- Windows 11 has a redesign of the start menu incoming
- Microsoft has shared info about the process of this renewal and how it took a host of feedback
- We also get to see some of the abandoned designs for the start menu Start
Windows 11 gets a big renewal for the start menu, and in an interesting feature Microsoft has shared feedback that ran the redesign, as well as some of the concepts that fell by the road.
In the event that you overlooked the emergence of this starting menu overhaul, Microsoft gave us a first look at it recently. Essentially, it changes the menu to a single rollable panel (rather than two separate endeavors) and uses some other useful adjustments.
Basically, I’m a fan and I think it’s a clear step forward (more now, when a doubt has apparently been clarified and I’m coming back to that moment).
Windows Central picked up on the blog post Microsoft released on the process of redesigning the start menu, explained why the new layout was selected and also look at other treatments discarded based on user feedback.
In fact, Microsoft says it fought through a whole lot of notes on the feedback hub (where testers and enthusiasts give their opinions on Windows 11) as well as conducting “thousands of external interviews” to get redesign of this part of the interface to the right. On top of that, we are told: “Over 300 Windows 11 fans joined immature studies and dozens more jumped into live co-creation calls.”
From all this, a key message repeatedly came through from these people: “Help me find my apps faster. Let me bend start by taking care of the way I work. And thank you – hold the magic, not lose the soul.”
Yeah I guess the last part of this quote was never anything Microsoft heard – it sounds more like something Freddie Mercury sang in a Queen Song back in the eighties – but the first two points make full sense. Windows 11 users want the start menu to be most of all, the place where they find and fire their apps and part of the interface that they can customize.
I think the latter is a particularly decisive factor, and elsewhere in the post, Microsoft talks about the start menu that gives: “Recommendations made right to you who learn in real time and a way to hide them if you don’t find them useful.”
With regard to the second half of this sentence, I take this as a confirmation that Microsoft is actually incorporating a switch to remove the panel recommendation from the start menu completely, for those who do not want it.
I don’t, and I know I’m not alone about it and this option was discovered in testing with the start menu Revamp. So this comment about giving users a ‘way to hide’ recommendations definitely refers to turning off them. To me, this indirectly represents confirmation that an important part of the redesign actually comes.
It is also good to see Microsoft become more transparent here and also show the discarded start menu concepts. Are any of them anyone good? Obviously, this is a subjective case to some extent, but to me some of them definitely deserved to be chucked in the trash, while others seem sensible enough.
Let’s look at the candidates who stand out from the effort that ended up being dumped.
This is a more tablet -focused takeover of the start menu (where the background is blurred), although it will not be ideal for traditional stationary PCs (obviously). I don’t like it taking a step back to still having the list of all apps’ as a completely separate panel. It’s a pretty pure layout to be fair, but there are some suggestion -related things here that I’m not so eager for. Pass.
Essentially, this is the starting menu from the Windows 10 Port to Windows 11, although the design elements kind of clashes for me (category lists for apps, bottom-left, feel especially out of place). Despite the fact that it all felt shoe horns in Windows 11, I don’t mind the idea of just having the Windows 10 start menu back in some ways. However, I am surprised that Microsoft even considered the idea.
Erk, what is this? It seems that someone lobbed a hand grenade into the gut of Windows 11’s start menu, and this is the wake of the almighty explosion – bit of interface everywhere. It is too busy, suggested, and again as the first concept above, it grows limbs and divides other sections into separate panels. No thanks.
This one I like – it keeps things simple and it is mainly focused on apps with some recommendations and reminders in the left panel. Note that Copilot has sneaked into the reminders, bottom-left, but generally I think this is my favorite of the abandoned designs.
However, the start menu that Redesign Microsoft has chosen is the winner for me, although you may well have a different opinion (Windows Central makes it determined). Why? Because it keeps things simple, with everything on a panel, and the new category view of the full list of apps ensures it’s more template – plus you can (hopefully) release the recommendation panel to make more space as well. (Telephone link concerns have also been turned with a simple button to withdraw the panel for those using this app).
Is Microsoft’s chosen renewal too boring? Well, yes, maybe. I guess it’s the safe, not too adventurous opportunity, but it works for me. I don’t want a fanced start menu. I want a functional, streamlined system, and yes, the crucial ability to customize and further trim everything I don’t need (while those who like recommendations may have them).
