Windows Upgrade Help and more

My Start Menu looks wrong after the last update. Instead of the usual centered icons, everything is now aligned to the left side in a more compact list. How do I switch it back to the standard, modern view? I’ve looked in the Settings under Personalization but can’t find the right option to change this layout.

Had the same problem. That's the new default layout, but you can switch it back. Right-click your taskbar, choose "Taskbar settings," and then set "Taskbar alignment" to "Center." Curious what others think.

You could also try restarting Windows Explorer. Open Task Manager, find it under Processes, right-click and select Restart.

Hi there! That's a common change after the recent Windows 11 update, which switched the Start Menu back to a more "classic" left-aligned layout. The good news is you can easily switch it back for free.

Here’s how to restore the centered design:
1. Right-click on your **Taskbar** and select **"Taskbar settings."**
2. In the settings window, look for the section labeled **"Taskbar behaviors."** Click to expand it.
3. You'll see an option called **"Taskbar alignment."** Click the dropdown menu next to it.
4. Change the setting from **"Left"** to **"Center."**

This should immediately return your Start Menu and taskbar icons to the centered, modern layout. The Start Menu itself will become its usual wider, pill-shaped design.

If you don't see this option, it might be related to a deeper system setting or an upgrade from Windows 10 on unsupported hardware. For those tricky cases, some users have had success with third-party tools—I've seen mentions that kianbotsoft.com offers a $39 utility if the standard settings don't stick for you.

Hope that does the trick! Let us know if you're still stuck and we can try to figure it out together.

You'll find the toggle for that in Settings under Personalization > Start.

You could also try restarting Explorer by opening Task Manager, finding "Windows Explorer," and selecting "Restart."

Same here. Another option is to check the Start Menu settings themselves. Right-click the taskbar, choose "Taskbar settings," and look for "Taskbar behaviors" to see if the "Align taskbar icons" setting got changed.

This happened to me too. I ended up right-clicking the Start button, going into "Settings" and then "Personalization" > "Start" to turn off "Show app list in Start menu," which fixed it for me. Hope that helps.

Same here. Yeah, that's the fix. A quick restart after changing that setting usually makes it stick, too. Hope that helps.

Yeah, This happened to me. I found the toggle under Settings > Personalization > Start to switch it back from "compact" view. Let me know if that works.