Microsoft's Windows 8 Plan B(lue): Bring back the Start button, boot to desktop
Summary: Microsoft may be moving toward bringing back the Start Button and allowing users to boot straight to the desktop with its coming Windows 8.1 release later this year.
What if Microsoft relented and granted users who are lukewarm about Windows 8 two of their biggest requests: Allow those who want to boot straight to the desktop, and bring back the Start button with Windows Blue, a.k.a. Windows 8.1?
Though supposedly not part of the original plan for Blue, these two UI options are looking more likely.
Reports from a couple of different forums from this past weekend raised the possibility that Microsoft might be moving toward allowing users to skip booting into the Metro-Style Start menu and instead start their PCs in desktop mode. (Winbeta.org noted the thread about this on April 14.)
One of my sources confirmed this is now looking like the plan and added that Microsoft is also considering bringing back the Start button as an option with Windows Blue.
It's not 100 percent sure that either/both of these options will be baked into the final Blue release, which is expected to be released to manufacturing on or around August 2013. I guess we'll have a better indication once the next milestone build, a.k.a. the Blue Preview, leaks — or when the public version of that preview goes live around June.
"Until it ships, anything can change," said my source, who requested anonymity.
Microsoft officials have publicly maintained that users are not confused by the new Windows 8 interface and that they find it "easy to start to learn," especially on touch screens. I, myself, have adapted to the new UI well on my touch-screen Surface RT, but like a number of business users, I find the new UI more of a curse on non-touch-screen machines. As a result, I am still running Windows 7 on two of my three Windows devices.
If Microsoft does end up adding the Start Button and boot to desktop options to Blue, it won't be the first time in recent history that the Windows client team has gone back and changed the Windows UI based on user dissatisfaction. Remember how users balked over the way Windows Vista first implemented User Account Control (UAC), the "most hated feature" in a hated OS release? Microsoft ended up changing direction with UAC in Windows 7, based on beta tester outcry.
What do you think? Would adding these two user-requested options soften resistance to Windows 8, especially among Microsoft's much-needed business user camp? Or would this be too little, too late?
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Talkback
A wise move on their part...
perhaps 'puters aint your thing
Condecension is not a good way to get your point across
Did it ever occur to you that some people just don't like the new layout? I've also used Windows 8 since the developer preview, and I know it pretty much inside and out, but it only resides on one of my computers at home so I am conversant on the system. The rest of my computers remain windows 7, or linux of some flavor, (just for reference, that totals about 7 boxes among family, and media servers.)
Windows 8 as it stands is just not something I prefer on a personal level, either as touch or non-touch. A hybrid style ends up being maligned due to it's inability to capitalize on any of it's strengths. Tablets and touch centric devises have different needs than do desktops.
Tablets and touch devices are going to cut into desktop sales as many people bought desktops just to consume media. It was overkill. The desktop was too much muscle for what many people really needed or wanted. The desktop is not going away, but it's market is going to shrink for a while until tablets have replaced all the redundant PC's out there.
I personally think that the PC market will shrink to at least a third of what it is now in the consumer space, and that in certain areas a tablet will work great for many business uses as well.
I don't think this is the end of Microsoft any time soon, far too many systems used in education and business were written specifically for MS platforms. The expenses of switching are always prohibitive. But I do think that Microsoft's role as the dominant force in computing as a whole is done.
Condescention
Not something you find often, is it?
Separate but Obsolete
Microsoft doesn't see it this way, obviously. When Google merges Chrome with Android, you'll see they agree with Microsoft (which sucks for both of the Chrome fans). When Apple merges IOS with Mac OS, you'll see it there (and all those obsolete Intel Mac owners will feel the pain). And, yes, those both of those days are coming.
Microsoft could go on making people happy......and we'd still be starting apps in the Program Manager and using a complex menu system in Office. Well, actually, Microsoft wouldn't exist if they did that. Windows 8 isn't perfect, but it's doing the right things to keep the company relevant in 5 years and in 20, and it takes guts to do that when it ticks off people here and now.
Look -- the OS will merge. The first version is never easy. I don't agree with Ad Hominem arguments, but this is a case where a lot of people just don't get it......yet.
thoughts
Making people happy is part of the business. They should exist to serve their customers - what good is creating a beautiful looking UI if nobody buys it?
I seriously don't want to live in a world where businesses ignore their customers.
"and we'd still be starting apps in the Program Manager"
You actually could until Windows XP Service Pack 2. Microsoft actually included a configuration switch to allow you to do so for quite some time.
And it should be noted that neither Windows 9x nor Microsoft Office had discoverability issues - in fact, the ribbon was designed to make it easier to discover new things, not harder. Windows 8 is actually the opposite of Office 2007 in this regard.
....and Kodak makes great film
I haven't had any desire to go back to Program Manager (or start button), but thanks for the info.
And you won't have to.
Start button programs show how easy it is to add options back to Win 8
Corrections
Start Menu and boot to desktop without 3rd party apps
To get win8 to boot into desktop, use the task scheduler and make it open a desktop app with trigger on startup. I make it open file explorer which I always open anyway. You will not see the modern Start screen, bang straight in desktop with file explorer ready to go.
Windows is very powerful and customizable. I have never used ANY version of windows (or any OS at all) as is out-of-the-box after installation and windows 8 is no exception. So I don't understand when people whinge about windows 8 when they have obviously not put any effort into using it.
Classic Shell
Business 101
A good examples of this is the handheld gaming consoles (Nintendo Gameboy era). The NeoGeo, Atari, and Sega system were far superior products technologically, but that is not what customers wanted. Now where are these companies? Same place Microsoft is headed if they don't listen to customers.
Maybe IBM hired a witch doctor!
Ah OS/2…
I think you are on to something here, my bets would be either some voodoo magic going on or an insider job (i.e. destroy MS from the inside).
No other sensible explanation exists for what the heck is going on in their heads coming up with this freak show of an OS.
OS/2
At the time Vista came out I was really shocked at how bad it was, and I actually thought that a decent operating system was never going to return. Vista was a bad experience all around, which is why I was really surprised to find that Microsoft had released a really good, XP-like Windows 7, a high-powered operating system for someone who wants to get things done.
Then, of course, Microsoft returned to its usual theme and came out with the childlike and nearly unusable Windows 8. It was like seeing Vista, only naked and showing every possible disgusting characteristic of a company trying to manipulate the minds of the masses.
Now however, we are hearing that Microsoft is actually beginning to consider turning Windows 8 into what it could and should have been all along, an operating system similar to Windows 7, but BETTER.
I should mention also that this change will save all of us a lot of money, because as we move away from Windows 8's user interface, we can stop buying crayons to go along with it. Time to get out the old pens and pencils again and going back to work!
"nearly unusable Windows 8"
Since on your desktop, you no doubt pin your most frequently used apps to the taskbar and/or pin shortcuts to the desktop itself, you'll most likely rarely ever use the start screen.
So, again, how does this make Win8 "unusable"?
I'll grant you that on the desktop/laptop, especially non-touch-sensitive screens, the Win8 Metro/Modern apps aren't yet a slam-dunk home-run, but on touch-screen devices, Metro/Modern apps are fabulously usable compared to desktop apps.
Nobody is saying you have to stop using your desktop apps when you use Win8 (especially on your desktop/laptop) but if you're saying that MS should abandon/remove Metro, then you're eliminating Windows' utility on tablets and that is something that is unreasonable and unrealistic.
Simple.
Simple. The lack of confidence nor desire to use such an OS when They're are perfectly fine alternatives. like Win 7.
It's unusable, because it's obtrusive.. An Os Is A Platform, to me to run things on to get work done. And even For entertainment I want to watch a movie OK I wan't to listen to music great, but jumping into an in your face abstract thing that you can clumsily mouse around or get all greasy and smuged is like like hiring Picasso to paint the signs on the men and womens public restroom doors. An OS is supposed to Stay out of the way and facilitate the function of the software that allows for production, Not become the focus of frustration over trivial things, that matter, because day in day out we have clicked on a button. It's habit, Flashy I don't want Low decoration, High performance I wan't "Bling is as Dead as any of P-Diddle daddy whatever claim to actually having talent."
Picasso