How to change the size of the Start menu in Windows 11 and customize it to the fullest

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The new Start menu in Windows 11 is completely different from Windows 10 , both in appearance and how it works. This includes how you can adjust its effective size, its content, and how it's displayed. While there isn't a direct "width" or "height" control, there are several ways to make it take up more or less screen space and make it look much cleaner.

If you're bothered by the empty Start menu block, the recommendations, or the shortcuts that appear next to the power button , Windows 11 offers a host of settings to customize the Start menu to your liking, from basic options that any user can adjust, to advanced configurations with JSON files designed for administrators and companies that want to enforce a specific design across many computers.

What does the Windows 11 Start menu look like and what parts can be changed?

The most obvious change is the new position of the Start button and the entire taskbar : now, by default, the Windows icon appears centered, and when you open it, the menu also appears in the lower-center area of ​​the screen. If you've spent half your life hovering your mouse over to the bottom left corner, you'll probably go there out of sheer habit for the first few days.

The menu's internal content has also been completely redesigned . The dynamic tiles of Windows 8/10 are gone, replaced by a more compact grid of fixed icons with several rows of pinned applications. This makes the Start menu visually smaller and less intrusive, without taking up the entire screen as before.

The top of the menu is called the "Pinned" section : here you'll see your apps pinned to a grid of icons. You can add, remove, and rearrange these icons as you like, and the system maintains the same number of visible rows regardless of screen size. If you have more than 18 items, you can scroll through pages using a pagination control.

Below the pinned apps appears the "Recommended" section , where Windows displays recently opened documents, recently used applications, and, in some cases, Microsoft suggestions. This area is what many users find visually cluttered, but it can be cleaned up and managed quite effectively through the settings.

In the top left corner, you'll find the "All apps" button , which opens a complete, alphabetically ordered list of everything installed on your computer. Unlike in Windows 10, this list is no longer the core of the Start menu, but rather an additional view that opens on demand.

Finally, in the bottom right corner of the menu are the shortcuts next to the power button : there you can add quick icons to Documents, Downloads, Pictures, File Explorer , Settings, and other frequently used folders. All of this is controlled from the folders section of the Start menu itself.

Change the position of the Start menu and align the taskbar

If what bothers you most about the new Start menu is seeing it in the center , you can return it to a more classic layout by moving the taskbar alignment.

To change the taskbar alignment and move the Start menu :

• Right-click on an empty area of ​​the taskbar and select “Taskbar settings”.
• Go to the "Taskbar Behaviors" section. which you will see at the end of the page.
• In “Taskbar alignment” choose between “Center” or “Left”By placing it on the left, the Start button and the entire menu will also be placed in that position.

Windows 11 currently only allows these two positions (centered or left). There's no official option to move the taskbar to the top or sides as in older versions, although some third-party tools (like Start11 or similar ones) expand these possibilities for those who want a vertical or even more traditional taskbar.

How to influence the effective size of the Start menu in Windows 11

Windows 11 does not include a direct control to "stretch" or "shrink" the Start menu , but we can modify how much space it ends up occupying by controlling how many pinned applications and how many recommended items are shown in the main view.

The key lies in the balance between " More pins " and "More recommendations," which you can adjust in the Home settings. More pins will fill the menu with app icons, reducing the number of recommendations; more recommendations will give you more space for recent documents at the expense of seeing fewer apps.

To modify this balance and change the appearance and effective size of the Start menu :

1. Open the Settings app with Windows + I or from the Start menu.
2. Go to “Personalization” and then enter the “Home” section. of the side panel.
3. Look for options related to the Home designwhere you can choose between configurations such as "More anchors", "More recommendations" or balanced view depending on the version.

Choosing “More anchors” increases the area occupied by app icons and makes the recommendations section smaller. Visually, the menu appears fuller with icons and less full of file lists. If you dislike seeing an empty block, this option is usually the most pleasant.

If you prefer to see more recent documents and fewer pinned apps , you can choose to prioritize recommendations. This way, when you open Start, the files and contextual shortcuts that Windows considers relevant will take up more space.

Clean and monitor the “Recommended” section

The Recommended section of the Start menu displays recently used files and applications , as well as some items suggested by Microsoft. While useful for quickly returning to what you were last doing, it can also create a lot of visual clutter.

If you want to clear it all at once because it bothers you , you can delete all current recommendations and leave this section practically empty:

1. Open the Start menu by clicking the Windows icon or pressing the Windows key.
2. In the “Recommended” section, right-click on any listed item..
3. Select the option “Delete all recommendations” to empty that section completely.

In addition to cleaning, you can decide what type of content you want to appear there . Again, this is done from Settings > Personalization > Home, where you'll find toggles for:

• Show most used apps.
• Show recently opened items in Start, in the quick access list, and in File Explorer.
• Hide these suggestions if you prefer a much more minimalist Home screen.

By disabling these options, the Recommended section becomes virtually empty , reducing the feeling of a large, contentless tile that many users comment on when they unpin almost all applications.

Customize pinned apps and create folders

The pinned apps area is the practical heart of the new Start menu , because it's where you can access your favorite programs with just one or two clicks. Managing this grid effectively is key to having a compact and organized Start menu.

To add an application to the Pinned section, you have two very simple ways:

• From the searchOpen Start, type the app's name, right-click on it, and choose "Pin to Start".
• From the “All apps” listOpen Start, click on "All apps", locate the program, right-click and select "Pin to Start".

To remove a pinned app and free up visual space , simply right-click on its icon in the grid and select "Unpin from Home." The icon will disappear from the top, but the app will remain installed and accessible from "All apps."

Rearranging icons is as simple as dragging and dropping them . You can place the applications you use daily first, group them by type (office applications, editing software, games, etc.), or follow any other criteria that suits you best; the system will automatically update the layout, always maintaining the same number of visible rows.

Windows 11 also allows you to create folders within the Pinned Programs section , ideal for saving space and grouping related programs. To do this:

1. Drag one app icon on top of another icon within the grid.
2. A folder will be automatically created with both appsYou can click on it to expand it.
3. To rename the folder, open it and click on the name (editable field) to put the title that suits you.

These folders allow you to concentrate several apps in the same space , which reduces the "visual height" of the Start menu and makes everything look more compact, even though it doesn't change the exact dimensions of the window.

Choose which folders appear next to the power button

The lower right corner of the Start menu can display shortcuts to various system locations: Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos, Network, Home Folder, Settings, File Explorer, etc.

To enable or disable these folders and customize that area :

1. Open Settings and go to “Personalization”.
2. Access the “Home” section in the side menu.
3. Click on “Folders”, within the Start options.
4. Activate or deactivate the switches corresponding to each folder that you want to appear next to the power button in the Start menu.

This gives you quick access to your frequently used locations without cluttering your main app grid . It's especially useful if you work with documents, images, or downloads all day and want them just a click away every time you open Start.

Relationship between the size of the Start menu and the taskbar

The perceived size of the Start menu is also linked to how you've configured the taskbar . Although you can no longer officially change the height of the taskbar or use small buttons like in older versions, there are still some options that affect the usable space.

From Settings > Personalization > Taskbar you can :

• Show or hide system icons such as Search, Task View, Widgets or Chat to clean up the bar.
• Control which icons appear in the corner of the bar and in the overflow areareducing visual noise.
• Make the bar automatically hide when you're not using itThis leaves more vertical space for the desktop itself and for the Start menu when it opens.

If you combine a clean, hide-and-seek taskbar with a Start menu heavily focused on essential apps , the feeling is of a much cleaner interface, without empty blocks or clutter.

Advanced customization of the Home page design with LayoutModification.json

Beyond the graphical adjustments, Windows 11 includes a very powerful system for defining preconfigured Startup layouts , designed primarily for OEMs (manufacturers) and IT administrators in companies: the LayoutModification.json file.

This JSON file allows you to specify which applications and websites are pinned to certain areas of the Start menu , as well as what is displayed the first time a user logs in. The menu consists of three sections for these customizations:

• Anchored Section: the top grid of icons, where both UWP apps and classic Win32 applications and web links can be defined.
• All applications section: complete alphabetical list of installed apps, which cannot be modified or filtered using this method.
• Recommended Section: lower area where a single, prominent element can be fixed, as an OEM, on the first start.

Within LayoutModification.json there are three main members for defining OEM anchors :

• primaryOEMPinsUp to four items will appear on the first page of pinned apps on the Home screen.
• secondaryOEMPins: up to four items at the bottom of the pinned apps grid (require scrolling within the Start menu).
• firstRunOEMPins: a single item that will be displayed in the Recommended section for a limited time (for example, the manufacturer's welcome app).

Each of these members accepts different keys to describe what is being observed :

• packagedAppID: identifies a UWP application through its AUMID.
• desktopAppID: identifies a Win32 app by its AppUserModelID, when available.
• desktopAppLink: indicates the path to a .lnk shortcut for desktop applications without AUMID.
• secondaryTile: allows you to pin a web link using Microsoft Edge's secondary tiling infrastructure.
• caption: Text that appears as a tooltip for firstRunOEMPins items, with support for multiple languages.

A typical example of LayoutModification.json in Windows 11 might include several Microsoft apps, manufacturer utilities, and one or two corporate links. If fewer than four items are defined in primaryOEMPins or secondaryOEMPins, Windows fills the gaps with its own default applications to maintain visual order.

Export and apply a Startup design to other computers

If you're an administrator and want to replicate a very specific Start menu design on other devices , Windows 11 allows you to prepare a reference computer, configure the menu manually, and then export that configuration to a JSON file.

The general workflow is as follows :

1. Log in to a reference computer with an account created for that purpose..
2. Customize the Pinned section of the Home menu pinning apps, removing the unnecessary ones, and rearranging the icons until the desired design is achieved.
3. Open PowerShell and run Export-StartLayout specifying a path to the .json file, for example:
   Export-StartLayout -Path "C:\Layouts\LayoutModification.json"

The resulting JSON file contains the Home layout definition in the form of a pinnedList. From there, it can be edited to fine-tune details or add additional web anchors using secondaryTile elements.

To integrate this design into a Windows image and deploy it in bulk , you would typically copy the customized LayoutModification.json to:

• %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Shell in specific user scenarios.
• \Windows\Users\Default\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Shell within a composite image, if you want it to apply to all new profiles.

This method is especially useful for companies that want all employees to have a consistent Start screen: with corporate applications in view, links to the intranet, support tools, etc., avoiding as much initial clutter as possible from pre-installed apps.

Pin web links to your Home screen with Microsoft Edge

Another powerful customization option is pinning web pages directly to the Start menu , treating them almost like native applications. This is ideal for intranets, training portals, internal dashboards, or frequently used sites.

To pin a website to the Home screen using Microsoft Edge :

1. Open Edge and navigate to the website you want to pin..
2. Click on the three-dot menu in the toolbar.
3. Go to “More tools” and choose “Pin to home screen”.

If you then export the design with Export-StartLayout , the web links will appear represented in the JSON by secondaryTile objects, which include information such as tileId, arguments (with the URL), displayName and the paths to the icons used.

These same secondaryTile tiles can be reused in primaryOEMPins or secondaryOEMPins within LayoutModification.json, so that the manufacturer or administrator can ensure that certain corporate websites always appear pinned in key positions on the Home page.

Personalize the overall look of Windows 11 to complement the Start menu.

The Start menu isn't isolated from the rest of the interface . The user experience is greatly enhanced when you combine its customization with adjustments to themes, colors, fonts, animations, and widgets.

In the "Personalization" section of Settings, you can choose complete themes that define the wallpaper, color palette, and system sounds. You can also choose between light mode, dark mode, or a custom mode where the system and apps can have different styles.

To adjust the colors applied to the menu, bar, and other elements :

• Go to Settings > Personalization > Colors.
• Choose the mode (light, dark, or custom) and an accent color.
• Decide whether the accent color is applied to the title bar, window borders, taskbar, and Start menu..

You can also adjust the text size and fonts to improve readability , from Accessibility > Text Size and Personalization > Fonts, which helps a lot if you spend many hours in front of the screen.

The Widgets panel , meanwhile, acts as a "mini Home" information hub with news, weather, calendar, traffic, and more. You can rearrange widgets, resize them, or remove them entirely to avoid distractions if you prefer a clean interface focused solely on work.

Performance, backups, and security when customizing

When you start tinkering with interface settings, design, apps, and even configuration files, it's a good idea to have some order so you don't mess up anything important or waste time if something goes wrong.

Before diving into deep customizations, it's recommended to :

• Create system restore points so that you can revert if a configuration breaks something.
• Make regular backups (either with the Windows backup tool or third-party solutions) to protect your data.
• Only install customization tools from trusted sourcesIdeally from the Microsoft Store or recognized providers.

If you decide to modify the Registry or use advanced scripts to change the behavior of the Startup or taskbar , always make a backup of the Registry beforehand and limit changes to keys you understand. An incorrectly changed value can cause instability, login failures, or even reboot loops.

In terms of performance, every visual extra and every program that opens with the system makes a difference . Disabling animations from Accessibility > Visual Effects, controlling background apps, and reducing the number of programs that start automatically helps the Start menu and the system in general respond much faster.

The Windows 11 Start menu is much more flexible than it first appears: although you don't have direct pixel size control, playing with the ratio between anchors and recommendations, cleaning up items, carefully choosing visible folders, and, if needed, using LayoutModification.json for advanced designs allows you to go from a chaotic Start menu full of gaps to one that is organized, compact, and perfectly adapted to how you work every day.