Do you want the start menu in Windows 8?

[contextfree]

Our biology prefers thinner columns so the smaller space of the classic menu is by no means a detriment some pretend it to be since we can only scan one at a time. The issue isn't scrolling, its finding what you want in multiple columns vs a nested single column. (It 'breaks' organization since it boils up subfolders to the main level in an effort to be friendlier to people that don't understand the organization. In practice, those people never used it that way anyway and it just frustrates those that have.)

Do you have a citation for your claims about biology? In practice I find I rarely have to "scan" the apps screen much at all because the program icon usually just jumps out at me (which is a benefit of having all the icons right on the screen and not buried in subfolders) and then I can launch it with one click instead of having to click on each subfolder (and deal with the annoying expand/contract behavior, or the frustrating flyout bottlenecks in 9x/XP). If you do want to browse by folder you can zoom out, and this works better in *some* cases but IMO the *majority* of the time the flattened view is better (especially since if you don't know the name of the program - and so can't use search - there's a good chance you don't remember which subfolder it's in either), so it's the right default.

[MDboyz]

What is 'start menu' again? Is it the button where I click when I need to get to 'run' command or control panel?

Then NO.

[1ON]

No.

[Paul]

Personally, I don't mind too much now. I'm used to the way it works, however I do think I should still be a choice for those who would prefer it.

[Hum]

I like to have a simple Start menu, but I can wait for Windows 9 for them to fix it. :p

I'm getting by fine with Windows 7.

[mikeyjames]

Hey all,

Personally, I don't really care. Since XP I've rarely used the start menu anyway - unless to find some old program I hadn't used in a long time and I'd forgotten the name. I pretty much arrange my dekstop with my most used apps in groups, with those the are heavily used pinned to the taksbar . Funny thing is that I was always criticised for having too many icons on the desktop.

I still think it is a mistake on MS part to force this change on veryone though. I know for a fact that where I work there are some older people who consider themselves to be a little geeky in the tech department and nealry all are scared by the change. It's these people who will be making the decision as to whether win 8 will be deployed at work and from I can see, they plan to skip 8 completely.

There should have been an option to enable the start menu to keep people happy. Maybe make a couple of functions only accessible via the new way. This way people who don't like change could keep what they want but also be directed to use the newer way at times to help them learn and overcome their fears.

Mick

[Noir Angel]

I don't really want the start screen removed but I would like the old start menu to still be there as an option for those of us that dislike the start screen. However you're probably not going to get representative data from a community like Neowin, you'd probably get more accurate data from more neutral sources.

[bandit_liberty_rumble]

people who don't like change could keep what they want but also be directed to use the newer way at times to help them learn and overcome their fears.

I wouldn't be so sure that this is merely an issue of educating the users and helping them 'overcome their fears' of the new and unknown. I mean, how come you have people like David Pogue writing:

For the longest time, this [start] screen didn?t bother me. [...] But the more I learned to do things in Windows 8 [...] the more I realized the enormous drawback of this setup

only to come to the conclusion that

I know there are ways to restore the Start menu [...] And you should absolutely do that; it makes Windows 8 infinitely more efficient.

[yardmanflex]

HELL NO!!!!

[l33under]

Hey all,

Personally, I don't really care. Since XP I've rarely used the start menu anyway - unless to find some old program I hadn't used in a long time and I'd forgotten the name. I pretty much arrange my dekstop with my most used apps in groups, with those the are heavily used pinned to the taksbar . Funny thing is that I was always criticised for having too many icons on the desktop.

I still think it is a mistake on MS part to force this change on veryone though. I know for a fact that where I work there are some older people who consider themselves to be a little geeky in the tech department and nealry all are scared by the change. It's these people who will be making the decision as to whether win 8 will be deployed at work and from I can see, they plan to skip 8 completely.

There should have been an option to enable the start menu to keep people happy. Maybe make a couple of functions only accessible via the new way. This way people who don't like change could keep what they want but also be directed to use the newer way at times to help them learn and overcome their fears.

Mick

I agree... should have been on and off switch I don't mine changes but this was drastic change without no option to disable.

[+hedleigh Subscriber²]

Haven't switched to 8, not purely because of the lack of a start menu. Just don't like the look of it.

To the people who don't want it back. Why and how would it adversely affect you?

If it made a return you make it sound like you would be forced to use it against you will. This is the exact reason nearly half the people here do want it back.

I cannot for the life of me see how it would be a bad thing for the end users to have choice. Technology is going backwards IMO, forcing people to "keep up" with something they don't like.

Off Topic:- So many people telling us to move on, pity it doesn't extend to other topics being discussed here at Neowin. :|

[yowanvista]

Yes, absolutely. I would totally upgrade to Windows 8 if Aero Glass & Start Menu were added back, I'm a Windows 8 hater due to the touchscreen/metro nonsense crap which needs to go elsewhere in some kind of Windows 8 Tablet Edition. The touch stuff makes as if one is emulating fingers gestures with a mouse/keyboard which is totally pointless imho. Windows 8 suffers an identity crisis, that's for sure.. I have Windows 8 installed on my laptop and it feels so half baked compared to Windows 7, especially with those annoying hot corners/charms whatsoever which seriously impacts productivity.

[Dot Matrix]

Um maybe because I have so many programs, and when I am paid to do work I do work. I do not have hours to spend pinning everything and then I will have to horizontally scroll through all the shortcuts on the start screen.

For example: I do not need to pin "Visual Studio Command Prompt", yet I still do use it every once and a while. I do not have to scroll through hundreds of boxes to find it. With the Start Menu, it is MUCH MUCH more organized: Start - Visual Studio 2010 - Visual Studio Tools - Visual Studio Command Prompt.

Nice....Clean....Organized....not in my face every time.

Why are you torturing yourself and wasting time by manually searching? You should be more adept to searching instead of mousing around by this point.

[syobon999]

Why are you torturing yourself and wasting time by manually searching? You should be more adept to searching instead of mousing around by this point.

yeah... its sad how hard people try to convince themselves that start screen is actually useful/good.

[dvb2000]

Sadly the start menu is most likely never returning to Windows.

in which case, "Sadly" Windows 8 will never become a mainstream O/S as the majority of desktop/laptop uses boycott it

Haven't switched to 8, not purely because of the lack of a start menu. Just don't like the look of it.

+1 - I am usually an early adopter of technology, but when I tried the WIn8 previews and the "desktop" was hidden under the crappy metro interface, and the "start button" was missing, I lost interest in using it.

When the retail version was released, and it was the same, it became the first version of Windows I have never upgraded to (and never will).

[dvb2000]

yeah... its sad how hard people try to convince themselves that start screen is actually useful/good.

lol - these are the same people who haven't realised that the "new" windows is nothing more than a futile attempt by Microsoft to create an ongoing revenue stream for themselves by foisting the "app store" on you (and taking a cut) to make you buy all your apps through it as often as possible.

Much like the Winzip yearly $8 fee.

asif anyone is going to be sucked in by that!

[Tha Bloo Monkee]

No, time to move on from Windows 95.

[Dot Matrix]

I'm confused why some of you on here expected to, or expect Microsoft to keep Windows the same. It was only a matter of time before something had to give somewhere. It doesn't take much to see that a big change to Start has been coming for some time.

You could tell the Start Menu lost value with the introduction of Search in Vista. Even more so in Windows 7 with app pinning to the taskbar. That was the death knell. Windows 7 killed the Start Menu, not Windows 8. As such, it was time for something new. Windows 8 now sets the foundation for new Windows releases for years to come. The 90's was a good decade for computing, but that time has come and gone. Our "desktop PCs" are no longer bound to the desktop. They're mobile. It's the key to today's computing, whether you want to admit it or not. Sure, people might still have a desktop, but it's nothing they're tied to. It's nothing they have any attachment to. But get between a person and their mobile device, and look out.

Desktop Windows just doesn't have the mobility to carry on much farther without major transformations. This is where the new Start comes in. Now it does. It gives Windows the mobility it needs, while slowly depreciating older features, and removing dead junk buried in the darkest of folders. Even on the desktop it's helping carry things forward as new generations adapt to new computing techniques. I've already seen kids today look at mice as if it were some foreign object. They don't know what it is, as they're growing up with smartphones and tablets. They've learned a smartphone or tablet probably before they learned a PC. They know how to touch and swipe, now all of a sudden, you're telling them to point and click?

If you want to cling to the dull, static, and boring desktop, that's your business, but in all honesty, there's no future in it. Don't expect technology companies to sit around on their asses for you. Technology is all about what's next, not what's behind. The future is in dynamics, mobility, interaction, and sensory technologies. These technologies will drive future user experiences, and system GUIs. They also pretty much guarantee the death of everything you know and love today about any desktop OS you can name. That's just how things go.

[SharpGreen]

10 level deep folders in a tiny window ftw!

[+Warwagon MVC]

I'm confused why some of you on here

By "some of you" you mean OVER 52%!? (At this moment ) :laugh:

[remixedcat]

derrn start screen taking yeer jerrbs

[Arceles]

lol - these are the same people who haven't realised that the "new" windows is nothing more than a futile attempt by Microsoft to create an ongoing revenue stream for themselves by foisting the "app store" on you (and taking a cut) to make you buy all your apps through it as often as possible.

Much like the Winzip yearly $8 fee.

asif anyone is going to be sucked in by that!

Exactly my thoughts... microsoft does invent a lot of things but if they see fast money they jump on it with all the money they have, this resulted on XBOX and now "touch" windows (a.k.a. win8)

[remixedcat]

But I like Xbox!

[Arceles]

But I like Xbox!

Yeah, so do I... or rather, just some games of it, that doesn't change the fact that XBOX entered "by force" (read as, lot of money spend just to convince publishers of exclusives) if you read how SONY entered the gaming market you would realize that they *actually* didn't wanted to be involved in it, but nintendo sort of did one of their greatest mistakes asking sony to build a cd drive for the SNES (giving them full access to console documentation) then guess what sony did with the research about the CD drive for SNES even when nintendo scrapped the project? it became what you know as PSX, but note, that wasn't enough, in the early times, when SONY was REALLY Good and dare to risk, they went and asked the publishers what where the things they wanted, they took that advice and then put it into the console, that was the reason because PSX was triumphant even when the n64 was superior in hardware. Nowadays they are just as evil as microsoft but at least they didn't bought their place on the gaming industry just as Microsoft did with XBOX and now with their "touch" ecosystem.

In any case, with all due respect Ms. RemixedCat.... you are quite the intel/nvidia/microsoft fan, you see the pattern there? Hint, I'm an AMD/AMD/not so much anymore SONY fan but rather PC one.

[Nick H. Supervisor]

If you want to cling to the dull, static, and boring desktop, that's your business...

Indeed it is. And I will, at least for the time being.