Originally Posted by mikedl

Wow ... thanks for that, I'll be examining that a bit more closely tonight after all of my news shows are done.

Explains the option of coloring desktop tiles and system tiles differently though I have yet to figure out which tiles directly constitute "system" tiles.
I've tried recoloring "system tiles" but haven't seen any changes yet even though I have been successful in re-coloring the desktop tiles.

This elaborate explanation is a total phoney. This is put up there to simply confuse matters. There are two reasons for the Start Screen the way it is:

(a) It conditions users so that they can go and buy Windows-powered tablets and smartphones. I think that this is simply the major reason. MS has figured out that the reason the iPad was so successful is because iPhone users were familiar with the interface. So, now they are trying their own Pavlovian experiment
(b) Make money by selling Start Screen apps: With the Start Screen, Microsoft hopes to sell you lots and lots of useless "full screen apps" for things that the desktop gadgets were doing for free. So, it proceeded to delete the majority of the desktop gadgets!!

Thus, all the elaborate explanations about usability and user patterns are simply a smokescreen. The reasons for the imposition of the Start Screen are obvious and should not be mistaken. If users want to fall along, fine, but they should not be presented this as any advance in the art of computing. In fact, the Start Screen is retrogression in computing. Now, Win8 has a UI layer that runs only full screen apps in a windowing system!!!! I would not call this progress by any means. I would call it a clever marketing strategy for more penetration and more revenue.

Originally Posted by ADRz

Originally Posted by mikedl

Wow ... thanks for that, I'll be examining that a bit more closely tonight after all of my news shows are done.

Explains the option of coloring desktop tiles and system tiles differently though I have yet to figure out which tiles directly constitute "system" tiles.
I've tried recoloring "system tiles" but haven't seen any changes yet even though I have been successful in re-coloring the desktop tiles.

This elaborate explanation is a total phoney. This is put up there to simply confuse matters. There are two reasons for the Start Screen the way it is:

(a) It conditions users so that they can go and buy Windows-powered tablets and smartphones. I think that this is simply the major reason. MS has figured out that the reason the iPad was so successful is because iPhone users were familiar with the interface. So, now they are trying their own Pavlovian experiment
(b) Make money by selling Start Screen apps: With the Start Screen, Microsoft hopes to sell you lots and lots of useless "full screen apps" for things that the desktop gadgets were doing for free. So, it proceeded to delete the majority of the desktop gadgets!!

Thus, all the elaborate explanations about usability and user patterns are simply a smokescreen. The reasons for the imposition of the Start Screen are obvious and should not be mistaken. If users want to fall along, fine, but they should not be presented this as any advance in the art of computing. In fact, the Start Screen is retrogression in computing. Now, Win8 has a UI layer that runs only full screen apps in a windowing system!!!! I would not call this progress by any means. I would call it a clever marketing strategy for more penetration and more revenue.

I love how the comments on this thread were, "Nice!" to, "I can configure the Start Screen to my liking." to "The Start Screen is nothing more than a ploy to kill the desktop and make cash off tablets!"

Once I read the science and research that went into the Start Screen, it made me appreciate it even more. It goes to show that it's not just a gurgitated interface from the 80s....

Originally Posted by Coke Robot

Once I read the science and research that went into the Start Screen, it made me appreciate it even more. It goes to show that it's not just a gurgitated interface from the 80s....

Do you mean that you bought that whole story hook, line and sinker??? Oh, boy!!! I found it ridiculous to the extreme. I would not go into details but the telemetry data were utilized in a highly biased manner (the same telemetry data could have been analyzed in a totally different way). Science had absolutely nothing to do with the Smart Screen. It is just a marketing device and everybody knows that.