back to article There is life after the death of Microsoft’s Windows 8 Start button

The disappearance of the Start button in Microsoft’s new Windows has proved unsettling for users. “I want Start. Start I say,” said an early tester in a post entitled "Worst 60 minutes in my entire life". One year on, and the Start screen is still a contentious issue. “The advantage of the overlaid menu is that it preserves …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.

Page:

  1. Interceptor
    Mushroom

    Do you know what *I* want?

    I want an OS that doesn't look like it's running in Safe Mode all the time. Dear Microsoft, not everyone who uses your OS is a latte chugging facebook-addicted hipster MONG some of us still have desktop PCs to use, and they have actual real robust hardware inside, not wafer-thin video cards whose capabilities bring us back to yesteryear when the Voodoo II was a hot item.

    I want my hobby back, I want my Big Iron treated like a computer, not a godawful soccer mom fashion gadget. It isn't a goddamn phone, you nitwits. Quit ruining computing fun and quit ruining your company and quit ruining the only thing worth a fuck to come out of Redmond.

    1. fung0

      Re: Do you know what *I* want?

      Well said, Interceptor!

      It's incredibly naive to suggest that everyone's qualms with the "Modern" Start Screen begin and end with usability. (Although usability does suck hugely, on mouse-and-keyboard PCs.) The real problem is not that the Start screen is horrifically awful, but that it shows a boundless lack of respect for the most loyal and demanding users of Windows. It is very obviously designed for touch, and hence obnoxious in the same way as references to the 'A' button are in PC games hastily ported over from the consoles. Worse, it's the gateway to an entirely new OS that's being piggybacked on top of Windows, even though it's aimed at an entirely different market.

      I've had a chance to try "Modern OS" on a tablet, and it's actually really nice. But Microsoft should never have called it Windows, since it doesn't look like Windows, doesn't work like Windows and doesn't run Windows software. Calling it Windows is a deceitful bait-and-switch ploy. The Start screen is a reminder of that deceit, and of Microsoft's contempt for my years of loyal support. And no amount of rationalizing about usability will EVER make me forget that.

Page:

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like