At Build 2015, Joe Belfiore took to the stage and said the Start menu that he was using is a near-complete representation of what will ship when the OS hits RTM sometime this summer. While there may be a few updates here and there, for the most part, according to Belfiore, the menu will not change.
Now that we have our hands on build 10114, we can take a closer look at what you can expect when the next release to Insiders occurs and what will be included with Windows 10 once it reaches the RTM stage.
In the Settings area of Windows 10, Microsoft has added a new 'Start' page in the Personalization section. Inside this area is where you can customize the Start menu experience including making the full screen Start menu the default action.
Other options include displaying recently opened items in the Start and taskbar, showing the recently added apps group, displaying recently opened programs in the Start menu (this is different from the first option as it omits the taskbar) and turning on/off the app and content suggestions in the Start menu.
It's the last option that will allow you to turn on/off what many will consider the ad that Microsoft is placing in the menu. The idea is that by suggesting apps to you, the company can increase exposure to its app store and hopefully persuade you to download more content. For those of you who don't want this feature on, you can turn it off, although that functionality is currently grayed out in this build.
The deep links that are built into the Start menu can be customized as well. If you don't want to see Settings or File Explorer in the menu, you can turn them off or you can add more links from a pre-populated list in the Settings panel that you can see above.
The lack of a proper Start menu in Windows 8 was likely the biggest reasons many consumers bypassed the OS. With Windows 10, Microsoft is bringing back the feature with a modern twist and they are providing numerous customization options as well to make sure it fits the needs of all consumers.
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