- Microsoft seems to mull a redesign to the start menu Start
- We saw it last week, hidden in testing, and now we’ve got a glimpse of what it looks like with phone link side panel enabled
- This configuration of the start menu takes up most of the desk, but there is a switch you can flick to change this
If you saw the great renewal that could be in the works of Windows 11’s start menu – although it is noted that it is still only hidden in testing – we have caught another look at it, this time with the Telephone Link Side Panel actively.
As a quick refresher, the Telephone Link Microsoft’s app that connects your Android smartphone, so you can use the device for various features (texts, notifications or even some apps) on Windows 11 -Desktop. The said side panel puts all the relevant details that relate to your phone in a box that flows to the right of the start menu.
As you can see below, known Leaker Phantomofearth on X has shown us what the starting menu will look like the side panel that is active (as highlighted by Windows latest).
New start menu, follow -up: Here’s how companions look, phone link one used for the demo. The companion panel is a little wider and you can now quickly hide/display companions with a button at the top next to the search box. pic.twitter.com/hms7e56kiuApril 4, 2025
The central point to be remembered here is that Microsoft’s proposed redesign makes the start menu wider, which is part of a step to condensing the layout of two separate sections to one, and accommodating this (all this is in theory of course).
The start menu is not only wider as the Phantomofearth makes it clear, but the phone link panel is also a little wider here, which means that 75% (maybe even a little more) of the desk is hidden by this configuration of the start menu. It’s pretty much the whole screen eaten up, in other words.
As Phantomofearth also points out in the above post (see the video clip), there is a button you can click to hide (or show) the accompanying panel. Meaning of it only takes a click to withdraw this extra piece of the interface and trim down in the starting menu (although it is still especially more expansive than it was before).
Analysis: Windows 8 -flashbacks aside, the overall direction Microsoft is heading towards Feeling positive
Does this bother me at all? No, with a word. As noted, you do not need to have the side panel for the Telephone Link acting. And of course, there are a lot more people who don’t use this Android smartphone -connection than the people who use it -in fact, I want to know what kind of percentage of usage phone links have. I don’t have this app created for now, but I mull it over and will probably take the plunge in the future.
For those in this scenario, where the start menu is still covering most of the desk, is it even a problem? Again, not for me. I guess the unfortunate aspect here is that it feels like a full -screen start menu in some ways and it can give some users flashbacks for Windows 8’s days (which had one Actually Start menu on full screen-ja, technically it was a home screen, one that no one really used or liked).
But again, you can just disable the phone link panel if the new layout bugs you so much. Furthermore, I must emphasize (strongly, with bold red pen), that this work on the start menu Redesign – which is also supplied with a huge, red cross, in the form of an opportunity to turn off Microsoft’s recommendations – is not even in testing yet. It is hidden in the background of preview buildings, so nothing can happen to all these concepts. Or, if realized, Microsoft may be implementing them differently from what we see here.
All that said, the changes that are hidden away in the background appear to be relatively polished – given their totally unofficial status – and this is one to keep an eye on.
However, you can be sure that the idea seems to be a lot to give Windows 11 users more control over what they see in their start menu, including teeming it from any overruns of expanding all over the desk in certain scenarios. And it has to get a big thumb, determined?
