Here's the new Start Button menu in Windows 8.1

[denem]

Last edited Thu May 30, 2013, 01:17 PM - Edit history (1)

Yes, when you click on the windows icon where the start button used to be, Microsoft takes you back to the metro screen. Amazing.



(It's true) Microsoft is a suicide cult.
http://mashable.com/2013/05/30/windows-8-1-features/

MIA - A clock.

[liberal N proud]

1. Microsoft doubling down on shoving that piece of crap down our throats

Still sucks

[Skidmore]

2. I just don't understand the issue with whether there is a start button or not.

I have a box on that "metro screen" for the desk top. If you pull the menu over from the right hand bottom corner of the screen you can shut down your computer or restart. If you place the cursor on the upper left hand corner of the screen you can see what applications are open and close them out by right clicking on them. On the lower left hand side of the task bar you can find a file for items you use frequently. I just don't get the angst.

[Logical]

6. I agree. It is simple. Too many people hate ANY change! n-t

[denverbill]

9. I remember the days when people hated the start button on Windows 95.

Complaining about how ridiculous it was that to shut down, you hit the start button.

[Arcanetrance]

13. Personally I found it to be lazy and kinda ugly looking but it is easy enough to figure out

[TreasonousBastard]

19. I never see the tiles unless I want to...

The windows key toggles back and forth between the tiles and the desktop we've been used to since Win95. All the stuff I use is sitting right there where it's always been through XP and 7 with the most important stuff pinned to the taskbar.

The way I'm set up, it's actually less of a hassle than 7. And a lot faster.

I used the Start button to shut it down, or maybe to check on network and printer connections and such, but that stuff always had two or three ways to get to, and now it just has one less. Besides, for things like Windows
Explorer, there were, and still are, much better alternatives from third parties.

It's just a damn tool, ferchrissakes, all the whining and arguing is sillier than arguing over screwdrivers or hammers.

[CrispyQ]

20. I agree.

I worked through a couple of tutorials & I like Win 8 just fine. People don't want to take even 30 minutes to learn the new features of the OS.

[sammytko]

46. I don't either. It's not that hard to use.

No wonder we are left behind. People don't like to change. It's a miracle we even have hot and cold running water!

[Drale]

3. I wouldn't mind the new start screen

if they made it easier to find the programs you are looking for to pin them to the start menu

[denverbill]

10. It's really pretty easy, IMO.

You can find most apps by just starting to type on the start screen and it will go into search mode. Then right click them to add to the start screen. I'm not on my Windows 8 machine now, but that's my recollection anyway.

There is another option that takes you into all apps. I think I usually get to that by clicking on the lower right area of the start screen, not all the way in the corner, and it pulls up an icon for all apps.

[Aerows]

14. Uh, if I have to type a command to make something happen

Why am I not using DOS?

I'm not console adverse, but damn. Didn't we leave this behind unless we were doing low level OS functions a while ago?

[lumberjack_jeff]

18. +1 n/t

[denverbill]

23. You don't have to type it but it's way faster for people who can type.

If you don't like to type, just right click a blank area of the screen and it pulls up a display of all your applications and you can select it from there, but I have tons of apps so it's easier to just start typing the name of the app and let Windows find it for me.

[Aerows]

27. When I first got Windows 8

on a new laptop, I had to, in frustration, find out that you had to go to the win + e to find run, and then I typed notepad because I've been using OS's since roughly the late 80's and remember more about DOS and the Windows OS than I care to remember.

I'm hardly a novice or resistant to change. I just couldn't find a text editor to save my soul after they stripped the ability to revert right before RTM. It was a very, very bad move.

[denverbill]

30. There are things I don't like about Windows 8. I miss the clock more than the start button.

I know I can add a clock app to the start page but it takes up space and moves around as you add and remove apps.

I can type 'notepad' faster than I can click 'Start, run, notepad.exe'. And then you can add notepad to the start screen with just a right click. I'm not sure which version you have but on Windows 8 pro if you right click in the lower left corner it brings up a list of admin functions which I would have loved to have on Windows 7.

I don't know if Windows 8 came with a text editor. I had openoffice installed so I added that to my start screen and use that when I need something beefier than notepad.

[Aerows]

31. It has notepad

all windows OS's have it. I needed a simple text editor to copy and past a command. I couldn't find it. Some of us use archaic tools like a command line copy/paste because it's necessary. When you can't find one, it's rather shocking. I even had Edlin long ago, and Vi.

[denverbill]

32. I guess I still don't understand all of the hostility towards Windows 8 versus 3.1 or 95.

If you used DOS and ran notepad.exe from a command line, when Windows 95 came around, you had to learn where to go to get to a command line. Eventually that became 2nd nature. Every major upgrade from 3.1-Windows 7 forced me to relearn something like that, like where something was in the control panel or how to get to the control panel. Sometimes I liked the changes, sometimes I didn't. It always took a while to get used to.

Windows 8 loads way faster than anything I can remember since at least Windows 3.1. I don't think I've had any crashes, though I've had programs fail. There are things I like and things I don't and a lot of stuff I still don't know, but the fact is, it's here and will probably be used pretty widely since you can use the same OS on your phone or notepad. I upgraded to get another 3-4 years of OS support. Eventually, MS will stop supporting XP.

[Aerows]

34. :rolls eyes:

And they will stop supporting Windows 7, which incorporates all of the things that XP had. I like Windows 7. I detest the UI of Windows 8. That's the issue. I like the UEFI and the underpinnings of the OS (if you know what I'm talking about), but I just don't like Metro and the way they have structured the UI.

It's weird, and you have to invest so much work into customizing it so that it ISN'T weird, that you might as well just go with a Linux build and not have to deal with it, or Windows 7 and not have to deal with it at all.

It does not work. Not for geeks, not for aficionados, and not for anyone in a corporate environment on the desktop. You can't try to force a square into a hole and not expect people to not leave it en masse.

Microsoft messed up with Metro, and the best thing they could do for themselves is allow people to revert to a Windows 7 interface.

[denverbill]

35. OK.

[Skidmore]

12. You can pin them to the start menu.

I have my desktop pinned and my browser and the mail function allows me to integrate my mail accounts. Hope I haven't misunderstood your comment.

[Sheldon Cooper]

16. Me too.

I really don't understand what the big deal is.

[Aerows]

44. You probably don't understand why people

that are invested in UEFI architecture... don't head towards windows 8.

[BlueStreak]

4. Good to see they are listening to their customers

Their customers said they absolutely hated the tile interface on desktop machines and wanted to have the familiar desktop and start button paradigm back.

Microsoft listened and brought back the Start button, but all that does is take you to the damned tile screen that everybody hates.

[steve2470]

5. I've developed workarounds for the Start button

They need a Desktop mode and a Tablet/phone mode so both groups can be happy.

[Aerows]

15. Exactly

And the windows flying open because of the charms if you move the mouse too aggressively. I have a very sensitive mouse setting that I am used to, and I have a 1920x1200 screen. The desktop is not a phone - it is designed to be used with a keyboard and a mouse.

Even on a laptop, maybe especially on a laptop using a touch pad with the acceleration settings on the touchpad cranked up, you get the windows flying open effect. If you can't type a document or a line of code without a bunch of shit flying open and breaking your train of thought, it ceases to be a useful OS because the OS is getting in the way of productivity.

[Gormy Cuss]

29. "...windows flying open" --- this

as well as the other random crap that appears because I too use pointer devices a bit too quickly or forcefully. The upper left corner where one can close screens or switch apps is a neat idea but because of that pointer sensitivity issue it's just frustrating.

I use the Metro Screen for email, weather, and fun stuff but need to be on the desktop for many tasks because it's the easiest way for me to pane more than two applications or to juggle multiple websites. I'm glad that I also have a computer with Win7 -- sometimes it's just easier.

I don't care that much about the lack of a start button but it would be nice to have the option as a taskbar button on the desktop.

[randome]

7. If you can't organize your own fucking desktop, the OS is pointless.

MY desktop! NOT Microsoft's! Imbeciles!

It's like being in an office cubicle and being told you have no choice but to work with piles of colored junk covering your workspace.

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]

[Sheldon Cooper]

17. You do realize that you can delete any unwanted tiles, right?

And your entire screen can be customized to show just what you use?

[randome]

36. That's good. But you can't change the colors of the tiles from what I've seen.

You can select color 'themes' but once again you're stuck using Microsoft's choices.

Deleting a tile is not the same as organizing things the way you want. With a proper menu list, I can organize my applications the way I want in folders that make sense to ME, who is supposedly the target audience.

The only thing you've pointed out is that you can have something 'pinned' to the desktop or not. Which restricts me from using my own organizational paradigms.

[hr]
[font color="blue"][center]Stop looking for heroes. BE one.[/center][/font]
[hr]

[kentauros]

25. Microsoft has always operated under the assumption that "they know what's best for you."

My primary and biggest gripe with Windows is in shutting it down. All too often when I tell it to either restart or shut off completely, some window will pop up to tell me that some other program isn't responding and asking me if I really want to shut it off, too. Well, if it isn't responding, what the hell am I supposed to do about it?! Shut the stupid program off and shut down!

However, whenever Windows does some kind of update (that I haven't authorized) it has its own full priority in shutting the system down, no matter what programs I've left up, or which ones have "stopped responding." Why can't I have that kind of priority when I'm the one telling it to shut off? Why do they think they know what's best for me?

I can't stand software that second-guesses me, because invariably, it doesn't guess correctly.

[Starry Messenger]

8. The colors they used for tiles are so bad.

It's like crayons.

[aristocles]

11. Love my Windows 7 EOM

[Aerows]

21. The biggest part of this that sucks

is that UEFI is a great improvement on supported hardware. But of course, you don't want to use it, because that means you have to deal with Windows 8 and a horrible UI.

It pisses me off to no end that they removed the ability to revert back to a start menu system right before RTM and gave us this bullshit.

[Puzzledtraveller]

22. Similar to the current xbox 360 UI, which I do not care for.

[wandy]

24. So let's see if I understand this..........

For people who didn't like metro, Microsoft provided a start button that...
Takes them right back to metro.

I would say The Onion is in trouble as now not only are republicans writing better real world satire, Microsoft has joined forces with them.

Meh, you can get used to anything but if desk top appearance and a 'real' start button are the only things that are troubling you, Classic Shell may be worth looking into.
http://download.cnet.com/Classic-Shell/3000-2072_4-75553853.html

[denem]

40. Yes understand it 100% all right

unbelieveable.

[Spider Jerusalem]

26. And here is the solution:

http://www.classicshell.net/

[Aerows]

28. I'm going to have to go there

I really like the enhancements that UEFI brings and some of the other things about the underpinnings of the OS, I just despise Metro with every fiber of my being.

[Apophis]

33. Microsoft is really killing themselves in the last week.

First with the awful Xbox One reveal and now with the total revamp of Windows 8.

[Aerows]

38. No revamps

They doubled down on forcing Metro on users in 8.1. They *insist* on you using Metro.

[Marrah_G]

37. I just keep mine on desktop mode

I never use the start key anyway

[Aerows]

39. Do you have an earlier than release copy?

Because you can't in RTM.

Which is where all of the complaints originate. Had they left desktop mode a possibility in the release, nobody would be griping.

[olddots]

41. Microsoft and Apple are not too big to fail

.n.t.

[IDemo]

42. The cost - benefit ratio simply doesn't add up

I will not be 'upgrading' to 8 anytime soon (likely never), and I can guarantee that many corporate IT departments won't either, particularly since many just upgraded to Win 7 from XP.

[Aerows]

43. To be honest, I think they want to fail

and become another corporate wasteland that gets sold cheap, and stockholders of the original company get screwed. It's pretty much the only the explanation for having a hatchet come in while Bill Gates completely distanced himself from it.

Hacks and hatchetts are running MS. Bail their stocks while you can.

[denem]

45. Actually in 2010 Bill Gates made the call the kill the Courier Tablet

9 months maybe before launch. Why? No Exchange client. Fast forward two and a half years, MS releases Windows/SurfaceRT with Office but Without Outlook! In the mean time, Apple had it's iPad out with the exchange client API licensed from Microsoft.

I dont use 'suicide cult' lightly. Look at the date: November 2011.

The inside story of how Microsoft killed its Courier tablet
http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20128013-75/the-inside-story-of-how-microsoft-killed-its-courier-tablet/