Ex-Microsoft developer says Windows 11's Start Menu performance is 'comically bad'

An ex-Windows developer has taken to social media to call out what they perceive as "comically bad" performance for the Start Menu in Windows 11. With an accompanying video that you can watch below, Andy Young showcases a laggy and unresponsive Windows 11 Start Menu running on his Intel Core i9-powered rig with 128GB of RAM.

Of course, this is anecdotal, and based on the nearly infinite hardware configurations that make up the modern Windows PC, there are bound to be issues. "I love Windows," Andy Young adds. "I helped build parts of it. I want it to be as good as it once was. If data suggests the software you build frustrates a significant percentage of users, it means there's work left to be done."

That last big issue is the amount of negative feedback, opinions, and criticism about Windows 11. Of course, in 2024, negativity is amplified online. After posting his critique on the Windows 11 Start Menu, Any Young notes that his posts received over 3 million impressions, an increase of 2,576%.

Again, with PCs as they are, Windows will always be flawed. Testing out the Stat Menu's performance on my fresh PC rig for TweakTown gaming hardware reviews and benchmarking, which includes an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X CPU, ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR X670E HERO motherboard, and 64GB of Corsair DOMINATOR PLATINUM RGB DDR5 DRAM 6000MHz memory, the response was instantaneous.

However, several users have reported similar issues with the Start Menu search bar and tool freezing or hanging due to online search results from Bing, which includes online search results alongside whatever app or file you might be looking for. Thankfully, this can be disabled; however, Registry changes are required.

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