Microsoft could be reworking a major part of the Start menu in Windows 11, or at least there are changes hidden in testing right now which suggest this.
As flagged up by a regular contributor of Windows leaks, PhantomOfEarth on X (formerly Twitter), the Start menu could end up with a very different layout for the ‘All apps’ panel.
A Start menu update that could be coming soon: an updated All apps page in the Start menu, which displays apps in a grid of icons instead of a vertical list. pic.twitter.com/o8EYjf17UfMarch 30, 2024
Currently, this presents a list of all the applications installed on your system in alphabetical order, but if this change comes to fruition, the panel will be switched to a grid-style layout (as shown in the above tweet) rather than a long list.
Note that this move is not visible in preview testing yet, and the leaker had to dig around in Windows 11 – a preview build in the Beta channel specifically – to find it (using ViVeTool, a configuration utility).
Analysis: 10X better?
What this means is that you’ll be able to see a lot more of the installed software in the ‘All apps’ panel at one time, with a whole host of icons laid out in front of you in said grid, rather than having a list with a very limited number of icons in comparison.
On the flipside, this looks a bit busier and less streamlined, with the alphabetical list being neater. Also, some have noted the resemblance to Windows 10X with this hidden change (which might provoke unwelcome OS flashbacks for some).
As ever, some might lean towards the list of installed apps, or some may not, and prefer the new grid-based view instead – which leads us to our next point: why not offer a choice of either layout, based on the user’s preference? A simple toggle somewhere could do that trick.
We shall see what happens, but bear in mind that this grid layout concept might go precisely nowhere in the end. Microsoft could just be toying with the idea, and then abandon it down the line, before even taking it live in testing.
If we do see it go live in Windows 11 preview builds, odds are it’ll be incoming maybe with Windows 11 24H2 later this year – fingers crossed with that mentioned toggle.
Via Windows Latest
