This month, Microsoft is redesigning the Start menu in Windows 11, giving it a new, wider design that finally allows you to turn off the recommended file and program feed. Although the new Start menu looks different than what exists in Windows 11 today, this design update could look very different, as Microsoft has shown in concept images.
In its blog post detailing the process of redesigning the Start menu, Microsoft presented five conceptual designs that could radically change the way the menu works in Windows. One of them envisages an even more rounded menu with widget functionality, as well as a separate “For You” section that contains a list of Teams meetings, YouTube videos, and recently used files.
In another concept, the “For You” section is separated off to the side and the main menu focuses on app categories, while another prototype presents the landing page as a Start menu with shortcuts, apps, files, and separate sections for accessing your Android phone, personalized app lists, and creation tools. There is even the concept of a Start menu that takes up the entire vertical space of the screen, with separate sections that need to be scrolled vertically to access them.
“Whiteboards, Figma frames, floor-to-ceiling paper prototypes – nothing was too scarce,” says the Windows design team. “We drew a lot of mockups, allowing ourselves to roam around and discover new things before we put pen to paper.”
Microsoft tested different designs for the Start menu with more than 300 Windows 11 fans and even held conference calls with some of them. “We watched the heatmaps spin as the eyes tracked them, counted the scroll wheels, and listened to the enthusiastic exclamations to see where we hit the mark,” says the design team.
The focus of the new Start menu was on ease of access to programs, customization, speed, and not overhauling it too much to “respect thirty years of muscle memory.” The result is a new Start menu that is larger and more customizable than what exists today. The ability to remove the recommended feed will be a welcome addition for many, and the Phone Companion bar looks like it’s fully integrated into the Start menu to provide quick access to recent calls, messages, and phone files.
Microsoft is testing this new Start menu with Windows insiders over the next month, so expect it to be available to all Windows 11 users in the coming months.
