What's the Point of Start Menu for NON Touch Screen PC?

[Wenda]

the All Apps page has the same functionality as the start menu.

I'm using it.

It doesn't. Not yet, anyway. But the 8.1 incarnation is an improvement.

And, as I said, you no longer need go through the Start Screen to get to it, which is a plus.


Wenda.

 

[Mystere]

The walled garden style interface that Apple came up with is meant to evolve Content Consumption, not Content Creation. It is literally the next broadcast medium. Content Consumption involves 'flipping channels', and as such.. its natural to move from one consumable program to the next this way. Just like browsing websites.

False. There is nothing inherently preventing anyone from creating content in Metro. In fact, there are many apps that do so. Please explain how this is impossible. For example, the OneNote Metro app is quite good at creating content. I can even shove it off into a corner and use it whenever I want to while i'm using other apps. I can alt-tab between it and anything else i'm doing. I can create as much content as I want.

Or how about an app like this:

Brainstorming using Mind Maps

Guess what? That's a Metro app. Gee, I wonder how that's possible since you insist you can't create content in Metro.

Oh, hey.. look at this..

PowerDirector Mobile - Get Started | CyberLink

You can even edit your videos in Metro, wow! But you said that can't be done!

Face it, you keep repeating the same crap, and it's still as false as the first time you said it. There is nothing inherently that prevents content creation in Metro, it's just that the apps are not yet mature enough in most cases. That's the only problem. Well, that and the API's are not mature enough for many tasks either.. 8.1 is fixing some of that, with 5000 new API's.

 

[chrisa]

The walled garden style interface that Apple came up with is meant to evolve Content Consumption, not Content Creation. It is literally the next broadcast medium. Content Consumption involves 'flipping channels', and as such.. its natural to move from one consumable program to the next this way. Just like browsing websites.

False. There is nothing inherently preventing anyone from creating content in Metro. In fact, there are many apps that do so. Please explain how this is impossible.

I didn't say it was impossible. I said that was not what it was intended for. Any more than Google Docs being an ideal way to build a spreadsheet.

You can even edit your videos in Metro, wow! But you said that can't be done!

Once again, never once said it couldn't be done. That's your brain running off the rails. You can write a book on a bathroom wall. That doesn't mean its the ideal place to do so, was originally intended for that purpose, or that we should all have to write books on a bathroom wall.. because well.. you can.

 

[Dirty Butter]

Hmmm - now that I've played with it enough to have some familiarity with it, I don't "hate" the Metro screen - I honestly can't see it being worth my time to use it. Give me a good enough reason and I'll use it.

 

[Metalmania31]

I still don't see any valid argument against the metro start screen other than emotion. I use Win7 at work and Win8 at home. Switch back and forth without my brain having a fit. Almost anything any one is doing will be on the desktop any way. If you need access to programs frequently then pin, shortcut, and or dock them. Just about every computer person I know that has to work on their computer fills their desktop with shortcuts, docs, files, etc anyway. Having the start menu or start screen wouldn't really seem to make any difference in work flow. If you need to find some thing quicker most of us just launch the search and type or the run command and type. There's also windows explorer that will give you access to everything in the similar way the start menu did.

 

[XweAponX]

I'm using the Classic Shell Start program on the Desktop, which makes the Desktop fully functional for me. But my quandary is what do I miss if I never go look at the Metro screen at all? I don't mind it being there, lurking behind the scenes, but what does Microsoft really expect me to do with it if my equipment isn't touch?

To be blunt - You are missing NOTHING. Stick with the Desktop, ignore the other thing.

 

[Ztruker]

Mystere, now you have the gall to tell me what "horrid" means to me?

 

[Phone Man]

Hmmm - now that I've played with it enough to have some familiarity with it, I don't "hate" the Metro screen - I honestly can't see it being worth my time to use it. Give me a good enough reason and I'll use it.

That is something you need to determine for yourself. I have mine organized for me and I never did like the old Start Menu. I hated looking through folders trying to remember where some lightly used program shortcut was located. I think the 8.1 changes make it somewhat better but its still a personal choice.

Jim

 

[jimbo45]

How, exactly, is it "horrid"?

It's funny, but every time I ask this question of the start screen haters, all they can do is mumble something about not being designed for a keyboard and mouse, which is patently untrue.

Hi there
It really is HORRID if you have to endlessly scroll leftwards for about 7 KM to find something -- and if you install an application every wretched little .EXE file creates a stupid tile which can get inserted ANYWHERE on the start screen -- not necessarily within the main application - and often these .exe files aren't actually the executables you want to start anyway. (And please don't say use the SEARCH -- you might not know or can't remember the name - especially if it's a sub application that you don't use very often).

No for anybody who has more than two or three LARGE COMPLEX applications that used to require a lot of SUB menus, SUB SUB menus and even SUB SUB SUB menus in the old classical interface the new Metro one is HORRIBLE, B/S and absolutely NOT DESIGNED for convenient use.

I suspect that there are whole slews of people on this Forum who just can't get it through their brains that some people DO run very complex applications --try installing the full versions of the whole ADOBE CS SUITE together with the FULL version of VISUAL STUDIO and now tell me that the Metro interface is easy to use compared with the old MENU system.

If you have simple applications or not many applications then it's easy to see where you are coming from -- but you need to try installing the LARGE complex applications to UNDERSTAND what a lot of users have difficulty with -- we aren't being perverse --it's just that this NEW interface makes it a pain to organise after W8 is installed and what is frustrating is that a lot of people just can't SEE THIS. (Of course most people don't have the full CS suite or Visual studio installed so they will never get to see what the problem is anyway).

Even on a modest laptop the start screen gets a HIDEOUS mess -- I know it can be (eventually) tidyed up but why should I have to go through all that extra totally UNNECESSARY work just to get a system to work as it USED TO straight out of the box.

Even here scroll towards Infinity (as shown) on screenshot --afraid my infinity symbol isn't too well drawn.

Old menu system handled this MUCH BETTER.

And BTW even on a MOBILE PHONE I get fed up with the tiles if I have to scroll more than about 3 or 4 times so even here once you start adding loads of apps the whole interface isn't really fit for purpose even on THOSE devices either.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Mystere]

This is why the start screen is arrangeable. When a program is installed, the normal start menu items are pinned to default locations. You are free to organize them any way you wish. You can name your icon groups to make it easier to find (particularly when using semantic zoom). If you just live with the default locations, and never both to organize it yourself, then I can understand your point, but the start screen has mechanisms to solve all your arguments.

 

[IsaacFL]

I would have found Metro more useful if they had allowed it to be contained in a window on the desktop, so not having to completely switch my environment. I also don't see how metro will work well when really multitasking.

I tend to have 4 or more apps open in separate windows now, and copying pasting etc from one app to another. I don't see how with Metro I would be able to do that.

Especially with the new 4K TVs coming out, these high resolution displays will be as cheap as HDTVs are now in a few years. I don't see any advantage to a desktop user with large and high res displays using Metro and lots of disadvantages to it.

But I am still trying to learn how to use Metro so maybe I am just slow.

I think if Metro could be contained in its own window on the desktop it would be more useful. Sort of like the old Program Manager that came with windows NT prior to NT 4.0.

 

[webtax]

How, exactly, is it "horrid"?

It's funny, but every time I ask this question of the start screen haters, all they can do is mumble something about not being designed for a keyboard and mouse, which is patently untrue.

Hi there
It really is HORRID if you have to endlessly scroll leftwards for about 7 KM to find something -- and if you install an application every wretched little .EXE file creates a stupid tile which can get inserted ANYWHERE on the start screen -- not necessarily within the main application - and often these .exe files aren't actually the executables you want to start anyway. (And please don't say use the SEARCH -- you might not know or can't remember the name - especially if it's a sub application that you don't use very often).


Cheers
jimbo

this is the main disadvantage i see on start screen. while i don't use those programs with dozens of shortcuts, i do install many smaller applications so at the end is the same.

sure you could babysit every one of the readme, helps, exe, uninstall, etc, that gets a tile but that just speaks about how the start screen is a letdown with desktop applications. On previous windows you did the inverse thing, you pinned to taskbar/start/desktop the couple of apps you most used, the big rest of the stuff was categorized inside all programs. On win8 you have to actually manage every shortcut of a program that gets installed