Start Menu

What is the Start Menu?

The start menu is a menu found in Windows and other operating systems that provides a way to find and open all applications and utilities installed in the computer. Traditionally, the start menu was an actual menu, with submenus and menu items in it. In Windows 11, there is no menu, and they just call it "Start." Good luck with that, Microsoft, I'll keep calling it start menu until the day I die. Anyway, in some operating systems, like Ubuntu, there is no start menu at all, and instead there's an application called a launcher that has the exact same purpose as the start menu, except it's called something else. On the XFCE desktop environment, something that works exactly like the start menu is called the Whisker menu, because XFCE's mascot is a rat.

Graphically speaking, the start menu, in whatever form, is typically opened by pressing a button that's on one of the four corners on the screen. Except on Windows 11, where it's in the middle by default. Traditionally, the start menu is a button on the left side of the taskbar, which is a bar at the bottom of the screen, so the start button is at the bottom-left. Some operating systems have a taskbar at the top of the screen instead, so the start menu would be on the top-left. In Ubuntu, the taskbar is actually a sidebar, but there's a button at the top to launch the application launcher, so it's basically the same thing as having a start button on the top-left. The reason why all of these buttons are on the corners (except for Windows 11, thanks Microsoft), is because of Fitts's Law, which states that the corners of the screen are much easier to click on than the rest of the screen, because you can just drag your mouse around and there is no way for the mouse cursor to go beyond the corner. This is the same reason the close button is at the top-right and the show desktop button is at the bottom-right (at least until Microsoft decides to ruin these, too).