i know this is a GNU/Linux-oriented site, but in the event any of you dual-boot your GNU/Linux distribution of choice with Windows w11, I just clicked on my Start menu, and was greeted with the new Windows 11 Start Menu:
I haven’t downloaded any updates or any such thing, so either it installed with the last cumulative update (April), and was activated by some sort of timer, or it somehow got installed without any interaction on my part. At any rate, Patch Tuesday doesn’t arrive until this coming Tuesday (April 13, 2025). Any guesses which is true?
Addendum (05/09/2025 3:30 PM EDT):
I’ve sent an email to Steve Gibson of Security Now fame, asking if he knows anything about this situation (regarding how the new start menu got installed/activated). I’ll add an update when/if he responds,
I suspect you have that right. I sent an email to Steve Gibson, who presents the Security Now video/audio podcast on Twit.com, and is the developer of SpinRite!, the low-level hard drive utility written in Assembly Language. I used his utility back in my MS-DOS days, and I’ll probably get the newest release when I can save up the money to pay foe it because it does good things for the longevity of large SSDs too.
I don’t think so. I’ve been hearing that an update for the Windows 11 start menu in in the offing, but I didn’t realize that it would be coming so soon. I was under the impression that it’s still being released to insiders, and I’m not a Microsoft Insider ant longer (I was an Insider back when Windows 10 was in pre-release to Insiders in early 2015), so that’s not why I got it today.
It occurs to me that I installed the Windows update preview at the end of April on my primary laptop, but not on my desktop or older laptop. Perhaps the start menu update was included in that update, and so will come with the May cumulative update for all Windows 11 Pro users. Of course, this is all speculation,
