Microsoft's Windows 8 Plan B(lue): Start button back, boot to desktop

[Teerex]

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.

Source:ZDNet/All About Microsoft

I guess His Majesty The User is still King and we just might stop clicking the semi-invisible phantom and have that familiar click target that seems so natural now that we (or some of us) got used to it.

 

[Fantail]

ZDnet has opinionated writers it would seem.
Just the day before - Windows: It's over | ZDNet

So what if 8.blows has a start button. MS trying to polish a smoking turd.

 

[FuturDreamz]

One question: if you're not going to use Windows 8, then what do you intend to move to?

 

[marsmimar]

One question: if you're not going to use Windows 8, then what do you intend to move to?

I figure Windows 7 will give me at least a few more years of service. Maybe by then Microsoft will come out with an operating system that appeals to the masses. Like Windows 7 did. Hopefully, the various Linux distros and third party offerings like Classic Shell, Start8, etc will continue to tweak and improve their products and provide PC users with whatever Microsoft fails to provide.

 

[Alejandro85]

One question: if you're not going to use Windows 8, then what do you intend to move to?

Another question: Why you MUST move to something else if what you already have works?

It seems a logical move to me, after seeing the effect Win8 had in users. In the long run, if the had continued the "metro" way, users will either stay with XP/7 or move to Linux/Mac, but since MS only intention is to earn money, and Win8 is clearly losing sales, they take their decision back.
To me, at least a parameter to bring the start menu would be enough. Having the metro-crap as an option is not bad, as long as it's possible to get rid of it if you want.

 

[kbrady1979]

In reality, Windows 8 is a superior OS to Windows 7. It has Storage Spaces, a much better file transfer system, a very informative Task Manager, it uses less resources AND it's generally regarded as being faster than Win 7............let that sink in. All this, and admittedly I have not made the change to Win 8, nor do I plan on it anytime soon. It is unfortunate that two features cast a shadow over the good features of Win 8. If they want to give me my Start Button back, and let me use my desktop with a desktop AS a desktop, I will gladly sign up tomorrow. I've always said during a fresh install of Windows 8, there should be a dialog box that asks you if you want a "Desktop" installation, or "Touch" installation......that would put an end to this nonsense. Also, I know of several programs that will install a fully functional, and customizable, start menu and will let you work from a desktop environment, but I don't feel I should have to "Add" that functionality. If Microsoft wants to try to clean up the mess they made of Windows 8, if they have heard our outrage and want to right the wrong, let them do it!

Also, businesses will NOT make the change from XP or 7 to Windows 8........they probably have more of an impact on what Microsoft will do than we do to be honest. Businesses are the reason they have supported XP as long as they have......they will do the same for Windows 7, and their voices along with ours may make Microsoft reconsider this new style of OS.

 

[Berkey]

In reality, Windows 8 is a superior OS to Windows 7. It has Storage Spaces, a much better file transfer system, a very informative Task Manager, it uses less resources AND it's generally regarded as being faster than Win 7............let that sink in. All this, and admittedly I have not made the change to Win 8, nor do I plan on it anytime soon. It is unfortunate that two features cast a shadow over the good features of Win 8. If they want to give me my Start Button back, and let me use my desktop with a desktop AS a desktop, I will gladly sign up tomorrow. I've always said during a fresh install of Windows 8, there should be a dialog box that asks you if you want a "Desktop" installation, or "Touch" installation......that would put an end to this nonsense. Also, I know of several programs that will install a fully functional, and customizable, start menu and will let you work from a desktop environment, but I don't feel I should have to "Add" that functionality. If Microsoft wants to try to clean up the mess they made of Windows 8, if they have heard our outrage and want to right the wrong, let them do it!

Also, businesses will NOT make the change from XP or 7 to Windows 8........they probably have more of an impact on what Microsoft will do than we do to be honest. Businesses are the reason they have supported XP as long as they have......they will do the same for Windows 7, and their voices along with ours may make Microsoft reconsider this new style of OS.

Couldn't agree more. I thought initially that this was going to be the way when 8 was first advertised, then I realized they were not going to allow compatibility for those non-touch desktop users, which seemed odd, that you would want to use a touch interface without the touch part. Perhaps if MS would have listened to the people long before 8 was released they could have prevented this back step.

 

[carwiz]

Superior? I personally don't want my files and programs to go up in smoke, fog, cloud or whatever it's called this year. I want control of what's on my PC and were it goes. I don't want to rely on a network connection to get work done. And for sure, I don't need no stinkin' Crayon designed UI. Windoze8 is a bust for a lot of folks. I'll wait for something better just as I waited for Seven from XP (Skipping Vista). Microsoft will fix it. They don't have a choice if they plan on keeping desktop business.

 

[kbrady1979]

Well, we better hope they fix it with Windows Blue, because I suspect if they don't fix those 2 problems in that iteration of the OS, they never will. Also, from what I remember, Windows 8 wasn't always suppose to be lacking a Start Button/Menu.......the code was always there and people were "fixing" it themselves. They pulled the code out at the last minute for some reason.....seemed like a d*ck move to me. It's such an easy fix to appease touch users and desktop users. I think they tried it, committed to it, and are too stubborn to admit it was a mistake right now. It's not like they couldn't release a big Service Pack that let users have the start button and boot to desktop back! I think it's more about admitting it was a dumb idea than anything else.....and we are either forced to use a gimped OS, or stay with what we have.

 

[Night Hawk]

Win 8 superior? In not too many ways besides the lack of drivers still and the problems people have been running into even after a clean install with all updates on. It seems even the retail 8 is proving a bit buggy.

As for being lighter weight on resources then 7 that has to do with two main items not mentioned so far. 1) Further progress by some MS dept.s that is on the MinWin kernel brought in by 7. 2) Features commonly seen in previous versions gone! Media Center, useless form of Windows Defender, dvd and video playback support GONE! That's bound to end up seeing fewer processes running in the background as well as the increased need for 3rd party apps spelling out a losing formula!

As for bringing back the Start orb/ menu, All Programs menu, and additional Settings>Control Panel, Administrative Tools, etc. that has been centralized through the Start to begin and then scattered all over by 8 the writer there clearly points out that seeing the Start actually returned is not "written in stone" at the present moment but only hinted on.

As for the Metro or "Modern" as some have referred to it as being the MS name simply watch one of the latest Win 8 tv spots and see just what device is being used to show how "wonderful" 8 is... with what? a tablet gui being shown on what? a tablet not any laptop or desktop! The Windows RT gui at work on a... "Tablet"!

And the Big Goober MS made besides already having the "Choice of GUI" as at least a setup option is what? Using a tablet touch&swipe on the desktop releases instead of foresight and developing a "Desktop" compatible Touch&Swipe gui everyone could adhere to! And then they wonder why 8 is not selling? daaaaaa....

As for the core elements besides stripping away at the features what could have been a good following to 7 by the ways now only sees a few new "eye candies" or "Bells & Whistles" when looking at the new Lock screen and login option of password, pin code, or pic file. The task manager also finally has a new look similar to a 3rd party benchmarking app to revitalize that while the rest of 8... STINKS! as far as the traditional form of Windows is concerned.

Now if someone is fortunate enough to see a good install, isn't running into any software problems, and has all the drivers working well their immediate thought is "This is a better Windows and even starts up faster!". At the same time they seem to forget instead of seeing things centralized for repetitive tasks things are scattered all over in hidden toolbars and right click menus! For tablet and smart phone users "No big deal!" not having been working on Windows desktops since the 90s! they don't have the "Wat's up witha this stuff eh?" type feelings about the way MS botched up the works in favor of their own new Surface tablets which is precisely why they wanted everything looking exaxtly the same across the board regardless if the desktop sales fell through entirely They only focus was promoting tablet sales since they were bringing in a new hardware product line. TADAaaaa...!!!

Can anyone comprehend the marketing strategy being deployed there? If the usual something has a hiccup every other ? then why worry if 8 tanks when you are trying to promote something entirely different in the first place in order to compete with two other giant mobile device artists? No! You want a slam dunk on the competition! MS wants a piece of the pie the Fruit basket company as well as "Gooog doodle litis" are into! Can't you smell the flowers? Blaaa... :sarc:

 

[chamjiee]

So if they bring back features that were present and trademark of windows os shall it be considered an upgrade?

They should also bring Widows 7 ui style. The current windows 8 styles looks like it's lacking graphics drivers and is running in 256 colour mode.

Apart from hyper very I don't see any thing new. Except all the things are downgraded.

 

[TanyaC]

I don't think Windows 8 is "superior" to Windows 7. I've had more support requests for 8 in the first 6 months of supporting it than I did for W7. To be fair, a lot of these are people who just can't grasp the two distinct interfaces, and the single app model of W8.

Cloud? No thanks!

W8 gutted explorer. The task manager while providing more detail has Alzheimer's. Can't remember what tab is was last on. W8 is so kindergarten looking. Bring back the W7 themes and aero glass. Get rid of Windows Live bloatware that grabs all our personal information, and live tiles so my slow Internet connection is not hammered. Fix the problems with WSUS/W8 that requires registry hacks to get it working.

Fix those, bring back the option to boot to desktop and the start menu, and I'd seriously consider upgrading my PCs to Windows 8.

It'd be nice if they fixed the network problems too... That one has been around since Vista. (Cannot reconnect drives at boot up).

 

[FerchogtX]

So finally they realized that the user base hates their new dumb UI and now they will add what made Windows 7 the best Windows OS of this century...

Good for them, they can always offer Modern UI for tablets and smartphones, they will surely apreciate it

Now we finally get back a functional start menu, with inmediate search bar, frequent used programs, pinned stuff, quick access to frequently visited folders and a completely functional UI.

Congrats MS, now you are using yoru brain

 

[King Arthur]

Given that this is all just speculation and rumors for now, I'll wait until there's something more conclusive before I personally decide on anything.

However, if these rumors are true, Microsoft would be correct to go back, examine, and ideally reimplement what made Windows so successful as a desktop operating system that it took the entire desktop market by storm and defined what exactly is a "desktop" operating system with the debut of Windows 95 and solidifying it with the debuts of Windows XP and Windows 7.

Put simply, Windows 8 just wasn't Windows without the Start Menu and a complete Desktop.

 

[carwiz]

... Microsoft would be correct to go back, examine, and ideally reimplement what made Windows so successful as a desktop operating system that it took the entire desktop market by storm and defined what exactly is a "desktop" operating system with the debut of Windows 95 ...

Did you perhaps forget MS stole the Apple desktop?

 

[kbrady1979]

...And Apple has made up for that in spades! lol

 

[jimbo45]

...And Apple has made up for that in spades! lol

Hi there
Forget Apple

The Markets HATE it now --yesterday at one time the stock had reached the 52 week LOW.

Apple was perhaps the cream of the 20th century -- now its time seems to be passing -- although with that amount of cash still in its coffers it will be a slowish long lingering agonizing death.

The Smart phone market has matured, PC sales will remain a small niche market - very little growth in that area is possible these days, iPods are no longer necessary -- most phones have decent music players in them, iTunes seems irrelevant with services like Spotify offering far better value for money and the total impossibility of shutting down torrent sites --whatever the courts rule people find out within about 3 secs of the ISP blocking access to these sites how to bypass the restriction which renders the whole court gig pointless and by the time iTV or Apple TV comes out - if ever -- it will be TOO late as decent smart TV's are already available on the market.

Even the iPad market is falling away -- and if Apple have to get into the cheaper end of the market -- the profit is far far less and they aren't experienced in targeting these sorts of customers.

I don't like Metro at all on a PC == but Ms still has HUGE licensing volumes for corporates that extend years into the future and Office is actually a more profitable division than Windows -- in spite of the vast amounts of Pirate copies of the Office suite around. Corporates will continue (and pay for) W7 well into the late 201x's whatever is done to W8 (or W9 / W10 or whatever it will be called).

Anyway yesterdays market data for AAPL.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[Iforgot]

... Microsoft would be correct to go back, examine, and ideally reimplement what made Windows so successful as a desktop operating system that it took the entire desktop market by storm and defined what exactly is a "desktop" operating system with the debut of Windows 95 ...

Did you perhaps forget MS stole the Apple desktop?

And Apple bought it off Xerox

 

[King Arthur]

... Microsoft would be correct to go back, examine, and ideally reimplement what made Windows so successful as a desktop operating system that it took the entire desktop market by storm and defined what exactly is a "desktop" operating system with the debut of Windows 95 ...

Did you perhaps forget MS stole the Apple desktop?

Indeed! A lot of companies copy/steal from their competitors and MS is certainly no exception here. What I was getting at is that MS would do well to "go back to its roots" for a moment and contemplate so it doesn't lose sight of itself. In my humble opinion, no other way of falling from grace is faster than losing sight of what made you successful in the first place.

 

[Iforgot]

... than losing sight of what made you successful in the first place.
.

What made M$ so successful was providing an operating system "dirt Cheap" with all the pc's being sold.
DOS.

Also the fact that IBM released to patterns for the IBM compatible computer,,,,
Because IBM's "top brass" thought the PC wouldn't take off.