How to Customize the Start Menu in Windows 10
Over the past few years, the Windows Start menu has dangled in front of us and picked up more times than we can count, but finally it came back – and brought many new tricks. For the first time, the Start Menu is very customizable, which means you can make it work exactly the way you want it to.
We discussed some of these tips in our Windows 10 customization guide , but if you want to dive a little deeper and really change your Start menu, here’s everything you can do to customize it.
Change the size and shape of the menu
By default, the size of the Start menu adjusts based on the screen resolution. For example, on my 1900×1200 monitor it is quite wide. I don’t want it to take up that much space, so I resized it to be a little more compact.
Resizing is so easy that you wonder why you are reading this sentence: just hover your mouse over the corner of the Start menu and resize it like you would in any other window. You can make it short and wide, tall and thin, or any other size you want.
Add, remove and resize live tiles
The biggest difference between the Windows 7 Start Menu and Windows 10 is obviously the Live Tiles. The ones Microsoft includes by default aren’t necessarily the most useful ones, so you’ll definitely want to reorder and resize the tiles depending on what you really need.
For example, I don’t need anything in the Play & Explore section, so I removed it completely. The Weather tile, meanwhile, is pretty handy, but it’s too small to display all the useful information it has, so I’ve enlarged it with other, less used tiles.
Customizing your tiles is easy: click and drag to rearrange them, or right-click them to completely unpin them from the Start menu. If you drag the tile all the way to the bottom of the menu, it will create a new category that you can rename however you want.
You can also right-click a tile to select one of four sizes – small, medium, wide, and large – each of which will display a different amount of information. If you decide that you do not want live information displayed on the tile, but want to keep the shortcut, you can right-click it and select Disable Live Tile.
To add a new tile, find it in the All Apps section or in the left sidebar and right-click it. Select “Pin at Beginning.” If you’re looking for suggestions on how to create good live tiles, check out our guide on how to make your Start screen useful .
Change menu color
To change the color of the Start menu and its tiles, right-click the desktop and select Personalize. Click Colors in the left sidebar and choose your favorite color from the palette. This will affect other parts of Windows as well, but primarily the Start menu. You can also set the automatic color adjustment to match your desktop background, which is pretty handy.
By default, this will only act as an “accent” color, affecting the tiles in the Start menu. But if you scroll down and check the box next to Show color on startup, taskbar, and action center, the Start menu and taskbar inherit that color everywhere.
Customize left sidebar shortcuts
By default, the left sidebar displays several shortcuts for File Explorer and settings, as well as links to the most frequently used applications. But you can also add some more folders to this sidebar.
Right click on your desktop and select Personalize. Click on the “Start” tab. From here, you can uncheck the options to display frequently used apps or recently opened items. You can also tap “Choose which folders appear on the Start screen” to add shortcuts to your personal folders such as Documents or Music, as well as to your network drives or your personal folder.
(And, if you really liked the Windows 8 Start screen, you can check the Use Full Screen Startup Mode checkbox to revert to a more Windows 8-like experience.)
Pin Windows Settings to the Start Menu
This option is lesser known , but quite useful. If you have multiple settings that you refer to often, you can also pin them to the Start menu. Just right-click any item in the Settings app and select Attach to Start.
Install an alternative start menu
If all this is not enough for you, an alternative Start menu may be exactly what you need. Start menu replacements became very popular in Windows 8 when the Start menu disappeared, but they still exist and offer many features and settings that the built-in menu does not offer. The classic shell still exists if you prefer something free and more like Windows 7, but for Windows 10, we really dig in Start10 . It’s $ 5, it works great with Windows 10, lets you ditch the Start button, and offers tons of different layouts and settings. You can also try it for free before purchasing, so there is no reason not to try it.