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 completely different layouts and is even testing new “companion” panels in varied configurations.
One other potential change includes new layouts for the “All Apps” part of the Begin menu, together with a categorical view. As an alternative of itemizing put in apps alphabetically, Microsoft seems to be testing an iOS/iPadOS-style system that routinely teams apps into classes like Productiveness, Picture & Video, Leisure, and so forth.
Home windows Newest has provided a glimpse of what this would possibly seem like. The shared screenshot exhibits a grid of rectangular tiles, every representing a distinct 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 suitable.
A earlier construct from July solely confirmed the essential construction of those classes, with every displaying coloured blocks fairly 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 does not appear to be working correctly but, the publication notes.
Past the iOS-like app classes, we beforehand coated an experimental, extra conventional grid-style “All Apps” format that teams apps alphabetically by the primary letter, just 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 practical state” than the explicit view.
These potential new layouts might be a welcome change from the present “All Apps” default, which actually has an excessive amount of wasted area. Each the class and grid designs goal to make navigation simpler and assist customers discover what they want extra shortly. We speculate that each choices would possibly make the ultimate lower, 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 adjustments to this core navigation element since Home windows 8 introduced the tile-based Begin display design. Home windows 11 walked again a few of these radical adjustments, however as this newest experimentation exhibits, Microsoft is perhaps gearing up for yet one more main overhaul of the UI.
