Here's How to Enable the New Start Menu in Windows 10, If You're Not Part of Microsoft's A/B Testing Program

Microsoft released the Preview version of Windows 10 Build 20161 last week with new features, including a new Start menu for Windows 10 that places less emphasis on "Live Tiles". The cleaner, more polished look of the new design, with translucent tiles replacing colored backgrounds to make apps easier to find, has generated a lot of excitement among several Windows users. However, some were disappointed to find that the new Start menu was not accessible on their device. But according to German news site Microsoft WindowsUnited, there is a handy utility called ViveTool that can be used to manually activate the new Start menu. There's also a trick to get around the last obstacle preventing you from installing the Windows 10 May 2020 Update: "This PC can't be upgraded to Windows 10". Activate the new Start menu with ViveTool Indeed, as the new Start menu is still under testing, it is only available for people who use Windows 10 build 20161 which is available in the Dev Channel. But it is not enough to have the correct version of the operating system installed. Microsoft does A/B testing, so only a subset of Insiders will see the new Start Menu running on their PCs. But if you don't want to wait for Microsoft to expand the tester base and extend it to you at some point, you can enable this feature manually with the ViveTool, as WindowsUnited shared. what to do to manually activate and enjoy the new Start menu:

1. Download ViveTool and extract the contents of the archive
2. Click the Start button, type cmd, right-click the Command Prompt icon and select Run as Administrator
3. Click Yes in the User Account Control dialog box and change to the folder where you extracted the ViveTool; for example: cd C:\Users\Mark\Desktop\ViveTool
4. Now enter the command ViVeTool.exe addconfig 23615618 2 and press the Enter key
5. Restart your computer and when Windows loads you should be able to see the new Start menu.

Microsoft is blocking users from upgrading to Windows 10 May 2020 Update because their "PC settings are not yet supported" Last month, the big Windows 10 May 2020 Update caused a whole host of problems for users , including connection problems. Some users who had installed the update were saying that they are not automatically logged into their user account in Chrome. Many reports have appeared on the Chrome support forum of people complaining that Google Sync is faulty and Chrome keeps logging them out of their accounts. Other issues were storage space and issues with OneDrive. There are also people for whom even the installation is problematic. We've already heard of people who couldn't get the update because their "device isn't quite ready". Microsoft has fixed some issues, however, some users have reported recently that they see a message informing them that "This PC cannot be upgraded to Windows 10". In the error message, Microsoft tells affected users that: "Your PC settings are not yet supported on this version of Windows 10." Windows 10 May 2020 Update is available for devices running Windows 10 1903 and Windows 1909. People using these devices can manually check for updates and upgrade to version 2004. Microsoft is gradually rolling out Windows 10 May 2020 Update to qualifying devices, it is also automatically updating Windows PCs 10 which are at the end of their life. On the Answers forum and the Microsoft Q&A site, users are reporting that when they try to downgrade from Windows 10 1903/1909 to 2004, they get this new error message. specific settings that block upgrade to Windows 10 May 2020 Update. One of the users, looking for help on Microsoft's Q&A forum wrote, "I had problems updating to the previous version of Windows 10 and tech support didn't help me. not offered solutions that work. However, I have made progress on this update. That was until the manual install gave me the command prompt: "This PC cannot be updated to Windows 10 Your PC settings are not yet supported by this version of Windows 10 Microsoft is working to support your settings soon. No action necessary. Windows Update will automatically offer this version of Windows 10 when these settings are supported. "What can I do to update my computer? I have been battling this issue for a while and just want to update my computer”. As of now, there is no definitive solution but a few potential workarounds have been shared on a thread. Here's how to do it:

1. Updating hardware drivers
2. Disable Kernel Isolation by going to Settings > Windows Security > Open Security Center > Device Security > Kernel Isolation

Some users have also found that it is possible to successfully upgrade by disconnecting from the internet first. A user affected by the issue said he was able to upgrade by installing Windows 10 2004 offline. “So I completely disabled the internet on the computer, restarted the computer and installed the ISO, then waited... It works perfectly now, you can re-enable the internet afterwards. There is probably a bug in something when the installer checks the computer with the internet before installing it,” he wrote. Most users in the thread said it worked for them too. Sources: Microsoft Answers Forum (1, 2) How about you? Are you a Windows 10 Update tester? Have you already activated the new Start menu? If not, will you try the ViveTool tool to activate it? Are you affected by the latest error message for Windows 10 May 2020 Update? Tell your experience? See also: Microsoft announces new Windows 10 Start menu design, Alt-Tab change, and other improvements including new taskbar layout Windows 10 April Update: Microsoft fixes incompatibility issue with some SSD in Build 2020 Cumulative Update: Microsoft Releases Windows Terminal 1.0 Open Source App, Unveils GPU Support and Linux Graphics Apps in WSL Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 18963 Brings the Ability to See GPU Temp task, and gives Paint and WordPad a reprieve