Microsoft explains drop of Start button for Windows 8
updated 01:30 pm EDT, Thu June 28, 2012
Saw reduced Start menu, higher taskbar usage
Microsoft has explained why it has dropped the Start button from Windows. In an interview with PC Pro, Microsoft principal program manager Chaitanya Sareen explained why the button was removed from view for Windows 8, after it has graced the Windows desktop for the last 17 years, in favor of the Metro Start screen.
“We'd seen the trend in Windows 7,” said Sareen, referring to data from the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program that showed “awesome adoption of pinning on the taskbar.” Thinking by the team turned to what could be done with the Start menu to revive it. Sareen claimed “If you're going to the Start screen now, we're going to unlock a whole new set of scenarios, or you can choose not to go there, stay in the desktop, and it's still fast. You can't beat the taskbar.”
There were also claims that users were taking advantage of keyboard shortcuts to open applications instead of using the Start menu, and that demonstrations of gesture controls on trackpads were failing due to early driver releases that needed further refinement.
Microsoft is still expected to release Windows 8 this October.
Junior Member
Joined: Apr 2011
Would it not be simpler -
to admit:
"Oops! some designer messed up and we did not notice until the press pointed it out"
Makes a lot more sense than trying to force feed users some bull-KaKa about ergonomics of use, they clearly have lost contact with since Windows 2000.