Microsoft Could Launch a Start Menu Option in Windows 8


Recommended Posts

Stopped reading at ?confusing? Start Screen. Anyone that can't use the new start screen needs to pack up the computer and move on to something less difficult like watching paint dry. The fact this is from a supposed tech site makes me even more worried.

  • Like 3

Stopped reading at ?confusing? Start Screen. Anyone that can't use the new start screen needs to pack up the computer and move on to something less difficult like watching paint dry. The fact this is from a supposed tech site makes me even more worried.

But how will they know when it's dry?!?

Guys. **** the damn menu. It doesn't need to be around anymore. The Start screen is more attractive and functional, and it totally destroys the entire purpose of re-imagining Windows. Does nobody think before they write, anymore?

No it's not.

I think if you got 2 average joes, one who had never used a PC before and one who was used to using Windows 7

I think person who had never used a PC before would feel much more comfortable with 8 once they found the invisible start button vs trying to learn how to navigate Windows 7's start menu

Whereas the person who was used to using 7 would find it much more difficult to adjust to not having the start menu and having to learn the new start screen

I thought I could train my brain to see the new start screen as a big start menu, but it didn't work out like that, it is a separate OS to me, I see it and treat it as its own life-form and have had to learn it as something other than Windows

my wife has pretty much only used windows 7 and my machine runs windows 8, and she navigates around my machine just fine and she reconds the start screen is more productive as she also doesnt use the start menu at all, its not much to learn, she figured out how to print and do all kinds of things and she is an absolute n00b, i also have used windows since win 3.1 all the way thru to now, cant say i miss the start menu much, used to be a pain in windows 95

I don't think there's any chance of this happening and I can't see a single reason why it should. If people want a Start menu then there are plenty of 3rd-party solutions.

single reason, it takes up the whole screen and you start windows at the start screen.. I'd rather start at the desktop on a desktop system then go into the start screen if I wanted to... I have program links on the taskbar and desktop, so why even go to the start screen first if you want to just use desktop mode only

also I know people scream about saying this but some of us don't want to have to go to a full screen start screen to load a program! make a start screen charm bar or something that can be easily accessed from inside the desktop that loads on the side or something and the option to go full screen if you want to in desktop mode

I love leaving the Start Screen open while I walk away, it has certainly got the attention of my room mates who are always asking about it.

That's nothing. I had a girl over, the other night, and the minute she saw my Start screen she fell deeply in love with me ? true story. Thanks Microsoft!

Yes, because most young kids just love their 'Fisher Price' toys, and the start screen makes them feel right at home.

hmm I guesing you've never seen as much as a screenshot of the start screen if you think it looks like fisher price. oh well.

That's nothing. I had a girl over, the other night, and the minute she saw my Start screen she fell deeply in love with me ? true story. Thanks Microsoft!

that's nothing either, had a group of girls look at the start screen then rip their clothes off

  • Like 1

So, the only part of the main article that said that MS might bring back the start menu was this:

"Steven Sinofsky is no longer head of the Windows division and more and more voices familiar with matter are hinting that a Start Menu option could, after all, land on Windows 8 platforms."

So, "more and more voices familiar with the matter" are a better indication of what MS might do than Steve Ballmer pretty much saying "Nope."?

my wife has pretty much only used windows 7 and my machine runs windows 8, and she navigates around my machine just fine and she reconds the start screen is more productive as she also doesnt use the start menu at all, its not much to learn, she figured out how to print and do all kinds of things and she is an absolute n00b, i also have used windows since win 3.1 all the way thru to now, cant say i miss the start menu much, used to be a pain in windows 95

Yea I agree the start menu only became productive with XP, before that with the Classic Classic start menu it made life pretty difficult, especially if you needed something in the 5th sub-menu of the 3rd menu and you missed your target and closed the entire thing :angry:

The start screen is designed to be easy, simple, clear, which it is, and for some it will be an enjoyable transition, but I think for most who come from using XP>7 it will not go down well

that's nothing either, had a group of girls look at the start screen then rip their clothes off

That's nothing, My girl took one look at the start-screen and said "You're not putting that disk anywhere near my port" :p

  • Like 3

hmm I guesing you've never seen as much as a screenshot of the start screen if you think it looks like fisher price. oh well.

A screenshot I could live with, but this thing is 'actually' real!

I am all for the new start screen but there are some problems.

For example, when you install some applications you will get several shortcuts placed on the start screen. I don't want a cluttered start screen with all of those shortcuts specially if I do not use some of them all of the time. I can remove the ones that I do not want but then later I might forget what it was called or that it even existed. How am I suppose to get to the shortcut or remember it? In the start menu I always organized with folders. Those shortcuts that I rarely used went into an "Other" folder in the main folder like "Development". I can't do this anymore.

It also would be nice to have the choice to log right into the desktop. Why can't I have this choice if that is what I want.

Jesus, my point was simple. Many none techy people are switching from laptop/desktop to iPad. They 'get it' in no time. Even people who have never used an iOS device.

The modern UI is simple to use, I've installed on my sons and my partners 2 girls pcs and they love it and can use it in minutes. There's a lot of overthinking going on here.

I am all for the new start screen but there are some problems.

For example, when you install some applications you will get several shortcuts placed on the start screen. I don't want a cluttered start screen with all of those shortcuts specially if I do not use some of them all of the time. I can remove the ones that I do not want but then later I might forget what it was called or that it even existed. How am I suppose to get to the shortcut or remember it? In the start menu I always organized with folders. Those shortcuts that I rarely used went into an "Other" folder in the main folder like "Development". I can't do this anymore.

It also would be nice to have the choice to log right into the desktop. Why can't I have this choice if that is what I want.

thats the applications fault not windows, newwer apps dont do this u could allways go back to where the program folder was installed to and right click and pin to start u could possible just pin them to the superbar? :p

i also want windows to make me toast in the monrning because thats the choice i want but i cant have it, also previous versions of windows people wanted choice, its not your os its microsofts YOu dont have a choice

maybe i wanted a start menu for windows 3.1 but hey i wanted that choice and it wasnt put there back then :p kinda see where im going?

Jesus, my point was simple. Many none techy people are switching from laptop/desktop to iPad. They 'get it' in no time. Even people who have never used an iOS device.

The modern UI is simple to use, I've installed on my sons and my partners 2 girls pcs and they love it and can use it in minutes. There's a lot of overthinking going on here.

the problem isn't "getting it" the problem is how its done... its a full screen app.. works fine on tablets, but on a desktop can get annoying if you work 99% of your day in non-full screen apps on a well desktop mode desktop... you need a smaller version of the start screen in the desktop mode that can be taken full screen if you want it

  • Like 2

Removing the Start button completely was a dumb idea. MS lost sales because of that move. Some "average Joe" sees Windows 8 with no Start button and won't upgrade. On the other end of the spectrum, some computer geeks will not upgrade because to get it back requires a 3rd party application. Notice I said SOME.. MS should have given users the option to put back. This is very apparent by the number of downloads of Start8, Classic Shell, etc... And all the people saying 'you get used to it' or ?it?s easier', that is all opinion. I picked up Win 8 pretty quickly, but still hate it unless I'm using Classic Shell. As a Java and .NET developer it hinders my workflow.

This is very apparent by the number of downloads of Start8, Classic Shell, etc... And all the people saying 'you get used to it' or ?it?s easier', that is all opinion.

This ^^^^

My new slogan for Windows 8 is:

'Windows 8, there's a third party app for that'

Cringe alert, do you even sit back and read what comes out of your mind?

You are like a walking advert for Microsoft.

Well, nothing of what he says is untrue, so what are you complaining about ?

scnr:

Do you think the start screen resembles those fisher price toys ?

if the answer is yes, you need to call your optometrist.

Stardock said they sold tens of thousands of Start8, sorry windows 8 has sold millions. I think the people who can't adapt to the faster and more efficient start screen is an EXTREMELY small minority of the Win8 user base.

Believe me, when the corporates start kicking up a stink I can assure you that Microsoft will turn on a dime and say, "oh, we were always going to do it, the start page was only a place holder till we finished working on the new and improved start menu". For me I'm not fussed either way but it appears that for some out there especially in the corporate world the so-called benefits of the start page certainly don't pay off via improved productivity vs. the retraining costs.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • Stellarium 26.2 by Razvan Serea Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go. Stellarium key features: Realistic simulation of the sky, sunrise and sunset Default catalogue of over 600,000 stars Downloadable additional catalogues for up to 210 million stars Catalog data for all New General Catalogue (NGC) objects Images of almost all Messier objects and the Milky Way Artistic illustrations for all 88 modern constellations More than a dozen different cultures with their constellations Solar and lunar eclipse simulation Photorealistic landscapes (more are available on the website) Scripting support with ECMAScript (a few demo scripts are included) Extendable with plug-ins: 8 plug-ins installed by default, including: artificial satellites plug-in (updated from an on-line TLE database) ocular simulation plug-in (shows how objects look like in a given ocular) Solar System editor plug-in (imports comet and asteroid data from the MPC) telescope control plug-in (Meade LX200 and Celestron NexStar compatible) The major changes of this version: Added new sky culture Added new plugin: Planes Many improvements in plugins Many improvements in Core and GUI Many updates in sky cultures. [full release notes] Download: Stellarium 26.2 (64-bit) | 456.0 MB (Open Source) View: Stellarium Home Page | Other Operating Systems | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • NASA: This asteroid may not kill us but it probably won't be far off either by Sayan Sen Image by Zelch Csaba via Pexels New observations by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope have eliminated the last remaining impact threat posed by asteroid 2024 YR4, ruling out the possibility that the near-Earth object could strike the Moon in December 2032. NASA said observations collected by Webb on February 18 and 26, 2026, enabled scientists to refine the asteroid's orbit enough to "rule out a chance of lunar impact on Dec. 22, 2032." Instead, asteroid 2024 YR4 is now expected to pass the Moon at a distance of about 13,200 miles (21,200 km). The agency stressed that the update "reflects improved precision in our understanding of where the asteroid is expected to be in 2032 rather than a shift in its orbital path." The announcement closes a remarkable chapter in planetary defence that began in late 2024, when the approximately 60-metre-wide asteroid briefly became the most closely watched near-Earth object in the world. Discovered on December 27, 2024, by the ATLAS telescope in Chile, 2024 YR4 initially appeared to have a small chance of colliding with Earth on December 22, 2032. As astronomers gathered more observations, the impact probability briefly climbed to around 3%—the highest ever recorded for an asteroid of its size—before steadily falling as its orbit became better understood. By early 2025, international observations had ruled out any significant risk to Earth. However, astronomers were left with another possibility: a roughly 4% chance that the asteroid could instead strike the Moon. "The probability that asteroid 2024 YR4 will strike the Moon on 22 December 2032 is now approximately 4%," the European Space Agency (ESA) had said last year, noting that "there is a 96% chance that the asteroid will not impact the Moon." ESA said such an impact, while unlikely, would have presented an extraordinary scientific opportunity. "It is a very rare event for an asteroid this large to impact the Moon – and it is rarer still that we know about it in advance. The impact would likely be visible from Earth, and so scientists will be very excited by the prospect of observing and analysing it," said Richard Moissl, Head of ESA's Planetary Defence Office. "It would certainly leave a new crater on the surface. However, we wouldn't be able to accurately predict in advance how much material would be thrown into space, or whether any would reach Earth," he added. The asteroid also exposed an important blind spot in planetary defence. Because 2024 YR4 approached Earth from the direction of the Sun, it remained hidden from ground-based telescopes until after its closest approach. "We looked into how Neomir would have performed in this situation, and the simulations surprised even us," Moissl said. "Neomir would have detected asteroid 2024 YR4 about a month earlier than ground-based telescopes did. This would have given astronomers more time to study the asteroid's trajectory and allowed them to much sooner rule out any chance of Earth impact in 2032." He added, "As an infrared telescope, like Webb, Neomir would have also immediately given us a much better estimate for the asteroid's size, which is very important for assessing the significance of the hazard." The latest NASA observations underscore the value of space-based infrared telescopes in tracking faint asteroids. According to NASA, Webb made "among the faintest ever observations of an asteroid," extending the object's observational record by nearly eight months at a time when it had become too faint for other telescopes. That additional data allowed scientists to eliminate the remaining uncertainty surrounding its 2032 flyby. Although asteroid 2024 YR4 is now confirmed to pose no threat to either Earth or the Moon, scientists say its discovery remains one of the most significant real-world tests of the international planetary defence system, demonstrating how continued observations can rapidly transform an object once considered hazardous into one whose future path is known with high confidence. Source: NASA, ESA This article was generated with some help from AI and reviewed by an editor. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, this material is used for the purpose of news reporting. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.
    • Yup. Google is just scraping the entire internet for their own ad profits without sharing revenue with the sources. It's obviously stealing, but since these sites depend upon Google's search scraps to survive... As for me, I just stopped using Google for anything except Reddit searches. If Reddit's own search wasn't complete crapola, I'd never use Google search again.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Conversation Starter
      Admir earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • First Post
      The_Focal_Point earned a badge
      First Post
    • Apprentice
      daryld went up a rank
      Apprentice
    • Contributor
      Carltonbar went up a rank
      Contributor
    • One Month Later
      The_Focal_Point earned a badge
      One Month Later
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      418
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      170
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      130
    4. 4
      Xenon
      69
    5. 5
      neufuse
      69
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!