Latest Windows 11 update breaks custom Start menu apps

Peruse the “Known issues” section of the release notes for the latest release of Windows 11 22H2, and you’ll see “Third-party UI customization apps might prevent the Start menu from opening” right at the top. Those apps might be familiar to anyone who’s turned to aftermarket tools to return some Windows 10 functionality to the smoother, cleaner, and markedly less functional Windows 11 Start menu and taskbar. Microsoft isn’t particularly interested in fixing the issue. The official recommendation for the 22621.30000 build is, “uninstall them.”

“We recommend uninstalling any third-party UI customization app before installing “KB5028254 to prevent this issue,” says the documentation, with further instructions to contact customer support for the app developer if your Start menu has already disappeared. According to XDA, several users of the awesome and popular ExplorerPatcher program are experiencing the issue. The free, open-source program adds back features from the Windows 10 taskbar and alt-tab interface.

Of course, Microsoft doesn’t have a responsibility to support users of apps that deliberately alter the user interface it’s designed. But usually the company at least tries to accommodate Windows users when its updates cause issues for popular software. In this case, the company seems uninterested, recommending that people simply stop using the tools or take their problems to the developers instead. Undoubtedly, the developers of such tools will attempt to fix the problems on their end, as has happened before.

It’s worth noting that perhaps so many Windows 11 users wouldn’t be seeking out these kinds of interface tweaking apps if Microsoft hadn’t removed so much of the basic functionality of the Windows 10 Start menu and taskbar in favor of a more streamlined appearance. Such basic options as always showing text labels or placing the taskbar on the top of the display are still unavailable in vanilla Windows 11, nearly two years after the operating system’s official release.

So far the KB5028254 is only in preview going out to Windows Insiders and other early users, but it will be hitting the general release in the next few weeks. If Microsoft’s attitude to these issues in the support documentation is indicative of its new laissez faire approach to interface tweaks, you can expect to see similar problems in the future.