- Windows 11 Start Menu Rumored to Receive Bunch of Major Fixes
- That includes full control over the items that appear in the menu and the ability to manually switch between small and large layouts.
- Microsoft is also testing changes to make File Explorer work better, and that should arrive with the next Windows 11 update in May.
Windows 11’s Start menu will get the changes that many people have been clamoring for, and Microsoft is also busy fixing the performance of File Explorer, as the company moves to beef up key parts of the operating system’s interface.
Windows Central reported the work on the Start menu, although it should be noted that this is just a rumor. That said, we know that Microsoft intends to revamp the menu as part of the big campaign to fix Windows 11, so something will surely be done with this part of the UI.
According to sources who spoke to Windows Central, the main change will be a much greater level of control over Start menu customization. Windows 11 users will be able to disable any section of the menu that they do not want to see.
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That means not only the ability to get rid of the recommended panel, which you can do now (which was part of the most recent major overhaul of the Start menu), but you can also get rid of pinned apps, or even the list of all the apps installed on the PC.
Apparently, you’ll also be able to choose to have a small (6 columns) or larger (8 columns) Start menu layout, which is a decision Windows 11 makes on its own at the moment. For example, if you have a small screen, the operating system will automatically choose the most compact view, which is quite sensible. However, not everyone is happy with how this works in certain scenarios, so Microsoft will allow users to override this decision if they wish.
Windows Central says that Microsoft is trying to make the Start menu “much faster and more responsive” on top of this, and we’ve heard about this before (and that the UI should work quickly even when the system is under a heavy workload). The search function in the Start menu will also be faster.
As for File Explorer, the application that feeds the folders containing files on your desktop, Microsoft has just released a new test version of Windows 11 in the Release Preview channel that improves its performance.
The build notes say it “improves the speed and performance of File Explorer startup” and fixes remaining bugs where opening a folder in dark mode causes a nasty white flash to illuminate the screen (a fix that’s been making progress in test builds lately).
Windows Latest tested the preview and found that File Explorer actually feels faster, and that it seems especially faster when it first starts up, so that sounds promising.
Analysis: a mountain to climb
The first time you run File Explorer it can often be very slow on some PCs (I’ve witnessed this myself, on my Surface device running Windows 11), so this is an important area to address. These are welcome improvements to File Explorer and, if all goes well, they should be rolled out in the May update for Windows 11. (Don’t count on it, though, as that could depend on what happens in testing and whether any last-minute bugs are found.)
The proposal for working with the Start menu is enormousand pretty much a wish list of everything you could possibly want fixed with this part of the interface (the only thing missing is any mention of getting rid of ad-like promotions, although of course you can already turn off the recommended panel). However, before we get carried away with the idea of these changes, we must remember that they are only rumored plans on the part of Microsoft. Even if all of this is true as it stands, the company could still change its mind on some of these points.
I’m really surprised to see that the idea of disabling the list of all apps in the Start menu is apparently on the table. If so, the core idea of this redesign is to give the user complete control over the appearance of the Start menu, to the point of making it extremely simplified. The ability to manually switch to the small Start menu layout (previously a selection made by the operating system, as noted) also plays into this notion.
This appears to be a push to please those who have complained that the Start menu looks too big and cumbersome, essentially spanning the entire desktop and looking more like the old ‘Start screen’ in some cases.
As I’ve observed in the past, the menu has become such a pain in the ass for some people in its newer, broader form that they’ve been forced to resort to hacks or third-party tools to get a more compact Start menu. Now, Microsoft will offer this option and the ability to make the menu really fancy by disabling various items, which is cool, but at the same time it should have been that way in the first place.
In fact, not everyone is impressed with Microsoft here. As one Redditor observed: “Too little, too late. My next version will be… another OS.” Others expressed similar sentiments in that thread, though sometimes of a more scathing nature, such as: “Too little, too late. We’ll believe it when we see it, and even then, we’ll be careful because it can go back to shit faster than we can say pumpernickel bread.”
It’s probably the software understatement of the year to say there’s a lot going on with tweaks and changes in Windows 11 right now, on so many fronts. Windows Central points out that the project to solve the main problems of the operating system is called ‘Windows K2’ and I think it is a more than appropriate name.
It seems like Microsoft realizes it has a mountain to climb here; I’m just worried that the climb ahead is too steep, and there are good reasons why Microsoft can’t stumble or fall here, as I mentioned in detail recently. Linux is becoming an increasingly imposing threat, and the MacBook Neo is a challenger for Windows 11 laptops to begin with.
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