When Microsoft unveiled Windows 11 in 2021, the tech world collectively gasped at one major omission: Live Tiles were dead.
Go to Settings > System > Multitasking > Turn on "Snap windows." Now, every time you open your email + browser + calendar together, Windows will remember that "group" in the taskbar. windows 11 tile manager
But there are rumors. In early 2024, Microsoft filed a patent for "Dynamic Icon Groups" that reorganize based on time of day or location. Imagine: At 9 AM, your Start Menu shows Outlook and Teams. At 6 PM, it shows Netflix and Steam. When Microsoft unveiled Windows 11 in 2021, the
In Windows 10, the Start Menu was a hybrid. Left side: Traditional app list. Right side: A customizable grid of Live Tiles. You could resize them (Small, Medium, Wide, Large). You could group them into logical categories ("Work," "Play," "Adobe Suite"). In early 2024, Microsoft filed a patent for
Ironically, Microsoft moved the "Tile" philosophy to the window management layer. Snap Layouts (hover over the maximize button) let you arrange actual running windows into tiled configurations. This is fantastic for multitasking, but it doesn't help you launch things.