About This Software

The Start menu you miss, on the Windows you use

Tessera Start Menu brings back the full-screen, live-tile Start menu of Windows 10, rebuilt for Windows 11. Open Start and your tiles are simply there.

Your tiles, your way

• Drag and drop: put any tile anywhere. Tiles in the way move down to make room.

• Four sizes: small, medium, wide and large.

• Any color: a palette of tile colors, your Windows accent color, or a custom color of your own.

• Groups: name a group with a right-click on empty space, and double-click a name to rename it.

Pin anything

• Open All apps from the rail, or just start typing, then right-click an app to pin it or drag it onto the grid.

• Drag programs, files and shortcuts in from File Explorer.

• Right-click a program or shortcut in File Explorer and choose Pin to Tessera (Windows 11: under Show more options).

• Pinned shortcuts are kept as copies of their own, so a tile keeps working when you tidy the original away.

Make it look right

• Background: blurred wallpaper, live acrylic blur, or a solid color, with adjustable darkening.

• Tile size, tile transparency and tile color for the whole grid, with app names on or off.

• Open Start on the display you opened it from, or always on the primary display.

• Search the app list as you type, or hand what you type to Windows Search.

Made for everyday use

• Right-click a desktop app's tile to Run as administrator or Open file location.

• Power menu with sleep, shut down, restart and sign out, plus "Update and…" when Windows has an update waiting.

• Runs quietly in the notification area and can start with Windows.

• Keeps working across Windows updates. After an update it downloads the matching public symbol data from Microsoft once, then carries on.

Always reversible

Turn off Replace the Windows Start menu in Settings, or choose Exit on the tray icon, and Windows' own Start menu comes back immediately. Uninstalling through Steam removes Tessera's startup entry, its File Explorer menu item and its copies of the app. Your tiles and settings stay, so a reinstall picks up where you left off.

Good to know

• Tessera redirects the Start button by loading a small helper into File Explorer (explorer.exe). When Tessera is off or not running, the helper passes everything straight through to Windows.

• Its only network use is that one-time symbol download from Microsoft after a Windows update. There's no telemetry and no account.

• Run one Start menu replacement at a time. Other Start menu tools hook the same button.