How to get rid of the new, ugly, Start menu

Ztruker said:

Just did a clean install of 21H1 19043.928 and the Start menu is ugly ugly ugly. How do I get rid of it and gbet back to the more colorful one?

What is ugly to you? The washed out colors?



Then in Personalization > Colors choose Custom and set your Default Windows mode to Dark.



Oh and all those down-arrows just mean that the Store hasn't finished updating all those apps that 'you really must have'.

NavyLCDR said:

Upgrade to Windows 11:

Attachment 344461

On Win 11, my Start Menu just has CPU-Z and GPU-Z and... the "All Apps..." button.

NavyLCDR said:

Upgrade to Windows 11:

Attachment 344461

Even there the default mode is Light. Can't honestly say it looks any better in 11

Bree said:

Even there the default mode is Light. Can't honestly say it looks any better in 11

Yeah I have mine set to dark on Win 11.
I did In-Place upgrade from Win 10 to Win 11, so there was only a few things I had to redo, personalization wise.

Bree said:

What is ugly to you? The washed out colors?



Then in Personalization > Colors choose Custom and set your Default Windows mode to Dark.



Oh and all those down-arrows just mean that the Store hasn't finished updating all those apps that 'you really must have'.

Washed out colors and ugly icons. I don't like Dark mode.
@NavyLCDR, can't run Windows 11, don't have the hardware for it. Hoping MS will smarten up and reduce the requirements so my old 4th Gen I4 will be allowed. It's still a great running system that I'm not ready to part with and I'm not willing to buy a new one.

Ztruker said:

Washed out colors and ugly icons. I don't like Dark mode.

My suggestion was the Custom mode - dark mode for Windows, leaving apps on light mode. The Windows dark mode just makes Start, notifications and taskbar dark, while your apps continue to use light mode. That is my preferred setting.

Hoping MS will smarten up and reduce the requirements so my old 4th Gen I4 will be allowed. It's still a great running system that I'm not ready to part with and I'm not willing to buy a new one.

The Press is now reporting (several different sources) that come release the MCT or ISO will allow you to upgrade on most PCs, and that only the offer to upgrade via Windows Update will be restricted to approved processors.

Microsoft spokespeople have today clarified that users who choose to manually upgrade or clean install Windows 11 this fall using ISO media or the Media Creation Tool will not be hard blocked based on the CPU generation requirements as laid out by Microsoft's official requirements list.

Official Windows 11 ISOs will not hard block most PCs with CPUs that aren't officially supported | Windows Central

Bree said:

My suggestion was the Custom mode - dark mode for Windows, leaving apps on light mode. The Windows dark mode just makes Start, notifications and taskbar dark, while your apps continue to use light mode. That is my preferred setting.



The Press is now reporting (several different sources) that come release the MCT or ISO will allow you to upgrade on most PCs, and that only the offer to upgrade via Windows Update will be restricted to approved processors.

Official Windows 11 ISOs will not hard block most PCs with CPUs that aren't officially supported | Windows Central

I've returned the PC to it's owner with Open Shell installed and he was happy so I can't try what you suggested. I didn't understand what you were suggesting. I may uninstall Start10 (my Start Menu replacement choice) just to give it a try as it sounds like a good compromise.

That's good news about ISO upgrade to Windows 11. Does it work that way today or is this only at release time. I couldn't tell from the article and I haven't been following the Windows 11 forums at all. Time to start doing so again.
I guess the best way to find out is update my Macrium backup then try it, right?

Many thanks @Bree.

Ztruker said:

That's good news about ISO upgrade to Windows 11. Does it work that way today or is this only at release time...

I read the article as saying that at release the MCT and the ISOs will not restrict installs by processor. Last time I tried a clean install or in-place upgrade with an Insider build ISO it did enforce processor requirements, but that was 2 or 3 builds ago.

Microsoft are hardly going to spell it out in detail, if it comes to pass it will be their unspoken secret - like the continuing free upgrade path to W10 if you upgrade with a W10 ISO

Everything I've read still says 7th Gen at a minimum. Mine is 4th gen so unlikely to be allowed but I'll give it a try when it's released.

If I could upgrade the CPU on my Lenovo IdeaCenter K450 I'd consider doing that but I don't think that's doable. I'll look into it again though.

Edit: Here is my previous thread on upgrading my system. Not worth doing.: Upgrade CPU for Lenovo IdeaCenter K450

I'll build a new system sometime in the next year (my first build), make the Lenovo K450 my Webserver and retire my Dell Inspiron 660 Desktop (current Webserver) or set it up for my wife so she can have her own computer (she uses mine now so I have to ask her nicely if I can use it )

Ztruker said:

Just did a clean install of 21H1 19043.928 and the Start menu is ugly ugly ugly. How do I get rid of it and gbet back to the more colorful one?

Attachment 344451

I rolled back to 2004 when I could't get the colors back on 20H1.
Seems it changed for good from there on.

That's the thing, a feature you get used to gets removed later. These design changes are always there from time to time.
Here I'm referring to the colored icons/tiles. the menu background is fine in light/dark.

If there is a way to customize it, I'd be interested as well to see.
But I won't install other programs, it has to be built-in.