Windows 11 Start Menu

John · Jan 5, 2022

I have finally conceded that Windows 11 Start Menu is fine for me -I gave up Open Shell and Start 11 (by Stardock) and I am perfectly content with the Windows 11 Start Menu. Am I in the minority or majority?

The-Hive · Jan 5, 2022

Who Knows, I have mine looking like Win 10 but everything else about 11 I love

BunnyJ · Jan 5, 2022

I like the new start menu

Berton · Jan 5, 2022

For now I'm not doing much customizing but I like having the ability to add or delete Pinned items that are most frequently or commonly used.

Slavic · Jan 5, 2022

It depends on how long you have been working with previous Start menus, some people still remember Windows 95, and how stable working habits you have. I am still feel more comfortable with Open Shell, counting it more practical and tuneable, but also use the new 11 menu time-to-time (it opens by Shift+click). For me, they are somehow complementary, currently about 80:20.

gmemore · Jan 5, 2022

I'm still using Start11. I prefer categorizing my start menu.

Berton · Jan 5, 2022

Only computer I never owned was Windows ME [Millenium Edition] and those before Windows NT 3.51. Got started with MS-DOS 5 and Windows 3.1, started building and repairing in late '94 or just before Windows 95 came out, so I've been through the bunch of changes.

Bree · Jan 5, 2022

John said:
I have finally conceded that Windows 11 Start Menu is fine for me .... Am I in the minority or majority?

You're certainly in the minority of those expressing an opinion, but then those with a gripe are always the most vociferous. Those that like it are less likely to come here and say so.

When I first got Windows 10 in 2015 I didn't try to make it look like my previous Windows 7. Rather, I adapted to and made use of the new Start and soon had it populated with small tiles for a dozen or so of my frequently used apps. Some of them, such as my XP version of Solitaire, needed to be added as custom entries in All apps in order to do so. The Taskbar provided more space for the most frequently used.

And when that system was upgraded to Windows 11 it really wasn't that difficult to customise Start in a similar way.

So yes, I'm happy to use the new Start. It would be nice to have more rows of icons in Pinned and less in Recommended, but apparently that's already available in Insider builds and should appear for the rest of us in the 22H2 feature update.