Quoting Cave Waverider233,
I noticed that with Start11 1.4.5.1 beta (and earlier), The Windows key still only brings up Start11 on the Desktop, during gaming or when an application like Steam is in Focus, it now always brings up the Windows 11 Start Menu, no matter which settings I set in Start11 with the latest Windows 11 Update.
Before this Windows 11 Update, the Windows key brought up the Start 11 menu no matter what. Is it possible to restore the previous Start11 behavior?
Do you perhaps have UAC disabled or Steam set to launch elevated?
I have UAC set to "never notifiy" (not sure if that's actually fully off or not). It's how I've had it forever and it always worked fine. Is that problem?
It doesn't only happen with Steam, though, when playing any non-Steam games or even just starting their launchers, or even if the window focus is on something like HWInfo64, MSI Afterburner, CRU etc. the Windows key also brings up the Win11 menu instead of Start11.
I'm using the "Modern Style", Start11 menu by the way.
Update: I changed UAC to the second lowest level "Notify me only when apps...", and the problem is still the same - it didn't make a difference in Start menu behavior, so it doesn't seem to be related to UAC.