Even if you’re not a Windows Insider, that is

Aug 3, 2020 06:05 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has recently announced an improved Start menu design in the latest preview builds that the company shipped to users enrolled in the Windows Insider program.

More specifically, this refined Start menu comes with theme-aware tiles, which means that the design overall aligns with the modern push in Windows 10 and gives up on the solid colors that were previously used by live tiles for extra acrylic and the new icons that Microsoft published earlier this year.

The theme-aware tiles are available for both the light and the dark themes in Windows 10 and come as part of Windows 10 build 20161. Microsoft says the following about the new Start menu design:

“We are freshening up the Start menu with a more streamlined design that removes the solid color backplates behind the logos in the apps list and applies a uniform, partially transparent background to the tiles. This design creates a beautiful stage for your apps, especially the Fluent Design icons for Office and Microsoft Edge, as well as the redesigned icons for built-in apps like Calculator, Mail, and Calendar that we started rolling out earlier this year.”

Needless to say, this design can be further enhanced with accent colors using just a single checkbox in the Settings app.

“This refined Start design looks great in both dark and light theme, but if you’re looking for a splash of color, first make sure to turn on Windows dark theme and then toggle “Show accent color on the following surfaces” for “Start, taskbar, and action center” under Settings > Personalization > Color to elegantly apply your accent color to the Start frame and tiles,” Microsoft explains.

The new Windows 10 Start menu design

As many people know already, Windows 10 preview builds are being used to test features that don’t have a release date. What this means is that new features, like the Start menu design that we’re talking about today, are part of a preview build but Microsoft doesn’t have a specific ETA in mind as to when it could ship it to users.

The good news is that you can actually enable the new Start menu design, as well as a bunch of other goodies, in stable Windows 10 right now, as long as your device has already been updated to version. Additionally, you must be running Windows 10 cumulative update KB4568831 – keep in mind that this update is currently offered as optional, but all its contents should be part of the next stable update on the August 11 Patch Tuesday rollout.

So technically, in order to be able to enable the new Start menu, you need to meet the following two requirements, as per German site DeskModder:  

  • Run Windows 10 version 2004
  • Install Windows 10 cumulative update KB4568831

The whole thing is possible with a simple registry tweak, so let’s start by creating a new text document that we’re going to call Start menu.txt. I suggest you create this text document on the desktop because you’ll remove it when you’re done anyway.

In the new Start menu.txt document, paste the following content:


Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FeatureManagement\Overrides\0\2093230218]
"EnabledState"=dword:00000002
"EnabledStateOptions"=dword:00000000
Next, change the file’s extension from .txt to .reg. To do this, it’s enough to simply rename the file and only modify the extension manually.
Editing the registry to enable the new Start menu

When you’re done, save the changes and double-click Start menu.reg on your desktop. You’ll be asked if you’re sure you want to make changes to the registry, click yes, and then you’re done. The only thing that’s needed after that to enable the new Start menu is a system reboot and voila, the theme-aware design is there on your device.

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The new Windows 10 Start menu design
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