- Introduction
- Themes
- Custom Acrylic background
- Remove the search box
- Move pinned app lists
- Remove the Recommended section
- Remove the user profile button
- Move the power button
- Force light/dark mode
- Semantic zoom (navigation)
- Search menu
- Colors
This is a collection of commonly requested start menu styling customizations for Windows 11. It is intended to be used with the Windows 11 Start Menu Styler Windhawk mod.
If you're not familiar with Windhawk, here are the steps for installing the mod:
- Download Windhawk from windhawk.net and install it.
- Go to "Mods" in the upper right menu.
- Find and install the "Windows 11 Start Menu Styler" mod.
After installing the mod, open its Settings tab and adjust the styles according to your preferences.
Some customizations are best to be adjusted with other Windhawk mods. Links to those mods are provided where applicable.
See also: The Windows 11 taskbar styling guide, The Windows 11 notification center styling guide.
How to find targets using UWPSpy.
If you're looking for a customization that is not listed here, please open an issue.
If you have a start menu styling customization or theme that you would like to share, please submit a pull request.
Themes are collections of styles that can be imported into the Windows 11 Start Menu Styler mod. The following themes are available:
| Link | Screenshot |
|---|---|
| NoRecommendedSection |  |
| SideBySide |  |
| SideBySide2 |  |
| SideBySideMinimal |  |
| Windows10 |  |
| TranslucentStartMenu |  |
| Windows11_Metro10 |  |
| Fluent2Inspired |  |
| RosePine |  |
| Windows11_Metro10Minimal |  |
| Everblush |  |
Target Border#AcrylicBorder and set Background with an AcrylicBrush object, for example:
Background:=<AcrylicBrush BackgroundSource="Backdrop" TintColor="Pink" TintOpacity="0.25" />
The AcrylicBrush properties can be adjusted as needed.
Target StartDocked.SearchBoxToggleButton with Height=0, Margin=0,0,0,24.
Target StartMenu.PinnedList with Margin=0,0,0,0.
Adjust values as needed.
Target the following elements:
Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.Grid#ShowMoreSuggestions
Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.Grid#SuggestionsParentContainer
Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.Grid#TopLevelSuggestionsListHeader
Set the style of each to:
Visibility=Collapsed
In addition, the pinned items can be adjusted to
occupy the whole height by targeting StartMenu.PinnedList and setting
Height=504.
Target StartDocked.UserTileView with Visibility=Collapsed.
Target StartDocked.PowerOptionsView with Margin=-580,-1330,0,0.
Adjust values as needed.
Sets light/dark mode independently of what is set in Windows.
RequestedTheme=1
1 = Light Mode
2 = Dark mode
Semantic zoom is the feature that allows us to navigate the apps list using the alpha-numeric headers in the list. This lets you jump to a particular letter or number in the apps list quickly. For themes that have the apps list visible in the main start menu view, this feature does not work. As an optional work around, you may enable the hidden zoom button. This button allows you to access the alpha-numeric navigation view. This is the zoomed out view, which is why this is called semantic zoom.
Target:
Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.SemanticZoom#ZoomControl
Styles:
IsZoomOutButtonEnabled=True
Target:
Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.Button#ZoomOutButton
Styles:
Width=40
Height=40
Target:
Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.Button#ZoomOutButton > Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.ContentPresenter#ContentPresenter > Windows.UI.Xaml.Controls.TextBlock
Styles:
Text=
FontSize=28
You may replace Text= with any other character. Use Character Map to find, copy, and paste the character into the style box.
The search menu may also be included in your custom theme, and some of the built-in themes already support this as well. The search menu has some of its own unique targets, but does share some targets with the start menu. This means that some start menu styles will automatically be inherited and applied to search as well, but some elements may need to specifically targeted.
In order to include search in your theme:
- Go to the
Advancedtab at the top in the Start Menu Styler mod. - In the custom process inclusion list below, enter
searchhost.exeif you are on Windows 11 24h2 or higher, otherwise entersearchexperiencehost.exeinstead. - Click save.
In the following examples, we will use Background as our style, but this
also works for other properties that accept colors, such as Fill.
Background=<color>
Replace <color> with the desired color.
A color can be a name (e.g. Red) or a hex code (e.g. #FF0000).
The color can be semi-transparent (e.g. #80FF0000). To have a fully
transparent background, use Transparent or #00000000.
A Color can also be a ThemeResource or StaticResource. There are many such
styles built into Windows.
Background:=<SolidColorBrush Color="{ThemeResource SystemAccentColor}" Opacity="0.8" />
Accent colors come as part of an accent color palette. This means that for any color you pick as your system accent color, 3 additional shades are part of that color's palette. For example: SystemAccentColorLight2 or SystemAccentColorDark1.
The word Light or Dark is appended at end with
a number ranging from 1-3. See the official Microsoft
docs
for more information.
Background:=<SolidColorBrush Color="{ThemeResource SystemAccentColorDark2}" Opacity="0.5" />
To have a fully transparent background:
Target:
BorderAcrylicBorder
Style:
Background=Transparent
In order to use the acrylic effect (a blurred background) you can use the
AcrylicBrush.
Background:=<AcrylicBrush TintColor="Black" TintOpacity="0.8" />
TintColor - Required. Defines what color to use.
TintOpacity - Defines the strength of the chosen color.
TintLuminosityOpacity - Defines the brightness of the acrylic effect.
BackgroundSource - Defines what should be considered the background of the acrylic effect. Set to "Backdrop" to use the desktop wallpaper.
Opacity - Defines how transparent the brush effect itself is. If set to less than 1, it blends the AcrylicBrush with clear transparency.
You can also set Acrylic to use an accent color for a more dynamic look, that fits current theme.
Background:=<AcrylicBrush TintColor="{ThemeResource SystemAccentColorDark2}" TintOpacity="0.3" />
Note
Unfortunately, it is not possible to set a Mica effect at this time with any of Windhawk's styler mods.
The background can also be a gradient. For example, to have a gradient from yellow to red to blue to lime green, use the following style:
Background:=<LinearGradientBrush StartPoint="0,0.5" EndPoint="1,0.5"><GradientStop Color="Yellow" Offset="0.0" /><GradientStop Color="Red" Offset="0.25" /><GradientStop Color="Blue" Offset="0.75" /><GradientStop Color="LimeGreen" Offset="1.0" /></LinearGradientBrush>
The background can also be an image:
Background:=<ImageBrush Stretch="UniformToFill" ImageSource="<image>" />
Replace <image> with your own image, a URL or a local file path.
If you only see a fully transparent background when using a local file path, you must set a URL instead.
Images can be jpg, jpg XR, png, bmp, svg, tiff, gif, or ico.
Stretch can be set to the following values:
None - Image is rendered at its native resolution and aspect ratio.
Fill - Image is stretched or squished to fill the size of the element.
Uniform - Image is resized to fit the element dimensions, while it preserves its native aspect ratio.
UniformToFill - Image is resized to fill the destination dimensions while it preserves its native aspect ratio. Crops to fit element.
Note
Reveal is a deprecated XAML feature. It may have issues or stop working at any time.
Reveal is the cursor-based illumination effect from Windows 10.
Background:=<RevealBorderBrush Color="Transparent" TargetTheme="1" Opacity="1" />
BorderBrush:=<RevealBorderBrush Color="Transparent" TargetTheme="1" Opacity="1" />
Only RevealBorderBrush should be used, RevealBackgroundBrush does not work correctly in most scenarios.
Opacity can be changed to increase or decrease the intensity of the effect.