Microsoft is bringing the Start Menu back

Millions asked for it, and Microsoft is providing it: the old Start Menu is coming back. Kind of. At its Build conference today, Microsoft announced a new Start Menu that looks like a hybrid of the best of Windows 7 and Windows 8. It's around the same size as the Windows 7 menu, but also features miniature Live Tiles along one side.

Read more at: Microsoft is bringing the Start Menu back | The Verge

 

[mblack]

one step forward
two steps backwards

 

[paulsalter]

Not sure about this, it seems to go against Microsoft having one windows look for all devices

If the new default is desktop with a start menu, what is the point of Metro apps

Microsoft seem to back down to quickly with these things, they had some good ideas for the xbox one, people complained and games now works the same as the 360, people complain about windows 8 and MS make it similar to windows 7

If this is optional then I have no problems, but for me personally I don't want/need a start menu like previous windows

 

[mblack]

well said paul

like my statement above

and part of what you said

I don't want/need a start menu like previous windows

 

[Julio Cortez]

Me neither. Especially now that I managed to adapt the start screen to my needs (first column: the only ModernUI apps I need like Desktop, Mail, Weather and a few more. Second column: Office 2010 apps and various tools. Third column: multimedia. Fourth column: games).
Having the desktop background showing in the start screen nailed it for me: now when I press the Start button the only thing I see is all of my apps at a fingerti...err, at a mouse click, and it also has the plus of looking like a nice overlay menu for the desktop underneath (I know it's not like that but still, it looks like it is).

What I really would like to have from ModernUI is more customization options for tiles: not being bound to the two smallest tile format factors for desktop apps, being able to change background color manually (and, in that case, also text colour if there is any) or things like those.

 

[antspants]

Microsoft can pretty much do whatever they please, weather it be to annoy people or in their own best interest. Personally, I don't care if it's there or it isn't, there will always be work arounds. It's not like any of us haven't installed some kind of 3rd party software of executed a registry hack at some point. I like the start menu. I don't like performing back flips to access certain software or find a particular process with MS's buggy search options. Start8 is awesome.

“You can please some of the people some of the time all of the people some of the time some of the people all of the time but you can never please all of the people all of the time.”
― Abraham Lincoln

 

[labeeman]

If you’re thinking that the new Start menu that Microsoft unveiled today at the BUILD 2014 developer conference looks really awesome, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but it turns out that the company is planning a completely different design for the final version of the feature.

Microsoft said at BUILD that the Start menu would come back at some point and even though no specifics have been provided, it’s believed that Windows 8.1 Update 2 or Windows 9 could be the OS versions that could feature such an option.

Many praised Microsoft for the design of the new Start menu, but we’re hearing that what we got to see at BUILD was just a mockup and the company is actually planning a much simpler design.

[h=1]Microsoft’s New Start Menu Is Just a Mockup, Could Look Completely Different – Rumors[/h]

 

[Rickkins]

I can confirm that the Start Menu is not available in the Windows 8.1 Update, but to be released in a future update instead.

Thanks for the info. I'll probably(maybe) hold off on the update and just wait until 9. 8.1 is fine the way it is, with the classic shell installed.

 

[musiclover7]

I agree that windows 8.1 with classic shell, is a better experience than 7. I still firmly believe that MS should have allowed users more flexibility and choice around how the GUI would be set up out of the box. I have yet to speak to a relative or non-tech-savy friend who knew about classic shell before I showed them. All were frustrated. I myself spent over a year with the new setup before installing classic shell, in an effort to learn to love it. I never got there. There are some things I prefer about the start screen, but there are still other times where I prefer the old, familiar linear way of getting somewhere. That is why having both running side by side is my config of choice. I hope Microsoft does not take that from me with a future release... Lol..

 

[Frank1]

I can confirm that the Start Menu is not available in the Windows 8.1 Update, but to be released in a future update instead.

To tell you the truth, I will be surprised if they ever come out with it the way some people want it.

 

[mdmd]

I don't take the issue of a desktop menu seriously so, for comic relief I always keep one available.
These can be turned on and off like notepad.

 

[waltc]

Heh...What is a "start page" except an exceptionally ugly, vertical & side-scrolling desktop with acres of wasted screen space? It's OK for touch; it stinks for precision mouse/keyboard work. Microsoft should have made a start menu/desktop combo optional beginning with Win8.1. What a wasted opportunity to get Win8 sales overall back on track.

 

[mdmd]

Heh...What is a "start page" except an exceptionally ugly, vertical & side-scrolling desktop with acres of wasted screen space? It's OK for touch; it stinks for precision mouse/keyboard work....

I change themes and schemes all the time.
Now using apps view as the start page. I like this.



I will never use touch only because my device is not mobile.
My monitor is a 37" HDTV. Scrolling is a beautiful thing. It allows for unlimited usage.
Toolbars must be scrolled. Hierarchies must be scrolled. Mouse and keyboard are awesome with metro.
Semantic Zooming is a beautiful feature.

When the Microsoft Menu returns, hopefully it will be a tick in the navigation pane that can be turned on and off. It is unfortunate they never created a menu that could be undocked from the left corner.
I like it when they can float.

 

[JohnBurns]

I can confirm that the Start Menu is not available in the Windows 8.1 Update, but to be released in a future update instead.

Thanks for the info. I'll probably(maybe) hold off on the update and just wait until 9. 8.1 is fine the way it is, with the classic shell installed.

I agree, Rickkins :thumb: MS seems to have a problem making up their mind what to do.....sometimes it's not wise to jump too fast on the changes.

 

[Lebon14]

The m*f*k*g tiles! They just can't remove them fully so they can piddle us off even more?

*Walking away, not exactly happy*

 

[tst]

The m*f*k*g tiles! They just can't remove them fully so they can piddle us off even more?

*Walking away, not exactly happy*

Tiles are ok, background colors of the tiles are not. They're horrible. Windows 8 style Start Screen back, Windows 8.1 style tiles should suffer slow and painful death.

 

[nguchiro]

With Classic Shell I managed to retain my sanity with both win 7 and win 8. Both my machines have Classic Shell installed. I use my computers for work and the last thing I need is an OS that looks to have been designed by Fisher Price.
I agree that there are some features in win 8 that I like but they have nothing to do with that horrid Metro rubbish.

This new quasi Start Menu that MS wants to introduce will pall compared to what CS offers and is free too. If MS want to make me happy then she should give me a choice to have classic menus and to get totally rid of Metro. Even with Classic Shell installed this Metro still intrudes and really pisses me off. I am fed up of it intruding and I have to always go back to desktop.

 

[labeeman]

Dear Microsoft: Give me back the Start Menu now!

The upcoming Windows 8.1 update will have a slew of nice-to-have updates that make the operating system better to use with mouse and keyboard. But it will be missing a new Start Menu that Microsoft is promising will some day appear. Why wait, Microsoft? I want it now!

Even before Windows 8 officially shipped in October, 2012 there were countless complaints that the company had killed the Start Menu. Many, many months before the release, testers of various pre-release versions (including me) asked that it be brought back. So it's not as if Microsoft hasn't known for a long time -- well over two years -- that users were demanding that the company restore one of Windows' most useful features.

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[Superfly]

Well, it's become obvious that M$ are only interested in providing customers their wants or needs IF it can be incorporated into their strategy on promoting ModernUI... It started with the Start button redirecting to the Start screen.. now the proposed Start menu is 50% Start screen as well...

It's gonna be a while 'till they finally relent to giving customers what they REALLY want...

Having said that I'm glad they have/will be providing this option.

 

[labeeman]

Well, it's become obvious that M$ are only interested in providing customers their wants or needs IF it can be incorporated into their strategy on promoting ModernUI... It started with the Start button redirecting to the Start screen.. now the proposed Start menu is 50% Start screen as well...

It's gonna be a while 'till they finally relent to giving customers what they REALLY want...

Having said that I'm glad they have/will be providing this option.

If it weren't for the third party Shell programs the din that M$ is enduring now would have been much louder and would have been from there main customers OEMs.

 

[Superfly]

Absolutely!, but besides the OEM's, I can't see an enterprise user navigating without recent files, All Programs etc... the pressures of production/service are immense... in a corporate so inclined...