Microsoft May Soon Bring Widgets to the Windows 11 Start Menu
- Laurent Giret
- May 10, 2024
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Microsoft is apparently planning to make the Windows 11 Start Menu extensible with widget-like adaptative cards. The new feature was discovered in the Windows 11 Canary build 26212 by X user Albacore (via Windows Central), who managed to show how the experience could work using data from Windows 11 widgets.
Windows 11 Insider builds often come with hidden features that enthusiasts manage to enable using special software. The screenshots shared by Albacore show “Start Menu Companions” that can be docked on the left or right side of the Start Menu. While the adaptative cards are not functional yet, it appears that Microsoft is working on the infrastructure that will allow app developers to create their own experiences, with users being able to control what they see next to the Start Menu in the Settings app.
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You'll be able to configure Companions through the Settings > Personalization > Start. It features a list of installed Companions with on/off toggles as well as a link to the provider's site for customization (similar to Widgets, it's very web centric). Dock side is up to the dev
— Albacore ☁️ (@thebookisclosed) May 9, 2024
While the Windows Insider team has yet to officially announce this new widget-like experience for the Start Menu, it’s hard not to draw a comparison with Live Tiles on the Windows 10 Start Menu. This was a core feature that Windows 11 lost after Microsoft rebuilt the Start Menu from scratch on the new OS. While the Widgets Board on Windows 11 does offer dynamic adaptative cards, this is still a different experience.
As you may know, Microsoft has also been using the Widgets board on Windows 11 to promote news content from its Microsoft Start (formerly MSN) portal. Even though that can now be hidden, you have to wonder if Microsoft may be seeing these “ Start Menu Companions” as another opportunity to show MSN content or “ads” for Microsoft services.
Anyway, Microsoft’s Build 2024 conference is just 11 days away, and maybe this new Start Menu experience will be part of the company’s Windows 11 announcements for developers. The developer conference will be preceded by a Surface and AI event on May 20 where we should see new ARM-powered Surface devices for consumers.