How to Remove the Recommended Section From the Windows 11 Start Menu

The Recommended section eats up the lower half of the Windows 11 Start menu with recently opened files and suggested apps that most people never use. There is no single official "off" switch on Home editions, but there are three reliable ways to deal with it, a no-risk Settings approach, a registry edit, and a Group Policy method for Pro and Enterprise. Here is how to shrink it, empty it, or remove it entirely, plus how to undo each one.

Key takeaways

• The Settings route is risk-free but only empties the feed; the Recommended header itself stays.
• The registry edit (HideRecommendedSection) hides the section completely, sometimes with an extra education-environment flag.
• Group Policy is the cleanest option on Pro, Enterprise, and Education and is easy to audit and reverse.
• Every method here is fully reversible, and these registry tweaks work from Windows 11 22H2 through 25H2.
• Microsoft is building native resize/section toggles into a future Start menu, so check Settings first.

Pick the method that matches your edition and how thorough you want to be:

Method	Edition	Result	Risk	Reversible
Settings toggles	All (incl. Home)	Empties the feed, header stays	None	Yes
Registry edit	All (incl. Home)	Removes the section fully	Low if exact	Yes
Group Policy	Pro / Enterprise / Education	Removes it, survives updates better	Low	Yes

Option 1: Reduce it through Settings (no risk)

The built-in settings will not delete the Recommended section, but they can empty most of what shows up there, leaving it mostly blank.

1. Open Settings and go to Personalization > Start.
2. Turn off these toggles:
   • Show recently added apps
   • Show most used apps
   • Show recently opened items in Start, Jump Lists, and File Explorer
3. While you are here, set the layout to More pins. This shrinks the Recommended strip and gives more room to your pinned apps.

After this, the Recommended area still exists but stops filling up with new entries. For a lot of people this is enough, and it carries zero risk because you are only using supported settings.

Option 2: Hide it completely with the registry

If you want the Recommended section gone, edit the registry. Always be careful here, and consider exporting a backup first.

1. Press Win + R, type regedit, and press Enter.
2. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer. If the Explorer key does not exist, create it.
3. Create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value named HideRecommendedSection.
4. Double-click it and set the value data to 1.
5. Sign out and back in, or restart Explorer.

On some editions this alone hides the section. On others you also need to flag the device as an education environment for the policy to take full effect.

The education-environment flag

The complete removal historically depends on a second value in the local machine hive:

• Path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\device\Education
• Create a DWORD named IsEducationEnvironment
• Set its value to 1

You can do the same thing from an elevated command prompt:

reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\device\Education /v IsEducationEnvironment /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

Or with PowerShell for the per-user policy:

Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer" -Name "HideRecommendedSection" -Value 1 -Type DWord -Force

Option 3: Group Policy (Pro and Enterprise)

On Windows 11 Pro, Enterprise, and Education you can use the Local Group Policy Editor instead of touching the registry by hand.

1. Press Win + R, type gpedit.msc, and press Enter.
2. Browse to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Start Menu and Taskbar.
3. Find the policy that removes recommended sections and content from Start, enable it, and apply.

Group Policy is the cleaner choice in a managed environment because it is easy to audit and reverse, and it survives some updates that can reset manual registry tweaks. If you are tidying up a fleet of machines, it also pairs well with the broader version-management approach in our Windows 11 26H2 enablement package guide.

What about 2026 updates?

Microsoft has been working on a more flexible Start menu, and reporting in 2026 points to upcoming options to resize the menu and disable whole sections, including Recommended, directly from Settings. If your PC has received those changes, check Personalization > Start first, because the native toggle is always safer than a registry edit. The registry methods above currently work across Windows 11 22H2 through 25H2, but Microsoft has signaled it may restrict some of these workarounds in future builds, another reason to prefer the native option once it reaches your machine.

Why there is no simple off switch

It is reasonable to ask why something this annoying has no plain toggle on Home editions, and the answer is partly product strategy. The Recommended section is one of the ways Microsoft surfaces suggested apps and, at times, promoted Microsoft 365 or Store content, so a one-click "remove" would undercut a placement the company values. The full-removal capability was originally built for school-managed devices, which is why it rides on that education-environment policy rather than a normal Settings toggle, you are borrowing an enterprise feature.

This also explains why the methods differ by edition. Pro, Enterprise, and Education ship with Group Policy, the supported management layer, so removal there is clean and documented. Home has no Group Policy editor, so the only path to full removal is writing the same policy values directly into the registry by hand. It is the identical underlying setting; you are just reaching it through a different door. Knowing that is reassuring: the registry edit is not a risky hack, it is the same policy a managed PC would apply, set manually.

Restoring the section later

Every method here is reversible. To bring Recommended back, set HideRecommendedSection and IsEducationEnvironment to 0 (or delete the values you created), re-enable the Settings toggles, or set the Group Policy back to Not Configured. Sign out and in, and the original layout returns.

Frequently asked questions

Can I remove the Recommended section without editing the registry?

On Home editions, you can only empty it through Settings, not remove the header. Pro, Enterprise, and Education users can use Group Policy instead. Full removal on Home requires the registry method.

Is editing the registry safe?

It is safe if you follow the steps exactly and change only the values listed. Export a backup of the keys first, and remember every change here is reversible by setting the values back to 0.

Why does removing Recommended need an "education environment" flag?

Microsoft ties full removal of the section to a policy originally meant for school-managed devices. Setting IsEducationEnvironment to 1 activates that policy, which is why it sometimes appears in the workaround.

Will a Windows update undo my changes?

It can. Feature updates occasionally reset manual registry tweaks. Group Policy settings are more durable, and a future native Settings toggle will be the most update-proof option once it ships.

What to do right now

Pick the path that matches your edition and how clean you want the result:

• On any edition, start in Settings > Personalization > Start: turn off the three "show" toggles and set the layout to More pins.
• If a near-empty strip still bothers you on Home, add the HideRecommendedSection DWORD set to 1 in the registry, exporting a backup of the key first.
• If that alone does not hide the header, add the IsEducationEnvironment flag, and remember it can change a few school-device behaviors.
• On Pro, Enterprise, or Education, skip the registry and use Group Policy under Start Menu and Taskbar instead.
• After a feature update, recheck Personalization > Start, the native toggle may have arrived and is the most update-proof option.

Bottom line

For most people, turning off the Settings toggles and switching to the More pins layout is the right balance of effort and safety. If a near-empty strip still bothers you, the registry value plus the education flag will remove the Recommended section entirely, and you can undo it anytime. Watch for the native Settings option arriving in newer builds, it will eventually make all of this unnecessary.