How to Remove These Annoying Category Folders in the Windows 11 Start Menu?

In recent versions of Windows 11, Microsoft introduced automatic app grouping in the Start menu under categories like Productivity, Creativity and Games. These are part of the new Category View in the All Apps section.

You can usually switch back to the traditional app list view like this:

Open the Start Menu

Click All (top-right of pinned apps)

Look for a small toggle/icon near the top of the app list

Switch from Category View to Grid View or List View

If you do not see the option, try this:

Open Settings

Go to Personalization

Select Start

Disable options related to:

Show recommendations

Organize apps by category (if available in your build)

If the feature was enabled through a recent update, Microsoft may still be gradually rolling it out, and some systems do not yet expose a direct toggle.

You can also try restarting the Start Menu process:

Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc

Open Task Manager

Find Start or Windows Explorer

Right-click  Restart

If the categorized folders still remain, the feature is likely tied to your current Windows build/version. In that case you can check your version by running:

Press Win + R

Type winver

The behavior may differ depending on the installed update version of Microsoft Windows 11.

I found a solution!!!
Just put this in Command Prompt by Administrator

reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer" /v NoStartMenuMorePrograms /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f && taskkill /f /im explorer.exe && start explorer.exe

Those category folders in the Windows 11 Start Menu are usually tied to the “Start menu recommendations” and app grouping behavior. You can reduce or remove them by going to Settings > Personalization > Start and turning off options like “Show recently added apps” and “Show recommendations.” If the layout still feels cluttered, rebuilding the Start menu cache or unpinning grouped apps can also help.

KapilArya you have totally failed to grasp what the issue is, we do not want the list of programs/apps showing in the start menu at all; the option to access the list should be via a link to expand the menu not ever present.

This W11 feature is just another example of why programmers should never be allowed to have input into the end user design. An end user should provide details of features and layout requirements and programmers should just do what they are good at and create what the user wants.

just add those 2 dword in the registry as kadeschs suggested and you get rid of categories as before :)

Before this update, I had a bunch of custom categories in my start menu, with the most important one being School, where I put all of the programs I use for school in one place, right there in the start menu. After the update, it made its own categories and my School one is no longer there. The programs that were in there aren't even pinned to the start menu anymore either. Super annoying.

*edit*

Oh wait, I found it. I had to click 'Show All' above my pinned apps and there it was. Still annoying.

Utterly dreadful update. Who wanted this?! At least give us a quick option to switch it off. This and a couple of other things on modern Windows makes working on it impossible. 

It's like they WANT us to switch to Linux, which I plan on doing, fyi.

Those category folders in the Windows 11 Start menu can’t be turned off. They’re part of Microsoft’s new Start menu layout and are automatically applied.

What you can do:

• Click View (top-right of Start) and switch between Category and List view
• Use List view to see all apps alphabetically without folders
• Pin apps you use often to the Pinned section to avoid categories

What you can’t do:

• There’s no setting, registry option, or policy to permanently disable the category folders
• They will reappear if Microsoft keeps this layout enabled

Summary:

Category folders in the Windows 11 Start menu are by design and can’t be removed. The only workaround is switching to List view or pinning apps.

In the Start Menu, you've View: set to Category. You can change this View to Grid or List and that will resolve this issue.