Is this the new Windows 8 or 9 Start Menu?

Discussion in 'Frontpage news' started by Hilbert Hagedoorn, Jul 16, 2014.

  1. FortAwesome

    FortAwesome Guest

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    Companies LOVE them boxes. They're using them for advertising a la Origin Startup. Ugh. :puke2:
     
  2. thatguy91

    thatguy91 Guest

    I guess that wouldn't be as bad as the kitchen sink.

    I'm pro-change, but if someone handed me 30 dollars of change all in 5 cent pieces I'm not going to be that appreciative. I'd stand there and count to make sure they haven't jibbed me 5 cents ;). If the new start menu is like they have suggested, it would be a massive improvement. Despite this I don't find any of the apps useful on desktop orientated devices. They are like the apps on the Windows Phone, however they make sense there! I also think the changes brought with Phone 8.1 I've been running for a while now are great, at least they're making sense with one of their products.

    The other major drawback with metro apps is that if you turn UAC completely off you can't use them. Oh what a disappointment... cough. They are extremely space inefficient for what they are anyway. The way UAC works they could have had it enabled in the apps running and disabled for the system. Of you're wondering how to completely disable it, you can't do it through the control panel, you need to set the EnableLUA key to 0 in the registry. If Microsoft removed that functionality it would instantly turn away quite a few people. It's a good thing it's still functional in Windows 8.1.

    At the end of the day though it looks like it will be better, now only if it were more aesthetically pleasing.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 16, 2014
  3. lucidus

    lucidus Ancient Guru

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    The good thing is the morons who ruined Xbox One and Windows 8 are gone so there's hope for Windows 9. Xbox One is a good product now so we can be optimistic about Win9.
     
  4. Extraordinary

    Extraordinary Guest

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    And they would remove the flusher handle because it's easy enough to pour buckets of water down the toilet
     

  5. sykozis

    sykozis Ancient Guru

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    "better" is still a matter of opinion....and usage case.
     
  6. lucidus

    lucidus Ancient Guru

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    Or buy a handle from a store and install it yourself :D
     
  7. Extraordinary

    Extraordinary Guest

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    :D lol exactly
     
  8. Ven0m

    Ven0m Ancient Guru

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    This, plus I bet that the most of people writing negative comments about Win8(.1) haven't tried it for a period long enough to give it a try, or even not at all. Like that comment about search - Win8 and Win7 search work in a completely different way, showing that it's just an expression of general hate rather than experience.

    Windows Vista (and later 7) search and start menu were a major improvement over ones from XP. Still, they were not good enough to satisfy me, so I was using Launchy. It was showing more accurate results, in order that the frequently used ones were at the top. Improvements to search in Windows 8 made Launchy pretty much obsolete for me. Still, I'd rather like Win+Q behavior to be default, or to have a possibility to swap Win with Win+Q. Also, I cannot believe that people using Windows on regular basis used to traverse the Start Menu in Windows 7 and earlier by clicking consecutive folders with mouse. Such thing should be done up to a few times. If you want to be efficient, you should ping the frequently used apps. The rest should be easily available either by using some kind of folders or keyboard-only search. Win8 has much better pinning and icon arrangement options than Win7, and it's got better search. The novice users can pin all the apps they need, and the power users can do the same and/or use the improved search. However I can understand that such new approach is inferior for people who use lots of apps and do not use keyboard for search, and do not organize apps at all by pinning or other means. But it's the fault of approach and lack of will to improve the workspace, not the software.
     
  9. Dch48

    Dch48 Guest

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    I think that is the proposed new Start Menu for Win 9. It's okay with me. I actually like the removal of the folder structure because as they said, you only ever use the main .exe anyway. The folder structure is a big reason why I use desktop icons instead of the Start Menu for all my most used things.
     
  10. Reddoguk

    Reddoguk Ancient Guru

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    That's a funny comment.

    I'm not even gonna say why it's silly though, ok i will.

    " swim told me he pee's in the bath sometimes" omfg that's horrible blah blah blah.

    Seriously though, i thought we all agreed ages ago that win8 was an attempt to get people to buy into touch screens/tablets.

    MS had this dream of everything being controlled by touch or movements and the KB + M was to be EoL. Which it will be one day. They're just trying to push it too soon.
     

  11. Vtech

    Vtech Member Guru

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    I don't miss the start menu, got used to the new windows, and I really prefer it's stays that way, for everything else I use WinKey+X or just right click in the button or corner depending if is Windows 8 or 8.1, it really as almost my tech things in one click.
     
  12. GhostXL

    GhostXL Guest

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    Hey look it's Start 8.

    I've been doing this since Windows 8 launch day!

    I can choose to have Win 8 tiles or just leave it the classic Win 7 superbar.
     
  13. Sasquatch

    Sasquatch Master Guru

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    Something I've noticed so far, most Start Menu arguments are either about search, or trying to find a person's programs, and thus efficiency.
    So I'm curious, do people really care about the 1 extra second it takes to move a mouse to the right icon? Especially with the Win8 Fullscreen Apps page. I can see every app/program I've got installed. I'm only running 1080 resolution & everything still fits. After that, everything is alphabetical order - hence, simple to find.
    The Start screen is the same way, and this one you can customize all you want. Efficient as hell, IMO.
    So then why the huge emphasis on search!? I've been disabling the Windows Search service since XP.
    I can maybe see it for finding files, but anyone who needs to dig that deep probably already has the tech know-how to know where they're going anyway.
    I'm genuinely curious to know how others use this software, as I seem to be doing it wrong.
     
  14. Ven0m

    Ven0m Ancient Guru

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    If something's efficient for you, there's very little need to change it. But if I can help with your curiosity:

    From my experience it looks like that - I have a stationary gaming/dev rig at home, and a laptop that I use mostly for work, and also some hobby dev stuff and gaming. So there are games, dev, and admin tools, communicators, multiple browsers etc. Windows tries to maintain the pinned apps layout similar on these machines.
    I pinned quite a few apps, arranged them into groups etc, but to be honest I don't click them very often. Update 1 for Windows 8.1 added a smaller tile size, so there are better arrangement possibilities. I have some live tiles for Steam etc, they look cool, but for some reason I mostly click OpenVPN and People app. The main reason may be that I'm pretty keyboard-heavy user. I have a Razer mouse @ office, but still, I avoid it when I can stick to the keyboard. Also, I have some dev tools and browsers pinned to TaskBar, so I can intuitively find a region of screen to click & activate them. I'm looking for something to help me with window management as clicking task bar and using alt-tab is inefficient with that amount of windows open.

    And regarding start menu - my solution is keyboard-exclusive search. Hit Windows key, type, click Enter. Done. Windows 8 and 8.1 (in contrast to 7) prioritize apps that you use frequently, so less clicks are needed. I also tend to use space to decrease number of keystrokes needed. Eg: "win, i, e, enter" will open Internet Explorer for me, but typing "Internet" would have other suggestion that I use more frequently. For settings, I either use Win+X and click or Win+W. Sometimes for apps I use Win+Q instead of Win, when I want more results to be displayed and I'm not sure what I'm looking for. I think I opened all apps list less than 20 times since I installed Windows 8, maybe even less than 10 times. Yes, I don't use it at all as I find no need to use it. If I want to pin an app, I don't look for it in all apps list, but search, and right-click to pin. Still, there are many apps that I use on a daily basis which haven't been pinned, as I prefer using keyboard over mouse.

    So here are some tips:
    - When you click Windows key on your keyboard, you can witness how sluggish is the new Start Menu to appear. But you don't have to wait for it to open. If you know what keys you'll need (because you've been using them for days or months), start typing immediately after clicking Windows key. You can even confirm your choice with Enter before the Start Menu finishes the animation. I tend to have app opening before Start Menu appears pretty often.

    - Use dedicated shortcuts for settings - Win+W, and Win+X. You'll save some time. I've been using search for settings for a few years now, as I had hard time finding stuff in Control Panel by clicking since Vista, and Windows 7 hasn't made it any better for me. However the search works really well, especially after you get used to it and know how to ask it. Also if you're on a desktop and hit Win+I > Enter > type, you'll be searching Control Panel. Win+X > P > type does pretty much the same.

    - Space is your friend. You can search by unfinished words and separate them with spaces, eg. i-space-e-enter for Internet Explorer.

    - When you get used to keyboard-exclusive Start Menu usage, you'll launch apps in a fraction of time you'd need to just move your hand to the mouse. You can't get anywhere close to that when using mouse, or Windows 7 without external launchers.

    - File Search can be tricky, even with indexed SSD. By default new Windows look inside file content too when you search in Explorer or by everything search or file search (Win+F). Get used to Explorer Search commands. Click the search text box in top-right corner of Explorer window, and Search will appear in the Ribbon menu. Experiment with "advanced options", for example if you click "Other properties", it will show an option to look up by just file name (kinda obvious, but hidden option). If you click, it will add "name:" to the search text box. Other options will add some extra commands too, but you can use keyboard for that. For example when I want to look for file by name, I usually click/type Win+E, Ctrl+F, "name:file I'm looking for"; when looking inside a specific drive, I'd add Alt+D, "d:" after opening Explorer.

    ----
    What I'm looking for in Windows 8.1U2 / Win9 is a possibility to open ModernUI apps in windows and even more refined start menu search; I'd like it to open faster, and perhaps in non-full-screen mode as an option to decrease general public hatred against it.
     
    Last edited: Jul 17, 2014
  15. Veteran

    Veteran Ancient Guru

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    This, don't know what all the fuss is about tbh.
     

  16. KissSh0t

    KissSh0t Ancient Guru

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    What I don't like about Windows 8.1 is that the DVD drives are grouped together with Hard Drives.

    Windows 8 Original wasn't like this... only in 8.1

    Also the Folders being shown above the hard drives, which I have managed to remove via registry tweaking..

    These things I absolutely despise in Windows 8.1.. horrible design choice, nonsensical design choice. you have no idea how angry these two things piss me off..

    [​IMG]

    Ohh look a start Menu already in Windows 8.1.. hohohohoho~~

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jul 17, 2014
  17. Ven0m

    Ven0m Ancient Guru

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    Right click Explorer -> Group By -> more -> add "by File system", and disks are separate from DVDs. Took me <1 minute to find it.
     
  18. KissSh0t

    KissSh0t Ancient Guru

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    You are like my new Hero..

    Sigh... why is it not like IT ALWAYS ****ING WAS..

    *lays down and cries*
     
  19. Ven0m

    Ven0m Ancient Guru

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    While I'm a great supporter of Windows 8/8.1, I'm with you in this case. While it's not a huge annoyance, it's still annoying.

    Meanwhile, you can give OneCommander a shot. It's still an early version, with lots of stuff missing, but it's an interesting concept.
     

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