Forum Discussion
How to Remove These Annoying Category Folders in the Windows 11 Start Menu?
Need help! Many category folders (such as "Productivity tools," "Creativity," "Games," etc.) have automatically appeared in my Start Menu, grouping the application icons that were previously displayed directly. I simply want the apps to be shown directly in the Start Menu as they used to be, rather than being categorized into these folders. How can I turn off or remove these automatically categorized folders?
4 Replies
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.
