Windows 10: A closer look at the new Start menu

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Microsoft has released Windows 10 and it comes with the new Start menu. While we know that many of you will install the OS, there are a significant number of users who will not want to deal with the early bits as they can be buggy and break your workflow.

One of the new features that Microsoft showed off way back at BUILD 2014 is the Start menu. In the technical preview, the Start menu makes its return with a bit of a modern flair. This time around the menu features live tiles and you can even re-size the menu to if going horizontal is more your thing. 

Live tiles can also be resized, just like they can on the Start screen and all of the same sizes are available too. You can drag the tiles around to create your own layout and add a new app to the 'modern' section of the Start menu. Much like the Start screen, your apps are not added to the Start menu automatically, you have to drag them into the modern area to add them, otherwise they will be in the 'all apps' section of the menu. 

Also, the modern area of the Start menu can hold legacy applications too, it is not only for modern apps.

The background color of the menu can be changed as well by tweaking the theme color of the OS. 

If you prefer the Windows 8 way of doing things and want the old Start screen back, that option is present in Windows 10 as well. To switch back, you need to open the navigation properties (easiest way to do this is to search for it) and from in there, you can select the Start Menu tab and then uncheck the menu box. This will require you to log out of Windows 10 and then log back in to re-enable the Start screen.

For users coming from Windows 7, the Start menu will feel very familiar and bring back that 'classic' windows experience that many of us grew up with. And that's exactly the point. Microsoft knows that users wanted the menu back and voila, here it is.

There is a good chance Microsoft will push out more features to the menu over the coming months as they move closer to the final release of the OS. Also, by collecting a lot of feedback, more on that in an upcoming post, this will help to shape the final experience that ships with Windows 10.