Windows 8 Start Screen is horrible


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Conservative minds have trouble accepting change.

do we have to turn every freaking thing into a political bash now? I serisouly think anymore it would be better if no one knew what anyones political stance is... all people do is use it to bash others anymore... put it to rest

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Windows 8 takes some getting use to when you're use to the non-morphed start menu and having to dig for simple things like control panel. But I now prefer Windows 8 over Windows 7. Windows 7 seems slower and is slower than Windows 8. The smooth fluid movement between screens is awesome in Windows 8. The Support is Awesome.

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Yeah but see, that's exactly the point my friend. Why should we have to spend $$$ to buy a 3rd party application to get the original Start Menu back, or be able to change the background wallpaper on that new, stupid, ugly interface, when Microsoft could have very easily added those options to the OS by default instead of forcing the user to get a 3rd party alternative because they felt those things were not needed?

That is typical Apple attitude if you ask me. "We are selling you an OS but you must use it like we give it to you. You have no right to change it in any way, shape or form."

Bullsh....t

Again, you can not please everyone and yes they could of also re-added these features but by the looks of things they wanted to make it more tablet friendly and get people to USE the new design rather than the old design, you dont get anywhere if you dont take chances and in some situations force a change upon the users.

As for the third party apps if they cost over $5 yes i would say they are overpriced and i was totally peed off at that. But they are not they are $5 and thats less than an hours wage in most jobs im guessing (im uk so i dont know us wages)

that's funny because I'm pretty sure that NO ONE had a complaint about windows 7 except for completely Linux or mac fan boy reasons. I'm not a mac or Linux person. I'm a windows person and I enjoyed Windows ME more than this.

but that's fine on a Mac because the Mac actually has good design.

I never complained about Windows 7, well not that i can remember. I complained about Vista and shot straight back to XP as it was awful. I have always been a windows user the only times i used linux is when i was playing about with differnet OS's as for Macs im not a huge fan of them either used them in uni and now my dad brought one but if the laptop is free which is windows based i'll always pick that up even though its old slow and has a 17" screen oh and the battery is dead!

Im on Windows 8 now, i have Start8 installed and quite like it. Ok i admit there are a few things i want to change but then we always want to change something on every os we have its called customization. Changes dont happen unless we make them happen and/or have them brought to us without an option. I already stated i dont like the metro look so i disabled it with start8, again i find this thread pointless. Spend 5-10$ and quit complaining about small things there are more important things to worry about.

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fine, tell me how is the start screen superior? In which way? How does taking the whole screen help you? Why does using it take several more clicks than the old start menu? It's poor design; poor work flow, not designed to making the desktop experience better but instead to promote a tablet market that Microsoft is far behind the '8 ball' on.

Here's my start screen: https://ik8xta.blu.livefilestore.com/y1prSjN3DV7f-5lS-GR9JVLuFq-shW3sWxIfNXbaVvxca2J3hl8knuqaLKGUUhonpOk1SymgNkQ5T9QvbJtuq1Q4lUBKGpo75A4/win8desktopnov2.png?psid=1

(ignore the long URL, skydrive is weird about that.)

OK, so you say it's 'more clicks', but what leads you to conclude that? I pin all my main apps to the start screen, grouped, from my desktop, it's 2 clicks to open anything I use mainly. As opposed to the start screen, which is normally 4 clicks. Now the start menu can have pinned items, which are 2 clicks, but it can only have 10 items. Any more than that and it's 4 clicks using the *start menu*, which is what the start screen replaced. On my 1680x1050 display there is room for 60 items in the start screen. Now you can pin items to the task bar and desktop and launch them faster than navigating the start menu, but then why argue in favor of the start menu? Win 8 has those abilities too, so it makes sense to remove the variables on both sides of the equation and simply solve for "is the start screen more efficient than the start menu or vice versa?"

I think the average educated user would probably be well using the start screen as I do, unpin anything you don't need and pin what you do, this will probably not exceed the 60 items allowed. From there, you click in the lower left, then click the item, then you are looking at it on the desktop, seems much better to me.

Other considerations are that you get more choices on screen at once, you don't have to navigate small targets that require more clicks, and if you are so inclined you can launch many programs quickly from one place. So you don't have to go to 3 or 4 different places to efficiently launch apps, in that way it may seem like a loss to not pin items to the taskbar and desktop, but I find if I am launching everything from one place it takes less thought to make sure I don't make mistakes or inefficiently try to find things I need in the wrong place ("Was that program I wanted in my pinned items, or on the desktop, or do I need to search the start menu folders") and another benefit that I find is that I like only having running programs on the task bar so I can glance and tell everything there is running, where as in the past the clear box around pinned task bar items was not always sufficient for me to understand when something was running or not, when I was in a rush or not thinking through my actions carefully. Point is, the start screen is more efficient as an app launcher but I find only using it for launching apps has some unexpected benefits that make the experience more consistent and thus make me more efficient and less error prone.

Then there are metro apps. You can quickly and without associated problems of desktop apps, get a lot of information and so forth. Metro apps have strict power/resource requirements, so you can run tons of them and not tank your performance, they are strictly sandboxed and vetted, so the chance of getting malware is very remote compared to searching the web for random apps, and even if malware gets on the store, being sandboxed tightly it would not be able to change anything in your user account or your system. For the same reason, metro apps are safe to install and use, in that they can not corrupt your install or other apps, so you can feel free to try as many as you want without fear of messing up your system. Every time I download something from the web and run it, and it requests a UAC approval, in the back of my mind somewhere is the thought "I hope this isn't some piece of trash that over-writes the wrong thing in the registry or somewhere", etc. With metro apps, you would really never have to worry about this even if you installed thousands of them. This could be a real productivity boost and money and time saver, if you set up your users or families, and educate them to use the windows store (or force it by blocking other software with group policy), they could get many apps they need to meet their particular needs and thus increase productivity and most likely never have the system corrupted or infected. For instance, you could have email notifiers, calendars, news sources, facebook, twitter, etc. all running (my metro screen is kind of empty right now because I just re-installed because I disabled the wrong driver by accident and ended up destroying my last install), with one click you get tons of information about the world and your personal life, but when you switch back to the desktop to run a game or something, all those metro apps are suspended and not taking any CPU, RAM, disk or network resources, so you get 100% performance. If you tried that with Windows 7 it could tank your performance in a game, or even stutter your HD video, depending on what apps you used and what kind of poor programming or bugs they had, or how many you had. With metro apps, you can have an almost unlimited amount and not worry about any of this, I find that to be simply awesome and am surprised other people are not seeing the utility here.

Well there's probably more I could add, but by now if you still think it's 'horrible' (usually a term I use when I see a bad car accident or something, not for a OS even if I don't understand it..) probably you are not a very reasonable human being.

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There is nothing fundamentally different with the Start Screen compared to the Start Menu. Eitherway, the Start Menu needed changed. It was rotten code being dragged out.

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Scott Mueller (Upgrading and Repairing PCs) sez: "Companies that alienate customers usually don't fare well, it will be interesting to see where MS goes from here".

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Scott Mueller (Upgrading and Repairing PCs) sez: "Companies that alienate customers usually don't fare well, it will be interesting to see where MS goes from here".

well damn if he said this then it must be true.

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Why with the political trolling? I am both an Atheist, and about as socially liberal as it gets and I can't stand Windows 8's start screen.

There is nothing fundamentally different with the Start Screen compared to the Start Menu. Eitherway, the Start Menu needed changed. It was rotten code being dragged out.

Yeah, I'm thanking Microsoft profusely for the couple of megs of disk space they saved me cos, you know I am so on the limit of space :o

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I wasn't suggesting it was better in any way.

I am simply saying that your thread simply rehashes the content of a plethora of other threads that do it better and with substantial content.

It's your opinion, you are entitled to it regardless of what it is. I am just sick of the baseless content-free topics.

Were you forced to read it? One can basically tell what the thread is about by reading the title. If you did not like the content why did you bother to read it..?

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Naive minds think any change is advancement.

And fanboy minds think Microsoft is good now just because it has adapted the same disgusting company model of Apple.

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Awesome? Are you kidding or blind? Those tiles are the ugliest thing to come out of Richmond since Windows 3.11. No way to change the way they look. No way to change the background to something of your own unless you buy a 3rd party application. Seta-san is right. The design is complete sh...t. Apple is going to have a blast on their next OSX show with this.

Like it or not, that new Windows UI is horrible indeed If it wasn't was Start8 I would have gone back to Windows 7 already. You say is awesome. Well, it won't be after a few weeks of looking at the same thing, not being able to change it or do anything with it. It simply sucks. Sorry, but it does.

I have always said it and I will once more: The new Windows UI is great for a tablet, not for a desktop.

I see the start screen about 2 times a day. I realize this is a troll thread but yet again Windows 8 haters provide no reasoning except "don't like metro". You can't customize the start menu any more than the start screen (less infact) so why not start bitching about that too?

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What kind of mind thinks no change is advancement, out of curiosity?

Conservative ones.

Wanna ask for the truly great minds? Those are who can truly discern when change is incremental or detrimental.

World is not black and white. Are we supposed to adopt a change or no-change model?

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Scott Mueller (Upgrading and Repairing PCs) sez: "Companies that alienate customers usually don't fare well, it will be interesting to see where MS goes from here".

They're alienating no one except a vocal few who seem to think they are entitled to have things their way.

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