How the Windows Blue Start button may work

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http://www.zdnet.com/heres-how-the-new-windows-blue-start-button-may-work-7000016042/

If this is how it works, I still prefer Classic Shell but to each his own.

Jerry

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I confess I don’t really need one, in either form. I use it from time to time in 7, in 8 it has been replaced by pinned apps and search. Doesn’t take that long to get used to it.

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I confess I don’t really need one, in either form. I use it from time to time in 7, in 8 it has been replaced by pinned apps and search. Doesn’t take that long to get used to it.

Ya, as Jerry mentions about searching, with a start menu absent, you should mention just how you do search and if you leave indexing on or not vis-a-vis SSD usage or not. Also, does that mean you are primarily a search type person or not and did Win 8 effect any change there? For me it’s not getting used to something, it is whether it is at least as effective (hopefully more so) as whatever was employed before and are there no adverse side effects compromising that alternate use?

So for me it’s neither a preference or getting used to alternates; Win8 is incapable of passing muster without a start menu and further, the little tweaks being put into Windows management with third party start menus are some of the most interesting of the changes being effected upon Windows 8. Changes we could not and would not have ever gotten from Microsoft’s ponderously slow update/upgrade cycle.

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Ya, as Jerry mentions about searching, with a start menu absent, you should mention just how you do search and if you leave indexing on or not vis-a-vis SSD usage or not. Also, does that mean you are primarily a search type person or not and did Win 8 effect any change there? For me it’s not getting used to something, it is whether it is at least as effective (hopefully more so) as whatever was employed before and are there no adverse side effects compromising that alternate use?

So for me it’s neither a preference or getting used to alternates; Win8 is incapable of passing muster without a start menu and further, the little tweaks being put into Windows management with third party start menus are some of the most interesting of the changes being effected upon Windows 8. Changes we could not and would not have ever gotten from Microsoft’s ponderously slow update/upgrade cycle.

I have actually changed my Windows 7 habits, as well. I type more program names now, in 7, than I used to. It’s just faster than scrolling the start menu. This change does come from using Windows 8 on my laptop. I also searched by programs in 7 before, but now I do it more often.

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I use pinned apps and search as well but I prefer using classic shell’s search better than Win 8’s. I don’t have to leave the desktop and its one click to search for apps, control panel, or files. In Win 8 you have to use separate searches. For the admittedly rare Control panel browsing, I like the Classic shell’s menu of control panel apps as well. But everyone has different preferences.

Jerry

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I have StartIsBack. It works identically to the start button / menu in Windows 7.

I tried using Windows 8 for a while as-is, but I continually felt like I was being asked to tie one hand behind my back while working.

Kind of like holding the phone in one hand and trying to then type with only one hand. It’s much better when you have a headset and both hands are free.

I would have ditched Windows 8 if not for something like StartIsBack. I don’t need to do things Microsoft’s way that bad.

With StartIsBack, I’m very pleased with Windows 8.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 10 running in a remote session on my file server

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Here’s the article link. :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Paul Thurrott > In Blue: Start Experience Changes

I can now confirm that most of the rumored coming changes to the Start experience in Windows 8.1 “Blue” are correct. And I’ve got a few screenshots to help demonstrate how these changes are implemented. …

Clicking Windows 8.1’s new Start Button while in the Desktop view:

(on the left)

simply takes the user back to the Metro Style (swinging tiles) Start Screen. 🙁

“Windows Blah” 😡

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Paul Thurrott > In Blue: Start Experience Changes

Clicking Windows 8.1’s new Start Button while in the Desktop view:

(on the left)

simply takes the user back to the Metro Style (swinging tiles) Start Screen. 🙁

“Windows Blah” 😡

Oh, that looks awful.:mad:

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hmmm so really they have added a FAKE start button and totally ignored everyone asking for the real start button to be restored. hmm in the words of John Grisham

“You must be Stupid, Stupid Stupid!”

Syb

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hmmm so really they have added a FAKE start button and totally ignored everyone asking for the real start button to be restored.

Since Microsoft considers the entire Windows 8 “Metro” screen a replacement for the old Windows Start Menu, then clicking a Start button on the Desktop should simply take the user back to the “Metro”/Start Menu screen. 😡

🙂

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Apparently there is a plan to make Search automatically invoke Bing. I can’t see that being allowed by the EU.

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I guess it’s up to each individual user to decide what tiles to keep on the Start Screen and which to Unpin from the Start Screen. For those who do not know, Right Click a tile and choose Unpin from Start to eliminate that tile from the Start Screen. It will still be available on the All Apps screen. In this way you can keep only those tiles you use a lot.

Personally I will continue to use a Start Menu add-on for this purpose. This add-on along with my Toolbars gives me all the access I need.

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You guys are all thinking just in terms of desktop use. Don’t get me wrong, I think it needs a start menu and not just a start button also, but as long as MS allows a third party replacement, no problem, and in fact, there is some nice evolution of the start menu interface going on because there is high demand and vendors are trying to differentiate a little.

The main point though is if one does had a touch device or touch desktop/laptop screen, this makes it super easy and direct and analogous to switch back an forth if the desktop is needed. That is a simplification that improves use compared to the present needlessly more complex and non-analogous interface. In other words MS is just making it easier and more intuitive to get to the Start screen, not to improve desktop use.

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At some point in time (probably if/when this PC dies) I will be looking at touch enabled devices as a replacement. It’s nice to know this change may make that easier.

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Touchscreen devices work fine for consuming content. Easier to use a Desktop to create content though.

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Yes, by their inherent nature this is fact, not that it can’t be done of course but the technical aspects of creating content implies much more input to the system and a large workspace really enhances productivity. So, no one has explained to me yet how a 1:1 touch interface can be used all day long without just wearing out your arm. What is a mouse about, 4 to 1, 5 to one if fully accelerated? Also capable of three or four interactions in the same space that would be required for touch alone. Factor those together and a pointer type device is potentially 16 times more efficient than touch.

That’s why Microsoft needed to let the two interfaces live together but keep separate bedrooms for a few years before ever trying to get’em hitched. It was bold and in the right direction but just because your six-year old wants to drive to school today instead of you driving him, do you let him?

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