Releasing Start11 v2 2.05 with a New Enhancement

New feature, bug fixes, and more.

Tuesday, January 30, 2024 by BradSams | Discussion: Start News

Today we are releasing a new build of Start11 v2, version 2.05, that introduces one new feature along with a smattering of bug fixes. The update is rolling out now for anyone with Start11 v2 installed and it can also be accessed from your download page too.

New in this release is an enhancement to the items you can pin to the new Start menu styles. We have added the option to pin a website directly to the Start menu app canvas which allows you to easily deep-link content from your menu.

The way we use this feature at Stardock, is that we create web-links to many of our key dashboards on Jira and PowerBI. It’s a small enhancement but one that continues to make Start11 v2 the most advanced Start menu experience for Windows 10 and 11.

If you want to grab the latest update right now, you can open Start 11 v2 and have it search for updates. You can do this by right clicking on your taskbar, click “Configure Start11”, click “About” and then “Check Now”.

If you run into any issues with this release, make sure to let us know in our forums as we monitor the feedback closely and will try to triage any issues as they arise.

For those who haven’t tried Start11 v2 yet, you can learn more about the app here and also download a free trial. And if you are looking for the best value, check out Object Desktop as it contains all of our best apps for one low price.

Hairbawl87
Reply #1 Wednesday, January 31, 2024 3:32 AM

 Context menu has acrylic!

ivoyage
Reply #2 Friday, February 2, 2024 1:30 AM

v2.05 on Windows 11 Pro (latest updates installed) issue....

After a reboot, EVERYTHING on the Task Bar Appears to be moved to the bottom half of the Task Bar, cutting everything off.  All you can see is the top half of the icons and Date & Time on the Task Bar.  Rebooting DOES NOT FIX IT.  To Fix, you must open Start11, go to Task Bar on the Left and then click on Reset Explorer in the Top right.

 

PLEASE FIX THIS!!!  Thanks so much!

Neil Banfield
Reply #3 Friday, February 2, 2024 2:32 AM

ivoyage

v2.05 on Windows 11 Pro (latest updates installed) issue....

After a reboot, EVERYTHING on the Task Bar Appears to be moved to the bottom half of the Task Bar, cutting everything off.  All you can see is the top half of the icons and Date & Time on the Task Bar.  Rebooting DOES NOT FIX IT.  To Fix, you must open Start11, go to Task Bar on the Left and then click on Reset Explorer in the Top right.

 

PLEASE FIX THIS!!!  Thanks so much!

It sounds like you are using a tablet or touch device?

If you open start1 settings, go to taskbar and scroll to the bottom you can force Start11 to detect a touch capable device.  This should resolve this for you.

Chasbo
Reply #4 Friday, February 2, 2024 6:00 AM

Before I could have the start button centered and it would be the start button for the skin I'm using, Now if I center the start button it;s some default windows 11 start button, not the one for the skin. Also the option for having the start button on the left with everything else centered is gone. Plus the start button looks distorted now. This is less rather than more. I'm very unhappy because that's how I want the start button, This is a mess.

basj
Reply #5 Friday, February 2, 2024 6:21 AM

Chasbo

Before I could have the start button centered and it would be the start button for the skin I'm using, Now if I center the start button it;s some default windows 11 start button, not the one for the skin. Also the option for having the start button on the left with everything else centered is gone. Plus the start button looks distorted now. This is less rather than more. I'm very unhappy because that's how I want the start button, This is a mess.


Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. May I know few things.

  • Windows 10 or 11? Full version numbers. Use Winver.exe.
  • Windowblinds version.
  • Windowblinds skin name, link to it so I can test it out.
  • Start11 v2.05, yes?

Thank you.
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Neil Banfield
Reply #6 Friday, February 2, 2024 7:38 AM

Chasbo

Before I could have the start button centered and it would be the start button for the skin I'm using, Now if I center the start button it;s some default windows 11 start button, not the one for the skin. Also the option for having the start button on the left with everything else centered is gone. Plus the start button looks distorted now. This is less rather than more. I'm very unhappy because that's how I want the start button, This is a mess.


When centred it has always been the regular Win11 button unless you have Start11 enhanced taskbar enabled.

Newer versions of Windows also have limits on start button size and Start11 will have to resize things to conform with those limits.  Enhanced taskbar mode again offers more flexibility.

I am assuming Start11 is in fact running correctly as you would also get the above behaviour without Start11 running.

Chasbo
Reply #7 Friday, February 2, 2024 9:07 AM

Enhanced did the trick! Thanks. I just don't recall having to do that before. Took me a little to find that option. Neil, you are the best!

deantomes
Reply #8 Friday, February 2, 2024 3:17 PM

Can anyone help here please. I just upgraded to the Start 11 v2, 2.05 and before the upgrade when i would hover over a pinned icon in the taskbar (say firefox) it would show me the FF windows in thumbnail i had open so i can click and go to that window directly.

There is NO Hover pop up mouse over on any of my windows 11 task bar icons post upgrade.

Is there a setting i need to activate or is this a bug perhaps??

Thank you all

Deanmouse over

 

basj
Reply #9 Friday, February 2, 2024 7:28 PM

deantomes

Can anyone help here please. I just upgraded to the Start 11 v2, 2.05 and before the upgrade when i would hover over a pinned icon in the taskbar (say firefox) it would show me the FF windows in thumbnail i had open so i can click and go to that window directly.

There is NO Hover pop up mouse over on any of my windows 11 task bar icons post upgrade.

Is there a setting i need to activate or is this a bug perhaps??

Thank you all

Dean

mouse over

 

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. But, there should be a preview popup. Something like screenshot below.

Please try uninstall Start11, reboot, redownload Start11, reinstall, reboot again. Retest it and report back.

Thanks
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

deantomes
Reply #10 Friday, February 2, 2024 7:34 PM

Start dock you have a bug, i fixed the issue (or it seems) on mouse over pop ups not showing. Here is what i did to fix it.

in start dock>>>taskbar>>>>taskbarsize>>>>was on medium before upgrade and i was moving to large to test out and restart explorer to large then i moved back to medium and set it back and once i did that the mouse over on pinned icons or open icons in task bar started to work again as before on the main monitor.

Please note. and this did fix it Basj and i think your suggestion was my next move if it didnt.

 

basj
Reply #11 Friday, February 2, 2024 7:58 PM

Great, glad it get resolved.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

ivoyage
Reply #12 Sunday, February 4, 2024 11:28 PM

Sorry, Yes, I was talking about installed on a Surface Pro 9!

 

ivoyage
Reply #13 Sunday, February 4, 2024 11:34 PM

@Neil Banfield, Thanks! That seemed to fix it for now!  I usually have my Surface Pro 9 up on a stand at home without the keyboard attached (I use a Bluetooth full size keyboard and mouse when home).  Only when traveling do I have the keyboard attached!

Thanks for your help!

aminsafinejad
Reply #14 Tuesday, February 6, 2024 7:32 AM

Great Stuff.

Thank you for the enhancements.
However, there is a small bug in Version 2.05: using Windows 10 Style taskbar and also Windows 10 style taskbar highlight style (buttons with bottom line), changing the size of the taskbar to "Small" will hide the bottom line (Working fine on medium and large size of taskbar tough.)

bradzoob
Reply #15 Wednesday, February 14, 2024 10:40 PM

Love it, update went smoothly and ooooer website to start menu, nice.

Hoping we can get labels for Pinned folders soon, otherwise they just look like an army of cheeses marching off somewhere inscrutable

Thanks!

basj
Reply #16 Wednesday, February 14, 2024 11:34 PM

bradzoob

Love it, update went smoothly and ooooer website to start menu, nice.

Hoping we can get labels for Pinned folders soon, otherwise they just look like an army of cheeses marching off somewhere inscrutable



Thanks!

There is a way for you to change those icons.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

pelaird
Reply #17 Thursday, February 15, 2024 8:07 AM



Quoting bradzoob,

Love it, update went smoothly and ooooer website to start menu, nice.

Hoping we can get labels for Pinned folders soon, otherwise they just look like an army of cheeses marching off somewhere inscrutable



Thanks!



There is a way for you to change those icons.



Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

You might have to restart Explorer for this change to take effect. I know on my machine the change doesn't happen until I reboot or restart Explorer.

regdh
Reply #18 Thursday, February 15, 2024 10:34 PM

Start 11 v2.03 installed was working good. Did the update to 2.05 and my boot time increased from 16 seconds to over 69 seconds. Restored my computer from backup and boot time is back to 16 seconds. Reloaded 2.05 and boot is again 69 seconds. Instead of restoring from backup this time I just installed 2.03 over 2.05 and the boot time is good at 16 seconds. I did this several times and the 2.05 version is causing the boot delay.

Windows 11, all updated.

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