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 r

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".