Microsoft recently faced a double whammy from two of its former employees. One of them happens to be an ex-Windows UX head who took a slightly sarcastic dig at Microsoft for its introduction of more ads and promos via the Recommended section in the Start menu.
The other is also a former Windows engineer who labeled the performance of the Start menu as "comically bad" and wanted to bring the company"s attention towards the apparent general "unfinished" state of Windows 11.
However, there is some positive development too. The Start menu on the newest Beta build, 22635.3500 (KB5036985), launched earlier today introduces grouping by letters in the "All apps" option in the Windows 11 Start menu. This should make it much more convenient to navigate through and find apps. It also looks far less cluttered.
And this is in addition to the newly announced Microsoft Account (MSA) manager feature being added to the Start menu. The build also brings the ability to add MSA recovery mail address.
Here is how the new Start menu with apps sorted by letters looks like (courtesy of Windows enthusiast and X user PhantomOcean3):
This is not the first instance in recent times that Microsoft is making a welcome Windows 11 Start menu change. Towards the end of last month, hidden inside Beta build 22635.3420, it introduced the grid view for the All Apps section, making it a lot easier to quickly navigate or scroll through the apps.
As mentioned, that was a highly requested feature and several of them happened to be related to the Start menu indicating that users want more changes here.
Hence, this continuous effort to improve the Start menu design is certainly something users will likely appreciate, considering the recent negative press coverage it garnered as a consequence of its stance towards adding ads and promos.