Microsoft is finally making Windows 11's Start menu more convenient

Windows 11 will turn four later this year, but one of its most controversial parts, the Start menu, remains mostly unchanged from the original release, leaving most of the most requested features and changes unaddressed. Luckily, it appears that Microsoft is working on fixing one annoying issue with the operating system's Start menu, and a future update will allow you to get to your apps with fewer clicks.

In our recent "Top 10 features coming soon to Windows 11" article, we covered some big updates for the Start menu, including two new views for the "All apps" list. Microsoft wants to improve the idea further by letting you open the Start menu directly to the list of all apps, not your pins and recommended applications. Microsoft will also allow users to switch back to the standard variant, with the Start menu opening to pins by default.

The code bits for that feature were spotted by @phantomofearth on X:

If you want to get the same behavior right now, you can use third-party tweaks or applications like PowerStartMenu from the Microsoft Store or Windhawk. Of course, it would be much better to have this feature on the system level without relying on tweaks or additional applications.

In case you missed it, Microsoft recently announced improvements to the Phone Link widget in the Start menu. It will soon be enabled by default, asking users to connect their Android or iPhone devices. The biggest change is that the widget now supports iPhones, allowing Apple users to have quick access to notifications and messages, device information, file transfer, and more. You can learn more about that change here.