- Microsoft has a start menu redesign in testing
- This introduces new layouts to the list of all apps
- One of these layouts is a category view and we have confirmed from Microsoft that it is not possible to customize this to your taste
We just learned more about how Microsoft’s renewed start menu works when it arrives at Windows 11 and not everyone is happy with the new information sent here.
Windows latest reports on an element of customization that lack what some Windows 11 users were hoping for, and it relates to one of the new layouts introduced to the list of apps.
As you may remember, with the redesigned start menu – which is in test structures of Windows 11 now – the long list of apps installed on the PC can be set to a few more compact alternative layouts, one of which is a grid and the other a category view.
It is the latter that we are interested in here, where apps are grouped into different categories such as games, productivity, creativity, social, utilities and so on. Each of these categories has a box where up to four icons for the most commonly used apps appear, and the full list of apps is found in if you open the category-and all allow for an easier way to find the app you are looking for, rather than scrolling through a long alphabetical list.
So what is the beef bred here? Windows latest has received confirmation from Microsoft that it will not be possible to create your own category types.
Windows 11 will, of course, make the decisions on how to categorize apps and where they belong, but there are some interesting and less than ideal nuances brought by Windows latest here.
Any app that Windows 11 is not sure will go into the ‘other’ category for one thing. If there are no three apps for a given category – because you do not have enough creativity apps installed on your machine, say – then a stray creativity app (like paint) will be dumped in others.
Analysis: Improved customization could still be offered with good luck
If Microsoft gave people the opportunity to make their own category apps, they could have a few alternative dumping areas for other – categories named so that the user could better remember which apps they contain.
However, it seems that Microsoft wants to keep a tight clothing on the groups present in this part of the interface. Unfortunately, it is not possible to move an app from one category to another (which Windows latest has highlighted in the past) if you disagree with where it has been placed – and this latter ability is a more narrative lack here.
The new start menu remains in testing so Microsoft can make changes before it arrives at the finished version of Windows 11. This is completely possible, especially as Microsoft has (again) emphasized how it listens to user feedback to better inform Windows 11’s design, included the start menu.
So simply being able to pull and let go of icons between these categories is something we can hope for to reclassify any given app – after all, it’s a pretty basic piece of functionality. We may also have to define our own categories, but at the moment it seems that Microsoft is taking a rather stiff approach to adaptation with this part of the menu.
Expect this start menu makeover is one of the central columns of Windows 11 25H2 when it is running up later in the year.
