The massive image: If there’s one factor Microsoft likes to tinker with, it is the Begin menu. After years of experimentation, the corporate nonetheless hasn’t settled on a definitive design for Home windows 11. Microsoft continues to mess around with totally different layouts and is even testing new “companion” panels in numerous configurations.
One other potential change entails new layouts for the “All Apps” part of the Begin menu, together with a categorical view. As a substitute of itemizing put in apps alphabetically, Microsoft seems to be testing an iOS/iPadOS-style system that robotically teams apps into classes like Productiveness, Picture & Video, Leisure, and so forth.
Home windows Newest has offered a glimpse of what this would possibly appear like. The shared screenshot exhibits a grid of rectangular tiles, every representing a unique class. Every class shows 4 apps, with the choice to develop and reveal extra. Moreover, a brand new companion widget is seen floating on the precise.
A earlier construct from July solely confirmed the essential construction of those classes, with every displaying coloured blocks slightly than precise apps. The brand new construct improves on this, although the implementation nonetheless seems to be a piece in progress. Whereas now you can see precise app icons within the blocks, the subcategory performance to show extra apps would not appear to be working correctly but, the publication notes.
Past the iOS-like app classes, we beforehand lined an experimental, extra conventional grid-style “All Apps” format that teams apps alphabetically by the primary letter, much like the app drawer on Android. This grid format seems to be additional alongside, with Home windows Newest describing it as “in a way more useful state” than the explicit view.
These potential new layouts might be a welcome change from the present “All Apps” default, which truthfully has an excessive amount of wasted house. Each the class and grid designs purpose to make navigation simpler and assist customers discover what they want extra shortly. We speculate that each choices would possibly make the ultimate minimize, with Home windows permitting customers to decide on between them.
After all, perpetually tweaking the Begin menu is par for the course with Home windows. Microsoft has been making modifications to this core navigation element since Home windows 8 launched the tile-based Begin display design. Home windows 11 walked again a few of these radical modifications, however as this newest experimentation exhibits, Microsoft is likely to be gearing up for one more main overhaul of the UI.
