How to Restore or Enable Old Classic Start Menu in Windows 11 (All Versions)

If you are missing the good old Start Menu in Windows 11 and want to bring back Windows 7 style classic Start Menu in Windows 11, this article will help you.

Microsoft’s new operating system Windows 11 comes with a brand new redesigned Start Menu, Start button and Taskbar. The Taskbar is displayed in the bottom-center which can be moved back to previous Left side using Taskbar settings. Start button is also new which now shows Windows 11’s squared logo.

Microsoft has highly revamped the Start Menu in Windows 11. The new Start Menu doesn’t show any live tile of installed apps. In fact, it’s no longer divided in left and right sections like previous Windows versions. The new Start Menu is now divided in 2 vertical parts: Pinned and Recommended as shown in following screenshot:

Pinned items section displays some default native apps which came already pinned at the time of installation as well as new programs and apps shortcuts pinned by the user.

Recommended section shows newly installed apps and recently used files. This section can be turned off using Start Menu settings as mentioned in this article.

To access all installed apps and programs, user needs to click on “All apps” button given at the top-right corner of the Start Menu. There is no option provided to make or force Start Menu to always open in All apps screen by default.

The new Start Menu has been developed from scratch and lacks lots of functionality and customization options. It’s possible that Microsoft will add missing features and options in future releases of Windows 11 like feature updates.

But at the moment, the new Start Menu in Windows 11 is very restricted and comes with many limitations.

If you don’t like the new Start Menu and want to restore classic Start Menu in Windows 11, you can install a 3rd party software which can add Windows 7 style Start Menu to Windows 11.

Following screenshot shows classic Start Menu and Start button restored and working on Windows 11 Desktop:

Following steps will help you in disabling the new modern Start Menu and enabling classic Start Menu in Windows 11:

STEP 1: Restore Classic Start Menu Using Open Shell Program

To bring back classic Start Menu, you’ll need to take help of a 3rd party software called Open Shell. If you remember the good ol’ Classic Shell software, Open Shell is the same program but with a different name. In 2017, Classic Shell development was stopped and now Classic Shell is developed under a new name “Open Shell” by volunteers.

Open Shell is a free software and can be downloaded from following link:

Download Open Shell

Look for the latest version and download its EXE file.

After downloading, run the installer. Open Shell allows users to restore Classic toolbar in Windows Explorer, Classic Start Menu and Classic Internet Explorer features (title bar and status bar). Since we are going to restore classic Start Menu only, you can deselect other items in the setup wizard. Keep “Open-Shell Menu” selected. It’s the main item which will restore classic Start Menu in Windows 11.

Complete the setup and it’ll install Open Shell in your Windows 11 device.

STEP 2: Enable Old Start Button in Classic Start Menu

Once you install Open Shell, it’ll add classic Start Menu but you’ll not see it. If you click on the Start button, it’ll launch the default Windows 11 Start Menu. You can access the classic Start Menu by pressing WIN key on your keyboard.

It happens because Windows 11 contains a new Start button which can’t be replaced by Open Shell, so we’ll need to enable its own Start button using following steps:

Open Windows 11 Start Menu, click on All Apps button and scroll down to “Open-Shell” shortcut. Under “Open-Shell” section, click on “Open-Shell Menu Settings” and it’ll open Open-Shell settings window.

Enable “Replace Start button” checkbox given at the bottom of the settings window. It’ll immediately add a new Start button at the bottom-left corner of your Windows 11 Taskbar.

Now you can access the old classic Start Menu by clicking on the new Start button added by Open Shell program.

STEP 3: Move Windows 11 Start Button and Taskbar to Left Side

Now there will be 2 Start buttons on your Windows 11 computer screen: One default Windows 11 Start button and the second Start button added by Open Shell.

Since you are going to use Open Shell Start Menu and Start button, we can hide Windows 11 Start button by moving the Taskbar to left-side. This way, the new Start button added by Open Shell will overlap the default Windows 11 Start button.

You can move the Taskbar to left-side using Taskbar settings page as mentioned in following tutorial:

[Tip] Move Start Button, Start Menu and Taskbar to Left in Windows 11

STEP 4: Customize Start Button and Make it Look-Like Windows 7 Start ORB

Now the classic Start Menu and Start button are ready for use but eagle-eyes users can notice that the new Start button added by Open Shell doesn’t hide Windows 11’s Start button properly. A few pixels of default Start button are still visible behind the new Start button as shown in following image:

For AskVG readers, I have created an exclusive PNG image which can be used in Open Shell program to replace its default Start Button with Windows 7’s Start Button ORB.

If you also want to restore classic Windows 7 Start ORB, download the required PNG image from following link:

Download Windows 7 Start Button ORB Image for Open Shell

It’ll download a ZIP file, extract it using 7-Zip or other file archive utilities and you’ll get the required PNG file with the name AskVG_Start_Button.png.

Now open Open Shell Start Menu settings again. You can now quickly open it by right-clicking on Open Shell’s Start button and select “Settings” option.

Now select “Custom” option given under “Replace Start button” option and click on “Pick Image” button.

It’ll open Browse window to select the PNG image for new custom Start button. Go to the folder which contains our exclusive AskVG_Start_Button.png file. Select the PNG file and click on Open button. At last click on OK button to exit from Open Shell settings window.

That’s it. It’ll immediately restore Windows 7 Start Button ORB in your Windows 11 computer and now the new Start Button will perfectly hide Windows 11’s default Start Button.

Enjoy the classic Start Button and Start Menu in Windows 11.

BONUS TIP: Customize Classic Start Menu Appearance

Open Shell comes bundled with several skins to change look-n-feel of classic Start Menu. You can apply these skins to make the Start Menu look different.

To customize the skin, open Open Shell Start Menu settings again and click on “Select Skin” link given under “Select the style for the start menu” option.

Now you can select all available skins one by one using the drop-down box.

UNDO: Restore Default Windows 11 Start Menu Again

In future, if you decide to restore the new Start Menu again in Windows 11, simply uninstall Open Shell program using Control Panel or Windows 11 Settings (WIN+I) app and it’ll remove Open Shell’s classic Start Menu and Start button from your Windows 11 device. You can again move the Taskbar to center using Taskbar settings page.

FUN FACT: Windows 10 Start Menu with Live Tiles in Windows 11

In older Insider Preview builds of Windows 11, it was possible to restore original Windows 10 Start Menu with live tiles support. Anyone could change the value of a DWORD called Start_ShowClassicMode to 1 present under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced key in Registry Editor to bring back default Windows 10 Start Menu in Windows 11.

Unfortunately, Microsoft removed the key functionality in future testing builds of Windows 11 (22000.65 and later). The public stable version of Windows 11 doesn’t contain Windows 10 Start Menu.

Also Check:

How to Restore or Enable Classic Taskbar in Windows 11 (All Versions)

[Tip] Restore Old Classic Context Menu (Right-Click Menu) in Windows 11

[Tip] Enable Full Classic File Explorer in Windows 11