Not impressed by metro start screen?

[J.Jensen]

I like many others was not impressed with the way Microsoft was going with Windows 8. But there is no denying that it have lots of great features and improvements over previous versions of Windows. Being up to date is always the best choice. But how can we avoid such a terrible invention like metro start screen?

There is some ways you can avoid it completely with third party software and even adding the old start menu back. But is this the best way to deal with it?

I decided to give Windows 8 a shot and by removing all the silly apps and doing some customization, I have grown very fond of metro start screen. In fact, I find it much more convenient now compare to old start menu. I would like to show my desktop and start screen and perhaps that will give some of you inspiration to try Windows 8 as well.

[AnotherITguy]

I think the icons could use a little more polish work, other than that, i think its decent.

[bandit_liberty_rumble]

Not bad. Although I think the icons should be a little larger still.

[Wakers]

This poster is like Anti -AndreaBorman :D

[siah1214]

Thanks for posting this. It's a good example of how useful the start screen can be to the self-proclaimed power users. Microsoft actually does know what it's doing :)

I think you'll realize after a while that the built in apps are more useful than you think :) But I'm glad you found a way to make it work instead of trying to turn it off and then coming in here and complaining (you know who you are)

[Dot Matrix]

Been saying this for a while now. Even with classic apps and no metro ones, the start screen is still a huge improvement over the start menu.

[J.Jensen]

For a desktop user like myself, the whole app and touch things in windows 8 is probably what scares most of the people to use it. But what can be seen on my screenshots is that even for a desktop user there is benefits using the start screen. I personally prefer a clean look not showing anything more then what I actually need and the start screen gives me just that option.

[Xerax]

What is your background?

ontopic:

I completely agree. This is exactly what I do.

[Buendia]

Great start screen.

That is probably what my start screen will look like with time.

[J.Jensen]

What is your background?

ontopic:

I completely agree. This is exactly what I do.

If you mean the desktop background I uploaded it for you here http://i.imgur.com/QPSVv.jpg enjoy. :)

[freak180]

Great Start Screen. Organized and clean

here's mine for show

[Krome]

She's hot. I claim her.

[rorrr]

I think the Start screen looked much better in the Release Preview than it does in RTM. the smaller icons for desktop applications creates a cleaner look. the large icons used in RTM clash with the flatter Metro aesthetic. most importantly the desktop applications' tile color blends in nicely making everything more cohesive.

that said, you must customize the Start screen to your liking. create groups. remove unecessary tiles. turn live tiles on or off. remember, you can always pin applications to the taskbar, place shortcuts on your desktop, or launch programs with Start search.

(I assume MS only made the icons larger in RTM after they decided to make the font size small like the Metro app tiles. smaller font had to be balanced with a larger icon. Rational, but uglier imo.)

[bjoswald]

My friends and I can't figure it out,so it's bad for everyone and my opinion is the only one that counts.Andrea Boreman.

[syncore]

I use Classic Shell to replace the Metro Start Screen and to boot directly to the desktop. Deleted every single button/mickey mouse gimmick from the Metro Start Screen EXCEPT for the 'Desktop' button. I've been running this OS for days straight now and I've yet to see the Start Screen or any of the other metro stuff, so to me this is almost the same as Windows 7. I got this OS as close to Windows 7 as possible without it being Win7. Can't really complain

[firey]

I still think it looks pointless. All you show is icons to apps you use.. which is exactly what the desktop does. No need for a second screen to do that.

[Ryoken]

Agreed.. it looks nice, but that doesn't make it more functional than the start menu was..It does make it take up far more space though.. which can be a pain depending on your mouse speed and resolution..

That said, those do look nice.. Wish you could make your own tile icons though.. rather than it just using the app icon :/

[david]

How did you guys title each section like that?

[ATLien_0]

I still with the icons were higher res. In Vista and 7 Microsoft pushed for higher res icons for scalability. The Start Screen seems stuck with the small icons

[Colin McGregor]

How dare you try out the OS and try to see if you can make it work for you before coming on here and discussing it. I'm going to report you.

On a serious note though, love how IE 10 autocorrects lol

[ranmas]

Oh, look how interesting... you have a second desktop, and not a start menu, and you know the worst part about that those don't even look as nice, or as clean as it does on the desktop. You have a small icon inside a large box that does nothing other than provide some waist of space to your screen.

While the idea of the new 'start page' was interesting, the whole thing is a lot less productive with a keyboard and mouse then the traditional start menu. This design is clearly for devices that have a touch screen.

Now that is not to say its bad, no its actually rather good for that. That includes pc's, laptops and other devices with a touch screen. If your interacting with your computing device with your fingers its good. However, if your using a keyboard and mouse, or even a touchpad, then its not so hot. There are a lot of options that are hidden, there is no back or close button that I've found yet on the metro apps, and to close a metro app you have to go to the desktop, put your mouse to the side of the screen and then drag the thing off the bottom of the middle of the screen. That is not something that I would call convenient. Before you even get into how windows 8 is supposed to manage those programs and the memory they use, well lets just put it mildly by saying that is not such a good thing either. That is a good way to introduce crashes and blue screens to a system.

I like to have control of my system, and without a lot of work windows 8, and by extension Microsoft, has more control of the system now than ever.

The privacy issues surrounding the live apps is horrifying as well if you stop and think about it. Sure you might point out that you have the same kind of issues with ios and android, but the issue really comes down to is most malicious software is written for windows, and this is going to be a very large, and juicy target.

Not to say its all doom and gloom, there are a lot of nice improvements in windows 8, but right now the lack of being able to select between a start menu and their 'start page' is more than I'm willing to deal with. It would be easy to say this version of windows is likely to go the way of windows me, but the price point they are offering it at will probably be enough to compensate for the lackluster design choices.

[Colin McGregor]

Why are people saying its an OS made for a touch screen and not a desktop?? Am I missing something? Is there like some secret hard to navigate desktop I'm missing?? I'd like to know so I can tell my mom to avoid it. She's using Windows 8 and loves metro. She doesn't know jack about computers so I was worried but she runs all her stuff with ease.

Let me know what you guys found that doesn't work good on a keyboard mouse, like I said so I can tell my mom to avoid it.

[SiCKX]

My friends and I can't figure it out,so it's bad for everyone and my opinion is the only one that counts.Andrea Boreman.

I see what you done did that there. Andrea Borman

[ranmas]

Put your mouse to the edge of the left side of the screen and wait for that nice menu to come up, select setting, and go into one of the customization options, play around in there to your hearts content. Now find the close button, back button.... found it yet?

I'm waiting, are you able to find one at all? No? Surprise, your on a desktop you don't have the nice buttons like you do on a phone or tablet that let you go back. So instead of doing something simple with a click of a mouse button, you now have to find the correct button on your keyboard to take you back to the 'start page', you wanted to go too your desktop too bad you can't do that you have to go back to the 'start page'. Well I guess that would be the case if you hadn't already launched the 'desktop app' then I guess you could mouse over to the right hand side of your screen and click on that popup. Seriously no you can't close that app, you really want to well you have to either launch task manager or you need to go to the 'desktop app' and then mouse over to the left hand side of your screen and make that menu slide out, then grab the image of the app you want to close and drag it out and then down to the bottom of your screen. Though I'm not even sure if that properly closes the app.

If you can't see the similarities between windows 8 and either of the other two major tablet os's you need some help.

But, yeah, if you don't really know a lot about computers then windows 8 is probably going to be ok for you.

And you didn't read my comment properly I didn't say it wasn't designed for a desktop, I said it wasn't designed for a keyboard and mouse. There is a major difference there. You can get pc's that have a touchscreen, and you can get laptops just the same if you want to pay for one, but metro itself was designed around the idea of using your fingers on the screen to interact with it, not a keyboard and mouse.

[trag3dy]

Agreed.. it looks nice, but that doesn't make it more functional than the start menu was..It does make it take up far more space though.. which can be a pain depending on your mouse speed and resolution..

That said, those do look nice.. Wish you could make your own tile icons though.. rather than it just using the app icon :/

http://customization...t.com/#/d4z4ny9

Doesn't take over your entire screen when you want to use it. Not that I recommend using it either, I think metro "tiles" are largely a waste of space.