Windows 11 paves the way for the future of PC computing as it embraces modern technologies as well as technologies to come. Thus it can be essential to keep up to date with the latest version of the OS when compared to Windows 10 or earlier as these older alternatives are slowly being left behind. There are even rumors that you’ll need Windows 11 in order to take advantage of the coming Wi-Fi 7.
However, the new OS hasn’t really been embraced by everyone else. The new Start Menu can take a lot of getting used to, and many still refuse to like it over the menu design they’ve come to know for so many years. Then there is the new design of the taskbar that has been shunned by many as well. Or the new right-click menus (context menus) that bury options you’d normally expect to find into a sub-menu. While replacing your common options like copy and paste with tiny little icons.
In the past, we’ve shown how you can replace the start menu with the menu from Windows 10 or earlier. But that is only a single stepping stone in what can make Windows 11 feel like home again. So I am going to take a quick moment to break down how you can fix some of these other points as well, in just a few quick steps.
The Start Menu
As explained before Start11 (by Stardock) is one of the best ways of customizing the Windows 11 Start menu to something a bit more familiar. This application will cost you, but it is only $5.99 (at the time of writing this) and well worth the money.
With this, you can choose to change the Start menu to a Windows 10 design or earlier. Along with a long list of other adjustments. Like moving everything back to the left in the Taskbar and adjusting how open tabs are displayed (icons vs. tabs, or if they should be grouped together or not or separated across multiple monitors).
There are a lot of options to play with, and this alone is going to make one of the biggest changes in making things feel a lot more normal.
The Taskbar (dialing it in further)
If moving everything to the left isn’t good enough for you, you can customize the Taskbar even further. For example, you may not like the new System Tray and how you are able to access things like audio settings, compared to how Windows 10 handled things.
Or even better, you may find yourself missing the Quick Launch section of the Taskbar that allows you to have one-click shortcuts to some of your most used applications. You might have noticed that Windows 11 did away with this feature for the first time since Windows 95 entered the scene.
Bringing the original Taskbar back is as simple as installing a little patcher tool called ExplorerPatcher (by Valinet). This one doesn’t cost a thing. It is available here on GitHub with detailed instructions. But all you have to do is install it and then work your way through the settings window.
With this, you can bring the Windows 10 Taskbar into Windows 11. Giving you the original system tray, the Quick Launch section, and more. It can even modify the Start menu, but we prefer Start11 due to its friendly interface and great support (not to mention it dives a little deeper into everything). Just like Start11 can modify the Taskbar, but we like ExplorerPatcher better for that.
Context Menus (Right-Click Menus)
Your context menu is what you get when you right-click on something. This is where you’ll find your copy, cut, paste, properties, open-with, and other common options. Normally, everything shows in this menu when you open it, but Microsoft buried this into a “More” submenu and many have expressed their dislike for this decision.
You can fix this via the previously mentioned ExplorerPatcher’s settings window as well. Simply browse its context menu section where it has a number of options to modify this menu to your needs. Easily bringing it back to the Windows 10 style. That way any program that adds options to the menu (Antivirus programs, Winrar, Winzip, backup software, Notepad++, etc) will appear in the main menu as usual and not hidden behind the “More” submenu. Even better, no more little icons for cut, paste, etc. Everything will roll back to the normal text commands.
File Explorer
This step is completely optional. The new File Explorer looks a little different from Windows 10. This hasn’t really received a lot of rejection from users, but there is one common change people have mentioned. That is the fact that every folder in the tree and thumbnail views are further spaced apart. So if you are used to seeing more information in your given bit of space, you can easily adjust this back to normal.
Look for the three-dot menu to the right of the toolbar and click on that. Click on “Options” and then the “View” tab of the window that pops up. Look for the “Decrease space between items” option, which is like the second option down, and check it (and hit apply). This will fill that space in and make everything look closer to Windows 10 within File Explorer. The ribbon menus are still different, but this may still make enough of a difference for some to be worth mentioning.
Between the Start menu, Taskbar context menus, and that tiny little change to File Explorer, Windows 11 should feel a whole lot like Windows 10 now. Making the transition a lot easier on you. For some, so easy that you may sometimes forget that you are even using Windows 11.
I hope this quick tutorial helps and if I missed anything, do feel free to use the comments below to share your own thoughts.
