Tested: Start11 solves Windows 11's worst Start menu and taskbar sins

If you want a Windows 10–style Start menu within Windows 11, then Start11 may be for you.

- MARK HACHMAN

Stardock Software’s Start11 utility is now shipping as a 1.0 release, and if you hate the reductionist new design of the Windows 11 Start menu and taskbar, you’ll want to check it out. Start11, among other handy tricks, lets you move the taskbar around your desktop and configure the Start menu to emulate Windows 10’s look and feel.

Start11, priced at $4.99 (fave. co/3Ht30Pu) as a standalone utility, doesn’t offer everything: It can’t create any dynamic Windows 10 Live Tiles, for example, and your ability to move and resize the Windows 11’s taskbar icons is still somewhat limited. But if you’d like a more gentle transition between Windows 10 and Windows 11, Start11 certainly helps.

Start11 is the latest iteration of the StartX utilities from Stardock, which shipped similar Start8 and Start10 utilities as throwback UIs to earlier versions of the Windows operating system after Windows 8 and Windows 10 launched, respectively. Start11 simply installs over the top of Windows 11, presenting a more familiar way to interact with the operating system. The program itself consists of a straightforward settings menu, where you can tweak things as you’d like. After that, Start11 makes Windows 11 look as you please and then simply gets out of the way.