If you’ve ever spent a groggy Monday morning squinting at your Windows 11 Start Menu, wondering why it’s showing you three PowerPoint decks, two random apps you never installed, and “Tips” you never wanted, you are not alone. The Start Menu, iconic as it may be, has become—for many users—a cluttered hub of Microsoft’s best-intentioned chaos. It’s a digital foyer in desperate need of a good spring cleaning. But hope, as they say, flickers eternal on the horizon of Redmond. The whispers coming from the Windows Insider community suggest a long-awaited, much-needed renaissance for the Start Menu. And after careful investigation—and, yes, a little time spent poking around hidden features—it seems that change is (almost) upon us.
For decades, the Start Menu has been the beating heart of Windows. It’s where work begins, where games sneakily launch during lunch, and where frantic searches for “notepad” start when tech support tells you to “run a command.” But Windows 11’s Start Menu, introduced with great fanfare and a shiny coat of pastel paint, never quite resonated with many of its most loyal users.
A big part of the problem: the much-maligned “Recommended” section. Suddenly, a prime slice of Start Menu real estate was commandeered by files you opened once by accident, app suggestions you didn’t ask for, and helpful hints that felt more like color commentary than productivity tools. Meanwhile, power users—those who use Start dozens of times in a workday—were left longing for the simplicity and control of earlier days.
And the changes are enough to make a weary Windows user sit up and take notice. At last, if you happen to be an Insider with a penchant for experimentation (and, admittedly, for running arcane PowerShell commands), you can finally reclaim your Start Menu from the recommendation overload.
What’s actually new? Two things: first, the ability to turn off recommendations so they stop littering your Start Menu entirely—not just muting them, but banishing them. Second, a deceptively simple, game-changing option: an “all apps” unified view. Instead of hunting for the “All apps” button and wading through a separate menu, you can now scroll through your entire app list right from the main Start panel. No second view, no fuss—just everything, right where you want it.
No more awkward reminders of your brief experiments with spreadsheet templates. No suggestions to try out “Candy Crush” for the thousandth time. Think of it as digital decluttering—Marie Kondo for the Start Menu.
Now, users get a single, scrollable list: pins at the top, then, if you allow them, recommendations or (better yet) all your apps magically stacked below. It’s faster. It’s more logical. It finally feels like Windows is meeting users where they are, not where Microsoft’s design team wishes they’d be.
And the fact that this was possible all along? Let’s just say a lot of folks are wondering why it took until 2024 for this modest dose of sanity to arrive.
This situation raises a bigger question: why are these changes still hidden? Microsoft hasn’t formally announced them, nor made them available by default, even to its bravest testers. That suggests the company is hedging its bets, waiting to see if these features survive the crucible of user feedback before pushing them to wider release.
And then, suddenly, here we are: an early, possibly tentative reversal of that line in the digital sand. Is Microsoft finally listening? Or is this just a temporary experiment to mollify vocal critics?
It’s hard to say. With the looming sunset of Windows 10 support and a major anniversary for Microsoft around the corner, the timing makes sense. Windows 11 must prove, once and for all, that it has what it takes to replace its venerable predecessor as users’ daily driver.
The love-hate relationship users have with the Start Menu is almost Shakespearean in scope. Each design choice is pored over, each omission lambasted, and each improvement—when it lands—is greeted with sighs of grateful relief and the occasional sarcastic meme tweet.
Why? Because the Start Menu is where daily annoyance becomes cumulative. A few seconds wasted on every search, a few awkward clicks every time you miss the app you need—it adds up. Multiply it by millions of users, and you’ve got not just a feature, but a cornerstone of workplace productivity and sanity.
These tools do more than fill a gap: they prove just how much pent-up demand there is for Start Menu sanity. The mere fact that people are willing to pay—or invest hours into tweaking—just to make the Start Menu behave is a testament to how fiercely the community cares. So when Microsoft starts quietly mimicking these features, it’s hard not to see it as both validation and an overdue peace offering.
Still, for the first time in a while, there’s a sense that Redmond is listening. Maybe, just maybe, the outrage over cluttered Start Menus and the relentless tide of questionable recommendations has finally made its way into the meeting rooms where design decisions are made.
It’s about more than just reducing clutter. It’s about trust, and about proving to users that Microsoft can acknowledge feedback, reverse course, and put utility before unwanted “help.” For IT departments managing thousands of desktops, and for individual users just struggling to find their favorite game, little changes like this can have outsized impact.
Possibilities abound. Will Microsoft take the hint and add even more customizability, perhaps letting users resize or entirely remove sections to suit their preferences? Will AI recommendations one day become genuinely useful, rather than glorified spam? Will the Start Menu continue to serve as the perfect synecdoche for every debate about design, productivity, and user empowerment?
Whatever happens, the lesson seems to be: never bet against Windows users’ ability to demand (and eventually receive) change.
No more unexplained files lingering in your face; no more needless panel-hopping. The Start Menu is, once again, yours to command—at least, if Microsoft follows through on its early experiments.
If these changes land for all users, expect an uptick in satisfaction—and, for the first time in a while, perhaps a smattering of gratitude—toward the Windows team. Stranger things have happened. As the saying goes: when the Start Menu is happy, everyone is happy.
One thing’s for sure: whether you’re clicking that Start button for the first or the thousandth time this week, a little more control over your digital domain is always worth celebrating. Here’s to hoping, as Windows marches into its second half-century, the Start Menu finally becomes what it should have always been: yours.
Source: MakeUseOf Windows 11 Could Make a Much-Needed Change to the Start Menu
The Start Menu: Loved, Loathed, and Never Ignored
For decades, the Start Menu has been the beating heart of Windows. It’s where work begins, where games sneakily launch during lunch, and where frantic searches for “notepad” start when tech support tells you to “run a command.” But Windows 11’s Start Menu, introduced with great fanfare and a shiny coat of pastel paint, never quite resonated with many of its most loyal users.A big part of the problem: the much-maligned “Recommended” section. Suddenly, a prime slice of Start Menu real estate was commandeered by files you opened once by accident, app suggestions you didn’t ask for, and helpful hints that felt more like color commentary than productivity tools. Meanwhile, power users—those who use Start dozens of times in a workday—were left longing for the simplicity and control of earlier days.
The Winds of Change: What’s Brewing in Insider Builds?
Enter the Windows Insider Program, that secret laboratory where Microsoft tinkers with features that could one day land on our desktops (or just as easily morph into vaporware and never be seen again). The latest beta and dev builds, available only to these patient, occasionally masochistic testers, have started smuggling in new tweaks to the Start Menu.And the changes are enough to make a weary Windows user sit up and take notice. At last, if you happen to be an Insider with a penchant for experimentation (and, admittedly, for running arcane PowerShell commands), you can finally reclaim your Start Menu from the recommendation overload.
What’s actually new? Two things: first, the ability to turn off recommendations so they stop littering your Start Menu entirely—not just muting them, but banishing them. Second, a deceptively simple, game-changing option: an “all apps” unified view. Instead of hunting for the “All apps” button and wading through a separate menu, you can now scroll through your entire app list right from the main Start panel. No second view, no fuss—just everything, right where you want it.
Cleaning House: Banishing Unwanted Recommendations
Disabling recommendations might sound like a humble tweak, but for many, it’s transformative. Up to now, toggling the “Show recommendations for tips, shortcuts, new apps, and more” option was a placebo. The clutter remained, stubbornly, like that one notification badge you can never clear. With the latest changes, the switch genuinely works: if you turn off recommendations, they’re gone, replaced by the pure, unvarnished glory of your pinned apps.No more awkward reminders of your brief experiments with spreadsheet templates. No suggestions to try out “Candy Crush” for the thousandth time. Think of it as digital decluttering—Marie Kondo for the Start Menu.
One Panel to Rule Them All: A Unified App View
The “All apps” change is sneakily significant. For years, the Start Menu has teased users with a two-panel approach: your pins up front, a stubby Recommended box occupying valuable territory, and the rest of your apps hidden behind a secondary “All apps” click. It was functional—but clunky.Now, users get a single, scrollable list: pins at the top, then, if you allow them, recommendations or (better yet) all your apps magically stacked below. It’s faster. It’s more logical. It finally feels like Windows is meeting users where they are, not where Microsoft’s design team wishes they’d be.
And the fact that this was possible all along? Let’s just say a lot of folks are wondering why it took until 2024 for this modest dose of sanity to arrive.
The Price of Admission: ViVeTool and the Art of Hidden Features
Before you run to your settings to enable these tweaks, here’s the catch: if you’re not in the Windows Insider Program, you’ll have to wait. Even if you are, these options are buried so deep that they require a tool called ViVeTool, a little-known utility beloved by insiders and modders, to activate. Using ViVeTool involves running a series of (slightly intimidating) PowerShell commands and knowing the arcane codes for the features you want to toggle.This situation raises a bigger question: why are these changes still hidden? Microsoft hasn’t formally announced them, nor made them available by default, even to its bravest testers. That suggests the company is hedging its bets, waiting to see if these features survive the crucible of user feedback before pushing them to wider release.
A Nod to User Feedback—Finally
For years, frustrated voices on forums and social media have been clamoring for Start Menu sanity: “Let us choose what shows up!” “Get rid of these recommendations!” “Just show me my apps!” And for just as many years, Microsoft’s public stance was a firm, corporate “We have no plans to disable recommendations—but we hope to improve them.”And then, suddenly, here we are: an early, possibly tentative reversal of that line in the digital sand. Is Microsoft finally listening? Or is this just a temporary experiment to mollify vocal critics?
It’s hard to say. With the looming sunset of Windows 10 support and a major anniversary for Microsoft around the corner, the timing makes sense. Windows 11 must prove, once and for all, that it has what it takes to replace its venerable predecessor as users’ daily driver.
The History of Start Menu Tweaks: What Came Before
To truly appreciate why these changes matter, a quick nostalgia trip is in order. Since its debut in Windows 95, the Start Menu has been the most-tweaked, most-fussed-with element of the Windows experience. From the “classic” layout, to the full-screen Start of Windows 8 (a change so disastrous it spawned an actual cottage industry of Start Menu restoration tools), to the more palatable compromises of Windows 10, and finally the minimalist aspirations of Windows 11—every step has been hotly debated.The love-hate relationship users have with the Start Menu is almost Shakespearean in scope. Each design choice is pored over, each omission lambasted, and each improvement—when it lands—is greeted with sighs of grateful relief and the occasional sarcastic meme tweet.
Why? Because the Start Menu is where daily annoyance becomes cumulative. A few seconds wasted on every search, a few awkward clicks every time you miss the app you need—it adds up. Multiply it by millions of users, and you’ve got not just a feature, but a cornerstone of workplace productivity and sanity.
The Outsized Influence of Tools Like Start11
If there’s a silver lining to Microsoft’s glacial pace in making the Start Menu more flexible, it’s been the flourishing of third-party tools. Stardock’s “Start11,” for instance, has become a lifeline for users desiring the control and customizability that the built-in Start Menu so stubbornly withheld.These tools do more than fill a gap: they prove just how much pent-up demand there is for Start Menu sanity. The mere fact that people are willing to pay—or invest hours into tweaking—just to make the Start Menu behave is a testament to how fiercely the community cares. So when Microsoft starts quietly mimicking these features, it’s hard not to see it as both validation and an overdue peace offering.
Will the Community’s Patience Pay Off?
Cautious optimism is the mood of the moment. Insider veterans know that not every experimental build makes it to prime time. Yesterday’s “must-have feature” can be quietly shelved if Microsoft deems it too controversial, too buggy, or too niche.Still, for the first time in a while, there’s a sense that Redmond is listening. Maybe, just maybe, the outrage over cluttered Start Menus and the relentless tide of questionable recommendations has finally made its way into the meeting rooms where design decisions are made.
Windows 11’s Road to Redemption: A New Chapter?
With Windows 10’s extended support expiration date set and an anniversary celebration on the cards, 2024 could be a make-or-break year for Windows 11’s reputation. These Start Menu changes—small as they may seem from a distance—represent a powerful symbolic shift.It’s about more than just reducing clutter. It’s about trust, and about proving to users that Microsoft can acknowledge feedback, reverse course, and put utility before unwanted “help.” For IT departments managing thousands of desktops, and for individual users just struggling to find their favorite game, little changes like this can have outsized impact.
How to Try the New Start Menu—If You Dare
If you’re the adventurous type, here’s the “choose your own adventure” path to testing these Start Menu improvements:- Join the Windows Insider Program (Beta or Dev channel).
- Make sure your system is updated to the latest Insider build.
- Download ViVeTool—a command-line utility used to enable or disable experimental Windows features.
- Consult a ViVeTool guide to enable the relevant feature IDs (49402389, 55495322, 49221331, 47205210, and yes, you have to type them in).
- Restart and cross your fingers.
The Start Menu’s Next Era: What Comes After Recommendations?
Assuming these changes survive the gauntlet of Insider feedback, what’s next for the world’s best-known application launcher?Possibilities abound. Will Microsoft take the hint and add even more customizability, perhaps letting users resize or entirely remove sections to suit their preferences? Will AI recommendations one day become genuinely useful, rather than glorified spam? Will the Start Menu continue to serve as the perfect synecdoche for every debate about design, productivity, and user empowerment?
Whatever happens, the lesson seems to be: never bet against Windows users’ ability to demand (and eventually receive) change.
What This Means for Everyday Users
If you’re a typical user—someone who simply wants to find your apps without playing “Where’s Waldo?” every morning—these updates are quietly revolutionary. It’s the digital equivalent of discovering that the front door to your house opens from both sides, or that the light switch in the hallway finally controls the hallway light (not the attic).No more unexplained files lingering in your face; no more needless panel-hopping. The Start Menu is, once again, yours to command—at least, if Microsoft follows through on its early experiments.
To Infinity, and Beyond the Start Button
So, is this the dawn of a new era of control and empowerment, or just a fleeting nod to the vocal few? Time, as always, will tell. But insiders are already buzzing; blog posts are being written, and memes are being minted, celebrating the (somewhat) reborn Start Menu.If these changes land for all users, expect an uptick in satisfaction—and, for the first time in a while, perhaps a smattering of gratitude—toward the Windows team. Stranger things have happened. As the saying goes: when the Start Menu is happy, everyone is happy.
One thing’s for sure: whether you’re clicking that Start button for the first or the thousandth time this week, a little more control over your digital domain is always worth celebrating. Here’s to hoping, as Windows marches into its second half-century, the Start Menu finally becomes what it should have always been: yours.
Source: MakeUseOf Windows 11 Could Make a Much-Needed Change to the Start Menu
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