Windows 11 to finally let you remove the ‘Recommended’ section in Start menu

Microsoft is planning to include an option to show only your pinned apps in the Start menu, finally making it possible to remove the “Recommended” section.

When the company launched Windows 11 in 2021, the new desktop experience included a new Start menu with a minimal design, ditching the Live Tiles for traditional icons. One of the new elements was the “Recommended” section, which includes your most recent files and apps.

In addition, the section now promotes apps from the Microsoft Store, which many people categorize as unwanted advertising.

The development has made changes to the Start menu by adding options to show more or fewer pins, but the settings never included an option to disable and remove the “Recommended” section. However, it appears that this is about to change.

According to different posts on X (Twitter) from @PhantomOfEarth, Microsoft is working on a new “Show all pins by default” option in the Start settings page that will show only your pins when opening the Start menu, ditching the “Recommended” section entirely.

It’s unclear how the feature will be implemented, but the setting should appear (at least as an experimental feature) in upcoming builds available through the Windows Insider Program.

Another interesting change that Microsoft is working on for future updates of the operating system is the option to remap the Copilot key to open the right-click context menu.

In previous releases, the development team added an option to remap the Copilot physical key to another app, but this change will make the key more versatile.

It’s worth noting that Microsoft was originally planning to make the Copilot key a big deal on Windows 11. However, shortly after, the company took a different approach with AI in the operating system and left many new devices without an action for the physical Copilot key. Since then, it has been trying to resolve this issue by letting users remap the key to perform a different action.