Comment by MichaelGG | Hacker News Reader

Comment by MichaelGG | Hacker News Reader

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Microsoft is being intentionally obtuse here. I think their goal is to knowingly introduce what people are not asking for, then when people complain about that, MS can say "see, people complain, start button or no".

No one cares about the start button. They care about the start menu. In 8.1, the button just does the same thing as hitting the winkey or clicking in the corner in 8 -- you get completely launched from the desktop environment, and go full-screen Metro-mode launcher.

While at first I thought it'd be the same (press winkey, type, enter), Windows 8/8.1 makes it far more cumbersome and is quite interrupting. Also, on Win8, you need to select what you're searching for. Unlike 7, it doesn't automatically search everything.

There is no way that MS actually thinks people want the button, not the menu.

> There is no way that MS actually thinks people want the button, not the menu.

We have decades of "click the start button" training drilled into peoples' heads. They'll find their app whether it's in a menu or a screen, but stranding them on the desktop without any button to get there was a problem. That's who the change was made for, not the tech enthusiasts that have been doing most of the complaining.

> Also, on Win8, you need to select what you're searching for. Unlike 7, it doesn't automatically search everything.

This is fixed on 8.1, it searches everything by default.

Ironically, it fails to find "Disk Cleanup" which is rather important if you want to properly delete "Windows.old" after the upgrade. (BTW, it's cleanmgr.exe if you want to run it).

I like the start button, but don't care about the start menu.

For what its worth, my (linux) desktop is intentionally very plain.

Apart from the grey background, there is a small bar at the top that shows for a clock and basic windowing stuff (tags, open windows, layout mode). There is also a start button like thing in the corner. Because I never use it, I tried to remove it from my desktop. Everything worked fine, but the desktop just looked wrong without that button in the corner.

I did however, remove the menu that comes up when you click on it.

No offense but, just no.

People didn't like it because it was UNDISCOVERABLE.

As it turns out, the Start Menu was pure shit and everyone did Winkey+"Application Name"+Enter. And they still use it today.

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