Start11 lags to start

from Stardock Forums

Hi. When I click Start, the Start menu lags to start each time ... it's not very big with pinned apps, but icons take view moment to display.

Is there anyway to improve this, to have app icons preloaded to show instantly, improve performance?

start menu products
1,459 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. The slow load only appear when you first open up your Start menu. The next time open it should be faster. The load time will depends on how many icons you have on it. And, if you have many that are using big image files as custom tiles/icons. What you can do, perhaps cut down the custom image size, make sure those files is in local drive etc.

Thank you,
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

Hi. It doesn't happen only the first time. If a couple of minutes later, i try , it happens again and so on.

I don't have Any custom icons.

Is there no settings to improve performance?

Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

That is not normal. Please try, uninstall Start11, reboot immediately (important), download latest version available in your account product download page: https://store.stardock.com/myaccount/products. Install it, reboot immediately again. Retest it and report back.

If it still happen. Need more information.

  1. Windows 10 or 11? Also need its full version and OS Build number. Please use Winver.exe.
  2. Start11 full version number.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Ok will reinstall, here's specs

Device name RobDeskTop

Processor 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700K   3.60 GHz

Installed RAM 64.0 GB (63.8 GB usable)

Device ID 8E6FBE28-5D94-4FA2-90E0-957A9CDA891E

Product ID 00330-80000-00000-AA238

System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Pen and touch Pen and touch support with 2 touch points

 

Edition Windows 11 Pro

Version 24H2

Installed on ‎2/‎23/‎2025

OS build 26100.4061

Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.26100.84.0

 

 

Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting basj, reply 3

Start11 full version number.
End of basj's quote

Need this too.

Thank you,

Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top

Just for reference, I use the Windows 10 Style with 233 shortcuts and 27 Tabs. All shortcut icons are custom icons. Except after a restart of the computer or restarting Explorer.exe, my start menu loads instantly.

Something is definitely not right.

Windows 11 Pro - 2263.5472;  Start11v2 - 2.5.2.3

Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top

What you need is increased icon cache size

Registry:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer]
"MaxCachedIcons"="65535"

The value MaxCachedIcons is in KB. Default value is 500KB. I use many tabs with many icons thus my value is 64MB (65535). This is max possible value.

I use Start11 "folder as a tab" feature for easier tool link file management. Separate folders (and Start11 tabs) with Windows standard tools links, my programming tools links, administration tools links, etc.

Even with big icon cache size 64MB initial load take a few seconds. After that menu appears instatly. Sometimes menu is reloaded again despite no change in folders with links. I presume icon cache overflow, which triggers reload. I have no solution how to increase icon cache size beyond 64MB.

Any change in a folder with links triggers Start11 menu reload.