 11 feel modern in screenshots. But daily use is not a screenshot. People develop highly specific habits around launching apps, finding documents, and clearing visual clutter.
The Experimental channel lets Microsoft test whether more choice breaks the design or strengthens it. That is the right place for this work. Shell changes can produce subtle regressions, especially across different display sizes, scaling modes, languages, accessibility settings, and input methods.
Still, Microsoft should resist the temptation to treat every restored option as a special favor. Windows earned much of its loyalty by being adaptable. If the company wants enthusiasts to believe Windows 11 is becoming more personal, it needs to make personalization feel like a design principle, not a staged concession.
Start menu layout has long mattered in managed environments. Schools, kiosks, frontline workstations, shared PCs, and heavily standardized enterprises often care deeply about what appears when a user clicks Start. The more modular Start becomes for consumers, the more pressure there will be for equivalent controls in policy and provisioning tools.
That does not mean every consumer toggle needs a Group Policy twin. But the concepts matter. If users can hide Recent, administrators will ask whether they can enforce it. If users can choose Start size, admins will ask whether that setting roams, resets, or conflicts with deployed layouts. If identity can be hidden, security teams will ask whether that is a privacy default worth mandating in some contexts.
The 26H1 branch warning is even more operationally relevant. It is a reminder that Windows testing now requires attention to servicing path, silicon target, and rollback cost. A test machine on the wrong Insider branch may not be representative of the fleet at all.
The old rule still applies: never test Windows previews on machines you cannot afford to rebuild. But in 2026, that rule needs an addendum. Never assume that a Windows preview with a higher version number is testing the future of your current hardware.
That is why these changes are more important than their modest scope suggests. Letting users hide sections, resize Start, and remove identity markers communicates that Microsoft understands some of the annoyance. It says the company is willing to retreat from a single canonical layout.
But trust repair depends on consistency. If Microsoft adds toggles in one build and then continues to inject promotional surfaces elsewhere, users will read the Start menu improvements as tactical rather than philosophical. The company cannot personalize with one hand and nag with the other forever.
Windows enthusiasts are particularly sensitive to this contradiction because they remember when the operating system felt less mediated. Not simpler, necessarily; older Windows versions could be messy and chaotic. But they often felt more directly under the user’s control.
The future Microsoft appears to be building is not a return to that world. It is a managed, cloud-connected, AI-capable Windows with more optionality layered on top. The question is whether those options are deep enough to make users feel respected rather than merely accommodated.
That deadline matters because Insider builds often attract users who are comfortable with risk but not always clear on the type of risk. A buggy feature is one thing. A servicing branch that strands a device away from the mainstream upgrade path is another.
Microsoft is not hiding the warning, but the broader complexity of the Insider Program makes it easy to miss. Experimental build numbers, 25H2 enablement packages, 26H1 silicon targeting, future platform channels, and feature flags are a lot for even engaged users to track. For casual Insiders, it can become alphabet soup with consequences.
This is the paradox of a better testing program. More precise channels can reduce chaos for Microsoft’s engineering teams while increasing cognitive load for testers. The company needs to make branch risk visible in the product itself, not just in blog prose read by the most diligent participants.
A preview program should encourage curiosity. It should not punish misunderstanding with a reinstall unless the warning is unmistakable. If 26H1 is truly a specialized silicon path, Windows should say that in plain language before a user crosses the line.
The company is not abandoning its modern design language. It is not bringing back Live Tiles, cascading menus, or the full sprawl of legacy customization. Instead, it is adding controlled flexibility where the lack of flexibility caused the most irritation.
That may be the right compromise for a platform used by hundreds of millions of people across consumer, education, enterprise, developer, and specialized hardware contexts. Infinite customization can become support debt. Too little customization becomes resentment.
The best version of Windows has always lived somewhere between those extremes. It gives ordinary users a coherent default and gives demanding users enough control to stop fighting the machine. Windows 11 has sometimes leaned too hard toward coherence at the expense of control.
The Start menu changes suggest Microsoft knows that. The real test is whether these options graduate from Experimental builds into mainstream Windows quickly, cleanly, and without being offset by new clutter.
Microsoft Finally Lets Start Become a Place Users Can Edit
The Windows 11 Start menu has always been more than an app launcher. It is Microsoft’s front door, billboard, document shelf, search entry point, cloud prompt, and sometimes an argument about what the company thinks a PC should be. That is why even modest Start menu changes tend to land with more force than, say, a Settings tweak or a new icon.The new Experimental build gives Insiders a redesigned Start menu settings page, a choice between small and large Start menu sizes, and controls to show or hide the “All,” “Pinned,” and “Recent” sections independently. It also lets users hide their name and profile picture from Start, a small privacy improvement with obvious value for presenters, streamers, and anyone who has ever shared a screen and suddenly remembered how much identity Windows exposes by default.
This is not a return to the maximalist Start menu of Windows 10, nor is it the freeform tile playground of Windows 8. It is a more constrained evolution: Microsoft is giving users switches, not a canvas. But switches matter when the previous answer was, in effect, “use the layout we shipped.”
The most telling change is the renaming of “Recommended” to “Recent.” That sounds cosmetic until you remember how much distrust the word “recommended” has accumulated in Windows. “Recent” describes a user-centered behavior; “Recommended” implies a vendor-mediated one. Microsoft is not just moving pixels here. It is trying to lower the emotional temperature around one of Windows 11’s most disliked surfaces.
The Word “Recommended” Had Become a Product Liability
Windows users have spent the past few years developing an allergy to recommendation language. Sometimes the feature is benign, as with recently opened files. Sometimes it feels like a soft ad, a prompt, or a nudge toward a Microsoft service. The problem is that users have learned not to assume the difference.That is why “Recommended” was such an unfortunate label in Start. Even when the area contained legitimate recent documents or apps, it carried the scent of something algorithmic and imposed. It suggested that Windows knew better than the person sitting in front of the keyboard.
“Recent” is less ambitious, and therefore more honest. It tells users what the section is supposed to do without implying editorial judgment from Redmond. In an operating system already filled with Copilot prompts, account banners, OneDrive nudges, Edge entreaties, and Microsoft 365 cross-sells, semantic humility is not a trivial design choice.
The new section-level toggles go further. If an Insider wants a Start menu that is mostly pinned apps, they can move closer to that. If they want the app list visible but not recent items, that becomes possible too. Windows still defines the available modules, but users finally get more say over which modules earn space.
This is the kind of change that tends to look obvious after Microsoft makes it. Of course users should be able to hide sections they do not use. Of course a privacy-conscious presenter should be able to suppress their account photo. Of course Start menu size should not be a one-size-fits-all decision in an era of ultrawides, handhelds, tablets, and compact laptops.
The fact that these changes are arriving in 2026 tells us less about engineering difficulty than institutional priority. Microsoft has spent years rebuilding Windows around cloud identity, subscription surfaces, and AI entry points. It is now rediscovering that the PC’s most valuable interface is still the one users feel they own.
The Experimental Channel Is Becoming Microsoft’s Pressure Valve
The rollout also matters because of where it is happening. Microsoft’s newer Experimental channel is becoming the place where the company can test interface ideas without immediately promising that they belong to a broad Windows release. That gives Microsoft more flexibility, but it also makes the Insider landscape harder to parse.Build 26300.8553 is tied to Windows 11 version 25H2 via an enablement-package path, while separate Experimental branches are being used for 26H1 and future platform work. That distinction is not trivia for enthusiasts. It determines whether a build is a feature test on today’s Windows foundation or part of a more disruptive platform transition.
For years, Windows Insiders have had to read between the lines of Dev, Beta, Canary, and Release Preview. The new structure is supposed to make that clearer, but for now it also creates a vocabulary problem. “Experimental” can mean UI changes that may someday ship broadly, or it can mean testing on a Windows core that ordinary PCs may never receive.
That ambiguity is especially important this week because Microsoft is also warning Insiders testing 26H1 that they should move back to 25H2 before June 5, 2026, if they do not want to stay on that path. The catch is severe: moving back from 26H1 to 25H2 requires a clean install. That is not a casual toggle. That is a wipe-and-rebuild decision.
So the Start menu news arrives wrapped in a larger Insider Program reality. Microsoft is offering more granular feature testing at the same time it is splitting Windows development into more specialized tracks. For hobbyists, this is interesting. For IT pros who use Insider builds to understand what is coming, it is a reminder that the channel name alone is no longer enough.
26H1 Is a Silicon Story, Not a Mainstream Upgrade Story
The 26H1 warning is the part of the announcement that should make administrators sit up. Microsoft has said that Windows 11 version 26H1 is targeted at devices using new silicon, including Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Series processors. It is based on a different Windows core and will not simply upgrade to Windows 11 version 26H2 later this year.That is a very different kind of Windows release from the annual cadence most users have grown used to. It is not “the next version of Windows for everyone.” It is a platform branch designed to support specific hardware innovation. Microsoft’s message is essentially that 26H1 is a road for certain future devices, not a highway the installed base should casually enter.
This is where the Insider Program can become dangerous for the curious. An enthusiast sees a higher version number and assumes it is newer, therefore better. In the old Windows world, that assumption was often safe enough. In this world, a higher number may mean “built for a different destination.”
The clean-install requirement to return from 26H1 to 25H2 makes that distinction concrete. If an Insider enrolls a daily driver in the wrong branch, the exit plan is not a quick settings change. It is backup, reinstall, restore, and hope nothing important was tied too tightly to the previous installation.
For enterprises, the lesson is sharper. Test rings need governance, not just enthusiasm. If Microsoft is going to use Windows branches to track hardware-specific foundations, IT departments will need to treat Insider enrollment as a configuration-management issue rather than a playground setting.
The Start Menu Is Where Microsoft’s Bigger Windows Tensions Surface
The Start menu improvements are welcome because they address real annoyances. But they also expose the unresolved tension at the heart of modern Windows: Microsoft wants Start to be personal, useful, commercial, cloud-aware, AI-adjacent, and administratively manageable all at once. Those goals do not always coexist peacefully.A user wants Start to open quickly, show the apps they care about, and stay out of the way. Microsoft wants Start to surface recent files, promote continuity across devices, reinforce account identity, and make Windows feel connected to the broader Microsoft ecosystem. IT wants Start to be predictable, supportable, and resistant to user confusion.
The new toggles are a compromise among those audiences. They let users remove friction without dismantling Microsoft’s model. They offer privacy without removing identity from Windows. They allow a smaller Start without restoring the old Windows 10 menu.
That compromise may be enough for many people. The Windows 11 Start menu has improved over time, and the ability to strip it down to a more focused arrangement will satisfy users who mainly want a launcher. But it does not fully answer the deeper complaint that Windows increasingly treats the desktop as a managed experience rather than a personal environment.
The most enthusiastic response to these changes will likely come from users who can now hide what they never wanted in the first place. That is both a win and an indictment. A personalization feature is useful; a personalization feature that feels like a delayed correction has a different aftertaste.
Privacy in Start Is Small, Practical, and Overdue
The option to hide the user’s name and profile picture deserves more attention than it will probably get. It is not flashy, and it will not dominate screenshots. But it addresses a class of real-world Windows behavior that has aged badly in the era of constant screen sharing.A PC is no longer viewed only by the person using it. It is projected into Teams calls, streamed to audiences, recorded for tutorials, mirrored in classrooms, and shared in support sessions. The operating system’s habit of displaying account identity in prominent surfaces can be harmless in private and awkward in public.
Microsoft’s own explanation frames the feature around privacy when presenting or streaming, and that is exactly right. The profile photo in Start may not be sensitive in the traditional security sense, but identity leakage is cumulative. A name here, an email address there, a recent document title somewhere else: the desktop can reveal more than users realize.
This is one reason the “Recent” change also matters. Recent files are useful, but they are context-sensitive. A document that is convenient at home may be inappropriate on a projector. A work item that is harmless inside a company may be sensitive during a vendor call.
The best privacy features are often not dramatic. They simply let users reduce accidental exposure without changing how they work. Hiding identity in Start fits that category, and Microsoft should apply the same thinking more broadly across Windows surfaces that appear during sharing and presentation.
The Taskbar’s Return to Choice Frames the Start Menu Shift
The Start menu update follows Microsoft’s earlier testing of alternative taskbar positions in the Experimental channel. Together, these changes suggest a broader rebalancing after Windows 11’s initial rigidity. The original Windows 11 shell was cleaner than Windows 10, but it often achieved that cleanliness by removing choices power users had relied on for years.Taskbar placement was one of the clearest examples. For many users, the inability to move the taskbar was not merely a missing preference; it was evidence that Windows 11 had prioritized visual consistency over muscle memory and workflow. The return of alternative positions signals that Microsoft now sees some of those omissions as debts to be repaid.
Start menu customization belongs in the same category. A centered, simplified Start menu made Windows 11 feel modern in screenshots. But daily use is not a screenshot. People develop highly specific habits around launching apps, finding documents, and clearing visual clutter.
The Experimental channel lets Microsoft test whether more choice breaks the design or strengthens it. That is the right place for this work. Shell changes can produce subtle regressions, especially across different display sizes, scaling modes, languages, accessibility settings, and input methods.
Still, Microsoft should resist the temptation to treat every restored option as a special favor. Windows earned much of its loyalty by being adaptable. If the company wants enthusiasts to believe Windows 11 is becoming more personal, it needs to make personalization feel like a design principle, not a staged concession.
IT Pros Should Read This as a Deployment Signal
For administrators, the immediate Start menu changes are not a deployment event. They are Insider-only tests, and production policy should not pivot around Experimental builds. But they are a signal about where Microsoft is taking the shell and where future policy questions may land.Start menu layout has long mattered in managed environments. Schools, kiosks, frontline workstations, shared PCs, and heavily standardized enterprises often care deeply about what appears when a user clicks Start. The more modular Start becomes for consumers, the more pressure there will be for equivalent controls in policy and provisioning tools.
That does not mean every consumer toggle needs a Group Policy twin. But the concepts matter. If users can hide Recent, administrators will ask whether they can enforce it. If users can choose Start size, admins will ask whether that setting roams, resets, or conflicts with deployed layouts. If identity can be hidden, security teams will ask whether that is a privacy default worth mandating in some contexts.
The 26H1 branch warning is even more operationally relevant. It is a reminder that Windows testing now requires attention to servicing path, silicon target, and rollback cost. A test machine on the wrong Insider branch may not be representative of the fleet at all.
The old rule still applies: never test Windows previews on machines you cannot afford to rebuild. But in 2026, that rule needs an addendum. Never assume that a Windows preview with a higher version number is testing the future of your current hardware.
The Menu Microsoft Is Testing Is Really a Trust Repair Job
The Start menu has become a trust barometer for Windows. When it feels useful, users rarely praise it. When it feels promotional, cluttered, or presumptuous, it becomes proof of everything they dislike about modern Microsoft.That is why these changes are more important than their modest scope suggests. Letting users hide sections, resize Start, and remove identity markers communicates that Microsoft understands some of the annoyance. It says the company is willing to retreat from a single canonical layout.
But trust repair depends on consistency. If Microsoft adds toggles in one build and then continues to inject promotional surfaces elsewhere, users will read the Start menu improvements as tactical rather than philosophical. The company cannot personalize with one hand and nag with the other forever.
Windows enthusiasts are particularly sensitive to this contradiction because they remember when the operating system felt less mediated. Not simpler, necessarily; older Windows versions could be messy and chaotic. But they often felt more directly under the user’s control.
The future Microsoft appears to be building is not a return to that world. It is a managed, cloud-connected, AI-capable Windows with more optionality layered on top. The question is whether those options are deep enough to make users feel respected rather than merely accommodated.
The June 5 Deadline Turns Curiosity Into a Decision
The calendar gives this announcement a sharper edge. Insiders who selected 26H1 under Advanced options have until the June 5 rollout point to reconsider if they do not want that version. After that, the path back to 25H2 is a clean installation.That deadline matters because Insider builds often attract users who are comfortable with risk but not always clear on the type of risk. A buggy feature is one thing. A servicing branch that strands a device away from the mainstream upgrade path is another.
Microsoft is not hiding the warning, but the broader complexity of the Insider Program makes it easy to miss. Experimental build numbers, 25H2 enablement packages, 26H1 silicon targeting, future platform channels, and feature flags are a lot for even engaged users to track. For casual Insiders, it can become alphabet soup with consequences.
This is the paradox of a better testing program. More precise channels can reduce chaos for Microsoft’s engineering teams while increasing cognitive load for testers. The company needs to make branch risk visible in the product itself, not just in blog prose read by the most diligent participants.
A preview program should encourage curiosity. It should not punish misunderstanding with a reinstall unless the warning is unmistakable. If 26H1 is truly a specialized silicon path, Windows should say that in plain language before a user crosses the line.
This Is the Windows 11 Shell Learning to Bend
The practical message from build 26300.8553 is straightforward: Microsoft is testing a Start menu that bends more easily to user preference. The strategic message is more interesting. Windows 11’s shell is being softened after years of hard edges.The company is not abandoning its modern design language. It is not bringing back Live Tiles, cascading menus, or the full sprawl of legacy customization. Instead, it is adding controlled flexibility where the lack of flexibility caused the most irritation.
That may be the right compromise for a platform used by hundreds of millions of people across consumer, education, enterprise, developer, and specialized hardware contexts. Infinite customization can become support debt. Too little customization becomes resentment.
The best version of Windows has always lived somewhere between those extremes. It gives ordinary users a coherent default and gives demanding users enough control to stop fighting the machine. Windows 11 has sometimes leaned too hard toward coherence at the expense of control.
The Start menu changes suggest Microsoft knows that. The real test is whether these options graduate from Experimental builds into mainstream Windows quickly, cleanly, and without being offset by new clutter.
The Concrete Things Hidden Inside This Small Build
The safest reading of this release is that Microsoft is using the Experimental channel to test both visible shell improvements and deeper platform branching discipline. Users get welcome Start menu controls, while Insiders on 26H1 get a reminder that preview choices now carry more architectural weight than they once did.- Experimental build 26300.8553 adds Start menu size choices, including small and large layouts alongside the automatic default.
- The Start menu settings page is being redesigned to expose more granular controls in one place.
- Users can independently show or hide the All, Pinned, and Recent sections instead of accepting Microsoft’s default composition.
- The “Recommended” area is being renamed “Recent,” a small wording change that better describes the feature and reduces suspicion.
- Users can hide their name and profile picture in Start, which is especially useful during screen sharing, streaming, and presentations.
- Insiders testing 26H1 should decide before June 5, 2026, whether they want to remain on that branch, because returning to 25H2 requires a clean install.
References
- Primary source: thurrott.com
Published: Fri, 29 May 2026 19:13:06 GMT
Loading…
www.thurrott.com - Official source: blogs.windows.com
Announcing new builds for 29 May 2026
Hello Windows Insiders, This week we continue to expand the rollout of the new Windows Insider Program changes to devices in channels already announced. New builds this week Today we are releasing new Windows 11 Insider Preview B
blogs.windows.com
- Official source: learn.microsoft.com
Loading…
learn.microsoft.com - Related coverage: windowscentral.com
Loading…
www.windowscentral.com - Related coverage: dataconomy.com
Windows 11 update adds major Start menu customization options
Microsoft is testing updates for Windows 11 that will enhance customization options for the Start menu and taskbar, with rollouts
dataconomy.com