Home windows 11 is evolving, and so is its iconic Begin Menu

May 6, 2025

Abstract

Along with all-new Floor PC {hardware}, Microsoft has introduced new options coming to Home windows 11.
Unsurprisingly, these new working system additions are AI-centric at their core.
The corporate has additionally confirmed that it is engaged on a Begin Menu redesign, which is at present in testing within the Home windows Insider Program.

Capitalizing on the announcement hype of

its newest duo of Floor PCs
, Microsoft has taken the chance to substantiate some thrilling modifications coming to

Home windows 11
within the coming months. Along with a seize bag of latest AI options sprinkled all through the working system, the corporate has formally confirmed that its

behind-the-scenes Begin Menu redesign
will certainly see the sunshine of day on steady builds of the OS.

“Home windows has all the time been for doers. As we debut the most recent Floor units designed for a brand new era, we’re additionally excited to share the subsequent wave of Home windows experiences that will help you get extra carried out. We consider that everybody needs to be empowered to realize extra on a Home windows PC. That begins with exploring how we will make our experiences extra intuitive, extra accessible, and finally extra helpful,” says Navjot Virk, CVP of Home windows Experiences at Microsoft.

When it comes to new AI-powered additions, Microsoft has outlined a number of options which are on the way in which. These embrace a brand new agent inside the Settings app, new textual content and picture actions similar to Ask Copilot inside the Click on to Do interface, dynamic lighting controls inside the Pictures app, a Paint sticker generator, and extra. The Settings app agent is especially fascinating — a brand new distinguished search subject inside the interface will assist you to find and routinely regulate your settings through pure language queries.

The refreshed Begin Menu, in the meantime, unifies the pinned and all apps sections underneath a single display screen.

The refreshed Begin Menu, in the meantime, unifies the pinned and all apps sections underneath a single display screen, is bigger by default, permits you to disable the really useful part, and supplies further sorting choices for shopping via your put in apps. One among these choices, class view, is closely impressed by

Apple’s App Library
interface — it routinely kinds your apps into buckets together with video games, utilities, productiveness, and extra.

In line with Microsoft, these new AI options shall be “coming quickly to Copilot+ PCs,” with an preliminary rollout to Home windows Insiders over the subsequent month. The Begin Menu redesign, in the meantime, is already accessible in testing (albeit in hidden type), and it ought to finally arrive on all Home windows 11 PCs, Copilot+ licensed or in any other case.

Microsoft Surface Pro, 12-inch and Surface Laptop, 13-inch hero image

Associated

Microsoft’s newest Floor PCs are compact, light-weight, and lacking Floor Join

The tech big has simply unveiled two new compact Home windows 11 PCs: the Floor Professional, 12-inch two-in-one, and the Floor Laptop computer, 13-inch.

Microsoft doubles down on AI-first Home windows 11 experiences

I do not anticipate Home windows 12 to hit the scene anytime quickly

Windows 11 introduction header image — Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft has been all-in on manmade intelligence for a while now, with the corporate closely pushing its Copilot+ PC initiative in latest months.

Copilot+ PCs
are Home windows 11 machines with processors that incorporate a neural processing unit (NPU) threshold of 45 trillion operations per second (TOPS), permitting for environment friendly on-device generative AI processing.

The AI arms race has been heating up, with competitors from the likes of Alphabet, OpenAI, Meta, and different giants inside the tech business. Apple has been notoriously late to the AI get together, with its Apple Intelligence suite proving controversial in execution. Microsoft has fared higher, however I would argue that issues have not gone swimmingly for the corporate, both: its flagship

Home windows Recall function was, properly, recalled
, and different AI additions like generative picture creation and dwell translations have not precisely set the world on fireplace.

…it is the new-and-improved Begin Menu that I am most wanting ahead to receiving alone PC.

I am excited concerning the upcoming enhancements to Microsoft’s Click on to Do function, which works equally to

Google’s Circle to Search
in that it supplies contextual choices primarily based on what’s in your display screen. Extra so than any of the opposite AI options, nevertheless, it is the new-and-improved Begin Menu that I am most wanting ahead to receiving alone PC. In comparison with the prevailing interface, the brand new menu is much extra useful, customizable, and versatile.

If there’s one factor that is clear to me, it is that Microsoft is doubling down on Home windows 11. Its older

Home windows 10 OS is reaching finish of life
in October of this 12 months, and it would not seem like the corporate has the urge for food to as soon as once more fragment its person base by launching a

Home windows 12
anytime quickly. Whereas our PCs will more than likely proceed to run Home windows 11 for the foreseeable future, Microsoft’s ‘new era of Home windows experiences’ verbiage implies that Home windows 12 is certainly being ushered in, however with Home windows 11 as its vessel.