Windows 10: Carrot and Stick: After good Windows 11 Start Menu news comes the bad

Microsoft started tests of a reimagined Windows 11 Start menu some time ago. Included in the changes was a feature that some Windows users wanted to see for years: an option to fully remove the recommendation section.

This wish has been granted and while still in testing, is something that Windows users can look forward to. Along with the change come other modifications to the Start menu, and one of them could potentially annoy users.

Automatic categorization of applications


All installed applications are moved to the startpage of the Windows 11 Start menu. This means that you do not have to click on the "all" link anymore to get a listing of the apps that are installed on the system.

Microsoft displays these apps in a new category view directly. Apps are sorted into categories such as productivity, games, social, or utilities & tools.

Sounds great? While categories sound good on paper, Microsoft's implementation does not support the option to create custom categories.

In addition, categories only show up if at least three apps are sorted into one. If you remove all apps but one or two from a category, that category is removed. The apps are moved to the other category, which likely will be the largest category available.

A JSON file on the device determines an application's category. That is good for privacy, as Windows does not send Microsoft your entire list of installed apps just for the sake of putting them into categories.

Downside is that it is a pretty fixed affair. Since you can't create custom categories, you are left with the default categories that Microsoft has created.

While there is a theoretical chance that Microsoft is introducing the option to create custom categories before it ships the feature, or thereafter, I would not hold my breath. It took Microsoft just four years to give users an options to hide recommended in the Start menu after all.

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Feature suggestion: Add right-click menu

Suggestion: Please add a Windows 7 Jump-List and/or right-click menu to the GPU-Z icon in the Windows taskbar. Possible menus in it would be "Exit" and "About GPU-Z...".
Maybe also "Switch to tab 1/Switch to tab 2/Switch to videocard 1/Switch to videocard 2" too.
Examples of programs that have such menus are ICQ, Skype, AIM.

NOTE: It seems for a right-click menu, Windows 7 is not needed - it works on WinXP and Vista too.
But even a Windows 7 Jump-list may be good enough.
What do you think?

 

Windows 11 start menu 'suggested list' does not show files.

After deleting a file from the Windows 11 Start Menu "Suggested List", it does not appear in the "Suggested List" even if the file is used again.

Is there any solution other than initialization? I want you to tell me.

 

New features and improvements coming to Windows 10

Five good reasons for me to stick with W7

"For discovery and engagement, Microsoft will add a "Suggested" list, which will deliver smart suggestions of apps from the Windows Store if after a while you haven't installed any apps. You can also notice that the app tile also provides star rating and pricing information for a particular app."

"As the system learns your behavior using and installing apps, the Suggested list will become the "Recently added" list of apps. And when the users use the app enough, the apps will then get listed in the "Most used" list."


"Microsoft's Belfiore also noted that with these new tweaks, the Start menu is pretty much a final product. As such, we don't expect any more significant changes beyond what we see today."


"Cortana will also feature app discoverability from the Windows Store as users use search."


"Future updates of Microsoft Edge will include a new "New Tab" window with the most recent links users have visited in the form of tiles. If the site they visited has an app available in the Windows Store, you will see "Get the app" notification in the link tile as well."