- Windows 11 has a new test build in the Release Preview channel
- It contains the revamped Start menu, along with other interface changes
- All of this could be pushed out to everyone on Windows 11 with next month’s update
If you were wondering where Windows 11’s revamped Start menu had got to, you wouldn’t be alone – but the good news is that you should have it soon.
Windows Central noticed that there’s a new test build of Windows 11 in the Release Preview channel, which is the final stage of testing before Microsoft deploys a build to finished versions of the desktop OS – meaning the new Start menu should be just around the corner for everyone.
That said, the feature is on a “gradual rollout” in the new preview build, so not everyone in the channel will get it right away, and the same is likely to be true when it rolls out more widely (I’ll come back to that later).
The new Start menu is keenly awaited, as it brings in some nifty tweaks to the layout, with useful new options for viewing the list of installed apps on the PC. Furthermore, it allows Windows 11 users to do away with the recommendations section (which not everyone wants to see).
Elsewhere in this new build Microsoft is powering up Voice Access with ‘Fluid Dictation’, so when you’re voice dictating, you should find the results are better. Specifically, filler words (such as ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’) will be automatically removed, and grammar and punctuation corrections will be applied.
File Explorer – the app that displays your folders on the desktop – now has a ‘recommended files’ section, highlighting commonly used, or recently downloaded, files. (This isn’t happening for the European Economic Area yet, though, no doubt due to EU data regulations).
All the core elements of the Windows 11 interface are getting some attention here, in fact, and the taskbar benefits from some useful improvements. These include the battery icon for laptops changing color to indicate its status (when charging, or on low battery), and you can opt to have the battery percentage displayed permanently instead of having to mouse over the icon to view it.
Click to Do has some fresh tricks for Copilot+ PCs, and these includes the ability to select text that’s in a different language anywhere in the OS, in order to get a translation (which appears in the Copilot app).
Finally, it’s worth mentioning some important fixes for Windows Update in this preview release. Firstly, when you choose to update and shutdown your PC (with an update pending), it will actually do as instructed, rather than rebooting instead due to a longstanding bug.
Secondly, an “underlying issue which can cause Windows Update to fail to install with error 0x800f0983” has been fixed, which should hopefully mean we see fewer installation failures with Windows 11 updates.
These have been a persistent thorn in the side for as long as I can recall, and it’s great to see that these fixes are almost here for Windows 11.
With the new Start menu (and a bunch of other stuff besides) now in the final stage of testing, there’s a fair chance that it’ll turn up in the next monthly patch for Windows 11. This rolls out on November 11, so we only have a few weeks to wait now, in theory – though nothing is guaranteed (if this last phase of testing the Start menu reveals some fresh problems, Microsoft could delay the release).
Even if the Start menu is deployed with the November update for Windows 11, you won’t necessarily get it straight away. As is the case in testing now, it’ll be a gradual rollout, for both those on Windows 11 25H2 and 24H2, so it’s something of a lottery as to exactly when you’ll get it.
The likelihood is that most people won’t have to wait long, though, and indeed, based on scattered reports on Reddit, some claim to already have the revamped Start menu. (Unless they simply aren’t declaring that they’re running a test build, which is possible – or they’ve enabled the functionality by using ViVeTool, a Windows configuration utility).
Whatever the case, the substantial wait for this new take on Windows 11’s central menu is almost over.
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