Revamped Windows 10 Start Menu could replace Live Tiles

midian182

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In a nutshell: Are you a fan of the Live Tiles feature in Windows 10’s Start Menu? Probably not, which is why Microsoft is reportedly going to kill them off in a future Windows update.

Live Tiles, you may recall, arrived alongside the Windows Phone 7 before making their way to the Windows 8 operating system. Microsoft hoped the feature would make the OS well-suited for both desktop and touchscreen computers, but it wasn’t too be. Despite this, Live Tiles still came to Windows 10’s Start Menu.

In addition to acting as shortcuts, Live Tiles continuously pull information in real-time from the likes of Mail, Spotify, and news and weather applications, but the feature hasn’t been updated since Windows Mobile came to an end, meaning more third-party app makers have dropped support.

According to Windows Latest, citing people familiar with the development of Windows 10, Microsoft is planning to get rid of Live Tiles and replace them with a series of static icons. This redesigned Start menu would be similar to the start menu of Windows 10X, which is designed for dual-screen devices.

It’s unclear how long we’ll have to wait before the change arrives, assuming it does. Microsoft is said to be replacing Live Tiles after the Windows 10 20H2 update that is scheduled to be pushed out in the second half of this year. Windows Latest expects the feature will be killed off in Windows 10’s 2021 update.

Last week it was reported that Microsoft was pushing out new, colorful Windows 10 icons to those in the Windows Insider Program, so the company is planning to change the look of its OS. Removing Live Tiles could be part of those long-term plans.

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I've been using Start10 since W10 came out, because the original Start Menu took up too much screen space and it lacked the customization I was used to.

If the update looks anything like the image below, I'm all for it.
windows-10x-concept.jpg
 
Hmm win 10 the dumbed down sorry excuse for an OS. How long will it be when they start charging users monthly usage fees just to use it? how much more have they made selling all your data.
 
I have no real problem with it, and its kind a better than the windows 8 days, but I like many others have never really used it
 
Hmm win 10 the dumbed down sorry excuse for an OS. How long will it be when they start charging users monthly usage fees just to use it? how much more have they made selling all your data.
charging monthly fees for Windows 10 might actually happen - they might expand Microsoft 365 to consumers.
 
If you are doing an initial install of needed programs like Chrome, PDF readers and such use ninite.com. As well as the stuff you normally install select classic start and you will never need to look at the god awful windows start with tiles.
 
Microsoft seems determined to keep a touch-friendly UI on PCs. How many people in offices have touch screens? Heck, how many of MS's staff worldwide have touch-screen monitors with their PCs? I'm going to be generous and guess 10%. Perhaps another 10% in specialist jobs that are using a touch screen. So, 80% of MS customers are lumped with the baby version of an OS.

Simple solution: Provide an option to have the baby version of the OS with the big colourful pictures, or the professional version where we can use a keyboard/mouse. I don't get why this is so hard - Windows 7 had a perfectly good UI.
Windows 7 also had a perfectly good and intuitive search tool. And proper progress bars (not the busy indicators that today's "progress" bars really are).

Screw it. I'm going to get Start10.
 
Good riddance. Also the new icons look like they are designed by and for millennials. I just hope they give the option to use the "old" icons.

options are always good... isnt there a theme option still in windows to change all the icons and such?
I use to love changing themes on my old WinXP system... but I was also much younger and didnt know much about what I could use computers for... then I discovered porn.
 
Live tiles are worthless for me. I never liked the idea of the constant use of resources to keep an icon updated - a complete and utter waste. One of the first thing I do to a Win 10 systems is turn them ALL off.

Like it not, us Windows users are stuck with crappy millennials dictating how our OS looks and works. It's pretty sad, Windows 7 was very, very good and not much really need to be done to it. Then the disaster that was Windows 8 - which Windows 10 was really just a "fix" to a poor OS.

Guess I'm just one of those that just wants the basics of an OS - I don't need all the crap they're adding. I just want it to be stable and efficient for the tasks I need to complete on a PC without all the fluff.
 
dictating how

Yup, I imagine (too) many design and development decisions are brought on in this way. Even TV shows are being re-written to suit the viewer(s), it's madness (LOL). Plenty of (good!) 3rd-party software exists to handle all sorts of customizations and for devs to be dealing with something like this.. Geez. Aanyway. :)

EDIT:
So, 80% of MS customers are lumped with the baby version of an OS.
Besides of not (ever?!) addressing issues that would make the OS better for 80% of us, they are also never going to consider something as wonderful as this. Server has components which we can add and remove, but not desktop. They're more concerned with not giving Home users access to tools like gpedit.msc (Local GPO) than with improving, blah.
 
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options are always good... isnt there a theme option still in windows to change all the icons and such?
I use to love changing themes on my old WinXP system... but I was also much younger and didnt know much about what I could use computers for... then I discovered porn.
Bahahahaha! I used to call my first computer my $1500 playboy back in the dark ages of dialup.
 
Bahahahaha! I used to call my first computer my $1500 playboy back in the dark ages of dialup.
$2000 for a Gateway *486 (edit) PC for me, back in the dialup era. xF

^^ Even today it's messed up and too expensive, the cost of a second-hand car or motorbike: paid ~$1400 for this new laptop, plus gaming keyboard, mouse and USB hub and a sweet 27'' screen and there goes $2000. Down the drain, in a couple of years when the tech gets run-over, blah.
 
Yeah I'm not crazy about them, but they're easy to forget about. I'm just waiting for Microsoft to bring back Windows Mobile, I'm sick of Android and iOS phones.
 
I've been using Start10 since W10 came out, because the original Start Menu took up too much screen space and it lacked the customization I was used to.

If the update looks anything like the image below, I'm all for it.
View attachment 86211
Windows 10's start menu is indeed useless. Without needing third party software, you can create 2 custom toolbar to these folders to get great old style start menu:
%AppData%\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs; and
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
 
Wow...such a short article and the editor couldn't catch the "too be" near the beginning. Nice journalism.
Yeah, these days writers are too busy to reread what they write. Then again, I see this mistake made so often, I'm not sure if some people don't actually believe it to be the correct usage!
 
Yeah I'm not crazy about them, but they're easy to forget about. I'm just waiting for Microsoft to bring back Windows Mobile, I'm sick of Android and iOS phones.

I'm still on windows mobile. my idol 4s (windows 10)battery ,started heading south.but the little woman,still had her lumia 830 .like new .so I'm still rocking LIVETILES, for all you windows 98ish, icon lovers.:) :p
 
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