Article: Why Microsoft killed the Windows Start button

[luv2blze]

I agree. I work in IT support for several high end hedge fund companies and most of them JUST recently migrated to 7. It's gonna be extremely difficult to have people who broker million dollar deals to re-learn windows. From the trends I'm seeing, more people are going to Apple like I've never seen before. I've done the beta and release candidate and the fact that you have to "hover" your mouse to get to certain menus is ridiculous. I agree that it makes sense for phones and tablets, but desktops and laptops? They will increase Apple's Imac and Mac Pro's and all Macbooks. When Apple upgrades their OS, they keep a lot of the old user interface, and it's smart. I do hate Apple, but Windows 8 is gonna make them look a lot better.

[real-lunatic]

what a lot of crap

i tried windows 8 on my laptop and it really sucks. in 30 minutes i was back on Windows 7

i really don't think W8 gonna brake throug. Why change something that works in to something most people don't want

[nless00]

I'm not using win8 either just want the task manager in win 7

[rdtphd]

what a lot of crap

i tried windows 8 on my laptop and it really sucks. in 30 minutes i was back on Windows 7

i really don't think W8 gonna brake throug. Why change something that works in to something most people don't want

30 minutes! You are my hero. I made it 10 minutes and knew it was not personalized to the experience I wanted and was back to 7

[chaos7979]

"That is ridiculous. Most everyone uses the start button if one has more than ten programs that are used on a regular basis.

[tesco]

All this talk of the all-important start button has made me realise that I don't actually use it much.

I decided to stick with XP a while ago because I didn't like Win7's start menu layout.
It used to be that I relied on it but I guess at the time I didn't realise that I've got so used to XP - after however many years - that I have pinned everything I use regularly to the shortcut menu next to the start button and use that instead.

It makes sense, to me, to use that shortcut menu rather than navigating the start menu because it's quicker.
Perhaps these chaps at Microsoft are on to something, after all, and perhaps people are resisting because no-one likes change unless it was their idea.

I've got a touch-screen PC that I hardly use, so I'm probably going to give Win8 a go once the 0day monkeys have worked out the bugs for Microsoft.

The start menu is an obsolete concept.
In ubuntu's Unity, and Gnome Shell (both are linux desktops) the menus are phased out with "docks" in their place (hidden inside an overlay that appears when mouse is moved to the top left corner in gnome shell, and somethign similar can be done in unity) that hold your most commonly used apps, and a search system for finding the other apps that don't fit into the dock (or that you just dont want in your dock).
In real life usage, I find that I'm rarely using more than a few programs and using teh search for those rarely used apps is far quicker than navigating through start menus anyway.

Even in windows7 you've got something similar. Pin the most frequently used apps into your taskbar, and for those infrequent ones there is a search function built into teh start menu (unfortunately not as intuitive as the one in unity/gnome due to it returning too many irrelevant results (help, uninstall, etc.).

[killuminati96]

I guess it doesn't matter as long as it's possible to easily access programs & turn off the machine. I don't like pushing the power button to do it. Those things tend to break over time.

[unclemilty74]

This is indeed bullshit... Microsoft doesn't know how to give users options and noe they're doing our thinking for us by completely taking the possibility of a third-party developer taking the reigns on a replacement option. You know, MICRO-soft, I really liked that pinning idea you loved so much, but it was better before when it was first called the "Desktop" and then the "QUick Launch toolbar", which was another piece of MS-BS when you took it out by default in Win7... Oh yeah, we quickly found the way to re-establish it. JUst let us have the QUick-Launch and teach users how to use it properly instead of wasting hours removing code.

[digmen1]

I've been on Windows 7 for a year and love it.

I did not know what pinning was.

Most of the programs I use a lot are on my desktop as shortcuts.

But yes, I hardly ever use the Start Button.
Mick Jagger won't be impressed.