listing said:
you shouldn't need to see the task bar for the 2 seconds it takes you to find the thing you need on the Start Screen
First the Start Screen appears when the computer boots and the session is ready to use and in absence of any command it stays there. That means we hae an interface by default which is without taskbar. As long as you run only metro apps, you hae no taskbar.
Maybe if my eyesight was better and thus I was more comfortable with using smartphones/touch screens I don't think I would mind an all Metro interface for my phone needs. It's always been the on-screen touch typing that has done me in, and the MS Surface looks to rectify that issue by including the keyboard. So I can see myself having a Win8 phone and a Surface tablet in the future, possibly to replace my laptop/desktop. I'll come back to that later.
Here's the thing though, as much as I love Win8 and think Metro is good for a phone OS, I would hate to use an all-Metro UI specifically for my computing needs. For this reason I won't be touching any WinRT devices with a ten foot barge pole. But I'm more of a power user. Many people literally have laptops as Facebook/Email machines. Microsoft is hoping to capture them with their phone, WinRT tablet or laptop products, because they will still be able to get quick status updates via the live tiles, launch IE to check FB or even use a FB app, and use Office. For many people Metro/WinRT will be all they need. Especially casual users (I can see both my parents on Win8 devices in the future, because they fit into the user-set of people who own laptops as little more than FB/Email/Media viewers machines, and it's easier for them to click a pinned tile than go digging around in Windows Explorer).
Me? I'll get the "Windows 8" SKU for any desktops or laptops I upgrade or buy new, and I'll be getting the "Windows 8 Pro" SKU of the Microsoft Surface if I get one. With those SKUs Win8 will fufill my computing needs, because it will have fully fledged desktop modes which can run third party legacy software which hasn't been specifically coded for Windows 8 or hasn't had to pass-through the Microsoft Store. To that end I can download third party software to ''tweak'' how Windows 8 works - providing MS doesn't rip-out the coding which those software exploits in a future release/patch. Right now on the Enterprise N RTM I have tweaked Win8 to
boot directly to desktop, and to disable the
Windows Explorer ribbon user interface (I may gain a new appreciate for the ribbon ui if/when I upgrade to a touch device). If I recall correctly there is also a tweak or software which
does enable the taskbar to be visable whilst the Start Screen is open too. Power users use non WinRT and everything will likely be fine.
listing said:
Why exactly do you want Start Screen to show the taskbar?
For the same reasons I like to have the taskbar visible all the time. I like to see which apps are running and which documents are open, even (especialy should I say) when I'm looking to open another program or document. I also would like the charms to be always visible so that I know where I must click and don't hae to call my visual memory for that. With all the subfolders and sub sub folders you can create in the classic Start Menu, it's close to infinity. With the Start Acreen, beyond 3 or 4 screen full of tiles it's unusable or extremly slow.
I'm not trying to insult you here, just trying to understand. I'm assuming that you're working in Desktop Mode first. If you're in the middle of doing something then you must know what you already have open. If you then decide you need a particular program from the Start Screen, then you go and open that and it then kicks you directly back to what you were doing, with the addition of the new program that you've just specifically opened. I cannot think or a reason why, when going specifically to open a program you would need visual confirmation of what is already open.
The Charms screen is a little annoying. I preferred it in the Developer's Preview (I think it was), where it's search/settings options were on the Metro-fied Start Menu corner. But to be honest if you have any problem remembering to go to the right side for the Charms menu, all you have to think of is that Charms Menu brings up the massive clock, and it is on the right side just like the clock on the taskbar is, providing you have your taskbar on the bottom or top of the screen.) But to be honest even if you're working in metro the top left corner is the 'all open apps' corner, bottom left is the start screen toggle, so it only leaves the charms area for the other two corners - and the top left hot corner solves the issue of needing to see what's open when in the Start Screen as well, even without tweaking the taskbar to show.
listing said:
I can't imagine many people still used Start Menu's legacy system of dumping program folders/shortcuts into the Programs subdirectory over the combination of Windows Explorer's navigation pane, taskbar/start menu pinned items, and the Win7 start menu search box.
Very few poeple actualy does this but if more poeple did it they would enjoy a tremendous app launcher interface, and find their stuffs very quickely. I did so for myself and I had a very clean very easy to use Start Menu, all sorted into categories (folders) and subcategories (subfolders). It took about hour to sort all the Programs'items into the Start Menu but well worth it, (if you have a use for more than 20 apps occasionaly of course).
I fail to see how an organised Start Menu is worlds apart from an organised Start Screen (different columns for folders; or pinned shortcuts to said folders). There's the pinned taskbar items for your 'most' frequently used programs, which you don't have to launch Start Screen to get-to. There are software to tweak (or settings in Win8 itself, I can't remember correctly right now) the number of tiles on the start screen (number of rows, thus beefing up the amount of tiles you can have).
listing said:
Advantages over a well organized desktop?
Desktops and Start Menu's are usualy real mess because poeple don't clear them. Garbage keep on piling up without anybody to care. Poeple do clear their home, but they were never educated to clear their computer and that's why it looks difficult for them to find what their need. With the Start Screen it won't be any different.
Exactly, but the kind of people who don't organise their desktops won't care if Start Screen gets cluttered, if they even use it at all, considering they will probably still populate the Desktop with shortcuts. I go on my fiance's laptop or my brothers and I can't find anything, yet they get mad at me when I organise their stuff together into folders (oh they have GB's worth of duplicates too). They don't care, there again they're also part of the FB/email laptop user crowd.
