Windows 11 brings many big changes for those moving from Windows 10, but not everyone is a fan of seeing new apps and documents in the Start Menu. That might soon change. Noted on Reddit, Microsoft appears to be getting ready to introduce an ability to hide the “recommend” section of the Windows 11 Start Menu.
Apparently available when debugging StartMenuExperienceHost.exe in the latest Windows 11 build (22000.120,) this new option would allow Windows 11 users to expand the Start Menu’s list of apps a bit more. It is, however, not easily accessible, but there are apparently a “couple of new options” to do this, per Redditor u/henrik_z4. You can see what this looks when things are tweaked in the image below.
Hiding the recommended section of the Start Menu in Windows 11 is one of the most highly-requested features in the Feedback Hub, according to BleepingComputer. It has over 8,462 upvotes at the time of publishing. That’s why Microsoft responded to the request and noted that you can actually get around this, but with some caveats of the whole area not collapsing or disappearing.
You can go to the Settings Menu, choose Personalization, then Start, and then click the toggle switch for Show recently opened items in Start, Jump Lists, and File Explorer. This will still leave a blank space at the bottom of your Start Menu, and no additional room for more apps. It also impacts File Explorer.
The feedback from Reddit users in the Windows 11 forum seems to be quite positive around this change. The post has 501 upvotes and is even gathering steam in the Windows subreddit. Hopefully, Microsoft sees this positive feedback as well and puts this change into place soon.
The company already introduced some smaller tweaks in Windows 11 based on user feedback, so there is hope. One of those is a Chevron button for the calendar flyout in the Taskbar. This was first introduced in Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 22000.100 back on July 22.
