How to restore the old Start Menu on Windows 11

Yep.  The only good thing to come out of Win8 was the wide, customizable, tiled Start Menu system.
Never one to keep a nice feature when something kludged, bugged and irritating
is available MS replaced it by something inspired by a previous century cellphone.

Start11 fixes the wreck but I cannot get past having to annually pay to fix something that was not broken
in Win10 and I already shelled out $1200 because our perfectly OK laptops were not upgradable to 11.

I understand the new Windows 11 Start Menu can feel different and sometimes less convenient if you're used to previous versions. While Windows 11 doesn’t offer a direct "revert" button to go back to the Windows 10 Start Menu, you can customize or even replace it with a more familiar style.

Hi,

Windows 11 doesn’t include an option to fully restore the Windows 10 Start Menu.

The Start experience was redesigned, and the classic Windows 10 layout isn’t available as a built‑in feature.

If you want to customize the current Start Menu, you can adjust several elements in: Settings → Personalization → Start (pinned apps, folders, recommendations, layout alignment, etc.)

If you can clarify which specific part of the Windows 10 Start Menu you want back (left‑aligned layout, live tiles, full app list, etc.), we can suggest the closest available options in Windows 11.

In the Start Menu, simply click on View and select List.