Forum Discussion
How to switch back to the classic layout in the new Windows 11 Start menu?
The Start menu on one Windows 11 computer has been forcibly locked to the “new” layout showing “All apps” (directly displaying the app list), with the “Start menu layout” option disappearing from set...
open up a DOS terminal and type
cd "%ProgramData%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs"
then type
dir
and you will see that all the start menu information is still fully there. or just past the resulting path into explorer if you need a GUI.
Basically all the cool toys you can download that promise to give you the old menu are just looking at a folder, they are not doing anything special at all, be aware of just downloading any old thing.