

  (Source: Microsoft)
Is this the start button you're looking for?


  • Color theme customizations
  • Large and Tiny Live Tiles
  • Batch Live Tile operations (move, etc.)
  • Improved knowledge-enabled global, unified search
  • Side-by-side resizable app panes
  • Improved Windows Store
  • Improved SkyDrive support
  • Camera UI and photo slideshow on lock screen





Windows 8.1 Preview





Comments     Threshold


Start Button
By Dr3amCast on 6/26/2013 3:30:06 PM , Rating: 5
Is it just me...or does the return of the "start" button seem kind of redundant in the way they're using it. I have only just dabbled with Windows 8, like many of you I didn't like the interface. But when I hit the start button in Win7, it's typically because it's a small unobtrusive window (depending on amount of programs) that I navigate quickly to get the the program or folder I want.

This Win 8.1 Start button seems awful to me because it throws you full screen into the same full-screen metro style interface. Which, to me, makes it seem like its hardly there at all.

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My keyboard doesn't have a Windows key.

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By jeepga on 6/26/2013 5:24:06 PM , Rating: 3

Small and unobtrusive is an opinion. I find it the opposite. That's especially true if you have more than a trivial number of applications installed.

I find the metro UI a little jarring, but it's laid out better and I don't miss navigating through different program folders. I can have the programs I use most frequently right there ready to run. And I can use All Apps if I need to get to the ones I use infrequently. For me it's a big time saver.

RE: Start Button
By Motoman on 6/26/2013 5:31:20 PM , Rating: 5
Yeah, this is a useless update, and isn't going to fool anybody.

People will continue to stay away from Win8 in droves. And Stardock will continue to sell lots of copies of Start8.

RE: Start Button
By max_payne on 6/26/2013 6:33:52 PM , Rating: 2
That's interesting. Now that MS has put back a button, how do the other third parties are going to yank it and put their own ? I suspect that MS bolted it in with tough security to make sure it stays there. MS INSIST that you go to modern UI for your applications.

RE: Start Button
By DigitalFreak on 6/26/2013 6:52:18 PM , Rating: 2
Nope. Start8 has an update coming out today for 8.1

RE: Start Button
By tamalero on 6/26/2013 9:51:14 PM , Rating: 2
hope classic-shell too.
seems Microsoft wants the modern ui BS almost as bad as the Xbox drm.
and they wonder why they are hemorrhaging money.

RE: Start Button
By inighthawki on 6/26/2013 10:08:39 PM , Rating: 2
Last I checked they were doing fine. Stock price was recently (and is still pretty close to) the highest it's been in 5+ years.

RE: Start Button
By BRB29 on 6/27/2013 11:11:47 AM , Rating: 3
and they wonder why they are hemorrhaging money.

I think they're gaining money.

MS is a monopoly. Putting out a bad product doesn't hurt the bottom line all that much when you can force people to pay for it.

RE: Start Button
By Motoman on 6/27/2013 12:33:32 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah, that whole "forcing people to pay for it" thing doesn't seem like it's worked out too well, granted that Gartner, Forrester, and all the major OEMs are blaming Win8 for the massive drop in PC sales.

People *don't* have to buy Win8. And lots of them aren't, and in fact the only reason that MS is changing anything at all is because of that fact.

RE: Start Button
By BRB29 on 6/28/2013 8:42:45 AM , Rating: 2
Almost every single PC that sold have win8 whether people like it or not. Yes sales have been down but win8 still makes money along with their other cash cow called "office".

Historically, every bad OS sold and made profit. They just didn't sell as much. But that gives MS the opportunity to release a "newer and better" OS quickly after instead of the 5-7 year cycle. Overall, people will need to replace their PC and MS will make their money. We considered win8 an utter failure but MS will still make billions in the end.

RE: Start Button
By Motoman on 6/28/2013 1:55:31 PM , Rating: 3
It doesn't matter how you try to frame it now - the irrefutable fact of the matter is that MS (and all the OEMs) would have made a lot MORE over the lifespan on Win8 so far it it either didn't have the Metro UI, or if it also included the option to use the standard Start menu/desktop.

You can declare Win8 a "success" if you want. But there's no doubt they cost themselves, and the whole industry, enormous amounts of money in lost sales.

