Windows 8 Start Button

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When I tried the developers trial of Windows 8 a person could get behind that ugly metro interface and there was a start button and everything looked like Windows 7. Has the start button actually been removed? That seems a little radical. The only touch screens that friends & acquaintances have are on tablets which IMHO aren’t ready for the bloat of any Windows version.

I would really appreciate comments from users of the consumer trial.

thx

Chuck Lingo

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Chuck,

The has been much discussion on the Start Menu, or should I say lack there of. It does take a little getting used to, but it is initially just a minor inconvenience. Read through some of the various threads here to see some of the suggested changes to get around.

Some of the biggies to set up.

Win Key + X opens the Power Users Menu (Right Click in lower left corner does as well) You can find many of the maintenance tools here.

This threadgives some ideas on how I customized my Desktop. There are dozens of variations. I set up a Shortcuts folder in My Documents (On Win 7 as well) where I placed shortcuts to oft used apps. I placed a new toolbar on the taskbar and pointed to this folder. Same with the Office apps (Office toolbar), and Favorites Toolbar, and Quick Launch Toolbar.

This threadshows how to place Shutdown and Restart icons on your Desktop.

There are many more gems in this forum. Have a nice read.

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The following is from the thread ‘My 2 Cents”: http://windowssecrets.com/forums/showthread//145193-My-2-cents

Right now, IMHO, performance of Win8 will be the deciding factor for those Win7 users who dislike the Metro GUI. The other factor of course is selling price. I very much like the performance of Win8 and hope it improves when finally released. Microsoft may well have a hard time convincing Win7 (desktop) users to purchase Win8 if the selling price is deemed too steep. Such users will ask themselves:
Why upgrade if I have to customize the desktop when I am perfectly content with my Win7 setup?

Rich

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Having been hugely disappointed in Win7 – nice OS, shame a lot of my music programs don’t work, and nor do my soundcard, scanner or printer), and after trying Win8-CPR(!), I thought “Has MS totally lost the plot?”

To add on a touch interface is fine – it’s really just laying a screen over the desktop with alternate commands – and doesn’t worry me at all.

The deliberate sacrificing of the main “User Interface” which lies underneath the Touch overlay, and the one ALL PC users know, just seems absurd and stupid.
You don’t need a foot transplant just to wear a different coloured pair of shoes!

When I switch from the Tile screen to the old Desktop, why not have the old menus?
Did they get in the way?
Were they ‘problematic’? (unlike the last 20+ years)?

But the best bit is –

– they expect us to go out and buy it??

Simply Delusional

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Well, you don’t have to buy it if you do not want to. This OS was developed primarily to compete on tablets with touch capabilities. It’s primary competition will be iPad/iPhone. To that end it will likely work very well. The side benefit is that it seems to work reasonably well on PC’s using keyboard/mouse combos on the Desktop. I actually do not miss the Start menu at all. But as I said, you do not need to Upgrade if you choose not to. I believe there will ultimately be benefits to Win 8 including memory management and speed benefits. Will these be enough to offset the cost of upgrade? Who know, you will have to way the benefit to cost ratio.

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Oh don’t worry – XP has lasted very well, and when things eventually come to a head I will be forced to move all the way to Win7.

As for the supposed ‘memory management and speed benefits’, this has always been the ‘big draw’ to move up to the next windows version.

But almost all the folks I communicate with in music production world say that Win7 is noticeably slower than XP.

I think my main bone of contention with Win8 is exactly as you say – its designed for tablets, and not the many many PC users out there.

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When you first install Win-8/CP and go to the desktop, it’s pretty much a blank slate. I think there is a wastebasket there and that’s all.
But with just a few minutes and very little effort, you can make it yours, just like you did on XP or Vista or Win-7.
Adopting a “Theme” is a good starter.

There’s nothing to buy, or even download. Everything you need is right there in Win-8.
I’ve been having a ball making my own win-8 desktop to look pretty much like my XP desktop.

The only noticeable difference is the absence of the START orb in the left corner. I put my Quick Shutdown icon there,
just for continuity with the older os’s.

As for speed, I’ve spent several years, developing tweaks and tune-up tips for XP so my XP really FLIES. Win-8 is absolutely NO faster, in my own experience.
Shutdown is supposed to be so fast, but after the screen goes black I still have to sit here another ten seconds or more and wait for the system to actually shut down. XP goes from running to OFF in just over five seconds.

For me, it’s just another OS with more limitations than I had with XP.
But hey, I’m not griping and I’m learning ways to make it more acceptable to my elderly customers.
Who knows, I might even run it myself, sometime in the far distant future. Eh?

Cheers Mates!

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If you like that Start Button, check out the link:

http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/
Rich

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Windows 8 its like for future because on the future are just touchscreens, phones, PC, tablet PC, everything will be on touch screens that’s my opinion why they naked Windows 8.

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Again, Folks…

Start is in the bottom-right corner

You mean left, right?

Bruce

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I’m not a fan of Metro either. I arranged my desktop much like Dr Who. I did add a Start button Start Menu 7 http://startmenu7.com/ for occasional use. I noticed as you install things Metro gets filled up fast. I installed Media Player Classic and codec pack and that alone added 23 things to Metro. I’ve unpinned everything except Desktop Explorer and Control Panel. My only hand held device is a $15 TracFone so nothing about Metro is familiar or handy to me but I can use it.
Joe

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