How to Pin Apps to the Start Menu on Windows 11 - Complete Guide

Applications and software in Windows computers are used by all computer users for performing different tasks. There are millions of applications that are used every day and without them, users would not be able to work efficiently. All professionals who depend on computers will use specific applications for achieving their professional goals, so it’s obvious that Windows provides great features and support for applications and software. So, to make the accessibility of applications, Windows OS is designed to provide maximum support and ease of access features. So here in this article, we will discuss one such ease of access feature.

Easy access for applications is a very useful feature in Windows OSes. There are many ways for accessing frequently used applications with ease without having to search or look through a list of applications, which can be tedious when we are in a hurry. Well, the three main ease of access features are, desktop shortcuts, taskbar shortcuts, and start menu shortcuts. Here, the desktop shortcut is the best one as, when the computer boots up, the first screen after the boot up happens is the desktop, so, you can directly access the shortcut from the desktop. Even with desktop shortcuts much easier to access, some users prefer to keep the desktop clean so, they use the other two shortcut options. Though there are limitations for all the methods.

The limitations with using the taskbar for pinning an application is the space is limited and only a limited number of pins can be made, this is not very much suitable for people who use more frequently used applications, and having the application on the taskbar can cause accidental clicking on applications. And as of the limitations of using the start menu for pinning applications is that the start menu is a long list and all the applications will be listed there alphabetically, so you have to be very specific when you pin the application here. But accessing the application from the start menu is easy because you can easily access the start menu by pressing the Windows key on the keyboard. Well in Windows 10 and 11 this limitation does not apply as when you pin an application to the start menu, it will be placed on the right-side pane of the start menu.

So, now, that we have discussed the shortcut options and pinning options available, let’s get a glim of what it’s like to use Windows 11. Well, Windows 11 is still under development and the versions currently used by people are the preview builds, so there is a lot of bugs and issues with the OS, so Microsoft is relentlessly working on the OS and is releasing new preview builds to make the OS better. It’s hoped that Windows 11 will be released before 2021 ends. As of now the OS seems pretty promising but has some backlashes from users. So, let’s wait for the official version to release so we can extensively experiment and test the official OS.

In Windows 11, lots have been changed, so let’s find out the way to pin the applications to the start menu.

Table of Contents

How to Customize the Start Menu as per your Requirements

To begin with, the method here is a bot different from Windows 10 or other previous versions, so hop on and learn the method and pin your most-used applications to the start menu with ease.

First, open the start menu by pressing the start button or by pressing the Windows key on the keyboard.
Here, go to the settings by clicking on the setting icon.
In the settings application, navigate to the personalization option in the left window pane.
Here, select the start option on the right window pane.
now, toggle the switch near the options, show recently added apps, show recently used apps and show recently opened items.
Now, in the folder option, choose which folders to show on the start menu.
In the next window, you can select your desired folders by toggling on the button near the folders option.
So, now in the start menu, you will see all the options visible, which you can use with ease.

Easy way to pin an Application the Start Menu

Click on the start button to open it.
Here, search for the applications you want to pin.
Now, right-click on the application icon and select the pin to start the menu option.

If you have the application listed on the desktop, right-click on the application icons, and choose the option, pin to start menu.
This will pin the applications to the start menu, from where you can access the applications.

So, the methods mentioned above are the two ways you can pin applications to the start menu, once you have pinned the application to the start menu, you can delete the shortcuts from the desktop, if you want a clean desktop. So, with the applications pinned to the start menu, you can customize them with ease.

Customize Pinned Applications in Start Menu

You can keep 4 items in the first section of the start menu.
You need to scroll down to access all the other pinned items. So you can change the order and keep the top four most-used apps on the top.

Hope the information provided above was helpful and informative, with these easy methods, you can pin al your most-used application to the start menu.