Microsoft shows off Windows 10's new Start Menu

[wiyosaya]

With all the problems in WinDOHs 10, one would think that they have better things to work on than the start menu.

Leave it to M$ to break something and call it a fix, then break it even more, and still call it a fix especially when it was never broken in the first place.

 

[kmbear]

Most users remove those tiles and prefer to use a plain and simple start menu. I prefer to use a minimal start menu, for example. It disturbs me to see such a crowded and bloated clusters of tiles.

It's actually fantastic if you organize your tiles. Much better than scrolling through a list. They do need provide more organization capabilities though

 

[ssinco]

For everyone complaining this is a useless update for them and they don't use "live tiles" anyway that is exactly the point.

Power users on a desktop will hit the start button, type the app they want to open and hit enter.

For the vast majority of everyone else they want large, fresh looking icons to "tap" with their finger and click with their mouse. They want it in the same location and not have to hunt through a menu to find them.

Microsoft has pulled off fulfilling both criteria remarkebly well, say what you will about it being "worse than windows 7", name me a reason why and I will give you the credit.

 

[CrisisDog]

I wish they would stop screwing with the Start menu and make a better start screen for tablets. I know I’m one of the few to say this, but Windows 8 had a way better touch interface. They seem to be ignoring that there are still tablets being manufactured out there...

 

[Nobodysfool]

Terrible.

 

[VitalStatistic]

Any chance of a Windows7 Emulation mode, and maybe roll back some of the bugs Win10 has introduced to my computing life? Or are they considered features?

 

[Evernessince]

If I'm being honest, the only thing I use the start menu for anymore is the type to search. It is surprising handy.

 

[Puiu]

Any chance of a Windows7 Emulation mode, and maybe roll back some of the bugs Win10 has introduced to my computing life? Or are they considered features?

What bugs more exactly?

 

[tygrus]

Microsoft never curtailed or managed the explosion of Menu groups and items developers created. Not just 3rd party but also their own. I'd have to group, re-arrange and clean the long list of menu items into something sensible. But when it came to the "Control panel" I liked the full list not their groupings (eg. WinXP onwards).

The old ideal GUI design advice: recommended up to 7 items in a menu but 10 at the most. People remember location so constantly changing "here's what you just used" failed most users. No more than 3 levels deep. Android phone now has 20+ pages of 20 apps each, it's less efficient.

 

[Amber351]

It's smaller?

Also it is white while there is pride written next to it. Not sure they want that kind of heat. ?

The stripe in the middle is white, for those who are transitioning or consider themselves having a neutral or undefined gender. This is assuming they're referencing the trans flag since there's pink blue and white. Orange was probably just an aesthetic choice perhaps, lol.

 

[Reehahs]

Start menu got more and more useless with each iteration of Windows.

 

[Amber351]

Start menu got more and more useless with each iteration of Windows.

Tbh all I want is a menu or search function for my apps I don't want anything fancy

 

[Irata]

You can WinDroid your phone using "Launcher 10", a free awesome homescreen replacer that perfectly mimics LiveTiles from WinPhone. It's excellent and makes every other homescreen look like a children's toy.

https://imgur.com/C8hB4b0

Thanks, will give it a try.

Question: is it the one from nfwebdev ?

 

[mrSister]

I can't see anything new there. I just use OpenShell to have a nice and actually useful start menu experience like we used to have prior to Win8;

I really wish they would stop to try and reinvent the wheel when is not needed and started to show some love to actual piceces of the desktop that really need some major overhauls like notepad, the clipboard manager or the file explorer.

 

[Tams80]

I really don't get the hate for the Start Menu.
Now, the Start Screen... on a tablet it was okay but a fullscreen 'overlay' (with the taskbar still there) still looks more consistent.

The only really bad thing is the search. It's still pretty bad.

 

[meric]

TBH I find it odd that the design team still gets busy with the "outdated" tiles stuff. There are many visual improvements they could make for so many years. They could at least take the example of different Linux distros, some of which made great progress in terms of looks, lately. My favorite distro of late is the Deepin Desktop. I'd much prefer if MS design team took some features from Deepin, especially the ones about task bar.

 

[Gezzer]

It's still a sh#t sandwich that needs you be abandoned. The pre tile start menu had been honed over at least 18 years and throwing it away was crazy.

I totally agree, from a M&K desktop users perspective having a nested folder hierarchical menu system is much more user friendly. Tiles were a kludge to capture mobile market by being touch friendly at the expense of desktop users.

Win8 was an all in move in that regard by MS and Win10 was a minor back tracking after Win8 blew up in their face. So I really doubt tiles are going any place, live or otherwise. MS was asleep at the wheel in regards to mobile and have now decided they're going to recapture market share no matter what.

 

[Gezzer]

Any chance of a Windows7 Emulation mode, and maybe roll back some of the bugs Win10 has introduced to my computing life? Or are they considered features?

Never going to happen. MS wants, hell has to have Win10 succeed for their long term strategy. So any compromises for the Win7 lovers out there (like me) will impede getting everyone to switch to their mobile friendly OS Win10.

First step is getting everyone to just "love" tiles on the desktop (or simply get used to them over time). Second step is people flocking to buy Win10 tablets and smartphones. MS is bound and determined to see the second one happen, so they refuse to give up on the first.

 

[TerryInWales]

Never going to happen. MS wants, hell has to have Win10 succeed for their long term strategy. So any compromises for the Win7 lovers out there (like me) will impede getting everyone to switch to their mobile friendly OS Win10.

First step is getting everyone to just "love" tiles on the desktop (or simply get used to them over time). Second step is people flocking to buy Win10 tablets and smartphones. MS is bound and determined to see the second one happen, so they refuse to give up on the first.

I use OpenShell. I make it look more like Windows 95 or XP. No more junk. Just easy to find everything with the mouse and alphabetically. Drag and drop works. Can even have a glass effect. It is worth the effort of setting it up. A very underrated Start Menu in my opinion.

 

[Fox God Records]

= = Classic Start Menu = =

Get your WIN7 Aero back. I "had to" install it on my mother's computer. She told me to get rid of those, "God-awful tile things!" So I did.

It stopped being developed in 2017, but it still works flawlessly (for me).

Classic Shell v4.3.1

 

[Gezzer]

I use OpenShell. I make it look more like Windows 95 or XP. No more junk. Just easy to find everything with the mouse and alphabetically. Drag and drop works. Can even have a glass effect. It is worth the effort of setting it up. A very underrated Start Menu in my opinion.

I use Classic shell myself. But as was mentioned it's no longer under development and who knows how long it'll be stable for (I should move over to open shell). I also used Start 10, but that was a buggy mess for me. Funny, free software works better than paid for...

As for MS ever creating a Win7 emulation mode? Like I said, never going to happen. IMHO they are more than willing to look the other way if a few users go "off book". But they certainly don't want to encourage it, and I bet dollars to doughnuts if a significant percentage of people started using open shell? Yeah, they'd find a way to lock that **** down real quick.

 

[Jon Heil]

Ick.. no need to use the Windows button with all that graphically junk, thats like sites needing all the bogus ads on their sites or desperate for revenue. Always a must to add the quick launch bar in the button and then you can put your My Computer and other icons

After you add the quick launch, you can right click on the taskbar and then goto new and pick toolbar and type in %appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

After you can right click on the desktop and then goto new shortcut
(Much better Start Menu option) c:\programdata\microsoft\windows\Start Menu

 

[Alfred A Arnold]

After a lot of thought, I have come to the conclusion, that purchasing another computer in the next few months, not to work with but just for Windows ten, because my Terobyte computer won't have the capacity to hold just the Windows program, Every time I turn it on its getting larger and larger, I can remember running a computer with ten Gigs of hard drive. but then I did not have all the useless rubbish we have today where 90 % goes unused by most users

 

[GirlDownunder]

My favourite "feature" of Windows 10 is how they renamed Accessories to Windows Accessories. That, was such a brilliant and incredibly important thing to do! How did they miss that for all of these years???

PS: "I" personally know that you can start typing at the Win key, but it would be kind of amazing if M$ ever TOLD people about this. I kid you not-- even people I know who are working in fairly technical fields didn't know about it until I mentioned it. I mean, M$ made sure for years that everyone knew to use a "search box", then, they remove it (along with the games that the old folks play....good grief). Who in their right mind would think, "hey, I think I'll just start typing into nothing and search for X?" This is, of course, when it's actually functioning:

https://www.computerworld.com/artic...rch-box-gone-black-does-search-even-work.html

Don't even get me started on M$'s push to get new machines to log in with a dreadful M$ account over a local account. If you're connected to wifi at the start of a new set-up (they prompt you TWICE- 1st time, you say "I don't have internet" & they come back again (YOU ARE LYING!) with yet another prompt to connect. You don't even get the OPTION of a local account-- unless you disconnect from wifi. What a racket.

The programs list was fine in 7. If they wanted to include the ability to do a search from Win key- they could have simply added it. Everything else is eye-candy which is starting to make Windows look like something from Playskool, primary colours included.

Such absolute nonsense. Thank heavens for Linux Mint.

 

[mrSister]

= = Classic Start Menu = =

Get your WIN7 Aero back. I "had to" install it on my mother's computer. She told me to get rid of those, "God-awful tile things!" So I did.

It stopped being developed in 2017, but it still works flawlessly (for me).

Classic Shell v4.3.1

Get OpenShell instead which is a fork being maintained.