How to Add or Remove Pinned Section on Start Menu in Windows 11

You can add or remove the Pinned section on your Windows 11 Start menu to customize your experience.

The Start menu in Windows 11 has distinct areas: Pinned apps, All apps, and Recommended. The Pinned section displays your most frequently used applications at the top.

By default, the Start menu displays 12 pinned apps in the smaller view and 18 in the larger view. Windows 11 build 26300.8553 introduced the ability to toggle this entire Pinned section on or off.

Reference: Customize the Windows 11 Start menu

Option 1Add or Remove Pinned Section using Settings

1. Open Settings. You can do this by pressing the Windows key + I on your keyboard.
2. On the left side, click Personalization. Then, on the right side, click Start.
3. Look for Layout options. You will see a toggle for Pinned.
4. Turn the toggle On to add the Pinned section. Turn it Off to remove it (this is the default).
5. You can now close ⚙️ the Settings window.

Option 2Add or Remove Pinned Section using Registry Editor

Why do this? This method lets you change the setting by editing the Windows Registry, a core part of how Windows works. This is a more advanced approach for customizing Windows.

What happens when done? Your ⊞ Start menu will either show or hide the Pinned apps section based on the change you make.

Note: Be aware that making mistakes when editing the registry can lead to issues with Windows. It is recommended to back up your registry before making changes. This guide only shows the graphical method for changing registry settings.

1. Open the Registry Editor. You can do this by searching for regedit in the Windows 🔍 search bar and clicking on the result.
2. Admin Privileges Required: You may need to click “Yes” on a User Account Control (UAC) prompt to open Registry Editor.
3. Navigate to the following key in the Registry Editor:
   

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

4. In the right-hand pane, find a DWORD value named Start_UseCustomLayout.
5. To Add Pinned Section: Double-click on Start_UseCustomLayout. Set the Value data to 1. Click OK.
6. To Remove Pinned Section: Double-click on Start_UseCustomLayout. Set the Value data to 0. Click OK.
7. Close the Registry Editor.
8. You may need to 🔄 restart your computer or sign out and back in for the changes to take effect.

Reference:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/customize/desktop/customize-the-windows-11-start-menu#pinned-section

Summary

In this post, you learned two ways to control the Pinned apps section in your Windows 11 ⊞ Start menu. You can toggle this section on or off using ⚙️ the Settings app under Personalization > Start. For more advanced users, the Registry Editor can also be used by modifying the Start_UseCustomLayout DWORD value under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced. Setting it to 1 adds the section, and setting it to 0 removes it.