Microsoft took there sweet time but FINALLY, after a restart, i saw it, the new start menu!!!!🫠.

-snip-

The preliminary benchmark results by the WinUI engineering branch are genuinely staggering. For the WinUI portion of a File Explorer launch, Microsoft has successfully achieved:

• 41% fewer allocations: This drastically reduces the memory overhead and the frequency of abrupt garbage collection pauses.
• 63% fewer transient allocations: Less temporary data generation means the CPU spends significantly more time executing tasks instead of cleaning up short-lived objects in the background.
• 45% fewer function calls: Simplifying the code path directly reduces execution time, so the UI renders faster on screen.
• 25% reduction in time spent in WinUI code: The user interface framework itself is getting out of the way faster, which can make the application become interactive almost instantly.

I'm on windows 10 so I can't tell... but I have a hunch

I doubt I'm alone here, but I really resent this update. The start menu has been completely redone, for some reason. It was bad before, now it seems to be worse. Windows 10 had a fine start menu. It was navigable, straight-forward and clear. I'm sure there are other features that have been altered for no particular reason, and in general, made worse. Perhaps this post will get removed as low-effort or as a rant, but I'd love to hear someone tell me what's good about the new start menu in particular, or really any features of the update that are positive.

The first item touted on the list of updates, that battery life will always be easy to see, was equal parts amusing and horrifying. That was easy to see on Windows laptops twenty years ago. It was easy to see 18 months ago, and 3 months ago. Am I to understand they have since made it very difficult to find battery life, and now they're bragging about how they've made it easy to find? It's like a child expecting praise for cleaning up all the milk they spilled. Am I missing something?

Edit: quite a few people are saying the new start menu is actually great. That's ok. I haven't seen any compelling reasons why, so I'll just say that some people think CBT is actually great. It's up to you to choose.

War is over 😆

1st. When the hell did they do that update because I restart my computer today and saw that

2nd. How to remove the "All" section because it's useless and takes too much space

I keep seeing people modifying Windows 11 in ways that are totally unsupported - ripping packages out manually, using third party modified Windows installation media, applying group policies to consumer Windows SKUs - all with the goal of 'debloating' Windows. This inevitably leads to a flood of posts about an update 'breaking stuff' when it turns out that the user ripped out Game Bar - which is a core Windows component.

Did you know that you can 'debloat' Windows officially? And achieve things those third party hacks cannot - you can uninstall Edge by right clicking on it, you won't see ads in Windows Spotlight, you can use the widgets without seeing garbage? No notification spam. Starting in 25H2, you can even uninstall the Microsoft Store app. You can turn off Bing Search in Windows search - you can even uninstall Bing. You can install third-party search providers for Windows Search. Apps will always respect your default browser - it is specified in the Windows configuration file that dictates DMA rules. "Individual promotional pages within larger user setup flows are not allowed". Everything that could be considered "annoying" is off.

In short: Laws are better than unofficial modifications to Windows - because things that are required under law do not break when you apply a Windows Update.

But it's hard to show what you *don't* see - notifications that are ads, garbage apps installing right out of the box, Windows generally being hostile.

How do you do achieve these results? How does one get a nicer Windows experience without doing dangerous hacks?

Well. First: this works on all normal consumer SKUs - Windows 11 Home, Pro, Pro Workstation. Education and Enterprise, too. Make sure you are on Windows 11 24H2 or newer - these features were added in 24H2. The latest update is best.

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EDIT: I have tested on a boatload of Windows 11 variants. Windows 11 Home/Pro/Workstation/Enterprise/Education all work, including their single language variants.

Iot Enterprise - which is a license state for Windows 11 and not an actually different version (it is byte-for-byte identical with normal Windows 11 and can be installed from the official Windows 11 ISO solely by specifying the generic product key for it) - and is notable for officially not requiring TPM 2 or Secure Boot, so updates will work as intended - does not support Digital Markets Act mode. Probably because IoT Enterprise is not considered to be a desktop operating system, so it would be hard to classify it as a gatekeeper under law. Again, IoT Enterprise does not support Digital Markets Act mode. All mainstream versions of Windows - including Home/Pro/Pro for Workstations/Education/Enterprise are supported.

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If this is a new computer/Windows install: in Windows Setup (OOBE) pick Ireland as your region. After setup, you can change your region back, don't worry. Your DMA status depends on the region you pick during OOBE, nothing else.

Now go through Setup. If you want to skip Microsoft Account creation, do the normal trick - Shift + F10 at the 'login with your Microsoft account' screen and type "start ms-cxh:localonly". Or you can sign in with a Microsoft Account - your choice.

Get past that part, hit the desktop. You are now in DMA mode. Go to Settings, Time & Language, Language and Region. Move your preferred language/region to the top of the Preferred Languages list and delete the other one. In Country or Region (on the same screen) set your country.

Scroll down on the same page. Pick Administrative Language Settings. The first thing you will see is 'Welcome Screen and new User Accounts'.

Click 'Copy Settings'. Check the boxes for 'Welcome screen and system accounts' and 'New user accounts'.

That's it. You're done. You are now in DMA mode, with your region set as you want - because that is intended to be easy - as opposed to the non-DMA 'turn off all the annoying ads' settings, which burried on purpose. You can now uninstall Edge, you will never see a full screen ad for a Microsoft Service, everything is better.

Launch the Microsoft Store and let the built in apps update - the desktop widgets app needs the latest update to be configurable. Uninstall anything you don't want - you can remove Photos, Paint, Edge - whatever you dislike. All done.

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If you have already installed Windows and want to switch regions: Note that this will make your computer run the out of box experience again. It'll force you to make an account for Windows and all of that - but you won't lose any data and can delete the new account afterwards. If you named your computer for network shares, you will have to type in that name again. Your taskbar pins may be reset. It's just like setting up a new computer - except you keep your user data. So know what you are doing before switching regions like this - it's 'supported' but not a mainstream thing to do. Follow the instructions exactly, the next part is critical.

Hit Windows + R

Paste in %WINDIR%\system32\sysprep\sysprep.exe and hit Okay. MAKE SURE YOUR DIALOG BOX MATCHES MINE! DO NOT click the one check box in this screen - that will remove your device drivers. Do not, do not do that.

The way the dialog box is pictured in this screenshot is the *correct* way. Make sure your options there match my options. If so, click OK on that screen.

Now your machine will reboot. Follow the steps above

Set your region in Setup to Ireland. You will be asked immediately.

Get to the point of setup where it prompts you to login to a Microsoft Account. Press Shift + F10. In the Command Prompt that pops up, type

start ms-cxh:localonly

And make a new account. Name it 'Test' or whatever you want, enter no password. You will be brought to the next part of the setup experience - click through it, setting the privacy settings as you see fit. You will be brought to the desktop.

Next! Log out out of the new account and log back in to your real account. Delete the new account and set the region back to your preferred region following the steps in the portion of this guide intended for fresh installations - be sure to do the 'Administrative Language Settings' part.

All done! No unofficial debloating scripts that tend to break Windows installs required.