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Mary Jo Foley reports at ZDNet that according to sources who've had good track records on Windows information, Microsoft won't be delivering a new Start Menu for Windows 8 with its coming Windows 8.1 Update 2, after all. "Up until recently, Microsoft was hoping to make a new "Mini" Start Menu part of a second update to Windows 8.1," says Foley. "Windows 8.1 Update 2 was and still is, last I heard slated to arrive in August of this year." Microsoft's operating systems group has decided to hold off on delivering a Microsoft-developed Start Menu until Threshold, the next "major" release of Windows. Threshold, which may or may not ultimately be called Windows 9, is expected to be released in April 2015.
The original Windows 8 interface lacked the Start Menu, a familiar component of previous versions of the operating system, replacing it with the live tile-driven Start screen. Many users didn't like the change, and some PC manufacturers and developers offered ways to bring back versions of the old Start Menu. Microsoft appeared to relent at Build when it unveiled the revised Start Menu, enhanced with Windows Modern UI improvements.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 04 2014, @11:12AM
The Start Screen is better: it doesn't spontaneously close itself like the Start Menu did, and a Start Screen full of tiles serves to replace a Desktop full of shortcuts.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 04 2014, @11:19AM
Mod down troll. Everyone loves to fellate the Start Menu. Disagreement is not tolerated!
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Wednesday June 04 2014, @11:24AM
Well I'm old enough to remember program manager, which was far better than both.
I'm also SNy enough to not give a damn about windows, as my laptop has been linux for 15 years, and I launch programs by hitting alt-escape to load up rxvt, then typing what I want
(Score: 3, Informative) by NCommander on Wednesday June 04 2014, @04:40PM
Funny enough, Program Manager survived well until XP before it was finally removed; at least as late as Windows 98 SE, it was also properly intergrated with the Start Menu as groups would show up in both. When I upgraded from 3.1 -> 95, it even gave you the option to continue using progman (it would launch full screen, with the start menu still visible).
Still always moving
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Horse With Stripes on Wednesday June 04 2014, @11:27AM
If the spontaneous closure of the Start menu was the reason they eliminated it I would think that their stable of software engineers could have figured out how to address that issue.
If having the Start menu was an option built into Windows 8 then this wouldn't be such an ongoing issue for the last year and a half. If people like the Start screen then they should use it. For those who don't they end up finding an alternative and complaining about how Windows 8 took it away from them.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by emg on Wednesday June 04 2014, @04:07PM
You don't get it. Without the 'Start Screen', people wouldn't use Metro apps, so no-one would write Metro apps, so there'd be no apps for Windows Phone, so no-one would buy Windows phones.
Microsoft threw the desktop under a bus to try to gain market share in phones. They won't go back and change that just because actual Windows users hate it. It's not as though Window 8 has much market share on the desktop, anyway.
(Score: 2) by Horse With Stripes on Wednesday June 04 2014, @05:08PM
I do get it. I was simply addressing the OP's main complaint the Start menu. Windows 8, aka Steve B's Franken Child, tried and failed to force a completely redefined user experience on everybody (enterprise included) because they thought it would jump start their sorry assed phone sales. It was an Epic fail. I'm willing to bet the negative response that Windows 8 got on computers affected the sales of Windows Phone. "I hate this. Who would want a phone like this?"
The dual personality of "sometimes you have to be in Metro (though we claim we never called it Metro), but other times you have to be in 'desktop mode' ..." was poorly thought out and the implementation was even worse. When I read or hear that I just need to use one of Windows 8's 'Charms' I can only respond "What charm? Windows 8 doesn't have any charm."
Yes, I get it.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Wednesday June 04 2014, @07:09PM
It's also not like desktop users are going to switch to something besides Windows.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday June 04 2014, @07:33PM
That is already happening, and the Windows 8 user interface is as responsible for that as anything else.
Windows loss is Apple's gain [appleinsider.com], and they are making significant inroads into the ever shrinking desktop market.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by emg on Wednesday June 04 2014, @07:44PM
We've switched to Linux, though I keep one Windows machine around for games and another for iTunes. I know other people who've switched to Macs, and others who used to use Windows laptops but now use iPads or Android tablets.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Wednesday June 04 2014, @07:27PM
Exactly. The start screen wasn't where microsoft WANTED to be for mainstream use of the windows platform. It was a bolt-on wag-the-dog tool used to gain traction in the portable market.
Virtually all Windows managers in the Linux/Unix world still have some form of a start menu, although its usually better organized, grouping applications by functionality rather than manufacturers.
Why? because it just makes sense.
Once you get past your rebellious teen age years, you no longer floor sort your toys or tools. Once you get beyond a couple screens full of icons, you can't find anything, (yes you can organize those monster icons somewhat, but it is still a mess, and still slow as hell, using a screen full of icons). Might work for small touch screens, but it fails progressively as screen size increases.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.