Windows 8.1 TV Ad Highlights Return of Start Button
The Start button is back!
One of the biggest criticisms with Windows 8 was that it ditched the Start button, a feature that's been a part of Windows for as long as many users can remember (it was first introduced with Windows 95 and Windows NT). Together with the introduction of the Metro UI, a lot of people found the lack of Start button confusing. So much so, that users actively looked for ways to bring it back (Tom's Guide even ran a story on how to make Windows 8 look like Windows 7, and a big part of that was bringing back the Start button).
For months, the rumor mill has been churning out reports that Microsoft would bring back the Start button in Windows 8.1. Finally, in June, the return of the Start button was confirmed. Microsoft gave a demonstration of Windows 8.1 at Computex and it briefly showed off the returning Start button. In case you were worried that the months since Computex have seen the Start button cut once more, you needn't have worried. A commercial for Windows 8.1 has shown that the Start button is still present in Windows 8.1.
Microsoft is showing off the Start button in this commercial, telling users then can use it to flip back and forth between Desktop mode and the new Metro/Modern UI mode. As we saw back in June, it's not the same Start button we've come to know and love since 1995. Instead, it serves as a quick hop to the Start screen for mouse-based customers and a comfort blanket for those that have missed the Start button immensely over the last year. Check out the ad for Windows 8.1 below:
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Microsoft doesn't matter. They made sure of that with Windows 8 by telling people what they wanted, and then with 8.1 by acting like people are so stupid they can't tell the difference between a start button, and the start button that opened the menu they want.
Result? Month after month Windows market share loses a tenth or two of market share, inexorably declining. It will keep accelerating, as once a competing platform reaches critical mass, it gets more support and software, gets better hardware and software, gets more mass, gets more support and software, etc...
There's no way for Microsoft to compete. You can't sell an OS for $100 when the competition is free. $100 is too much hardware, whether you want a faster processor, better mass storage, a nice screen, etc..., especially with the popularity of lower cost machines.
Microsoft has become irrelevant, and Windows is a dying platform. Better to review new Chromebooks, or Android based machines, as the free OS is the future, Microsoft is the past.
Microsoft doesn't matter. They made sure of that with Windows 8 by telling people what they wanted, and then with 8.1 by acting like people are so stupid they can't tell the difference between a start button, and the start button that opened the menu they want.
Result? Month after month Windows market share loses a tenth or two of market share, inexorably declining. It will keep accelerating, as once a competing platform reaches critical mass, it gets more support and software, gets better hardware and software, gets more mass, gets more support and software, etc...
There's no way for Microsoft to compete. You can't sell an OS for $100 when the competition is free. $100 is too much hardware, whether you want a faster processor, better mass storage, a nice screen, etc..., especially with the popularity of lower cost machines.
Microsoft has become irrelevant, and Windows is a dying platform. Better to review new Chromebooks, or Android based machines, as the free OS is the future, Microsoft is the past.
Of the top 20 on Amazon, 2 are chromebooks, two are macbooks and 16 are Windows based.While a single model of chromebook MIGHT be outselling any single model of Windows, Windows is still outselling Chrome OS by multiple orders of magnitude. The fact of the matter is chromebooks are too low power and nowhere near versatile enough, Android is a phone OS, and Linux has been free and marginalized for decades. Windows isn't going anywhere, and if people took 2 seconds to stop complaining or looking for workarounds and actually used Windows 8, they'd find it's nowhere near as bad as everyone suggests. The old start menu was limited and frustrating and offers zero organizational ability over Windows 8. It was a great interface when it came out 20 years ago, but it's dated and Windows needed to move on.
At this rate, I'm more likely to use startisgone when 8.1 hits than I EVER was to use startisback.
M$ won't get any money from me for Winblows 8 or Winblows 8.1
The preview of 8.1 broke a lot of replacement start menu functionality. However, at the very least Stardock and Classic Shell have been updated (only two I tested) to work properly with the new not-really-a-button button.
And I have to agree with the other comments. Microsoft is not listening. The start *menu* functionality, among other things, is what is desired. (I'd like to see them not shove settings a desktop uses in the Metro "control panel," either - things like Windows Update are far less useful now to check and keep an eye on while running something else. No reason for it to take up 1/4 to the full screen in a non-minimizeable window.)
Starting with 7 there is too much crap running in the background, like timmers keeping track of how long it takes to load something.
The security management is scattered all over and often has ambiguous names for functions.
Right now I have one pc that will load usb drivers for my Android devices the other comes up with an error, now I have most of the warnings turned off so I now have to remember or rediscover how I get around this.
Win 8 is a mess if you judge by the gigabytes of updates so far. I will not be upgrading to 8.1 anytime soon. I got lured by the $15 upgrade from 7 I wish I had not.
The start button is back, but not the menu. *facepalm*
So if you have a start menu app, this raises a new question: How do you disable/remove the MS start button in Win8.1 to remove clutter?