From the discharge of Home windows 95 and onward, the Begin Menu has been a flagship ingredient of the PC consumer expertise. To this very day, it serves as a centralized location for program launching, file looking, account administration, and extra. Whereas not almost as flashy in 2025 because it was in 1995, the Begin Menu stays a downright iconic little bit of consumer interface design that has definitely endured by the ages.
After all, as with different working system UI parts, the Begin Menu’s design has advanced drastically over time. Most not too long ago, Microsoft has refreshed the menu interface with a subtly tweaked design that is starting to roll out now to Home windows 11 computer systems throughout the globe. Personally, I am a fan of this redesigned Begin Menu — I discover it strikes a stable sufficient stability between comfort, customizability, and ease.
The jury continues to be out whether or not customers will take kindly to Home windows 11’s up to date Begin Menu expertise as soon as it has been absolutely rolled out, or whether or not it’s going to be criticized to the identical diploma because the previous design was. If you end up dissatisfied with the refresh upon updating your PC, then there isn’t any want to fret: that is Home windows we’re speaking about, and so there’s nothing on the platform-level stopping you from trying out any variety of third-party menu substitute purposes.
Open-Shell bends and conforms to your preferences
Off the highest of my head, just a few common third-party Begin Menu substitute applications spring to thoughts, together with Start11, StartAllBack, ExplorerPatcher, and RetroBar. These apps are all wonderful in their very own proper, although solely the latter two fall beneath the class of being free and open-source (FOSS). For me, there’s one different FOSS Begin Menu substitute app for Home windows 11 that stands out above the remaining, and it is known as Open-Shell.
Open-Shell presents three distinct Begin Menu layouts to select from, starting from Basic type (which emulates Home windows 9x), Home windows 7 type (which emulates Home windows Vista and seven), and Basic with two columns (which takes a hybrid method). Every choice leans into its respective design inspiration gracefully, and adjustments happen instantly with out the necessity for a reboot.
Upon getting an Open-Shell-powered Begin Menu up and working, it is off to the races with customization. Quite a few primary and extra superior configuration choices can be found to dig into, along with skins and various Begin button designs for some added personalization. It is easy to regulate the visibility of the search field, regulate the types of apps that seem on-screen, and even configure methods to set off Open Shell to launch.
…Open-Shell is a superb selection for anybody seeking to change the inventory Home windows 11 Begin Menu.
Past the Begin Menu itself, Open-Shell additionally presents a few further customization instruments not accessible in vanilla Home windows 11, regarding the system taskbar and to the File Explorer. Taskbar choices embrace the power to regulate measurement and opacity, whereas a toolbar and standing bar can each be enabled inside File Explorer.
On the entire, Open-Shell is a superb selection for anybody seeking to change the inventory Home windows 11 Begin Menu with one thing extra customizable and conventional. As a FOSS program, it does not price a penny and its supply code is freely accessible to peruse, although this does come at the price of some UI polish when in comparison with different market options.
Open-Shell is natively appropriate with each the x86 and the ARM computing architectures, and so that you should not run into any issues on that entrance. Nevertheless, as with all different third-party PC customization device, Home windows Updates may break compatibility or introduce new bugs and graphical glitches that the builders might want to patch out after the actual fact.
