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How to Get the Start Screen Back in Windows 10

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There were two core things that Windows users reacted to negatively whenever they got to try Microsoft’s Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 operating systems for the first time. First up were full screen apps and how isolating the felt — even though Microsoft did allow some form of limited multitasking. Second, was the Windows 8 Start Screen. The Start Screen is gone in Windows 10 by default, but there is a way to get the Start Screen back in Windows 10 if you’re savvy enough.

It’s absolutely understandable that someone would want the Start Screen if they upgraded from Windows 8.1.The Start in Windows 8 looms large, every time you hit a Windows button or press the Windows key on your keyboard, it pops to life with its flipping tiles, built-in search and up-front power button. Really, the Start Screen was never more than a super-sized version of the Start Menus that came before it. It put the focus on the content of your apps and let you use your entire screen to pin your favorite apps. Since the launch of Windows 8, a large part of users have adapted to the way the start Screen works.

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Read: Final Windows 10 Release Details Revealed

Here’s how to Get the Start Screen Back in Windows 10: Tablet Mode

The Start Screen is gone from Windows 10 because it’s no longer something Microsoft feels that every Windows 10 users needs to stay productive. Windows 10 has a feature called Continuum that knows whether you have a mouse and keyboard connected to your device. If you have a device with touch running Windows 10 and Continuum detects a keyboard it’ll, ask you if you’d like to turn off Tablet Mode. Turning off Tablet Mode shrinks the Windows 10 Start Screen into the Start Menu you likely have on your PC.

You can Turn on Tablet Mode  to get the Start Screen back if you preferred the way the Start Screen in Windows 8 looks. Be aware that doing so also turns all of your apps back into fullscreen apps too.

 

Look for the Action Center button in the system tray of the taskbar on the right-bottom of your screen. When you find it, tap or click on it. It’ll look like a full or empty mini message. If you’re using a device with a touch screen, place your finger on the right edge of the display and swipe to the left.

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Now tap or click on the Tablet Mode button that sits on the bottom-left end of the Action Center.

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Again, turning on Tablet Mode does more things than just super-size the Start Screen. As such, it’s not a good way to directly address your Start Screen issue.

Bring Just the Start Screen back in Windows 10: Settings

Luckily, Microsoft was smart to include a more direct way of bringing the Start Screen back and it comes by way of a simple toggle located in the new Settings app.

 

Press the Windows button on your keyboard or at the bottom of your screen in the left to open the Start Menu.

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Now tap or click on the Settings icon in the bottom-left corner of the Start Menu.

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Welcome to the new Settings app. This app is one of the big changes Microsoft introduced for Windows 10. Many of the settings and features that were in the Control Panel have been moved here and reorganized in categories that’ll make more sense to users. The category we’re looking for is Personalization. Tap or click on the Personalization icon; it’s on the middle-right.

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The first thing you’ll see in the Personalization screen is the option to customize how your Desktop looks with a picture. We’re not looking for background options, but for Start options. Click or tap Start on the right side of your screen.

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Now tap or click on the button labeled Use Start full screen. It is this button that will supersize the Start Screen in Windows 10, giving you an experience very similar to what you got with Windows 8. This switch doesn’t yield to you being in tablet mode or not. This means that you can keep the Start Screen even when you aren’t in Tablet Mode.

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This gives you the best of both worlds, you can run tons of different apps in a familiar way, without having to give up the Start Screen and it’s easy to real Live Tiles. Don’t forget that you can use a mouse and keyboard to resize the Start Menu and make it bigger too. Just hover your mouse cursor over its edges.

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Read: How to Get the Free Windows 10 Update

Windows 10 is a free update rolling out to devices running Windows 7 and Windows 8. Microsoft

10 Comments

10 Comments

  1. Megren

    08/22/2015 at 10:28 am

    Thanks travis, you saved my dad. ;p

  2. Robin

    08/31/2015 at 8:12 am

    But this is no good…. in windows 8, you could arrow-down to get a full-screen list of applications: in windows 10, the applications list is so narrow, it’s almost unusable! And in windows 8 you could just start typing to start the search, in windows 10, you have to actively click the search text input (it should automatically focus, at least)….

  3. Mark

    10/02/2015 at 6:36 am

    Neither of these options work. The Tablet mode option is greyed out in my Action Center and making the start menu full screen is nothing like the start screen experience in Windows 8. You can’t move it to another monitor for a start.

  4. Philip Hennessy

    03/24/2016 at 10:25 am

    If I am totally honest, Windows 10, for me, is a Nightmare. Not being a youngster or particularly computer literate, I find that having just settled down with Windows 7 (I still have a PC with Windows 7 as the OS), Windows 10 has taken over from me – my desktop icons and the Taskbar have just disappeared, and trying to follow instructions on the internet is beginning to make me wish that I had NEVER changed over (even though it was a free gift from MS). I am now at the stage where I am looking at a completely blank desktop, and losing all faith in ever seeing it again.

  5. Pete

    05/08/2016 at 8:58 am

    My wife’s laptop took a crap – a SONY Vaio with 8.1…. after going out of my mind trying to get it working again – replaced/cloned the HDD in the end… but while fighting with it to get it running again the system decided to upgrade itself to windows 10.

    Now it’s sorta working – but I can’t get the Tile menu back (I hate it, she wants it) and even the Start menu is odd – no icons at all, the search bar doesn’t work…. I”ve tried all the tricks to get the menu back, but none of them are accessible (the options aren’t there)

    WTF? Can anyone offer a suggestion?…. This is one of those (many) times I’m furious they are too cheap to give us a damn CD-ROM when we buy an expensive laptop!!!

  6. mike watras

    07/12/2016 at 6:49 pm

    1 good, rest bad. I too found dim screen and all open / icons in taskbar blacked out, so guess its good bye too w-10 screen for now. Open action center is all till they update, “if”…. 4 outta 5 for bad, i say !!!!
    !!!!!!!!! UNACCEPTABLE !!!!!!!!! You can do better, the windows team has to be better than this, i too would like the option too use the start up screen with all tiles, since i made my backround and switched to using it more than the w-10 screen which i loved to see NEW stuff there but it took it for granted i use the backround one more and got me too……… please fix this Windows Team… please.. for all and all devices, thank you Mike

  7. maggie may

    07/14/2016 at 1:56 pm

    I had a problem with the tiles not coming up on windows 10.Finally after trying all the various “simple” methods including removing the battery I found that just going to close down the computor and clicking on RESTART is the best and easiest method and it doesnt take very long at all. This is a problem that shoudnt happen but it does and it looks like we just have to deal with it.

  8. Peter O

    10/01/2016 at 5:31 pm

    What an absolute mess & all quite avoidable.
    MS continues it’s non-real world evaluation of what folks want.
    They hate the fact that XP & Win7 are still the predominant OS’s in use, both private & commercial.
    Make the OS more secure, make it faster, add genuinely useful features, and this will be appreciated.
    But unnecessarily change basic proven procedures & people are forced to experiment & re-learn which takes time & inevitably leads to a messed up system.
    Now add to that (example Win 10) unexpected “updates/upgrades” which just happen without adequate warning & you now have two possible sources of problems.
    Win 10 has far too many options & settings, none satisfactorily explained despite there being loads of screen space to provide guidance. Worse, all this stuff resides & is accessible in different ways, you make one change, decide its not what you expected & then have to remember what EXACTLY you did before trying again.
    Of course the web provides lots of guidance but I am sick of spending hours each day researching just to get a simple reliable functioning OS.
    My desktop is a productivity tool, as are most, we don’t want continual changes.
    Like many I long for Win 7 its simplicity & overall reliability. Also Win10 is slower!

  9. Randall

    02/22/2017 at 9:18 am

    Wow that was really helpful. Being trying to change it for a while but can’t seem to change it until i came accross this link.

  10. Hector

    02/24/2017 at 10:07 am

    THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! This saved my dad! :))

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