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Comment by megaman821 | Hacker News Reader

I really don't understand what all the complaining is about. For most desktop users Microsoft took away the start button and added a new app launcher. The rest of the OS functions the same or better.

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They didn't need to take away the start button, and it's going frustrate a lot of users. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4boTbv9_nU

I've been running the preview in a VM, and getting back to the launcher frustrated me so much I had to install a small utility made by Stardock that makes a fake start button that takes you to the launcher: http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/.

I'm a Mac guy, but my job requires me to be in Windows half the time. I hope they take a hint from Stardock and that video and put the start button back in.

It seems that the only people who click the start button are people who don't use Windows all the time. Commonly used apps go in the launch bar and infrequently launched apps are found by hitting the Windows key and typing the name. Nothing in Windows 8 changes that workflow for me.

"Windows key"? What's that? ;)

I think your theory is wrong. Specifically, I use Windows for work all the time (due to Visual Studio) and I never do the typing thing. I can't even remember the name of the applications I don't use often, but I remember the icon so that's what I look for. I really don't think I'm alone with that.

If you don't use the application often, then you're probably not hunting for it in the Start Menu often and thus not going to be wasting your time in the new Start Screen often. For the very few times you do need to find the application, I'm sure the Start Screen will make whatever you're looking for discoverable.

Oh, these videos about first time users are painful to watch. It seems Microsoft isn't doing UX tests with avarege users.

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