Do you want the start menu in Windows 8?

[remixedcat]

well microsoft products have served me well, so has nvidia and intel.however this thread is not about nvidia and intel... .... I just posted in here that I don't miss the start menu.

[ingramator]

No I don't want it back. I've used Windows 8 since the Developer Preview and can honestly say that the first time I used it I thought it was absolute crap. The interface looked ugly, the applications were crap, everything looked out of place. Things got better with each new preview and by RTM I actually started to realise how much better this new computing concept was. Now I have it all right, my tiles are arranged how I want them, I've got the start screen background customised to rotate between images (decor8) and all the information I want isn't 100 clicks in a browser away. Like it or not it's the future of computing, the 90s concept of the start menu is dead baggage Windows has carried for too long and would have held it back from working on a variety of form factors to say the least. Touchscreens are inevitably the way of the future as well as gesture based trackpads and Windows 8 in general works great with them. I'm not going to talk about the other great improvements in 8 but the start screen is definitely one of them. If you don't like it or feel it's too different I know exactly what your talking about, I was there, give it at least a month of solid work out. Learn the keyboard shortcuts, personalise it, immerse yourself in information.

The start screen is by no means perfect but it's definitely better then the start menu, in this day and age anyway. Hopefully we will see some awesome innovation at Microsoft to make the start screen more personalised, easy to use and extensive! Until then, I'm perfectly happy with the current set up. To all those who are holding of 8 because of the start screen, I urge you not to, once you start using it you won't want to go back -believe me its for the better. If nothing else, the new search is 100 times quicker and more efficient!

Anyway let the start menu die with the rest of obsolete UX components and allow us to give life to the start screen and UX components that will help us get things done smarter, quicker and simpler!

[Arceles]

smarter, quicker and simpler!

that's very subjective.

[Orange Battery]

Its good that MS decided to update the Start Menu, unfortunately they done such basic job and its just not a practical replacement, thats why people want the old one back.

The old Start Menu was a way to organise all of your applications and get to them without barely moving the mouse. The Start Page requires lots of movement, and its cuts you off from everything else while you are using it.

MS cant go back, they need to seriously offer more than this basic tool. It feels like Im using a start menu replacement app, not the next great interface from Microsoft.

[+Anarkii Subscriber²]

yes most definitely!

[+Fahim S. MVC]

No - I think Windows is fine without a Start Menu, and whilst it might have been jarring at first, it took me all of about 10 minutes to get over that.

[cork1958]

Voted yes on behalf of all the regular, joe blow user people who are to used to the old windows and not this rink a dink new setup!!

[ManMountain]

Nope, no start menu needed for me now. I've adapted to the minor change and don't give it a second thought now. Unless of course I visit Neowin and read all the Windows 8 start menu whining.

[Tuishimi]

I voted no... 113 YES, 97 NO, if this was a presidential election it would be a landslide.

[ITFiend]

I vote no.

Start Screen Likes:

1. The start screen is really user centric for the core layout. The start menu was slightly user centric, but those aspects of it were not worth using over search. On touch devices in particular, the user centric nature of the core start screen layout shines.

2. The workflow and sizing?s of the start screen is very clean. I have at least 75 modern apps in my start screen, and I can recognize / find most of them without any real effort even though it is really starting to feel cluttered.

3. Presentation and organization of apps within ?All Apps? is far better in the start screen once you have 200+ apps installed. The start menu of old always required a lot more pruning if you expected someone to find an application through it. I find that I no longer need to customize the layout and contents of "$env:ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs" within student labs anymore.

4. Speed and fluidity of the start screen's presentation is excellent even over moderate speed WAN connections for displaying VDI/non-VDI RDP sessions in full quality.

My Start Screen Change Requests to Microsoft:

1. I cannot highlight multiple applications and Open, Run as Administrator, or Run as Other User to execute all of them at the same time. The start screen really feels like it should have the ability to do this in bulk.

2. ?Right Click\Run as Other User? should be in the Windows 8 start screen, not just the Server 2012 start screen.

3. I logon as a domain user. I sign in to my Microsoft Account at the start screen level. Why in the world do I need to sign in to every single Xbox game and some third party applications afterwards? It sure looks to me that any application that desired to do so could give me a fake credential prompt and attempt to hijack authentication information. (I admit, I'm not sure this is a valid complaint targeting the start screen, or if it should be targeting the WinRT framework in general)

4. The giant ?Start? word should be a menu item that leads to multiple start screen layouts. There is far too much scrolling to the right once you have tons of Modern UI only apps and games installed. How about scrolling up and down to completely different start screen layouts? This is going to become far worse as more games and other apps are released.

5. The ?All apps? portion of the start screen is *not* user centric. Microsoft should fix this by adding the ability for users to hide & unhide desktop applications from this view as they desire. Just because *I* don?t use an application doesn?t mean I can uninstall it, as another user may require it.

6. The start screen needs to stop automatically adding newly installed desktop apps to my start screen by default, and at worst make it a user option that can be enabled. The very action of changing the start screen on my behalf makes it less user centric than it should be. There should be no changes made here except those by the end user, those defined as required by group policy in the case of kiosks, or those that are the results of a cumulative update or service packs.

Instead, new installations should show up looking highlighted for a very brief window of time (several days maximum) under ?All apps?. The only indication on the start screen that new applications exist should either be made through a toast, or by a small glowing button appearing where All Apps is for a very brief period of time (less than 10 minutes I?d say).

They really need to make the highlighting of these items last for a very brief window of time. I despised the way the Windows 7 start menu would highlight new applications for very long periods of time, either until I launched everything highlighted, or disabled highlighting of new apps all together.

[Max Norris]

I voted no... 113 YES, 97 NO, if this was a presidential election it would be a landslide.

A landslide victory implies a pretty significant difference between the two sides. Being split nearly down the middle is definitely not a landslide by any stretch of the imagination.

[Thingol]

Definitely, I want Aero back too of course. Get rid of Modern interface, bring back Start button and Aero and with great under the hood improvements I will happily upgrade to Windows 8. Right now, I have no intenion to use it, even though I have a license. Modern interface is driving me crazy.

[Chasethebase Veteran]

After getting Windows 8, I decided not to install one of the start menu applications just to see how it works, and to be honest, I don't miss it.

[Dot Matrix]

The old Start Menu was a way to organise all of your applications and get to them without barely moving the mouse. The Start Page requires lots of movement, and its cuts you off from everything else while you are using it.

I don't find this a valid complaint. There are multiple ways at adjusting your mouse tracking to make it move about the screen at appropriate rates. People don't want to move their mice, but that's what the thing was designed to do.

MS cant go back, they need to seriously offer more than this basic tool. It feels like Im using a start menu replacement app, not the next great interface from Microsoft.

I've been saying this for a while now. Microsoft cannot go back. There's no reason to. One way or another the old Start Menu needed a facelift. If any indications are correct, Windows Blue should be offering significant improvements to Metro and the Start Screen.

[+Warwagon MVC]

I don't find this a valid complaint. There are multiple ways at adjusting your mouse tracking to make it move about the screen at appropriate rates. People don't want to move their mice, but that's what the thing was designed to do.

I've been saying this for a while now. Microsoft cannot go back. There's no reason to. One way or another the old Start Menu needed a facelift. If any indications are correct, Windows Blue should be offering significant improvements to Metro and the Start Screen.

As the video shows on the 1st post shows, the start menu is just as fast (sometimes faster) as the start screen without taking up the ENTIRE screen.

I think that is pretty much the MAIN issue people have with the start screen, is the fact that when you click it, it consumes the ENTIRE screen! That works well for tablets and such but not for desktops. Like right now i'm sitting in front of 4 screens 2 24's 19 and a 30 inch.

When I click start I do not want my ENTIRE 30 inch screen taken up with the start screen. While you will argue that my monitor configuration is not that of the average user, dual screens is a common configuration. People who use dual screens do so for the desktop because they want to have more than 1 thing in front of them at the same time. That is why when the start screen takes up an entire monitor, it drives them nuts.. So Microsoft should have given those individuals a way to turn off the start screen.

[Orange Battery]

I don't find this a valid complaint. There are multiple ways at adjusting your mouse tracking to make it move about the screen at appropriate rates. People don't want to move their mice, but that's what the thing was designed to do.

I believe it is quite valid. I have my mouse speed at full and a 23 inch monitor, I find it quite annoying. Mice were designed as an interface, just because it is capable of moving across the whole screen doesn't mean it needs to.

[Dot Matrix]

As the video shows on the 1st post shows, the start menu is just as fast (sometimes faster) as the start screen without taking up the ENTIRE screen.

I think that is pretty much the MAIN issue people have with the start screen, is the fact that when you click it, it consumes the ENTIRE screen! That works well for tablets and such but not for desktops. Like right now i'm sitting in front of 4 screens 2 24's 19 and a 30 inch.

When I click start I do not want my ENTIRE 30 inch screen taken up with the start screen. While you will argue that my monitor configuration is not that of the average user, dual screens is a common configuration. People who use dual screens do so for the desktop because they want to have more than 1 thing in front of them at the same time. That is why when the start screen takes up an entire monitor, it drives them nuts.. So Microsoft should have given those individuals a way to turn off the start screen.

Then open the Start Screen on the other monitors? It's designed to be fullscreen for a reason. The Screen is a dashboard to your PC. It's supposed to be the center of attention.

I don't understand this BS of having to keep my eyes on the screen at all times. You're human you can't focus on everything at once.

I believe it is quite valid. I have my mouse speed at full and a 23 inch monitor, I find it quite annoying. Mice were designed as an interface, just because it is capable of moving across the whole screen doesn't mean it needs to.

That's the way things have worked forever now. Between the titlebar buttons ( _ ? x ) and the Windows taskbar, your mouse moves around the screen no matter how hard you try not to do that. Problem is, "power users" want these ginormous screens, yet don't want to deal with the ergonomic issues of having them, such as mouse movement.

I have no quarrels moving mine around my 22 inch screen, nor do I have any issues moving it between monitors on my dual setup.

If you don't want to move your mouse around, then maybe a touchscreen will work better for you?

[+Ryster Subscriber²]

I vote "hell no".

The old start menu was a cluttered list of icons that had little other function than being an app launcher, and a relatively disorganised one at that.

When you're looking at which app to launch, you're can't be looking at other stuff on the screen at the same time, so what does it matter that it's full screen? Full screen actually makes finding your app easier as the tiles are nice and big and easy to click on.

Also if you've got a dual screen setup as I have, then metro only sits on one screen anyway, leaving the other for icons and even an old style start button if you so wish.

[McKay]

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. :|

Because I feel the Start Screen is more useful than the Start Menu and going back to it would be a step backwards. Right now on my Start Screen I have my apps pinned into groups how I use them. This is better for me than a list that can only extend to the top of my screen. I have a 16:9 screen so thats not a lot of space to use. And the Programs listed in the Start Menu are either randomly generated by use or I have to pin them in a list. The programs I've pinned onto my Start Menu wouldn't fit on my Start Menu.

[MFH]

Then open the Start Screen on the other monitors?

I may be mistaken, but doesn't the start screen open up at the monitor the mouse pointer is currently on? If yes, you're suggesting, that every time one wants to open a program he should move his mouse to a different monitor, just to avoid the big screen going fullscreen, which would be a brain dead advice...

I don't understand this BS of having to keep my eyes on the screen at all times. You're human you can't focus on everything at once.

You don't have to look at the Start Menu to launch something from search... I regularly launch programs like calculator and notepad but there's never a need to look at the start menu while typing - just like you don't look at the keyboard while typing -> seems you can do more than one thing at a time...

[Setnom]

Plus, with your peripheral vision you don't need to avert your attention from, let's say, a video window anchored on the right side of the monitor, to use the start menu on the left corner. The start screen covers everything and prevents me from continuing watching the video while navigating it.

[SiCKX]

HELL NO!!!!

No.

The answer is:

There should really be a choice at least.

[Dot Matrix]

I may be mistaken, but doesn't the start screen open up at the monitor the mouse pointer is currently on? If yes, you're suggesting, that every time one wants to open a program he should move his mouse to a different monitor, just to avoid the big screen going fullscreen, which would be a brain dead advice...

If you hit the Windows Key on the keyboard, Start for me has always opened on the center "main" monitor. If your a big mouse user, which many here "claim" to be, then it should take you less than a second to move the mouse over to the other monitor and press the Start Corner.

[Crisp]

Windows 7 <3 <3 <3

[+Warwagon MVC]

If you hit the Windows Key on the keyboard, Start for me has always opened on the center "main" monitor. If your a big mouse user, which many here "claim" to be, then it should take you less than a second to move the mouse over to the other monitor and press the Start Corner.

If open the start screen you use the "Windows key' + Page up or Page down you can move the start screen from screen to screen. Only problem is I don't want it taking up ANY of my monitors.