If you have already been able to try the new Windows 11 , or have seen screenshots, what will attract your attention the most without a doubt is its new start menu. We had seen this menu before, in the preliminary versions of Windows 10X before Microsoft finished with this operating system. The new start completely breaks with the current one, betting on a much simpler and simpler design and leaving the “tiles” in the background. And while it looks good, not all users are liking the new start menu.
Simplicity also has several handicaps. Users who, after 5 years, had become accustomed to using and customizing the Windows 10 start menu, now find that Microsoft wants to force them to change the way they use the PC again.
This new start menu is the one that is activated by default in the operating system so that all users have to get used to working with it. However, Microsoft for now has not completely said goodbye to its classic menu, but has simply “hidden” it. And with a simple change in the Windows registry we can reactivate it.
Use the Windows 10 start menu in Windows 11
That the Windows 10 start menu is still present in Windows 11 is one more example that this operating system continues to use the current version of the system as its base, and its only difference is the customization layer that Microsoft has applied to it.
If we want to enable this menu, what we must do is open the Windows registry editor by typing “regedit” in the new start menu, and move to the following directory:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > Advanced
Once here, what we must do is create a new 32-bit DWORD value, and give it the name ” Start_ShowClassicMode “. Once created, we double click on it, edit it and assign the value “1”.
Clever. We restart explorer, or the entire computer, and when it starts up again we will be able to use the classic Windows start menu again. If we want to return to the new start menu, all we have to do is edit the registry again and change the value of “Start_ShowClassicMode” from 1 to 0 . After restarting again, we will use the new Windows 11 menu again.
Will it come as an option?
At the moment we do not know if Microsoft is going to bet everything on its new start menu or, otherwise, it will let users choose, in a simple way, which menu they want to use. However, everything indicates that, sooner or later, the Windows 10 menu will disappear , since it is not well implemented in Windows 11, and some functions, such as the search engine when typing, lead us directly to the new design.
What we do like is that Microsoft allows us to align the icons to the left , just as they have always been. In this way, if you don’t like centered, you can align them from the Windows Settings menu itself, without having to edit the registry. Thus, even the new start menu will look a bit more like the classic menu.