This method works for 25H2 where the start menu is restricted to "Category" view and Copilot AI has organized the apps into groups (who at Microsoft thought of this, and WHY?!?!)

To restore the "View" options in the Win11 25H2 start menu and to see ALL the apps listed, open Regedit as Administrator

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FeatureManagement\Overrides\4

Create New Key: 3036241548

Create Value "EnableState" (DWORD32) and set it to 1

Create Value "EnableStateOptions" (DWORD32) and set it to 1

Restart the PC. This will restore the View options (Category, Grid, or List) in the start menu and allow you to change the layout just like you were able to in 24H2.

Then if you want to force a certain layout modify the registry as follows:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Start

AllAppsViewMode - (0)=Category (1)=Grid (2)=List

Finally got used to Win 11 (25H2) Start menu not showing the full apps list all the time by default, and now they've changed it without any warning or ways to choose what we want to see by default on that menu.

Neither of the two Group Policy changes posted above removes All by default from the Start menu, even when both are set as indicated at the same time, and -yes- I restarted Win 11 after each change.

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar > Remove All Programs list from the Start menu>Enabled

User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar>Show app list in Start menu>Disabled

Not going to mess with registry edits, which may -or not- work either...

I have group policy editor so I figured out where you can edit it in the registry editor. Obviously if you have group policy editor, use that because it is easier but if not then try the regedit. Also this is for the entire PC so if you want to do it for an individual user, just follow the same thing but go into the user config instead of computer config.

Group Policy Editor

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar > Remove All Programs list from the Start menu: Enabled > Remove and disable setting (or there are 2 other options but this one completely removes it, as far as I can tell they seem to all do the same thing right now)

Registry Editor

If you don't have group policy editor, then I figured out they correspond to this: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer: create 32 bit D-WORD if it doesn't exist already:

name: NoStartMenuMorePrograms

hex value: 1 = Remove and disable setting

hex value: 2 = Collapse and disable setting

hex value: 3 = Collapse

I tried the Registry option and set the value to 1, restarted but it didn't work.

I'm using Windows 11 Home.

Is there any way I can install Group Policy Editor?

James