You know what I think Windows 8 truly needs?

By SierraSonic
in The Fast Ring (Insider Previews)

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SierraSonic

Posted
Posted

A universal back button!

I am so tired of being in apps and HAVING to click the back button in the top left!

I always try to hit my mouse's back button. It would improve the speed of which someone could view content inside metro apps.

Not only to the start of apps but it should remember the history path through all apps all the way back to the start screen.

What do you think?

Grand Master

jakem1

Posted
Posted

I think windows in general needs an "Undo" button, able to undo any last action performed on the OS

I think I'd prefer to leave undo as a per-application function. I can imagine accidentally undoing something I don't want to undo with a universal button. Also, what if you want to undo the last actions taken in two or more applications?

Grand Master

Detection

Posted
Posted

I think I'd prefer to leave undo as a per-application function. I can imagine accidentally undoing something I don't want to undo with a universal button. Also, what if you want to undo the last actions taken in two or more applications?

Yea I mean just OS related, ie. deleting files, altering registry, setting permissions, ownerships etc

It would be a pain if it worked throughout apps too :)

Grand Master

theyarecomingforyou

Posted
Posted

It is incredibly annoying that the back button on my mouse doesn't work for Metro apps. There really is no excuse for it is supported for Explorer, Control Panel, web browsers, etc. It's just another example of Microsoft's schizophrenic design philosophy when it comes to Metro. I honestly don't know how such a fundamental feature can be completely overlooked.

Grand Master

Brandon Live Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted

Your mouse back button should work inside apps. Support for it may not be complete for all apps in the RP, though. Remember, they're "previews." :-)

There may be other factors like something specific to your mouse, as well. But yes apps absolutely should support the mouse back button (and backspace) for navigation. The VS app templates already hook this up for you.

Grand Master

theyarecomingforyou

Posted
Posted

Well, I'm using a Razer Mamba and the back button works throughout the rest of Windows 8 but not in Metro apps. And we're not talking about random apps - we're talking about core Metro apps like Store, News, Travel, etc. Bizarrely SkyDrive does support the back button but not the forward button. As the OP stated, there should be a universal back button and at the moment there isn't.

  • 2 weeks later...
Neowinian

xgt001

Posted
Posted
plenty of reasons why windows 8 would fail :/ . I do not see any windows 7 user jumping to Windows 8. Microsoft needs some really compelling apps for metro apps which are productive unlike most of them which are mostly for consuming information. Office 2013 is a right step in that direction...
Experienced

georgevella

Posted
Posted

I'd guess a universal back button would be difficult to implement. I can only see two ways how this can be executed - either Windows keeps track of every running app and it's state (which is a non-trivial task) or have Windows ask the app to revert to it's previous state, but that would depend on the devs to implement proper state management. Considering that some apps in Windows Store can barely make use of the scroll wheel on a mouse, depending on the devs to implement state management is a no go as well.

Rising Star

Sekyal

Posted
Posted

I find many apps have a back button but you have to right-click to make it show up which is an annoying extra step. Some apps don't provide a quick way to jump to different sections of the app either (usually done via a "v" like arrow) so you have to continually hit the back arrow to return "home".

I wasn't aware the back button on the keyboard actually went back on the desktop, never bothered to try it lol. If that is the case, it is frustrating that ESC doesn't exit full screen on apps that play video or open other "sub"-windows.

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