Microsoft parades Windows 8.1, the version you may actually want Microsoft today demonstrated Windows 8.1 for the first time in public and showed off at least 60 compatible devices - including Haswell-powered gadgets. Windows vice-president Antoine Leblond took the Computex crowd through a whistlestop tour of all the major new functionality in the OS formerly known as Windows Blue. Key …
Microsoft said that they had listened to their customers, oh really
Don't tell me someone at Microsoft actually thought that when people referred to the, lack of the "Start Button", that they actually took that phrase literally.
It would be interesting to know just how many downloads were made for StartMenuClassic et all.
"What key? I ask, you tit- this is a tablet."
Probably the one, bottom centre below your screen... you know, the one with the windows logo on it...
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-57360734-64/microsoft-lays-out-window-8-tablet-hardware-requirements/
You need a mirror. Obviously you're as narrow minded as the people at microsoft. It wasn't about the button itself as the whole mess of mixing two UI at people. Its an ugly messy package.
Hell, Windows8 has made me download and start using LinuxMint... which is usable, unlike metro.
But that does not gives you a start menu. It gives you an ugly collection of square blotches of color, which appear to represent applications, with no hierarchical grouping visual clues, that takes up the entire 22 inch screen while showing only a fraction of the choices, having to be scraped back and forth to expose the rest of the blotches. It's a mess.
I'm writing this on Windows 7. When I hit the Windows key, I get a real menu, and I can choose to bring up a new application while leaving my current open windows in place. I have a Windows 8 machine, but haven't touched it in weeks, because a real user workflow does not work on the device. It's probably fine for casual browsing (which I do on my phone anyway, but never mind) but is a definite step backwards for real work.
"But that does not gives you a start menu. It gives you an ugly collection of square blotches of color, which appear to represent applications"
Tbh, that's basically what the Start Menu does, and it does in a little fraction of the screen with small writing.
For reference, I use Win7+8 and don't have any skin in the arguement.
"Try the Windows key on the keyboard you morons
Would be my response"
Ever notice how easy it is to tell when someone has never tried the OS they are trying to defend?
For those of you who have so far managed to avoid the Horror that is Windows 8;
Pressing the "Windows key" on a Win 8 system does NOT bring up a menu of applications/settings, it take you to the Metro screen. "Windows key" + "r" will open a run dialog. Goddess help you if you don't know the name of the actual executable exe file for your application.
and wasn't the whole point of Windows to make it so you didn't need a keyboard to start your applications.
But, run any of the replacement programs (StartUI, etc) and windows key = start menu.
Guess what Win Key + D does.....The Desktop. The Win 7 desktop. With the added security and other "under the bonnet" tweaks that actually makes Win 8 an excellent OS for tablet, laptop and desktop.
Now if you are smart enough to use "sudo apt get" then you should just be able to carry out the StartUI (or any of the others) trick.
What are you afraid of? That you would have to admit that with WIN 8 everything does just work, if you want the Win 7 experience then go get it.
Your answer kind of underscores what you mention when you say "Ever notice how easy it is to tell someone has never used the OS they are trying to defend"
Did you mean yourself when you made that comment?
Most users now will respond you "Ballmerboy, what button are you talking about anyway? My iOS/Android device has not that f*** button!"
And it is true for the majority of devices, as after that epic fail of W8 Squarepants was announced non Wintel machines sales and usage skyrocketed and pros and developers ran away in flocks. And after fist 9 months of W8 heavy advertising reign, Wintel platform IS NO LONGER THE DOMINANT ONE for number of users nor for revenue.
Welcome to the new world, MS suicided itself, get a clue.
Except to the users, whose #1 problem is "where the f*** are my programs"
Only they won't be helped much has could be either, because it's a new unfamiliar logo. It's marginally more obvious than pointed at the empty space where the button used to be, but only marginally.
Such as bringing back the start menu
Bringing back multiple apps on screen at once
Bringing back the ability to improve performance
Heck lets just say we brought back a whole load of the stuff we stripped out of windows 7 before tacking on the metro UI.
Heck why don't we just call this "Windows 7 + Metro" so people can really see what we're selling.
"Bringing back multiple apps on screen at once
You sort of can already, you just need to use that stupid "snap" system where you drag the apps to the edge of the screen."
Except that only gives you two, and one is mostly unusable, and even then it only works on screens with the proper resolution. Here's hoping they fixed it up a bit better than that in 8.1...
Since when is Start-Menu the definitive last word in How Things Should Be Done? I seem to recall XP cahnged things quite a lot too, as have other versions.
Start menu is crap IMO. 4-deep nesting in one tiny area of the screen with menus that close if you move the mouse the wrong way, etc. When you're launching an app you are not multi-tasking so why NOT use the whole screen to show everything?
Lots of people thought the start menu was crap. But the start screen is a lake of liquefied pig shit. So we want our crap back, at least we know how to work with it.
Change can be good, or as the start screen / metro shows it can be bad. Windows 95 to 7 had both good and bad changes, but more good then bad.
Because the Start Menu is the one single thing that made users get up in arms. Actually XP made it less cluttered, by putting all the "My PC", "My Documents" et al in the Start Menu instead of wasting space as icons in the screen. Same with the scrolling menu vs. zillion cascading menus behavior. Vista/7 even improved on this concept.
And just searching stuff, a lot of people that aren't even in IT are complaining about it.
I am still to this day LIVID that since installing Windows 95 Microsoft have simply assumed I want to load Windows every time I boot my PC. What was wrong with WIndows 3.1 and having to type "win" at the prompt if you wanted to load Windows? Every single day since then I have woken up angry and haven't given Microsoft a penny since then.
"I am still to this day LIVID that since installing Windows 95 Microsoft have simply assumed I want to load Windows every time I boot my PC. What was wrong with WIndows 3.1 and having to type "win" at the prompt if you wanted to load Windows?"
Again, sarcastic trolls, you could easily override that behaviour in Windows 95, just like you could make your shell progman.exe to get the old Windows 3.1 UI back. You could also still use the Windows 3.1 file manager (winfile.exe) if you preferred it, as long as you were careful not to break LFN aliases by renaming shit.
A simple edit to c:\msdos.sys (a text configuration file in Win9x), BootGUI=0, would return the old behaviour of starting Windows 95 to DOS and typing "win" to run win.com and start Windows.
Tell me again why people can't have a more classic user interface in Windows 8, when it's clearly demonstrated that a third party can trivially add that functionality back (for free, even)? I'll tell you why, because the system is arbitrarily crippled to direct people to the fugly tile screen with spammy tiles and Microsoft's software store.
And just searching stuff, a lot of people that aren't even in IT are complaining about it.
Upon which we read....
"For my older readers, it's like when you used to have to masturbate your horse to get him going and then hang a severed horse vagina in front of his face in order to get him to sprint."
HOLY DUCK, NOW I HAVE TO USE MIND BLEACH.
But finally, I found the money quote. I hope GNOMEtards are also reading these,
Here is where you may break down and buy a brand new computer. It's a good feeling -- you spent a lot of money, sure, but at least you know you've left that old mess behind.
So, you get it home and turn it on, only to realize that something is even more wrong with it. All of the controls are gone -- all of the stuff you used to click on to make it work, even the "shut down" button, are just ... gone. All of the buttons in the upper right of your window -- the "X" and "-" buttons your kids showed you how to use 15 years ago -- have vanished, and in fact so has the window itself. Even the "start" button in the lower left that let you access everything is gone. Unfortunately, you have been infected with a piece of malicious software called Windows 8, and not only did you just unintentionally pay for it, but it will cost you another couple hundred dollars to get your local computer shop to remove it. And here is when you realize that all of this is just an elaborate prank meant to teach you to be satisfied with what you have in life, because you just couldn't leave well enough alone.
This product is what Windows 8 should have been when it was released. This makes Windows 8 look like it was a paid for beta when it was released.
Now if only Start Button can actually = Start Menu (we don't need a start menu/screen that takes up a whole screen)
This update might make the much needed improvements to Windows 8, however we will only know once it is released.
Looking forward to testing this though
"You can't use any apps while the menu is open so why not use the screen to display more things at once?"
Bullshit. Or am I imagining reading email or monitoring a script's progress whilst opening the start menu? Am I imagining watching video or using Skype while the start menu is open?
@JDX Posted Wednesday 5th June 2013 15:49 GMT
Why not use the whole screen? Because of efficiency. I can very nicely setup the programs in my Start Menu so that by only moving the mouse a bit I can reach all of the programs that I use mostly, without a need to see the shortcuts on the desktop.
Why are we surprised Win8 was crap. Every 1st version is shite and they fix it, (mostly), with the second version. This has happened since Windows 95.
If only someone would produce an Officesuite that was really inter-operable with Office, I could get away from Balmerland
GPL - that is the viral, unfree Licence from the great toe cheese eater? Thanks but no thanks. I stick to free licences like Apache
Woah, mmeier Failure of that level at groking GPL either comes from the "it's all mine, mine!" microsoft-subsidized roach corner of proprietary shackleware or the "I want to have it all, why don't you give it to me!" camp of aggravated freetardism.
I like Apache license too but I have no problem with GPL or LGPL.
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