Windows RT now has a Start menu of its own.

ARM devices running Windows RT aren't getting upgraded to Windows 10. There's no particular technical reason for this—Windows 10 on ARM is still alive and well, used for both Windows 10 Mobile on phones and small tablets, and Windows IoT for Raspberry Pi 2s and similar hardware—but likely as a result of extremely low sales, the operating system is something of an afterthought, at best. This means that Windows RT devices won't be able to run any new Universal Windows Apps and don't get the new Windows 10 Start menu. But as a small concession to those people who bought Windows RT hardware, Microsoft promised an update that would add some kind of Start menu to Windows RT.









That update is now available through Windows Update and, as expected, it's a little peculiar. The Windows RT Start menu isn't the Windows 7 Start menu, nor is it the Windows 10 Start menu. Instead, it's essentially the same Start menu that was found in early Windows 10 previews. Windows 8's Start screen used an API known as DirectUI. This isn't published and isn't available for third-party developers; it was something used by Microsoft to build key parts of the Windows 8 user interface. The early Windows 10 previews also used DirectUI for their Start menu, but at some point during Windows 10's development, the DirectUI Start menu was replaced with one built using the XAML API. This is the same technology that third-party applications use.

This makes the Windows RT Start menu a peculiar relic—a snapshot of Windows 10's development, even though a full Windows 10 for ARM release was never made.