The Distracting Glow
When you install a new piece of software on a Windows 11 computer, the operating system tries to help you find it by aggressively highlighting the new application. If you open the Start menu, you will see a bright “New” tag next to the application icon. While this might be helpful for a novice user, it is visually noisy and annoying if you are setting up a new computer, installing dozens of applications at once, or if you simply prefer a clean, minimal Start menu interface.
How to Disable the “New” Highlight via Settings
Windows 11 allows you to turn off this specific visual notification directly from the personalization menu.
1. Click the Start button and click the gear icon to open Settings.
2. In the left-hand sidebar, click on Personalization.
3. In the right-hand pane, scroll down and click on Start.
4. Look for the section labelled “Show recently added apps.”
5. Click the toggle switch to turn it Off.
Disabling this setting completely removes the “Recently added” section from the top of your Start menu list, effectively hiding the new applications and their accompanying highlights. If you want to find a new program, you will simply have to search for it alphabetically or use the search bar.
How to Disable the Highlight via the Registry (Advanced)
If the Settings toggle doesn’t completely eradicate the “New” text from deep within the “All apps” list, you can enforce the rule using the Windows Registry.
1. Open the Start menu, type regedit, and press Enter.
2. Navigate to the following path in the left sidebar:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
3. In the right-hand pane, look for a key named Start_NotifyNewApps.
4. If it does not exist, right-click the empty space, select New > DWORD (32-bit) Value, and name it Start_NotifyNewApps.
5. Double-click the Start_NotifyNewApps key.
6. Ensure the “Value data” is set to 0 (zero).
7. Click OK, close the Registry Editor, and restart your computer to apply the permanent, system-wide change.