Microsoft has announced major customization upgrades coming soon to the Start menu on Windows 11, addressing top feedback and requests from users for enabling control over what does and doesn't appear when you open it.
The new customization options are now available in preview via the Windows 11 Insider Program, and I've been testing the new changes over the last week. It's awesome to see so many new options available for users to configure, but it makes me wonder why this wasn't added sooner.
So, what's new in regards to customization? Well, users can now fully configure which segments of the Start menu actually appear. Up until now, the Start menu has consisted of three main segments: Pinned, Recommended, and All apps.
These segments have historically been fixed, but users now have the option to toggle off individual segments should they choose. All the Start menu's customization options are present in the Windows Settings app, or by right-clicking an empty space in Start and selecting "Start settings."
Once in the Settings page, you'll see three categories that represent the different segments in Start. In addition to being able to turn off the segments, two of the categories have their own configurable options that users can now customize too.
For example, for the Recommended feed, you now have the option of choosing the kind of things that show up there. If you don't want to see recommended apps, but do want to see recent files and installed apps, you can make it so.
Being able to outright turn off segments of the Start menu is a super nice addition. I don't usually find use in the Recommended feed, and so being able to toggle it off and save space within the Start menu is great. You can mix and match different configurations depending on your needs too.
Unfortunately, you can't customize the order of the segments. Meaning Pinned is always at the top (unless disabled,) followed by Recommended and All apps. If you wanted Pinned apps at the bottom, for example, that's not something you can do currently.
In addition to being able to hide and customize the segments, Microsoft is also adding the ability to adjust the size of the Start menu. There's two options to choose from: small and large, and by default Windows is set to choose the size based on your screen size.
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However, if you don't like the automatic choice, you can now override it and select which side you want, regardless of screen size. That means I can now set the small Start menu to appear on my 32-inch monitor, which looks great.
Lastly, Microsoft has added the ability to hide your user account name and profile picture. This is handy for those who may be presenting, and don't want to share any personal details through the Start menu. It's a nice addition, but not super important.
These are all great improvements, and the level of adjustability is quite surprising. Being able to essentially outright disable the Start menu isn't something that was on my bingo card in 2026, but I'm more than happy to see it be an option for those who do want that kind of configurability.
With that said, I think there's more room for improvement. As mentioned above, I think it would be awesome if we could reposition the different sections of Start. Furthermore, I'd love the ability to drag to resize the Start menu, as currently the only way to do that is via the drop-down menu in Settings.
I also think it would be cool if users were given the option to turn off the Start button in the Taskbar when all sections of the Start menu are disabled. By extension, maybe Windows should let the user remap what the Windows key does when Start is disabled? I wouldn't mind being able to set it to open the Search pane instead, for example.
Overall, I am really happy and excited to see Microsoft adding more customization options to Windows 11, even if many users likely won't want to or be interested in customizing the Start menu. As someone who does like to curate this interface, these improvements are welcomed in my eyes.
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