In its more than 40-year-long history, Windows has introduced a fair share of iconic features that we can't imagine our computers without. From the very concept of the desktop to things like the File Explorer, not everything we know today was the same back when Windows first made its debut. The Start menu is one such element that only appeared later in the operating system's life, starting with Windows 95. It's been a staple of every Windows OS release ever since, but it's changed a lot throughout the years.

Personally, I've lived through every iteration of the Start menu since Windows XP, but I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at all the different versions of it to see how it's evolved since its debut and whether we're better or worse off today.

Windows 95 (through Windows ME)

Humble beginnings, but a solid foundation

The introduction of the Start menu in Windows 95 was a pretty big deal, at least from the perspective of someone more used to later versions of Windows. Prior to this, getting to your apps or settings was all done through the Windows Explorer window that opened by default when you booted up Windows, but this new concept enabled the desktop to be the home for all your icons without anything getting in the way.

The Windows 95 Start menu was already loaded with pretty much anything you'd want to do on your computer, too. It truly was the starting point for using your PC. Start housed a folder containing all your programs, one for your documents, and one for your system settings, plus the Find option along with the ability to run a program or turn off or suspend the computer. There wasn't anything overly fancy, but really, anything you could want was there. All your apps would go in the programs folder, and if you wanted to change any settings, the Control Panel was quickly accessible from the Settings folder. Because all of these options were suspended menus, you also didn't need to click all these UI elements, and hovering your mouse over them would show you all the options inside it.

This iteration of the Start menu didn't see a ton of changes in the follow-up Windows releases. Windows 98, 2000, and ME kept the same overall design, but added some new options to accommodate other Windows features. For example, your favorites from Internet Explorer could be found here, and Windows ME also added a new option to log off your current account, since Windows supported multiple accounts at this point.

Windows XP

The iconic dual-pane design

The first major shake-up for the Start menu came with Windows XP, which introduced a dual-column layout that would become the style we'd see for the next decade. This is also a style many users prefer today, kept alive by tools like Start11 (with some changes).

In Windows XP, the Start menu prioritizes the apps you care about the most. The primary column houses your pinned and recent apps. If you have an app you use all the time, you can pin it to the top area (Internet Explorer and the built-in email client lived here by default), so it's always there for you. Below that, you'll see apps that you opened recently, so you can quickly get back to what you were doing before. The Programs menu that was found in the first iteration of the menu became an All programs menu at the bottom, but it still worked pretty much the same way, with suspended menus for subsets of apps and tools.

The remaining options in the Start menu were given their own column for faster access. You had a quick link to your documents, music, and pictures folders, as well as the Control Panel, printer settings, and more. There was also a new quick menu for your recent documents, letting you get back into your workflow easily. More options than ever were available with a single click, which made things a lot faster.

Of course, the visual style was also completely modernized (for the time), so things looked a lot more rounded and much prettier.

Windows Vista and 7

Refinements and visual updates

It's very clear that Microsoft struck gold with the Start menu in Windows XP because the company mostly left the formula untouched for the follow-ups. The major changes here are mostly in the visual design, with Windows Vista introducing some translucency and glass effects, which were significantly improved and refined with Windows 7. Leveraging the more powerful hardware that was becoming available, these versions of the Start menu looked a lot nicer on compatible hardware.

Functionally, the changes were smaller. Vista changed the All Programs menu from a suspended menu to instead take the place of the main column, making for a more self-contained design, but one that required more clicks to open the folder you wanted to get to. Meanwhile, the second columns added links to a Games folder as well as the general user folder. The search button was replaced with a Search bar that now lives underneath the main column, and it can also be used to run programs, since the dedicated Run button was removed. Meanwhile, the power and log off buttons were simplified into new icons, with a sub-menu available for additional options, rather than them, being presented to you later.

Windows 7 made even fewer changes, with only the Log off button being removed, making the Shut down button more prominent and text-based, rather than using a simple icon. Otherwise, the Windows 7 Start menu is very much like the one in Vista.

Windows 8 and 8.1

Aiming for the tablet market

This is the big one. In 2012, Microsoft saw the potential in tablet devices after the popularity of the iPad and sought to replicate that success in the Windows world with the Surface brand. To go with it, we got Windows 8 and the first touch-focused version of Windows for desktop computers.

The Start menu was no longer a menu, and it became the Start screen, completely taking over the desktop with a new design paradigm called tiles. Tiles were square icons for apps, which could also double as widgets. That means that tiles would usually update themselves to show the latest information from the respective app, giving you more at-a-glance information. Of course, while this made total sense for tablets, it wasn't the best experience for desktops, and it was forced on desktop and laptop users all the same.

To access the Start menu, you no longer had a button, and instead, you had to move your mouse to the corner until the visual indicator appeared so you could click it. The Start screen then took over the desktop, and it created a weird split between apps that run in the desktop and "modern" apps that used the entire screen space.

From there, the options were also far more limited. The Start screen focused entirely on tiles, with only the user profile icon in the top right with options to log off or switch accounts. To see your list of installed apps, you had to swipe up on this screen, which you couldn't do on a non-touch PC, requiring you to right-click an empty area and then choose the All apps view. Even the option to turn off the computer was hidden away in the Charms bar, and that required you to move the mouse over either the top or bottom right corners and then move the mouse slightly along the edge of the screen to bring up the bar. You'd then have to click the Settings button to see the power options appear. It was a mess.

To keep fast access to certain desktop features, Windows 8 did introduce the Quick Link menu, which is shown when you right-click the Start link on the desktop. This includes links to things like Control Panel, File Explorer, and Device Manager, and it's been around ever since.

Windows 8.1 tried to correct the course

After Windows 8's disastrous reception, Microsoft sought to fix some of the pain points of the new experience. The Start screen in Windows 8.1 got the ability to display smaller tiles so you could fit more apps into a single view, and it also has a power and search button in the top right corner, so you can access these common features more easily.

Accessing the All apps list also became easier with a small arrow at the bottom of the screen, and Microsoft also gave you a bit more customization by allowing the desktop background to also be the background for the Start screen, so things felt a bit more cohesive. Windows 8.1 also brought the Start menu icon back to the taskbar, though it still opened the full-screen interface.

Regardless of these improvements, the Windows 8.1 Start screen was jarring for desktop users and it couldn't change the perception users had already developed toward Windows 8 as a whole.

Windows 10

Bringing two worlds together

Windows 10 was Microsoft's real shot at redemption, simultaneously trying to keep what made Windows 8 great for touch screens while making it appealing to long-time desktop users. With that, Windows 10 brought the Start menu back to the bottom left corner of the screen, along with two primary areas.

The column on the left housed the list of recent apps used on the computer, with links to things like the Settings app and File Explorer at the bottom — which could be customized through the Settings app — along with the option to view the list of all apps. In later updates, the Windows 10 Start menu eventually replaced the recent apps list with the all apps list.

On the right side of the menu was an area dedicated to the tiles that made their debut in Windows 8. Just like before, Tiles could be resized and grouped to make it easier to organize them, and Windows 10 also introduced the ability to group multiple tiles together in a folder, making better use of limited space. Because it kept receiving major updates for a few years, Windows 10 made multiple changes to the Start menu over that time, including the introduction of "transparent" tiles that followed your system theme rather than having different colors from each other. One notable quirk about this Start menu is that it's the only version to be resizeable, so you can make it as big or small as you need to.

Notably, Windows 10 also kept a full-screen Start menu available as an option for tablet devices. Just like Windows 8 and 8.1, this mode focused on the tile area, with all the improvements that Windows 10 introduced, like folders. You could still access the all apps list and other links through a menu on the left edge of the screen, which replicated the main column of the typical Start menu view in a more compact form.

Windows 8.1 RT got its own update

Because Windows 10 didn't support Arm-based devices when it first launched, Microsoft crafted a special update for Windows 8.1 RT — the version that ran on Arm devices like the Surface RT and Surface 2 — with some of the enhancements of Windows 10. Essentially, this update included a compact Start menu that lived in the bottom left corner of the screen, complete with a dual-pane layout where one part included recent apps and the all apps list, and the other housed the tiles.

This version of the Start menu is closer to what was offered in early preview stages of Windows 10, but it even has some features not available there. For example, it's possible to pin apps and folders to the top of the left pane, similar to what was possible in Windows XP, Vista, and 7.

Windows 11

It's all led up to this

All of that brings us to the current era of the Start menu. Windows 11 finally did away with tiles, nearly 10 years after they appeared in Windows 8, and instead, we now have app icons front and center. The primary area of the Start screen allows you to have pinned apps across multiple pages, and with the latest updates, it also lets you create folders for those apps. The all apps list can be accessed through a button on the top right of the menu, which takes over the Start menu view.

Below that, there's a Recommended area, where you can see recently installed apps or recent files you downloaded or created. This section can also be expanded to show a longer list of items.

At the bottom is the user profile menu and the power button, along with customizable shortcuts similar to Windows 10. These can be set to include the Settings app, the user folder, or other folders like Documents, Pictures, and Music.

Of course, the biggest change is that, by default, the Start menu is now in the center of the taskbar, rather than the bottom left corner, though you can move it back to its usual location. What's more the Windows 11 Start menu lacks a full-screen mode for tablets, though it does support touch gestures to make navigation easier.

Is the Start menu better or worse today?

Overall, the Start menu in Windows 11 feels like a very bare implementation, focusing strictly on apps and a couple of recent items, and stalling access to Windows features that were previously accessible in the past. While the focused approach works well in some ways, many have felt like it isn't enough, and that's why apps like Start11 exist. Having personally tried and reviewed it, I find Start11 to unlock so much more in the Start menu that Microsoft no longer offers. While I do like simplicity, I've found myself appreciating the more densely-packed menus of years past as I try to get more done more quickly.

However, it's also true that you can use a search bar to get to almost anything you want nowadays, and that's something I do a lot on Windows 11 so I don't even have to touch my mouse. With Microsoft trying to push Copilot as the new launchpad for everything you do on your devices, maybe that kind of interface is the future, and complex menus like what we saw on Windows XP will soon be behind us.