The redesigned taskbar in Windows 11 has had a lot of praise and criticism since the update came out in October 2021, but a year later, Microsoft is working on some improvements.
While the new (much requested) drag-and-drop feature in the Start menu is still missing, the appearance of the system tray in the lower right corner is refreshed to better reflect the appearance of labels in Windows 11.
There’s also an option to ultimately reduce the number of “recommended” files on the Start menu, but there’s still a lot of work to do before you can fully customize the menu.
You can already try this enhanced taskbar on your computer if you are Member of the Windows Insider (opens in a new tab)which allows you to try out other updates that Microsoft is working on, but if there are improvements, it could be after the Windows 11 2022 update.
Can we then get rid of the “Recommended” box?
The taskbar has divided many Windows 11 users – the taskbar and Start menu have been arguably an iconic part of the operating system since its debut with Windows 95.
Anyone who has used the computer knows where the Start menu is and how it works, so making the major change made by Windows 11 will inevitably spark discourse. However, Microsoft is again delaying acknowledging these complaints from some users, and this was to its detriment.
It’s a year since Windows 11’s debut, and the taskbar has hardly seen any improvements. Worse, a former engineer at Microsoft also voiced his concern about the Start menu in a series of tweets in August.
Design matters. Details matter. Especially in a UI as iconic as the Windows Start menu. I remember the team created a special ligature in the Segoe UI font (used in Windows) to make sure the letters “S” and “t” fit perfectly with the word ” Start”. This is how important Start was for Microsoft.August 29, 2022
Granted, some of the improvements we saw in early versions of the upcoming Windows 11 updates are welcome, but the “Recommended” section of the Start menu is the worst for me. I don’t need to see a list of recently used files, and for now, getting rid of these files means I have to right-click each one individually to remove them from the Start menu.
Let’s see the option to remove this and instead the icons cover the menu or maybe some widgets like Weather.
While we may see some improvements in the “Moment 2” update by the end of this year, you can customize your Start menu with Start11, a tool that can also restore menus from previous versions of Windows. This could be a good alternative to use in the meantime while we wait and see what Microsoft has planned.
By Windows Latest (opens in a new tab)