Why the Windows 7 Start Menu is Going Out of Fashion

[Guest]

With win7, the only thing I use the start menu for is the search since its usually two keys and I have what I need.

 

[Guest]

What about the 89% of us who regularly use the start menu? Do we seriously need to start regularly clicking on the start menu to drive up the usage numbers?

I really can't stand the Windows 8 start screen. It takes up way too much space and obscures what I'm working on. It also requires a lot of mouse travel. I really don't see why a dozen or so tiles should take up the whole screen when twice as many buttons can fit in a compact start menu like what is used in Windows 7. My preferred setup is to pin my most frequently used apps to my task bar and use the start menu for infrequently used apps. I do not want Microsoft creating an app dumping ground like how OS X and Gnome 3 organize things.

 

[malphas]

A good user-interface is one that allows a high degree of customisability rather than enforcing a particular style on the user. If Microsoft make their UI as flexible as possible, the use their usage data to tweak the default settings to suit the majority of users and less technically adept users then they can have their cake and eat it.

I've never been satisfied with a Windows GUI on a fresh install, but always been able to customise it to my liking. At present I have nothing pinned to my Taskbar, fourteen of my most used programs pinned to the Start Menu, disabled most of the default user directories like "Documents", ""Pictures", "Games" etc., and have everything in the Notification Area hidden besides the volume control and network status. "Show desktop icons" is disabled. It's a very clean layout and simple/quick to work with, but probably not all like the typical Windows user UI.

 

[joshybo7]

[citation][nom]dirgle[/nom]I've always liked to have a clean barren desktop(some say a waste of screen real estate). Auto hide the task bar and make the recycle bin disappear. So the start menu and windows+E button always get a lot of use. So I would miss the start menu, but if it was replaced by an app drawer like in Android or OSX I could learn to live with it.[/citation]

ever read those EULA you "agree" to prior to installing windows. next time look for a check-mark box that says something like "I agree to send statistical information to microsoft," or something like that. not 100% sure that is what that refers to although it makes sense to me and is no more invasive than google tracking android phones everywhere, Lol.. i'm not a hater wither, i use both windows and android and enjoy them, just observations.

 

[Guest]

The article seems to overlook something:

Default Windows 7 Installs have (3) items pinned to the taskbar! Windows Media Player, Windows Explorer, & Internet Explorer! So yes, most people will have 3 pinned.

 

[Guest]

Since win98 you could create custom tool bars with icon shortcuts to your most often used apps, docs, or web favorites. You can make it free floating always on top or dock it to any side of the screen making it auto hide. Very similar in functionality to the dock in OSX. I've used it for years and am still amazed at the folks who try to navigate through hundreds of items and pop up sub menu's from the goofy start menu.

 

[Guest]

Personally I use an XP style start menu on 7, thanks to "classic shell". It's still transparent and nice, but expand the old fashioned way, without having to scroll through my hundreds of programs. In fact it's a win95 style start menu, as the XP default was already not to my taste. Not that I use the start menu much, I have dozens of shortcuts on a side launch bar, that I had to buy since microsoft stupidly removed that feature.

 

[Marco925]

[citation][nom]Netherscourge[/nom]I'd rather do a MacOS/iOS combo type of interface:1. Have Buttons/Widgets/Shortcuts, etc... scattered/arranged on the desktop for instant access.2. Have a horizontal scroll bar along the bottom with less-used features like the control panels, settings, configurations, etc...3. Along the top, have browser-like tabs for each open program "window" that you can jump around to.That's waht I want to see in Windows 8. Tree-style menus are pretty much obsolete. I don't like the TILE stuff Windows 8 seems to be pushing though - seems like a big messy collage.[/citation]
Then if you like Mac OSX style, just get a mac, not difficult. We use windows because of the way windows is laid out, We like our start menu. Some of us even stil like our Classic start menu, it makes windows what it is.

 

[Chrys]

Unfortunately I have way too many frequently used programs to pin them all to the taskbar. I keep my 5 most used on the taskbar and the other 15 I use on a nearly daily basis pinned on the start menu. I would be really angry if I couldn't use a start menu.

 

[ChromeTusk]

I like how the new task bar keeps the pinned shortcuts neat. It works better than the old quickstart toolbar of WinXP (and older). However, I try to keep the number of pinned tasks down to daily used items. I use the start menu for everything else that I do not use daily (or even weekly).

 

[back_by_demand]

I have been using the start menu less for years, either with quick-launch icons, or now grouped items on the taskbar. I have a minority of programs I use the majority of the time and a majority of programs I use a minority of the time.

The more I use the minority the more likely it is to be on the taskbar.

The fact that all the stuff in the start menu is nothing more than a collection of shortcut in a tree structure means it will be just as easy to access them with an alternate menu system via Metro or even the Explorer.

The only reason people don't like this is because they are resistant to change even though they have never used it and have no idea what it is they are hating on, it's time they got their heads into the 21st century and stopped acting like a bunch of stuffy old Victorian gentlemen.

 

[Guest]

Almost everything I commonly use is parallel to start/programs so I can simply go start/office for Msofc97 or start/games for my games.

Of course I am still using XP, Sp3 of course, with ALL!! of the eye candy and NOISE! turned off, if I want my mouse to click I tap it with something.

Full classic mode is fast, stable and I always know where everything is, unlike when windows decides to 'Personalize' it and ends up throwing everything everywhere, I want to know what is where and be able to depend on it being there.

My opinion of the default XP menu, let alone that abomination that Vista/7 foisted upon users is unusable in polite company, heck, it's even unusable around politicians and lawyers.

 

[badaxe2]

The Start menu is still awesome. I have nearly 2 dozen apps pinned there, only a click away.

 

[bl1tz]

I have only Firefox pinned to my taskbar, everything else is in my start menu. I have my 20 most used programs displayed and if something's not there, I'll just type in a couple of letters to get my desired program. I hate putting stuff on my desktop because I literally never see it. I always have something open, and it's so much easier to just tap the windows button, type in 2 letters and tap enter. I have 1 Shortcut on my desktop, and that's the Recycle Bin. ^.^

 

[back_by_demand]

[citation][nom]badaxe2[/nom]The Start menu is still awesome. I have nearly 2 dozen apps pinned there, only a click away.[/citation]
Windows doesn't use apps, it has programs, it's a long slide down into Steve Jobs butt-crease, try and arrest the decline quickly.

 

[Apple Troll Master]

I use the start menu everyday. except i use the window's button then start typing the program name and then hit enter when I have entered enough of the program's characters I want to run. For instance...windows key, type out and then enter viola outlook will start, faster then using the mouse. same with remote desktop, type remote enter. done. The start menu is by far the best tool you have especially since the first thing activated is the run prompt. This article is the r-word.org. JMO

 

[JackNaylorPE]

HP had a great little applet called "Dashboard" in the early 90's which was more useful than MS ever had. Later on Mijenix came up with the "Powerdesk Toolbar" which post Avanquest acquisition became the "Coolbar". Both gave "pop up" access to ya most used programs merely by moving ya mouse to the lower edge of the screen as well as multiple virtual screens, program group, system monitoring and printer selection icons. Nobody in Redmond seems to be interested in us saving time or we'd have seen something similar in Windows long ago.

 

[Thunderfox]

I rarely use the Start menu either, but that is because I have folders with my commonly used programs on my desktop, and I never mess with the cluttered 'all programs' menu in the start menu because it is full of things I almost never use, and I don't want to have to look through all of them just to find the few things I use every day.

For me this is an evolution of Windows 3.1's Program Groups, and has always been the most logical way to do things. I have never understood the people who want to keep their desktops free of ALL icons just so they can admire their wallpaper all day. A few categorized groups for your commonly used stuff is all you should need.

 

[Marthian]

there had better be a windows 7 start menu mode in future oses then. I'm starting to get tired of these "innovations"

 

[RabidFace]

Who here hears "Start Me up" and thinks of Bob Rivers - Windows 95? 😀

But seriously, please Microsoft, don't get rid of my start menu 🙁

 

[captaincharisma]

so the windows start button is going out of style but apples OS apple button which has been out longer than the start button is not?

 

[nforce4max]

The majority now days are newts at best and with the way of things are going we will have an operating system dumbed down enough for even a chicken or pigeon could use.

 

[Thunderfox]

[citation][nom]nforce4max[/nom]The majority now days are newts at best and with the way of things are going we will have an operating system dumbed down enough for even a chicken or pigeon could use.[/citation]
But how well do touch screens register beak taps?

 

[RogueKitsune]

I like the start menu because it doesn't take up the entire screen. Besides a couple folders that i have on my desktop(school project)there is nothing else on it. my task bar has the 10 programs that I am always running on it, and everything else is hidden in the start menu.

Another thing I have noticed is that to access the start menu i almost never use the mouse. Its always "windows key -> start typing -> enter". Also did i mention it doesn't take up the entire screen and is highly customizable and doesn't look like a really bad mobile OS

 

[soundping]

The bottom three icons in my Win7 start menu is always slow to load.