I remodeled my Home windows 11 Begin Menu into an Android app drawer

When Microsoft debuted the Begin Menu again in 1995, it was a real graphical person interface (GUI) revelation. The corporate efficiently crafted a software program setup that was each performant and extremely accessible to the general public, which isn’t any small feat.

Because the launch of Windows 95, the Begin Menu has developed in quite a lot of methods, and but, to this very day, its fundamentals stay unchanged: you’ve entry to all of your put in packages, a search operate, an influence button, a person account shortcut, and a few house to pin often accessed apps.

Nonetheless, working programs have developed significantly for the reason that days of Home windows 95, and the Begin Menu, for all its glory, has change into one thing of a GUI vestige. Most of us now pin apps on to our PC taskbars, and looking for apps is less complicated and extra environment friendly than ever earlier than.

As such, the modern-day Begin Menu on Windows 11 is finest understood as a type of app shelf, analogous to the app drawer on Android and the App Library on iPadOS. When correctly configured, the Begin Menu can function a superb one-stop-shop for viewing all of your put in apps from a chicken’s eye perspective.

Microsoft just lately pushed out a Start Menu redesign for Windows 11, and it is a strong improve: this new menu is way much less inflexible than its instant predecessor, permitting you to take away superfluous UI parts and to streamline its design. Some customers have complained that the brand new menu is simply too cluttered by default, and there is definitely some validity to that argument.

With this all-new Begin Menu, Microsoft is lastly permitting us to bend the interface to go well with our particular person wants. In my case, I’ve gone forward and remodeled the menu into one thing that appears and feels identical to the app drawer discovered on my Pixel 10, and I could not be happier with the tip consequence.

Step 1

Flip off your cell gadget in Begin

To start out with, you may take away the secondary cell gadget pane from showing in your Home windows 11 Begin Menu. This panel offers fast entry to your telephone’s standing, latest picture, name, and message historical past, and different perks. For as helpful as it may be, it does admittedly muddle up the Begin Menu expertise a bit when activated.

To take away your cell gadget from the Begin Menu, navigate to Settings > Personalization > Begin > Present cell gadget in Begin and set the toggle to its off place. Alternatively, if you would like to keep up fast entry to the cell gadget panel with out it taking over house when you do not want it to, depart the toggle on after which faucet on the small telephone icon situated on the high right-hand facet of the Begin Menu (to the correct of the search bar) to break down and increase the interface as wanted.

Step 2

Disable the Advisable and most used sections

Subsequent, you may take away the Advisable part out of your Begin Menu, which is able to prevent house, cut back muddle, and doubtlessly pace up efficiency. By default, the Advisable part surfaces just lately put in apps, just lately up to date information, generally visited web sites, suggestions, methods, and extra. Suggestions could be disabled wholesale, as can the listing of most used apps inside the All part of the menu.

To disable each the Advisable and essentially the most used apps sections from showing in your Begin Menu, navigate to Settings > Personalization > Begin > and toggle off the next:

• Present just lately added apps
• Present advisable information in Begin, latest information in File Explorer, and objects in Soar Lists
• Present suggestions for suggestions, shortcuts, new apps, and extra
• Present web sites out of your searching historical past
• Present most used apps

Step 3

Swap to Grid View

If we’re actually going for the Android app drawer appear and feel, you will wish to swap over from the Class View to the Grid View inside your Home windows 11 Begin Menu. This may type all apps in alphabetical order, specified by a grid format that resembles what you’d discover in your typical Android smartphone or pill setup.

To modify to the Grid View structure inside your Begin Menu, launch the Begin Menu, faucet or click on on View, after which choose Grid from the drop-down menu that seems on-screen. Home windows will bear in mind your most popular app sorting structure throughout reboots, and you may all the time swap to the Record or Class View choices at any time limit.

Step 4

Take away all app pins

You in all probability have already got your go-to apps pinned to your taskbar, and so there’s little level in cluttering up your Begin Menu with but extra pins. Fortunately, when you take away all pins from the highest of your menu, your entire part will disappear. This maximizes the accessible actual property for displaying all of your presently put in functions as a substitute.

Your complete pinned apps part inside the Begin Menu could be eliminated by unpinning all functions and folders one after the other. Relying on what number of pins you’ve, this course of could take a couple of minutes. To unpin an app inside the Begin Menu, merely proper click on or lengthy press on the app, after which faucet or click on on Unpin from Begin.