Microsoft is giving Windows 11 users what many have been clamoring for since launch: granular control over the Start menu. In a fresh Insider Preview build distributed to Dev Channel testers in mid-2026, the company has introduced new customization options that allow you to resize the menu, hide major sections like the controversial Recommended area, and dramatically shrink the forced recommendation tiles that have long occupied prime screen real estate. The build is part of a broader effort to modernize the Windows shell and address persistent feedback that the Windows 11 Start menu, while visually clean, was overly rigid compared to its predecessors.

This release arrives nearly five years after Windows 11 first shipped with a centered, simplified Start menu that split the space between pinned apps and a system-driven “Recommended” section. Early adopters quickly discovered that the Recommended section could not be fully disabled, only minimized—and even then, it would often repopulate with recently opened files or suggested apps. Third-party tools like Start11, StartAllBack, and ExplorerPatcher flourished as a direct result, letting users restore classic layouts, banish recommendations, and resize the menu to their liking. With this Insider build, Microsoft signals that it’s finally ready to meet those power-user expectations natively.

What’s New in the Insider Build

The most immediately noticeable change is the ability to vertically and horizontally resize the Start menu by simply dragging its edges or corners, akin to a normal application window. This alone breaks the fixed, one-size-fits-all approach that has defined the menu since October 2021. Users can now make the panel taller to show more pinned apps without scrolling, or wider to accommodate additional app icon columns—a boon for those with high-resolution displays who want to maximize their productivity.

Accompanying the resize capability are new toggles under Settings > Personalization > Start. The headline feature is a “Show Recommended” switch. When toggled off, the entire Recommended section vanishes from the Start menu, ceding its territory to the pinned area. This means you can finally reclaim the bottom half of the menu—or the entire right-hand column, depending on your layout—and fill it entirely with apps you’ve deliberately placed there. Microsoft has also added a secondary control: “Show recently added apps,” which, when disabled in conjunction with the main toggle, strips away any system-curated content from the Start experience.

For those who don’t want to completely obliterate the Recommended section but find its default size excessive, a new “Recommended tiles” dropdown provides three scaling levels: Small, Medium (the current default), and Large. Small shrinks each recommendation tile to roughly half its current height, allowing more information to display simultaneously while still keeping your recent files within easy reach. The Large option, conversely, expands the tiles for touch-friendly interactions or accessibility needs.

Microsoft has also decoupled the per-app “Show more pins” setting from the section visibility. Previously, choosing to show more pins would simply push the Recommended area further down, but it remained stubbornly visible. Now, you can maximize pins and hide recommendations simultaneously, creating an uninterrupted grid of your favorite apps.

Behind the Scenes: How It Works

Under the hood, these customizations are driven by a revamped Start menu layout service that respects user preferences more faithfully. Early analysis by Windows enthusiasts suggests that the toggles manipulate the same JSON-based layout files that Microsoft has used internally to configure enterprise deployments. This may pave the way for group-policy and mobile-device-management (MDM) control in future builds, enabling IT admins to enforce or restrict certain Start menu behaviors uniformly across an organization.

The resizing feature appears to be tied to a new Dynamic Layout Engine that calculates optimal icon spacing and column counts based on the real-time dimensions of the menu window. Unlike the classic Windows 10 Start menu, which offered a fixed “Show more tiles” slider, this engine adapts fluidly—add an extra 100 pixels of width, and you’ll instantly see a new column of medium-sized app tiles snap into place. Performance tests indicate that the resize animations are GPU-accelerated and have minimal impact on the Desktop Window Manager, even on older hardware.

Why This Matters

The Start menu is the digital front door of Windows, used billions of times daily. Its design has always been a balancing act between Microsoft’s telemetry-driven “defaults that work for most” and the individual’s desire for personalization. With Windows 11, many felt the scales tipped too far toward a curated, Apple-like simplicity that sacrificed efficiency. That friction only intensified as the Recommended section began surfacing content from Microsoft 365 and other services, sometimes blurring the line between operating system feature and advertising platform.

By granting users the authority to hide these sections entirely, Microsoft is effectively admitting that the one-size-fits-all model needed revision. It’s a meaningful concession to the vocal community of Windows Insiders and IT professionals who have lobbied for this change through feedback hubs and social media. More importantly, it future-proofs the Start menu for a diverse user base: a student might prefer a minimalist app launcher; a creative professional might want a canvas of large pinned project files; a developer could resize the menu to neatly display a dozen command-line utilities without a single recommendation in sight.

Comparison with Third-Party Solutions

Before this build, achieving true Start menu freedom required third-party utilities. Start11 offered deep customization but came with a price tag and occasional compatibility headaches after major Windows updates. ExplorerPatcher, while free and immensely popular, relied on unsupported hooks that could break with security patches, occasionally leading to stability issues. The Insider build’s native implementation eliminates those risks, works seamlessly with high-DPI scaling, and adheres to the system’s dark/light mode and accent colors without extra tweaking.

That said, third-party tools still hold edges in niche areas—for instance, Start11’s ability to mimic the Windows 7 fly-out menu structure or incorporate taskbar toolbars. Microsoft’s approach is more conservative, preserving the Windows 11 design language while granting the most requested overarching controls. For the majority of users who simply want to declutter, this native solution will likely be sufficient and more trustworthy.

Early Reactions and Known Issues

In the first 48 hours after the build’s release, Insider feedback channels lit up with predominantly positive reports. Many testers called it “a decade overdue,” while others praised the smooth resize behavior and the instant removal of the Recommended section—no reboot or Explorer restart required. Some noted that hiding recommendations also suppresses the “Recommended” heading and separator line, making the menu look far cleaner.

A handful of issues have already surfaced. A small fraction of users on multi-monitor setups report that the Start menu occasionally reverts to its default size after signing out if the secondary display has a different scaling factor. Additionally, when recommendations are hidden and only pinned apps are visible, the “All apps” list sometimes exhibits a brief flicker during its scroll animation. Microsoft has acknowledged these bugs in the build’s release notes and expects to address them in a subsequent flight.

What’s Still Missing

While this Insider build marks a significant step forward, it doesn’t restore every legacy Start menu capability. There’s still no native option to group pins into folders—a feature that Windows 10 Mobile and some third-party shells offered. Live tiles remain a thing of the past, with no plans to resurrect them. And the “All apps” list, while functional, still lacks the compact list view that many power users prefer over the current horizontally-scrolling icon grid. Microsoft has not indicated whether these features are on the roadmap, but the pace of Start menu evolution in 2026 suggests that the team is listening and iterating rapidly.

How to Get the Build

To try these features, you must be enrolled in the Windows Insider Program’s Dev Channel. Navigate to Settings > Windows Update > Windows Insider Program, select Dev Channel, and check for updates. The build number is expected to be in the 26000 series, though exact digits vary by flight. Remember that Dev Channel builds are pre-release and may contain bugs that affect daily use; it’s advisable to test on a secondary machine or virtual environment.

If you’re not an Insider, you can still look forward to these improvements making their way to the Beta Channel and eventually the General Availability release. Microsoft has not committed to a specific launch window, but historical patterns suggest that features debuting in the Dev Channel in mid-2026 could land in a production-quality update by the end of the year, possibly as part of the Windows 11 2026 Update (version 25H2 or similar).

The Bigger Picture: Windows Shell Modernization

This Start menu overhaul is just one piece of a larger shell modernization initiative underway at Microsoft. Recent Insider builds have also teased a redesigned taskbar with drag-and-drop widget support, a floating quick-settings panel, and deeper integration of Copilot into the desktop experience. By making the Start menu more flexible, Microsoft is laying the groundwork for adaptive interfaces that can shift based on device posture—for example, a compact Start menu on a tablet in portrait mode versus a wide, sprawling layout on a desktop monitor. Such capabilities would be essential if Windows is to compete in the hybrid device landscape against iPadOS and ChromeOS.

For now, the ability to hide the Recommended section and resize the menu at will gives Windows 11 a breath of fresh air. It acknowledges that personalization isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s about productivity and respect for the user’s time. As one Insider succinctly put it in the feedback hub: “I didn’t realize how much the recommendation area bugged me until it was gone. Now my Start menu feels like it’s mine again.”

Microsoft’s willingness to iterate on a core piece of the Windows experience, even years after the initial release, is a testament to the value of the Insider program and the importance of sustained community engagement. If the positive reception holds, expect these customization options to become default toggles in the next major Windows 11 update, finally closing a chapter of Start menu frustration that has lingered since October 2021.