Windows 11 just got some useful new tweaks for the Start menu, although these are still being tested.
These came as part of the preview build (version 22635) that was released in the beta channel late last week and to which Microsoft added this weekend.
There are two major tweaks here for the Windows 11 interface, both of which apply to the Start menu and amplify it with useful functionality.
First, Microsoft has added jump lists for apps that support them, meaning that when you right-click on such an app in the Start menu, you’ll see a list of context-sensitive actions you might want to take.
Think of these as handy shortcuts, as in Microsoft’s example in the preview blog post, when you right-click on the PowerPoint app, you’ll see options to immediately open files you’ve recently worked with in the program. Or for the Snipping Tool, you’ll be presented with options to take an immediate screenshot (or a delayed capture).
The second tweak Microsoft has made for Windows 11 testers, recently added to this preview build, is the ability to drag and drop apps from the Start menu directly to the taskbar or desktop to pin them to make.
Outside of the Start menu, as regular leaker Albacore shared on
More taskbar customization is coming to Windows 11 24H2. The latest Canary build has hidden settings for toggling the notification bell 🔕 and switching to a shorter date format 📆Right now, these checkboxes don’t seem to do anything, at least in Canary. Beta.. 🧐? pic.twitter.com/DdjQwNz0M5June 14, 2024
As noted, there’s a setting that disables the notification bell on the taskbar, giving you a little more space and no hassle if you’re not a fan of that feature. However, at the moment it doesn’t work – and as always with everything in this first test channel, it may not be eligible for inclusion in Windows 11.
Analysis: Better late than never
There are some small but useful changes here, and hopefully, thanks to the Start Menu tweaks, we’ll see them appear soon enough (possibly in the Windows 11 24H2 update, which will reportedly arrive in September 2024).
Mind you, the change to dragging and dropping an app from the Start menu to the desktop (or taskbar) should have actually happened in Windows 11 in the first place. This is another example of a seemingly basic piece of interface functionality that was left out of Microsoft’s latest operating system for no apparent reason – dragging and dropping into File Explorer’s address bar is another example of this.
These represent strange decisions from Microsoft that are limiting in terms of the interface and your workflow when you come over from Windows 10 (where these capabilities are available). In any case, these pieces of the interface puzzle are now in place, if only in the testing phase.