3 ms·

> The "Start" button was never really about starting things in the first place. What did you find when you opened the Start menu (https://upload.wikimedia.org/

by cesarb 7y ago

> The "Start" button was never really about starting things in the first place. What did you find when you opened the Start menu (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d3/Windows_95_Start_menu.png https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d3/Windows_95_St...)? Programs (click on one to start the program), Documents (click to start a program handling the file), Settings (click to start a Control Panel applet), Find (click to start a find dialog), Help (click to start the help viewer), Run (click to start an executable by name), ... > After all, clicking "Start" was the first step to shutting down your computer! You are, after all, starting the shutdown procedure.

dTal 7y ago
Yes, every verb can be prefixed by "start". There's no functionality that could not be squeezed into your explanatory framework. But personally I think it's a real stretch to say that, say, viewing your collection of documents is "starting" anything (and starting the shutdown procedure is still bordering on obtuse). No, the point of the Start menu was to provide a root node to a navigable hierarchy of all of Window's available functionality. Calling it "Start" makes sense from the perspective of the act of navigation - it is the user's "start point". While logical, I think this metaphor was subverted in many ways even when it was new; the hierarchy afforded by the Start menu was neither particularly well structured nor even the easiest way to access much of its functionality (it seemed to compete with "My Computer" for the title of "blessed root node"). Nowadays it seems that it is not even possible to navigate to all Windows functionality through the "Start menu".
simcop2387 7y ago
This reminds me of the best "feature" that windows 95 had to me as a kid. If you clicked the start menu, then hit alt + -, you'd get the standard menu for playing with a window. Minimize, Maximize, Move (greyed out), and a few others. Importantly though was that Close was an option. Clicking it would remove the start button. This lead to lots of fun playing with computers in stores at the time, closing the start buttons on them all. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20120213-00/?p=8323 https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20120213-00/?p=83... This was before the advent of "windows keyboards" and the menu key on them. EDIT changed link to a better one
- blibble 7y ago
  move worked to begin with, that was even more fun they fixed it some way through Win98 I thought...
- whoopdedo 7y ago
  I never stumbled into that one. What I do remember from Windows 95b through 7 is if the keyboard focus was on the taskbar and you pressed Alt+F4, it brought up the Shutdown/Restart/Logoff dialog. That made it possible to cleanly shutdown the computer blindly from the keyboard. Win,Esc,Alt+F4,R,Enter
  - Noumenon72 7y ago
    It's Win+X, U, U now.
  - pierrec 7y ago
    You can still do pretty much the same thing. Win+D, Alt+F4.
  - connicpu 7y ago
    That's still a thing, the focus just needs to be on the desktop!
    - ygra 7y ago
      Both the Desktop and the taskbar belong to Explorer and trying to close that is what triggers that dialog. Both still work in Windows 10.

by cesarb 7y ago

dTal 7y ago

Yes, every verb can be prefixed by "start". There's no functionality that could not be squeezed into your explanatory framework. But personally I think it's a real stretch to say that, say, viewing your collection of documents is "starting" anything (and starting the shutdown procedure is still bordering on obtuse). No, the point of the Start menu was to provide a root node to a navigable hierarchy of all of Window's available functionality. Calling it "Start" makes sense from the perspective of the act of navigation - it is the user's "start point". While logical, I think this metaphor was subverted in many ways even when it was new; the hierarchy afforded by the Start menu was neither particularly well structured nor even the easiest way to access much of its functionality (it seemed to compete with "My Computer" for the title of "blessed root node"). Nowadays it seems that it is not even possible to navigate to all Windows functionality through the "Start menu".

simcop2387 7y ago

This reminds me of the best "feature" that windows 95 had to me as a kid. If you clicked the start menu, then hit alt + -, you'd get the standard menu for playing with a window. Minimize, Maximize, Move (greyed out), and a few others. Importantly though was that Close was an option. Clicking it would remove the start button. This lead to lots of fun playing with computers in stores at the time, closing the start buttons on them all. https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20120213-00/?p=8323 https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20120213-00/?p=83... This was before the advent of "windows keyboards" and the menu key on them. EDIT changed link to a better one

blibble 7y ago
move worked to begin with, that was even more fun they fixed it some way through Win98 I thought...
whoopdedo 7y ago
I never stumbled into that one. What I do remember from Windows 95b through 7 is if the keyboard focus was on the taskbar and you pressed Alt+F4, it brought up the Shutdown/Restart/Logoff dialog. That made it possible to cleanly shutdown the computer blindly from the keyboard. Win,Esc,Alt+F4,R,Enter
- Noumenon72 7y ago
  It's Win+X, U, U now.
- pierrec 7y ago
  You can still do pretty much the same thing. Win+D, Alt+F4.
- connicpu 7y ago
  That's still a thing, the focus just needs to be on the desktop!
  - ygra 7y ago
    Both the Desktop and the taskbar belong to Explorer and trying to close that is what triggers that dialog. Both still work in Windows 10.