When the preview build of Windows 11 was leaked online, one of the most controversial changes was the new Windows 10 Start Menu.
With Windows 11, Microsoft did away with the Start Menu we associated with Windows and replaced it with a new one based on the now shelved Windows 10X. While some people like the new Windows 11 Start Menu, many do not and wish they could switch back to the Windows 10 version.
The good news is that Microsoft has added a ‘Start_ShowClassicMode’ Registry value that allows you to enable what they call “Classic Mode” that uses the Windows 10 Start Menu.
Since Windows 7, apps with multiple open windows are combined into a single taskbar button. Hovering over the button gives you a live thumbnail of every window and you can then click the window you want to work with.
If you’re routinely switching between apps with open windows, that can get a little cumbersome. You can hold the Ctrl key down while clicking a taskbar button to view the last active window—and then keep clicking with Ctrl held to cycle through each of that app’s open windows—but that often just lets you view the window instead of making it active. If you’re willing to make a mild Registry edit, you make it so that clicking a taskbar button always opens the last active window—no Ctrl key needed.
By default, Windows 11 doesn’t display any special icons (such as “This PC” or “Recycle Bin”) on your desktop. If you’d like a classic Windows look, you can enable special desktop icons easily.
You may have noticed that the transparency on the taskbar is ever so slightly different, depending on whether or not you have an AMOLED or OLED display. With a simple modification you can enable this OLED transparency on any display.
If you’ve ever worked in the Command Prompt for very long, you know that it can be really frustrating executing the cd/chdir command over and over again to get to the right directory.