Today we released Start11 v2.5 with new features, a couple of enhancements and bug fixes as well. The update is rolling out now and you can check for an update by opening the configuration panel, clicking About, and searching for the update.

New with version 2.5 is the ability to use a vertical taskbar on Windows 11. The vertical taskbar can be placed on the left or right side of the display and functions just as you remember from previous versions of Windows where this configuration was supported. To enable the new taskbar experience, open the configuration panel, click Taskbar, scroll to the Taskbar position option and select you desired configuration.

Along with the new vertical taskbar support, centered taskbar buttons with a left aligned Start icon is now supported on more than two monitors (previously only two screens were supported). While support for two monitors covered the majority of our users, we wanted to make sure power-users who have many displays can utilize this layout as well.

In addition to the new functionality, several bugs are being squashed with this update. We have improved compatibility with the latest Insider builds of Windows 11 that we expect to be released in the coming months and with this release, Start11 v2 will be ready for those updates.

Vertical taskbars have been highly requested by our community and we are happy to finally check this feature off the backlog. If you have any requests for upcoming features or find any bugs that we missed in our testing, make sure to join our community here.

Start11 v2.11 has been released today.

For a complete changelog, and to provide feedback, please visit:

https://forums.stardock.com/530476/start11-211-release-feedback-thread


As always, thanks for your feedback, time, and support.

Start11 v2 is the best way to not only customize your Windows 10 and 11 desktop, it also makes it easy to manage Start menus at scale across your entire company. And with the release of version 2.1 today, we are bringing ARM support and more to every user.

With native ARM support for Start11 v2, this means that you can use the latest Windows 11 devices, powered by Qualcomm Elite chips, with Start11 v2 to make these new devices a more personalized and productive desktop.

Along with ARM support, there are several other updates in this release including enhanced search for legacy Control Panel items – more legacy Control Panel items will now show up when searching. In addition, there are also updates for how folder paths are stored to be more resilient with deployments and Networx is also supported when enhanced taskbar is turned on.

As with every release, there are also bug fixes as well that help iron out a few edge cases that have been reported. And like all of our products, updates are driven by the feedback from our community; if you have an idea that we should implement or hitting a bug that hasn’t been resolved, make sure to let us know.

All,

Start11 v2.1 was released on Steam today. For details and to provide feedback, please see:

https://forums.stardock.com/529970/start11-21-release-feedback-thread


As always, thank you for your time, feedback, and support.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

This week, there was quite a bit of noise in the industry about icon tinting after Apple announced that this feature is coming to the next version of iOS. While that feature won’t reach most users until the end of this year, if you want to tint your Start menu icons, you can do that today.

Introduced with Start11 v2, you can now tint your Start menu icons so that you have a uniform look to your launcher experience.

To tint your icons, open your Start menu, and right click on an open space. In the context menu, hover over Appearance -> Icon Tint and then select your color. If you want to turn off tinting, you can select the trash icon to remove the setting.

And you can mix and match colors as well, you don’t have to tint all the icons a single color. With individual control, you can tint any icon to a color that you choose while leaving the other icons not tinted or with a different color applied.

It’s really that simple. Start11 v2 offers a wide range of customization options that allow you to make the Start menu a truly personalized experience. And the icon tinting will work with any icon you place into your Start menu with supported designs – menus that replicate legacy styles do not currently support tinting.

If you haven’t tried out Start11 v2, you can learn more about the app on its page.

Start11 2.08 has been released today.

For a complete changelog, and to provide feedback, please visit:

https://forums.stardock.com/527907/start11-208-release-feedback-thread


As always, thanks for your feedback, time, and support.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Today we are releasing Start11 v2 2.07 with improvements to Windows 11 compatibility for future releases. You can download the new build by opening Start11 v2 configuration panel, clicking About, and checking for updates.

With this release, we are primarily focusing on improvements to animations on the taskbar and squashing a few bugs that have been reported by the community. Also in this release, we are improving stability for complex search queries as well as a continued focus on the upcoming release of Windows that is currently known as Windows 11 24H2.

Later this year, Microsoft will be releasing as significant update to Windows 11 that is referred to as 24H2 and as part of this release, it looks like Microsoft will be removing legacy code from the OS. The removal of this code is impacting any Windows 11 application that leveraged this functionality but Start11 and Start11 v2 are not impacted.

This is important because Microsoft has started pushing app compatibility blocking notifications to devices that are running these applications and stopping them from upgrading. Any customer running Start11 or Start11 v2 should not see these notifications.

After installing the latest update, let us know if you encounter any issues with the application or have any feedback about what features we should add next. Many of the newest features of Start11 v2 were developed because of the direct feedback we have received in our forums.

All,

We have released Start11 2.07.

For a complete changelog and to provide feedback, please visit:

https://forums.stardock.com/527280/start11-v207-release-feedback-thread


As always, thanks for your time and support.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

The Start menu is arguably one of the most customizable areas of Windows. Yes, you can easily change your desktop wallpaper, arrange icons on your desktop, or change sounds, but the Start menu is the heart of the OS.

While the default Start menu with Windows 10 and 11 is relatively locked-down, Start11 v2 provides a fully customized experience and with features like App Canvas, you can build your own layout. And once you create the perfect layout, persevering it is an essential part of the experience.

With Start11 v2, creating and restoring, configurations is a simple process with the ability to easily backup settings to a file, restore a setting from a file, and if needed, you can also reset Start11 v2 back to the default configuration.

To backup your settings, open the Start11 v2 configuration panel, click "Settings backup", then click "Backup settings to a file", and then save the file to a location of your choosing. To restore a configuration, click "Restore settings" in the same configuration panel area and you can load your backup file.

The best part of these configurations is that you can save multiple files for different scenarios. If you have a work-related menu or a gaming related layout, you can easily load those when needed. Or if you are like me, and enjoy making multiple styles for different devices, I have a folder with menus that are designed specifically for touchscreen and non-touch devices that I use.

Backing up your Start experience was an important pillar of the v2 update for Start11 that introduced dozens of new enhancements. If you haven’t tried out Start11 v2 yet, you can download a free trial here and grab it through the award-winning, Object Desktop productivity suite.