Windows 10: Microsoft is making more unwanted changes to the Windows 11 Start Menu

Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25309 is available in the Dev Channel. While it brought some welcome features, Microsoft is also experimenting with the Start Menu, yet again.



More annoying changes to Windows 11 Start Menu

Start Menu Recommendations


You may be aware that Windows 11's Start Menu has a recommended section that the operating system uses to show your recently accessed apps, and files. It appears that Microsoft wants to crank this up a notch, it wants to display tips, shortcuts, new apps and more in the Start Menu. A hidden toggle for this is available in the Start Menu settings under the Personalization tab. The option is hidden, but PhantomOfEarth shared the velocity ID to enable it. Use the ViveTool utility to toggle the following command in a terminal.

vivetool /enable /id:42916428

You will need to restart the computer to view the new option. But, it doesn't seem to display any new recommended content yet. Perhaps it will start doing so in a future build when the feature is announced.

OneDrive Reminder in the Power Menu


The Power Menu that you can access via Start has an unusual change. Users may see an exclamation badge on their profile. Click on it, and a small flyout will appear, it displays a message that reads "Protect your Memories. Automatically save photos and files to the cloud to help keep them safe and available anywhere". It has 2 options, Start backup, and Remind me later. The first one is more prominently featured with a button design, clicking on which opens the Back up folders panel in the OneDrive app.



If you click the "Remind me later" option, the badging goes away. I tried rebooting the virtual machine a few times to see if the reminder appears, but it didn't. To try how the Start Menu badging looks, use the following command in ViveTool.

vivetool /enable /id:36435151 /variant:1 /variantpayloadkind:1 /variantpayload:1121



You may not see the badge immediately, if your OneDrive app is set to backup your data. To test this, open the OneDrive app on your PC, and go to its Settings section. Click the Manage Backup button under Sync and Backup, disable some of the toggles. Now, open the Start Menu, and it should display the badge on your profile. There are 2 more variants that you can try, replace the number 1121 in the command with 737 or 993. (h/t PhantomOfEarth)

Here's a screenshot from Microsoft that shows all 3 versions.



This isn't particularly new, Martin wrote about a somewhat similar ad in the Start Menu, back in November 2022. I don't like either implementations, but if I were to compare them, I'd say the older style was a bit more style, the new flyout looks terrible. It feels like an ad for OneDrive, rather than being concerned about protecting the user's data. What next? Notifications that tell you to backup your data on OneDrive?

You could argue that a Start Menu replacement could solve these annoyances, but some recent issues have popped up which seem to suggest UI customization apps may prevent Windows 11 from booting. It's almost as if Microsoft doesn't care about users' freedom to tailor their experience.

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Windows 11 Start menu

Yes, live tiles are gone, in Windows 11, as is the capability of resizing the start menu, or for that matter, to relocate the task bar. I haven't a clue why Microsoft changed some of these things, or why they thought it was an improvement. Possibly, though, some of these features will be re-introduced in future feature updates.

https://www.thewindowsclub.com/features-deprecated-or-removed-in-windows-11

The Start menu will be rejuvenated in Windows 11 and there will be few old features that will be removed. You will see the following functions to be gone from the Start menu in Windows 11:

1. Live Tiles will no longer be available. There won’t be dynamic previews in the Start menu.
   
2. Pinned apps or sites won’t be mitigated when you upgrade from Windows 10.
   
3. Named groups and folders of apps are not supported. And also, the size of the layout can’t be adjusted currently.
   

I think that word "mitigated" should have been "migrated." In fact, the start menu comes full of apps you probably don't care about, and instead has none of the pinned icons you do care about. But it's easy enough to remove some of the unneeded icons, and re-pin your needed ones.

Also note that to see the complete list of apps, you have to click that small nondescript button, on the upper right of the start menu. Another thoroughly questionable change, in Windows 11.

My own preference is to only introduce changes which improve the product. Make it more intuitive, easier, faster at accomplishing the usual tasks. Instead, in Windows 11 and also in Office updated versions, we often see "change for the sake of change," not "change to something improved."

 

Microsoft Will Soon Bring Back The Start Menu In Windows 8.1

Finally! LOL

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Start menu not working

Hello Barry,

Please help us with the below information to help you better.

• Have you installed all the pending updates on your system?
• Did you make any recent software/hardware changes to your computer?

As an initial troubleshooting step I would suggest you to install all the pending updates on your system and if you are using Microsoft account suggest you to sign out and sign in again and check if resolves the issue.

I suggest you to perform Start menu troubleshooter
from the below article and check if it help in addressing your issue.

Get help with the Windows 10 Start menu:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/get-help-windows-start-menu

Let us know if you need any further assistance on Windows related issues and we will be glad to help.