Microsoft Bring the Start Menu Back to Windows 8

[techboy]

The main idea was not "because we can", it may look like that but it was a matter of integration of devices. The whole 'start button' was moved to a button no matter where, no matter which interface you would be....

metro on pc? start on button bellow screen
desktop on pc? start on button bellow screen
your phone? start on button bellow screen
tablet? start on button bellow screen
some future win8 tv ? start on remote control button
etc...

Resuming, the idea was removing it from screen cause any device should always have the start button somewhere, but not all devices/interface would have a start button on screen.

That would be fine for tablets, but if you consider that most people with Win8 have a PC, which has no button below the screen, then this is a terrible idea (I don't count the keyboard, since that's not the same).

In addition, everyone else in the PC and mobile market already knew what MS is now learning...that one interface is not suitable for all devices. Think about why Apple didn't put OS X on iPads or iOS on a Mac. Ditto for Google with Chrome OS (if you can count it...small user base) and Android.

 

[Arras]

too be absolutely fair to qwerty most people using a keyboard when keyboards first it came out did do programming so it was logical to have the semicolon a default key

and to the people saying microsoft like's to change for the sake of change you are wrong. They like change for the sake of license fees. If they kept up the updates on xp it would still be perfectly useable but they want to make money so they arbitrarily limit software to not run on that os and introduce another os with just enough visible changes to claim it is a new os. metro is pretty much the only visible change from 7. going back on it by adding a start menu really sends the message that upgrading to win 8 is not necessary which is a horrible message to send from the perspective of the bottom line.

Programming on a typewriter?

 

[FAST6191]

Barring MS basically taking the XBMC idea and running with it, something that seems unlikely given they have had the chance for years and years at this point, if you ever catch me with a windows8 TV then tell me I have failed. Obvious exception if it happens to be a better screen but I am not betting on that happening.

 

[vbkun]

That would be fine for tablets, but if you consider that most people with Win8 have a PC, which has no button below the screen, then this is a terrible idea (I don't count the keyboard, since that's not the same).

In addition, everyone else in the PC and mobile market already knew what MS is now learning...that one interface is not suitable for all devices. Think about why Apple didn't put OS X on iPads or iOS on a Mac. Ditto for Google with Chrome OS (if you can count it...small user base) and Android.

Agree with you, one interface doesn't fit all, was just saying to why I think they done it (and had just realized it).

In a certain way the whole metro was a "peak into future interface for desktops" they failed miserable thou because "ow wait... that future isn't here yet o.O", for example, start buttons bellow all screens.

As I noticed from day 1 with windows 8 they missed interface "conditions", such as:

"ok this is windows pro, there is a start button bellow screen = hide start button | else 'show f**** start button'"

"ok user is using a mouse and right clicked.... pop up menu 'not' stupid ribbon at bottom of screen"

 

[Garro]

I guess I'll be the only one skipping this update.

 

[Ulieq]

They should of just called the damn thing Windows 9, and ditched 8 as the worst OS ever created.

 

[FAST6191]

They should of just called the damn thing Windows 9, and ditched 8 as the worst OS ever created.

It was easy enough to make something more than functional out of contemporary hardware and windows 8. Now it was a few years back and I had a few less skills but I even today I think I would struggle to do a good windows ME or good vista install on what would then have been contemporary hardware (give or take the windows server version that went along with vista, that is not bad), in ME's case I would probably struggle to get it working well on whatever the best hardware had drivers for ME ever was.

 

[Lestworth]

You mean windows realized that touchscreen tower computers are not a majority in everyones houses

WHO KNEW!!! =O!!!

 

[2ndApex]

To be fair something like Dvorak is much better than Qwerty... I mean, seriously, one of your fingers is on the semicolon by default. That's literally only a good thing if you're a programmer. But trying to move people away from Qwerty will be pretty much fucking impossible. It'll be like the Windows 8 thing but a million times worse.

Funny that you should mention it because I started practicing Dvorak last week lol, it's still a bit awkward but I can see why this is considered a much better system because the vowel and punctuation placement just makes so much more sense.

 

[JPhantom]

2nd apex well most studies i've seen show little to no difference in typing speed based on layout including with completely random layouts

and to arras and twilinx yes qwerty was developed on typewriters but the layout of many of the keys outside the letters and numbers was in relative flux from 1898 till the computer age. in fact for sometime there was no semicolon you printed a colon and a comma in the same spot and no 0 or 1 keys. the rest of the qwerty layout we see commonly including most of the punctuation was pretty much up to the keyboard producers as there was not anything that could be argued as a standard really as it varied from typewriter to typewriter. so yes when we got the layout we see today was because the first computer keyboard users were frequently programming in languages that ended statements with semicolons

 

[KingBlank]

I think windows 8 is the most disgusting abomination of an OS.
I cringe when i hear people saying they won't be "upgrading" to windows 8 as if it could even be considered an upgrade from windows XP.
That was just me venting some pent up emotions.

Its sad that Microsoft have created an desktop OS worse than the ones they made 10 years ago and at this rate it will take 10 years for them to make it better than windows 7.

EDIT: Yeah, i went a bit overboard here, windows 8 gets me all emotional

 

[RiPPn]

It's not the crying on the internet getting the changes, it's the lack of sales. Just like the Xbox One, Microsoft likes to make people think they are listening to their customers, but what they are listening to is the money, or lack thereof.

 

[FAST6191]

Are the two really mutually exclusive RiPPn?

 

[osirisjem]

They should give people an option to want the metro or classic win7 interface/start menu. Yes they brought it back, but I still don't care for the tile crap. M$ give us better options not force us to use any part of metro including that startmenu metro crap!

This.

Anyone with two brain cells could have predicted that getting rid of the start menu was going to be a failure.
And to force it on people ?
It's like Microsoft isn't even trying.
/facepalm

 

[DTGS]

Microsoft should've just been like.. "Don't like our changes? Well suck it up."

 

[codezer0]

I never understood why people bitch about this to begin with. I have Windows 8.1, and its great, you can tap an icon that says desktop (or simply push the window key on your keyboard) and it will bring you to an alternate Windows 7ish desktop with a start menu.

Microsoft only brought back the start button, not start menu. There is a fundamental difference. Also, the start menu is friendlier to power users and computing veterans... The umpteen billion Linux distros would not have been doing their best to ape this system if it wasn't effective and seen as valuable. The only company who has abstained from anything resembling what we know as the Start Menu, is Apple.

 

[Zeliga]

Finally! I have been waiting for this for like.. 4-5 weeks ago.

 

[VashTS]

im going to upgrade my laptop to windows 7. i really wanted to give 8 a fair chance this 2nd time. i couldn't do it. even with a start menu it sucks balls.

 

[Ulieq]

No start menu still?! Shit, microsoft better forget the OS business.

 

[Sterling]

It's a shame that Microsoft is slowly backpeddling on all of the strong decisions they've made over the past couple of years.

They've added the start menu back in to appease the people who haven't bought Windows 8 yet and keep saying "I want the start menu noooo it's so stupid it's not there wtf M$ u dumb," but the fact of the matter is that those people aren't going to buy it anyway, the start menu was just a scapegoat (YUGIOH!!!).

Frankly, anyone who says they need the start button and menu because they are a "power user" is talking out of their ass. You know who actually uses a mouse and the start menu to open programs? My mum. Real power users use the Windows key on the keyboard and then start typing the program name. It's far more efficient.

The start menu is 20 years old time to move on people.

I became a "power user" because Windows 8 sucked so much... On my own machines. When it comes to actually working on these machines, finding what programs the customer does and doesn't have becomes a nightmare. In fact, Windows 8 in its entirety is a gigantic tech nightmare. I can't even get an 8.1 ISO to used the integrated refresh in an upgraded windows 8 machine. That, and actually getting to the boot order or BIOS consistently now requires getting to Start Up Repair and waiting (shut down 3 times and wait, or have intimate knowledge on every machine's manufacturer hotkey).