Microsoft has confirmed that a larger redesign of the Windows 11 starter menu is coming along with some other useful sounding adjustments.
In the event that you missed it, there has just been a big disclosure about all the goodies that are in -depth to Copilot+ PCS – including an AI agent embedded in the setting app to sort changes for you – but there were also revelations regarding normal Windows 11 -PCs (you know, the kind that almost everyone still uses).
The renewed start menu is not a surprise, as a leaks that have previously been uncovered the work hidden in test buildings. But with Microsoft, who is now officially revealing it, we know that it will soon be live and tested in Windows 11 -Preview -Builds.
The idea is to take the start menu and transform it into a single rollable panel with attached apps at the top, recommendations below and the full exhaustive list of apps installed on your PC under it at the bottom. The current layout has the full list of apps divided into a separate panel (which you switch to with a button click).
Consolidation of all this into a section makes sense to me and the menu will be wider to help accommodate the extra content.
On top of this, Microsoft has done something to link with the layout choices of the full list of apps to allow them to fit the available space better. It is already in the process of testing, so you can organize the application in a more compact way using categories as an option.
Microsoft notes that: “The new all apps -category view is automatically sorted based on the apps and categories you use most so you can quickly access all your favorites.”
Apart from working in the start menu, Microsoft also introduces AI actions in File Explorer. This means that when you work with the File Explorer folders on your desktop-get you AI-related actions in the right-click menu. So, for example, an image file may have an AI capacity that relates to the photos app as a shortcut.
This is essentially a vanilla that takes on ‘Click to do’, which is the more in-depth context-sensitive system of AI functionality incorporated with Copilot+ PCS (which of course has a few extra AI capabilities and this number is slowly increasing as we have seen).
Windows 11S Notepad app is also increased with AI features that allow you to generate text or summarize an article. Some more formatting options also arrive in the form of headings and support for lists plus fat and italics.
These appear to have been drawn over thanks to WordPad’s passing away, where notepad slowly gets more features added to offer a useful alternative in Windows 11. (Although some people do not want the notpad to be bloated with these things, it must be remembered).
All of the above is in -depth for Windows 11 testers soon, and Microsoft says these features should arrive at some point this month. It may still be a good while before filtering through to release versions of us, remember you – especially the start menu audit, which is obviously a significant commitment. It could be determined for Windows 11 25H2, which Microsoft is being rid of now.
(Image Credit: Microsoft)
Analysis: A good start – but I hope Microsoft retains a key setting leaked in test
It is good to see that this new layout to the start menu comes into play because, as I noticed, when it was seen hidden in test buildings, I think it is a commendable transformation for this crucial part of the Windows 11 interface (ignoring the horrible green color scheme visited on the desktop in Microsoft’s teaser, I must add).
Some of my praise, remember you, was based on the fact that the leak also highlighted a new opportunity to get rid of the recommendation panel completely in the starting menu. Now Microsoft certainly doesn’t mention this, but the company wouldn’t go into any nitty-gritty details in a short first reveal like this one.
So I hope this option will still be available when this new layout officially comes to Windows 11 test construction – and it makes sense that it would be because, as noted, room for a prize here and to dump that part of the panel would be practical in that regard. The choice of trenching recommendations is also an ability that many Windows 11 users have been eager to see implemented (and it is an understatement).
For those who are concerned about the total size of the starting menu with the offshoot telephone link page, are also present-on-right, which you can see in Microsoft’s above screen of the new UI-IT HOG not the whole desktop anymore, as it seemed to do when a leak fed it to appear in a Windows 11-Test building recently.
All in all, the redesigned start menu is formed well. Let’s just keep your fingers crossed that the choice of jettoning of the recommendation section is not something that Microsoft has had a reconsideration about.
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