How to enable / disable the Start menu full screen in Windows 10

Depending on how you've configured your Start menu, a full-screen Start menu looks like this. As expected, it covers the entire screen (not the taskbar) and you can switch between 'pinned tiles' and 'all apps' views using the buttons in the upper left corner.

It's a lot like the Windows 8 Start screen - a large full-screen canvas where you can place all of your shortcut tiles.

To configure whether you see a full-screen Start menu in Desktop mode, you'll need to make a change in Windows Settings.

First, open Settings by clicking on the Start menu and selecting the gear icon on the left. (You can also press Win + I ).

When Settings opens, click Personalization on the main screen.

Under Personalization , select Start from the sidebar to open 'Start' settings.

In the Start menu settings, look for the toggle button labeled 'Use Start Full Screen' . If you want to use the full-screen Start menu in Desktop mode, set this switch to 'On'. If you don't want Start to cover your entire screen when you open it in Desktop mode, set this switch to 'Off'.

Note that this setting does not affect the full-screen Start menu in Tablet mode. When the PC is in Tablet mode, it will always show a full-screen Start menu.

To quickly turn off Tablet mode, open 'Action Center' by clicking or tapping the notification button in the far corner of the taskbar. When the Action Center menu appears, select the Tablet Mode button .

You can also completely disable the Tablet mode disabling in Settings> System> Tablet .

You don't have to use the full-screen Start menu to make room for shortcuts. If you want to use the larger Start menu without letting it take up the full screen, you can easily resize the Start menu by clicking and dragging the sides of the menu.

Lesley Montoya

Update 20 October 2020