Microsoft may bring back full start menu with 8.2

I'll believe it when I see it.

Microsoft may finally bring back full Start menu with Windows 8.2

"The most important change, as Thurrott hears it, is that Microsoft will finally be bringing back the full Start menu to the Windows 8.2 desktop mode. Unlike the current Start button that Microsoft added to Windows 8.1, the new Start menu will be much more like the one Windows users have known and loved since Windows 95. Thurrott also says that the new version of Windows will allow for Metro apps to run as floating windows on the desktop screen, something that users can only do right now if they’ve installed third-party applications such as ModernMix."

 

[mart44]

Problem is, there are too few of those and MS gets beat up by the box manufacturers. The majority of the users do not adopt Windows 8/8.1

There might not be too few. The pie chart compares an OS that was released about 14 months ago to those that have been around a lot longer. Microsoft operating systems that have been around longer will have more users because there has been more time for people to adopt them.

Even so, I wonder how many Windows 8/8.1 users the percentage shown in the pie chart represents? Could it be millions throughout the World ..or hundreds of thousands? I feel it probably does. Yet we don't get hundreds of thousand of people expressing their opinions publicly. It could be thought that all these people are suffering in silence but I don't believe this to be the case.

More the point I try to make is that it might only a relative few who don't like the OS and come forward to say so. Happy people tend not to feel the need to make their views public on the Internet (I believe). There is likely to be a huge number of people, far greater than all of us who post in the many forums on the Internet, who just get on and learn/use the OS without saying anything.

Hence what we read on the Internet might well be giving a rather one-sided view of Windows 8/8.1 and may not be the entire picture.

 

[jimbo45]

Apart from the startmenu I would also like to see gadgets come back. In windows 8 I miss my currency gadget and my weatherforecast gadget om the desktop.
Call me oldish all you want, but that is what I prefer.

Hi there.

Gadgets are basically a "previous" form of Active Tiles" -- now if the Tiles could individually be floated on to the desktop screen that would be a great idea.

Actually I don't like the whole Mobile phone Screen layut anyway -- It's actually HIDEOUSLY OLD FASHIONED .

If anybody can remember the old "Kiddies" Menu on AOL you can see what I mean -- screenshot shown.

As the number of applications increases scrolling tiles even on a mobile device gets tedious in the extreme. On a Touch desktop/laptop with a lot of applications it gets just stupid.

For a mobile phone there probably (unfortunately) doesn't seem any reasonable alternative = I'd HATE the idea of a voice activated menu -- it's bad enough in pubic places now with people squawking all day long on their mobiles -- just add voice activated menus into the mix -- I say no more. On a Desktop -- just plain DUMB !!!!.

Screenshot enc for those not Old enough to remember "The Old Days" !!!!. It really is a "Kiddies Menu".

Cheers
jimbo

 

[lehnerus2000]

Rainmeter

Apart from the startmenu I would also like to see gadgets come back. In windows 8 I miss my currency gadget and my weatherforecast gadget om the desktop.
Call me oldish all you want, but that is what I prefer.

Have you tried Rainmeter?

You can build your own gadgets, or download gadgets that other people have made.

Here's mine.

​

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

While everybody is different that pic of yours seems to occupy a hideous amount of screen "Real Estate". - I certainly don't want to get to the stage of not being able to see my screen because of all the gadgets working on it. !!!

I'd probably have a small Stock market indicator (current S&P, FTSE indices with a couple of stocks) and maybe weather info if I'm travelling. I don't like the current "Ticker" versions for desktop -- a gadget thingy is better.

I can't say things like CPU usage, RAM usage etc bother me in the slightest -- I always remember from some of my old work days when some IT Geek would come round asking us to "Estimate our use of computing resources" for the next year" -- management were costing upgrades. I'd send them back with the reply "If you can tell me how long IS a piece of string then I might have a clue about answering your question" !!.

Still everybody's different -- and yes the idea of gadgets is great - BRING THEM BACK.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[CountMike]

I don't know how long you guys spend on desktop itself but I spend only seconds a day on it and gadgets are not doing anything for me, I'd rather have some programs autostart and hang around the taskbar so I cen see them when needed without going to desktop.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

If you trade on the Markets - it's quite useful to have indicator around even if you are doing something else -- sometimes you have to exit a trade quickly to avoid getting into a loss position or if the market starts moving you can open / close another trade as appropriate.

There are uses in having a FEW of these type applications around - especially if you are working with more than one monitor.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[elbmek]

apps have a weather app it can pin to your start and to taskbar. As I said earlier anyone who wants to revert, can do so without MS bring out an app/patch

 

[Dave44]

Start menu could return to Windows before Threshold's release -- Windows 8.1 to be updated?

Talk of the Start menu has been rife in recent days and it something that people have been begging for since the release of Windows 8 saw it wrenched from the operating system. Now it seems as though we could see the return of the Start menu sooner than expected.
There has been speculation that Threshold -- the codename for the next big Windows release -- could be the release that sees Microsoft adding the Start menu back. But if Mary Jo Foley is to be believed we may not have to wait that long. Writing for ZDNet, Foley cites unnamed sources who claim that the Start menu is due to make a reappearance.


full article here

Start menu could return to Windows before Threshold's release -- Windows 8.1 to be updated? | WinBeta

 

[Clintlgm]

Hi there

While everybody is different that pic of yours seems to occupy a hideous amount of screen "Real Estate". - I certainly don't want to get to the stage of not being able to see my screen because of all the gadgets working on it. !!!

I'd probably have a small Stock market indicator (current S&P, FTSE indices with a couple of stocks) and maybe weather info if I'm travelling. I don't like the current "Ticker" versions for desktop -- a gadget thingy is better.

I can't say things like CPU usage, RAM usage etc bother me in the slightest -- I always remember from some of my old work days when some IT Geek would come round asking us to "Estimate our use of computing resources" for the next year" -- management were costing upgrades. I'd send them back with the reply "If you can tell me how long IS a piece of string then I might have a clue about answering your question" !!.

Still everybody's different -- and yes the idea of gadgets is great - BRING THEM BACK.

Cheers
jimbo

I agree with you Jimbo, i still am using my gadgets in 8.1, I acomplish this using a Vista gadget tool bar. The one thing I don't like about using gadgets this way it the big loss of boot up time I'm running 4 Gadgets they take about 15 seconds to load ever boot up. They didn't take that long in Win7

 

[elbmek]

gadgets is a gizmo, nothing more. I can achieve same results, quicker with a url icon on the desktop. I hope MS do not FORCE a return to the old style, I prefer the new, but so saying, i took time out to learn, tweak, play and adjust till I was happy, its great and i want it to stay.

 

[elbmek]

Apart from the startmenu I would also like to see gadgets come back. In windows 8 I miss my currency gadget and my weatherforecast gadget om the desktop.
Call me oldish all you want, but that is what I prefer.

Have you tried Rainmeter?

You can build your own gadgets, or download gadgets that other people have made.

Here's mine.

View attachment 33268
​

to be honest, why not just look out of the window???

 

[mick823]

My friends at StartIsBack will lose an income if this is true. I have bought 4 licenses at a cost of only $10 and it was the best money I have ever spent on a software. The program integrates seamlessly with Window 8 or 8.1. for $2.50 per machine and has every option you could ask for in a 3rd party start menu.

 

[CountMike]

Apart from the startmenu I would also like to see gadgets come back. In windows 8 I miss my currency gadget and my weatherforecast gadget om the desktop.
Call me oldish all you want, but that is what I prefer.

Have you tried Rainmeter?



to be honest, why not just look out of the window???

Yeah rite, that's why I make a hole in the umbrella, to see when it stops raining. But seriously folks, there was a lot of programs like that, even some to make menu saomething like "Metro" but now when MS did it, suddenly everybody has something against it. Oh, yes, I have another wish for "Metro", would prefer it to scroll vertically and tiles to not have any color, for their background to be transparent. Make them thin and rectangular and voila, there's Start Menu.

 

[elbmek]

My friends at StartIsBack will lose an income if this is true. I have bought 4 licenses at a cost of only $10 and it was the best money I have ever spent on a software. The program integrates seamlessly with Window 8 or 8.1. for $2.50 per machine and has every option you could ask for in a 3rd party start menu.

excellent. It can be done see. So leave my windows alone and go buy this

 

[elbmek]

Have you tried Rainmeter?



to be honest, why not just look out of the window???

Yeah rite, that's why I make a hole in the umbrella, to see when it stops raining.

brilliant answer, love it

 

[jimbo45]

Apart from the startmenu I would also like to see gadgets come back. In windows 8 I miss my currency gadget and my weatherforecast gadget om the desktop.
Call me oldish all you want, but that is what I prefer.

Have you tried Rainmeter?

You can build your own gadgets, or download gadgets that other people have made.

Here's mine.

View attachment 33268
​

to be honest, why not just look out of the window???

Hi there

You obviously haven't ever had to use Heathrow airport at this time of the year -- It's no point phoning airlines --for starters everyone else is doing so at the same time and secondly -you'll get the same hideous frustrating experience with their inevitably Indian overseas call centres -- Why India got involved in that business I'll never know --even my Indian colleagues get embarrassed when these wretched things get mentioned.

It also hleps to know the weather of your destination too -- even if it's fine in one place planes travel so could have been delayed elsewhere -- I'd rather spend a few extra hours in the pub or at home rather than hanging around an airport terminal with the same boring shops you can see in almost any shopping mall in the world.

cheers
jimbo

 

[mick823]

Apart from the startmenu I would also like to see gadgets come back. In windows 8 I miss my currency gadget and my weatherforecast gadget om the desktop.
Call me oldish all you want, but that is what I prefer.

Here you go. Works with W8 or W8.1. Looks and works exactly like the original. I have been using it since W8 was introduced.

Windows Desktop Gadgets - Frequently Asked Questions

 

[mick823]

My friends at StartIsBack will lose an income if this is true. I have bought 4 licenses at a cost of only $10 and it was the best money I have ever spent on a software. The program integrates seamlessly with Window 8 or 8.1. for $2.50 per machine and has every option you could ask for in a 3rd party start menu.

excellent. It can be done see. So leave my windows alone and go buy this

That's exactly what I did. There is plenty of software out there to make W8/W8.1 work the way you want it to work. If it doesn't work the way you want out of the box then you modify the box.

 

[whs]

But it is a poor showing of Microsoft that we have to resort to some little programs to make the system tenable.

 

[elbmek]

Have you tried Rainmeter?

You can build your own gadgets, or download gadgets that other people have made.

Here's mine.

View attachment 33268
​

to be honest, why not just look out of the window???

Hi there

You obviously haven't ever had to use Heathrow airport at this time of the year -- It's no point phoning airlines --for starters everyone else is doing so at the same time and secondly -you'll get the same hideous frustrating experience with their inevitably Indian overseas call centres -- Why India got involved in that business I'll never know --even my Indian colleagues get embarrassed when these wretched things get mentioned.

It also hleps to know the weather of your destination too -- even if it's fine in one place planes travel so could have been delayed elsewhere -- I'd rather spend a few extra hours in the pub or at home rather than hanging around an airport terminal with the same boring shops you can see in almost any shopping mall in the world.

cheers
jimbo

Is that jimbo or jumbo ???

As I dont fly anywhere, I do not need to know, so

I look out of the window