Samsung's new all-in-one PCs won't bring Start menu to Windows 8
Summary: Samsung released a new lineup of Windows 8 PCs and devices but they won't include the rumored Start Menu replacement utility.
UPDATE: Samsung did indeed launch a new lineup of Windows 8-ready Smart PCs and other devices. However, what won't be included is this rumored Start menu replacement utility.
Much has been written -- plenty on ZDNet (see examples here and here) -- about Microsoft's controversial (and frankly annoying) decision to remove the Start button and menu from Windows 8. While the company has worked to squash creative ways by third parties to bring the function back, it looks like major hardware partner Samsung has turned its solution for the missing Windows Start features into a selling point.
Samsung announced a trio of new all-in-one PCs yesterday, but nothing in its press release hinted at what Mashable subsequently reported. The electronics giant has included what it calls the S Launcher, which appears to be the old Windows Start menu in (not-so-much) disguise.
As the name suggests, you can drag programs and files onto the S Launcher, so you can have easy access to them from the legacy Windows desktop. It also provides a search bar, which could be especially useful to locate settings that Microsoft has scattered in its latest Windows version. And instead of users having to access the new Settings "charm" by scrolling over to the far-right of the desktop screen, the S Launcher has a dedicated Settings button.
For those who want a new PC, but who are wary of the new Windows 8 experience, the S Launcher could be a major selling point for Samsung, though the fact that the company hasn't exactly been touting it suggests that it doesn't want to rub ointment in Microsoft's eye. What remains to be seen if whether the S Launcher is a unique creation, or if other PC makers are developing their own utilities to circumvent Microsoft's controversial decision to drop the Start button and menu from Windows 8.
Do you like the idea behind Samsung's S Launcher? Would it make you more likely to buy one of the company's new PCs? Let us know in the Talkback section below.
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Talkback
No...
Ha! MS learns from the Feds. Go figure.
So "Have it your way" has been replaced by "Go to hell" as we grope blindly into the 21st, cosmically connected century. NOW THAT, like so many other politically correct "progressive" schemes, is technologically enlightened "progress."
Eh, I'm feeling shinier already. Really, I am.
Then why is everybody so complacent with Apple having the same attitude?
With Apple it's expected
Besides, wtf does Wintel stand for if not choice and back door -|- legacy mania.
[Hey for cheap chuckles, go check out Bott's latest and get a load of Little Fuhrer and especially Little Theo his tag-a-long sidekick and all around sock puppet (I think there's a baby Sara somewhere in the mix for additional wanking). You'ze gonna have to see these metrosexual monkeys to believe 'em. I haven't shed so many tears since Cylon got demoted to broom sweeper from his exasperated boss.]
If you want that much choice, move to Linux, or stay on Win7
People who like Win8 will stick with Win8.
People who don't won't.
I've never seen so much emotion packed into such a worthless and wasteful soapbox argument. If the Start menu is such a deal breaker for you, then move along. Don't annoy the rest of us.
WHAAAAAAAT???
The End.
They don't - not to this extent
Macs, unlike Windows 8 PCs, can be used by people who don't aspire for their computer to run like a tablet.
I actually like Metro. On a tablet it would be fabulous. But I would want my mouse and keyboard computer to act like a mouse and keyboard computer, and it is frustrating that you have to go download VIStart or Start8 to get it to do that.
Cherry picking attributes of Apple to demonstrate that they're all about
That can be done just as easily with Windows or any other OS.
I'm sure if I cared enough to do the research I could find tons of things that iOS and Mountain Lion, Dik-Dik or whatever restrict you from doing....but I don't care.
Because Apple is GOD you stupid moron
Wrong forum, man. Get out
Forced integration?
Fantastic
They Have a Choice
Remaining in the past is not universally bad
Zip guns, teen pregnancy..
Just because you didn't see it, doesn't mean it wasn't there. It's just out in the open now.
Oh there was a difference from then to now
Sadly, forced busing was a colossal waste of money, like so many other socialistic and red tendencies that we are forced to fund. And no one yet knows what the long term price for mass miscegenation will be in this country. Wanna take a bet there too?
and they chewed that awful gum in asbestos laden classrooms.
EDIT: YOU chewed that awful gum in asbestos laden classrooms.
lol...
Not on some of these new machines they can't
Yeah, whatever
And as far as your comment: Almost anybody who buys an ARM tablet already knows that you can't put Windows 7 on it. And even if you *could* install Windows 7 on one of the Intel tablets, why would you want to? People who buy tablets want a tablet OS. Otherwise they'd buy a standard desktop or laptop (or build their own) to use Windows 7 or Linux on.
Please think before you speak. You're just a rabid Microsoft hater not even trying to post compelling intelligent opinions.