Deploy a custom Start menu in Windows 11

  • 3 minutes

While the Start menu in Windows 11 differs from Windows 10 concerning its presentation and capabilities, the process for creating a Start menu layout is similar. You configure the Start layout on a standard build and export the layout. In Windows 11, you export the layout to a JSON file instead of an XML file.

You can only customize the full layout. Partial layouts aren’t applicable in Windows 11.

While you can define a default layout, users can change the layout, including pinning and unpinning apps.

Creating a custom Start menu JSON layout file

  1. Configure the Start Menu as desired.

  2. Open the Windows PowerShell app.

  3. Run the following cmdlet. Name the file LayoutModification.json. Export the Start menu to a JSON file using the Export-StartLayout command in Windows PowerShell. For the -Path switch, place a path and name the filename "LayoutModification.json".

  4. For example:

    Export-StartLayout -Path "C:\Layouts\LayoutModification.json"

  5. Once you've saved the file, you can optionally make manual edits to the JSON file.

The JSON file will look something like this:

{
  "pinnedList": [
    { "desktopAppId": "MSEdge" },
    { "desktopAppId": "Microsoft.Office.WINWORD.EXE.15" },
    { "packagedAppId": "Microsoft.WindowsStore_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App" },
    { "packagedAppId": "Microsoft.WindowsNotepad_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App" }
  ]
}

Applying pinned custom layouts must be applied using an MDM policy. There's no Group Policy for creating a pinned list.

Creating a custom set of pinned apps on the taskbar

Customizing the taskbar in Windows 11 is the same process as in Windows 10, using an XML file. However, as configuring Windows 11 Start Menu uses a JSON file, the XML file used for configuring pinned apps on the taskbar wouldn’t contain any Start Menu configurations.