Microsoft May Bring Full Start Menu Back in Windows 8.2

News
By Kevin Parrish
published

Back to the start.

One of the biggest complaints consumers and critics have ranted about is the lack of a proper Start Menu in Windows 8. Microsoft heard those cries and added the Start Button with the release of Windows 8.1, but it's still not the same, sending users back to the touch-friendly Modern UI overlay. However, with Windows 8.2, that will likely change.

Sources told Windows SuperSite's Paul Thurrott that Microsoft plans to bring the Start Menu back to Windows. This will reportedly be an option; customers don't have to use it if they're already accustomed to the new methods of finding apps and services. There's also a chance that the Start Menu will only be offered to the product versions that support the desktop (like desktops and laptops).

"As you can today with third-party utilities such as ModernMix, the next version of Windows will let users optionally run Metro apps in floating windows on the desktop," writes Thurrott.

Kevin Parrish
69 Comments Comment from the forums
  • oczdude8
    I don't see why everyone loves the start menu so much. Sure it was good, but why trample all over innovation. Instead of asking for a outdated start menu, we should be asking for an improvement to the metro UI. In 10 years we could very well have holographic displays for the home user that work with eye gestures. menus are becoming obsolete.
    Reply
  • Stimpack
    I use windows 8/8.1 just fine, but it disgusts me how Microsoft lies about having "the old familiar start menu" back. Hopefully this won't be more BS.
    Reply
  • jn77
    Metro looks like X Windows did back in the early 90's, talk about a step backwards, why don't they make it look like Solaris, or OS/2....lol Windows 7 aero was pretty slick.
    Reply
  • Vishnu Po
    Metro UI is not an innovation.. even a preschool kid designs better UI, Microsoft must start recruiting some real talented guys than kids with fancy degrees..
    I think if this continues.. this will be the downfall of windows... if Apple decides to come into PC market with their OS able to install on any PC, days are over for microsoft and apparently apple is not doing so..
    Reply
  • elmo2006
    Fale!
    Reply
  • vpoko
    12157932 said:
    I don't see why everyone loves the start menu so much. Sure it was good, but why trample all over innovation. Instead of asking for a outdated start menu, we should be asking for an improvement to the metro UI. In 10 years we could very well have holographic displays for the home user that work with eye gestures. menus are becoming obsolete.
    I know there's a desire to keep evolving, but sometimes things evolve to where they need to be, become mature, and remain the best ways of doing something. For example, the ballpoint pen has largely replaced the fountain pen for everyday use. That doesn't mean that we now need some kind of crazy ink squiring pen just to change for the sake of changing, the ballpoint pen is still the best way to write for most people.

    I'm not against something replacing the start menu if it's a true improvement, but this feels like change for its own sake.
    Reply
  • bmwman91
    I don't really get all the hoopla about the Metro UI. When it first appeared, I thought that it was going to be a dumb POS that would never work for a desktop or laptop machine. But I was curious and wanted to take advantage of Win8's other performance improvements, so I gave it a shot.

    Well, I happen to like it. It is as fast as the old Start menu...one click to open it, and then one more click on the tile (shortcut), same as before, but with bigger icons and what I think is a cleaner layout. So personally I think that the Metro UI makes perfect sense and I use it on my personal PC and my work machines. It has not hindered anything, and it feels nice and fluid.

    Is it "innovation"? Hard to say. Considering the other nonsense that counts as "innovation" these days, like apps that let you find hook-ups nearby and tweet your dog's dog food preferences, I'd say that this counts if that's the bar something has to meet.
    Reply
  • vmem
    they should just leave the Start Menu as a Windows option of the task-bar that you can turn on and off...

    we all know (but may not admit) that the old desktop experience is utterly unusable in the tablet form factor, must like how Metro UI just makes desktop users more frustrated (and lost). just make the UI elements options and let the end user choose.
    Reply
  • vmem
    12158234 said:
    I don't really get all the hoopla about the Metro UI. When it first appeared, I thought that it was going to be a dumb POS that would never work for a desktop or laptop machine. But I was curious and wanted to take advantage of Win8's other performance improvements, so I gave it a shot.

    Well, I happen to like it. It is as fast as the old Start menu...one click to open it, and then one more click on the tile (shortcut), same as before, but with bigger icons and what I think is a cleaner layout. So personally I think that the Metro UI makes perfect sense and I use it on my personal PC and my work machines. It has not hindered anything, and it feels nice and fluid.

    Is it "innovation"? Hard to say. Considering the other nonsense that counts as "innovation" these days, like apps that let you find hook-ups nearby and tweet your dog's dog food preferences, I'd say that this counts if that's the bar something has to meet.

    it just feels intrusive when your entire screen changes when you try to access the 'start menu'. honestly, that's it. all the elements of the old start menu are still there, just in a different form. some of us have learned short-cut keys such as window+x, windows+s, etc etc, which reduces the need to open MetroUI dramatically.
    Reply
  • Neog2
    It's really simple. Just make a damn Toggle. Give people the choice to use the old version or the new version period.

    When Vista came out and had the newer style interface. If you went into Desktop Properties/Personalize you could revert back to a regular Classic windows desktop if you chose to do so. SIMPLE I don't understand how or why they think a lack of choice is such a bad thing. Stop trying to force people to change and allow them to change at their own pace jeez.

    And I will go on record saying coding this to do this is literally a few lines away. The regular desktop is still there they just disabled features to make it problematic to use so it would seem work worse than metro so people would just use metro. its bull.
    Reply