Small buttons (“All apps,” for example) offer shortcuts to any other apps that may be hidden away. Below, a list of “recommended” files appear to be shortcuts to either frequently-used files, or at least recent documents you may have opened. Again, Microsoft is taking its cues from Windows 10X and providing an array of small, static icons. In Windows 10, Live Tiles allow app developers to cycle through photos and provide dynamic information to you. More profound changes appear once you’ve opened the Start menu itself. And instead of the angled Windows icon from Windows 10, the new Start icon is flat and symmetrical. In Windows 11, the Start icon is simply the left icon on a list of small app icons on your taskbar.

In Windows 10, you launch the Start menu by clicking the left-hand corner of your screen. By default, the Start menu lives in the center of your PC’s desktop, in much the same way the Windows 10X Start menu would have behaved had it ever launched. The Windows 11 Start menu is certainly a major change from Windows 10’s legacy of tiled app shortcuts, which began with Windows 8.

The Start menu: simple icons, no Live Tiles

Windows 10 change drive icon