The features of the Windows 10 start menu

Microsoft announced Windows 10 yesterday during a media briefing in San Francisco and surprised the world with that name.

The company has uploaded video footage of the briefing to YouTube for everyone to see. One of the features of the new operating system that got demoed quite a bit during the briefing was the new start menu that the company plans to integrate into Windows 10.

As you may recall, Microsoft removed the start menu from Windows 8 and put a basic one back into the system when Windows 8.1 launched.

The Windows 10 start menu is not identical to the Windows 7 one. While both share similarities, there are also differences which this guide explores.

All information come from the recording of the event which you can watch below. The start menu demo begins at around 13:07 and the presentation of that part ends at about 17:00.

The first thing you will notice is that Microsoft added Start Screen tiles to the menu. You get apps and programs listed on the left and tiles on the right. This leaked during the Build conference earlier this year and should not surprise anyone who took note of the event back then.

The left part of the start menu displays pinned apps and programs, frequently used programs and an all apps button which lists all programs and apps available on the PC that are installed on it.

The tiles on the right are handled just like Start Screen tiles which means that they can be resized, moved, uninstalled or removed from Start.

It appears that it is possible to remove all tiles from the start menu. Note that this has not been demonstrated but since unpin options are displayed, it seems likely. Today's preview release of Windows 10 may confirm that.

Another interesting option is the ability to change the height of the start menu. You can resize the start menu so that it takes up more or less room on the screen when opened.

The run and search box has been updated as well. It brings the Windows 8 search experience to the operating system which means that results will be divided into programs at the top and other finds  below that, and that additional results such as web results may be displayed as well in the results.

Closing Words

The return of a start menu is a good thing as it was one of the things that Microsoft got criticized for a lot when Windows 8 launched. While it is not identical to the Windows 7 menu, it improves that start menu without removing any core functionality.

Users who don't use apps or tiles seem to be able to remove those from the start menu so that they don't get in the way at all.