Windows 8.1

[worminator]

Windows 8.1 to bring back the start button?

http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/22/42...1-start-button

along with the ability to boot directly to the desktop, and other "retrogressions".

This should have been an option from day one. Windows 8 should have come with two default install configurations, "touchscreen device" and "desktop computer". "Desktop" should have come by default with no metro apps, just a start page populated with software shortcuts i.e. the start menu redone. And the machine should have booted to the desktop after login. "Touchscreen" could look like what Windows 8 ended up looking like, with all the metro wankery installed by default.

[ikrana]

If it's true, it's good. I wonder if it's too late now though. It's good that for the moment at least you have non-metro versions of all the programs - the photo viewer, acrobat for pdfs, and so on. I shudder to think of the day when everything goes metro and MS decides how much of my screen space I can devote to what program.

[boom]

Bring back the start menu and launch subscriptions. Should go over well.

[Martin]

Bringing back the start button has to be the stupidest thing imaginable. All the initial good-will will be wiped by the realization that a on-screen button that brings you back to the broken overlay is no more useful than no button at all.

But good news, everyone! (well, at least to the ClassicShells and Start8s)

[worminator]

Originally Posted by ikrana

I shudder to think of the day when everything goes metro

That's never going to happen. Microsoft wants Windows to run on both tablets and desktops, but they don't need to insist that it looks and behaves the same way on both platforms, just that applications and (for x86) software is compatible.

[Stuckey]

Originally Posted by worminator

Windows 8.1 to bring back the start button?

http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/22/42...1-start-button

along with the ability to boot directly to the desktop, and other "retrogressions".

This should have been an option from day one. Windows 8 should have come with two default install configurations, "touchscreen device" and "desktop computer". "Desktop" should have come by default with no metro apps, just a start page populated with software shortcuts i.e. the start menu redone. And the machine should have booted to the desktop after login. "Touchscreen" could look like what Windows 8 ended up looking like, with all the metro wankery installed by default.

^This 110%

Forcing people without touchscreens to use Metro is about the dumbest thing MS have done since WinME imo. Not because it's completely horrible, but because most human beings when forced to do something will tell the person or thing doing the forcing to go take a sugar frosted flying fu...

The fact that MS completely ignored everybody who said it was a bad idea (including their own 'fansites') just shows a huge arrogance and complete failure of judgement at every level.

[Zizy]

Start button = button that opens start SCREEN. Start MENU is gone as far as Windows team is concerned.
I like that change, I prefer visible buttons to the hidden ones, and after initial visual shock I prefer start screen to the start menu. I still think it is ugly tho.

Still, MS could have handled the change much better imo. Much slower would be the key. Add new stuff, but make it optional and appear silently. Like - user has ability to boot to desktop or to start screen. Start menu remains and gains a new start screen button. User option in control panel to define start button and windows key functionality - either open start menu or start screen. Select all these options during install and change them in CP. Defaults for opening pictures etc as well. (recommended defaults to W7-like) W8.1 could then automatically default to modern UI stuff while keeping user selections. Only W9 should start completely removing old stuff.
But above all, they should have started with some functional modern UI apps. Pain to have modern apps as defaults while they are worse than the old desktop ones.

[ikrana]

Originally Posted by worminator

That's never going to happen. Microsoft wants Windows to run on both tablets and desktops, but they don't need to insist that it looks and behaves the same way on both platforms, just that applications and (for x86) software is compatible.

They don't need to, but how else do you explain the default picture viewer (thankfully the old viewer exists) and the fact that there is a metro pdf reader, but no desktop pdf reader. I might even have used them, but they are just so broken - you can't use arrow keys in the picture viewer to scroll through photos, can't use touchpad swipes... to this day I have no idea how to make the damn thing work.

They have already made a significant push to metro. Desktop isn't intended (or wasn't intended, may change after the market success of forcing change down users throats) for anything more than legacy code.

Edit: PS - I'm sure there are more such apps. I used win8 for a bit in a VM, didn't really see the point, and reverted to win7. I don't hate metro, but I agree with the general view that it is not the most convenient way of using a desktop.

[worminator]

Originally Posted by ikrana

They don't need to, but how else do you explain the default picture viewer (thankfully the old viewer exists) and the fact that there is a metro pdf reader, but no desktop pdf reader.

These goes back to my original complaint, namely that there is only one default Windows 8 install. The software loads up the first time with the same configuration, whether you installed it on a tablet or a desktop.

Microsoft had to write a bunch of new apps to make Windows 8 run on tablets, and Win RT run at all. That included the pdf viewer, the picture viewer, the email software etc. In order to make it work on a tablet at first boot all those apps had to be set as the defaults even if you install Win 8 on a desktop. The Win 8 installer is too stupid to configure the UI defaults based on the hardware its being installed on!

That was idiotic of Microsoft. But it should not be taken to imply that Microsoft wants you to use the Metro apps on a desktop PC. It is just an unfortunate byproduct of Win 8 being designed to (also) run on tablet hardware and there not being enough time (I suppose) to add the necessary toggle switches in the installation.

I lived with a few metro apps on my Win 8 boxes for a while, but last week got rid of them wholesale. My livetiles are now deadtiles. :-)

That said my kids rather like the ability to get games and stuff at the microsoft store. The fullscreen ipad-like paradigm works for them...

[Martin]

Microsoft slaughtered one of their cash cow on the altar of two failed touchscreen initiatives. The other is being suffocated trying to prop them up.

I'm no expert, but this strategy seems very risky.