How To Use The New Windows 11 Start Menu, Now Rolling Out 2025

The Windows Start menu is getting its first major redesign since 2021 and will be rolled out to everyone with the November 11 Patch Tuesday update.

The Start menu is now scrollable, so you can move through your apps in one place.

This means the “All” section sits on the main screen, and you do not need to jump to a separate page.

Right now, when you open Start, you need to click on All apps to find the list of installed apps.

By default, Microsoft has categorised view enabled by default, which groups by app type. It moves your most used ones to the top of each group.

The categories are created locally and maintained using a local JSON file.

A category is created when it has at least three apps. If a group is smaller, those apps stay in “Other.”

Finally, we have a grid view, which keeps the classic A to Z order, but it has a wider layout so you can scan more apps at once.

Windows remembers the view you last used, but after the update, it will default to the categories view unless you change it.

The menu also grows or shrinks to fit your screen. On bigger screens, you see a larger Start menu by default. That can show eight columns of pinned apps, six recommendations, and four columns in the “All” categories.

Source: BleepingComputer