4 ms·

Been using 8 for about a year and have no problem with the start screen without a touch interface - the workflow is pretty much identical to 7: Press the Window

by Freaky 13y ago

Been using 8 for about a year and have no problem with the start screen without a touch interface - the workflow is pretty much identical to 7: Press the Windows key and type part of the name of what you want, with the bonus that it's significantly faster at giving results. If you do end up having to select something in the menu, you now have more space to see what's available and modifying the layout to match your usage is a lot more accessible.

gizzlon 13y ago
yeah, but that's not how I use 7. I click the "pinned" icon in the taskbar. (It's not as fast as a keyboard short-cut, but it's good enough.)
- gebe 13y ago
  You can still do that though.
- Freaky 13y ago
  So then what's the problem? That works exactly as it did before. And the first ten do have keyboard shortcuts - Win-0 to Win-9.
  - gizzlon 13y ago
    oh, ok.. I thought you had to go through the "start screen" for some applications.
arethuza 13y ago
"you now have more space to see what's available" Actually, you don't - on the server I am using there is an (otherwise excellent) Microsoft product installed that prefixes all of it's menu items with the same name so all you see is a number of items with the same logo and "Really long product name...." and to find out which one is which you have to hover the mouse over them, which rather defeats the purpose of the whole exercise.
- Freaky 13y ago
  So rename them like you would if you would in any previous version. %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu, rename to heart's content. Or right click the tile, Open file location and rename.
  - sesqu 13y ago
    It's funny how many times I've read the same reply to criticisms of Windows 8: "Despite appearances, you can still do X". I wonder how many options will go the way of the shutdown button in Windows 9 - that is, moved entirely.
gabemart 13y ago
> Been using 8 for about a year and have no problem with the start screen without a touch interface - the workflow is pretty much identical to 7: Press the Windows key and type part of the name of what you want, with the bonus that it's significantly faster at giving results. A full-screen menu appearing on top of whatever I am working on completely breaks my flow. It's immensely distracting to me. As a result, I literally never use it. Instead I use Launchy [1] which is well behaved and keeps within the confines of a very small dialogue box. That doesn't completely fix Windows 8, though - there's still a bunch of touch-orientated stuff that there's no native way to deactivate. [1] http://www.launchy.net/ http://www.launchy.net/
- lttlrck 13y ago
  I find Gnome 3 suffers the same issue. When I'm searching I know what I'm looking for 99% of the time, it's just a glorified accelerator combo, I don't need a full screen full of distractions.
- Freaky 13y ago
  I tend not to be launching much stuff when I'm working - editors, browsers, VMs etc are already open. Plus I have three monitors, and tend to have it opening on the smallest so it doesn't get in the way. I do think Microsoft should have made it optional - it's obvious this is what people wanted, and it's not like it would have cost them much in development/support. Still, at least there's now a huge bunch of third party software to replace/augment it, most with far greater configurability than the original Start menu.
- philliphaydon 13y ago
  I thought, wow, awesome, an Alfred alternative to windows. - Install - Type in visualstud... I get CALCULATOR... - Uninstall... Launchy has absolutely NOTHING on Windows 8 Key + typing.
TeddyLondon 13y ago
Totally agree, I have been using 8 / 8.1 since it's release and really don't miss the start menu, I am forced to use xp quite often and cannot stand it, the amount of times I bring up the start menu up and type to bring up an app and the start menu just does nothing just makes me cry. I have seen some people put the windows 7 style start menu on win 8 - it just doesn't make sense to me, the world moves on, things change, learn to adapt and life is so much sweeter!

by Freaky 13y ago

gizzlon 13y ago

yeah, but that's not how I use 7. I click the "pinned" icon in the taskbar. (It's not as fast as a keyboard short-cut, but it's good enough.)

gebe 13y ago
You can still do that though.
Freaky 13y ago
So then what's the problem? That works exactly as it did before. And the first ten do have keyboard shortcuts - Win-0 to Win-9.
- gizzlon 13y ago
  oh, ok.. I thought you had to go through the "start screen" for some applications.

arethuza 13y ago

"you now have more space to see what's available" Actually, you don't - on the server I am using there is an (otherwise excellent) Microsoft product installed that prefixes all of it's menu items with the same name so all you see is a number of items with the same logo and "Really long product name...." and to find out which one is which you have to hover the mouse over them, which rather defeats the purpose of the whole exercise.

Freaky 13y ago
So rename them like you would if you would in any previous version. %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu, rename to heart's content. Or right click the tile, Open file location and rename.
- sesqu 13y ago
  It's funny how many times I've read the same reply to criticisms of Windows 8: "Despite appearances, you can still do X". I wonder how many options will go the way of the shutdown button in Windows 9 - that is, moved entirely.

gabemart 13y ago

> Been using 8 for about a year and have no problem with the start screen without a touch interface - the workflow is pretty much identical to 7: Press the Windows key and type part of the name of what you want, with the bonus that it's significantly faster at giving results. A full-screen menu appearing on top of whatever I am working on completely breaks my flow. It's immensely distracting to me. As a result, I literally never use it. Instead I use Launchy [1] which is well behaved and keeps within the confines of a very small dialogue box. That doesn't completely fix Windows 8, though - there's still a bunch of touch-orientated stuff that there's no native way to deactivate. [1] http://www.launchy.net/ http://www.launchy.net/

lttlrck 13y ago
I find Gnome 3 suffers the same issue. When I'm searching I know what I'm looking for 99% of the time, it's just a glorified accelerator combo, I don't need a full screen full of distractions.
Freaky 13y ago
I tend not to be launching much stuff when I'm working - editors, browsers, VMs etc are already open. Plus I have three monitors, and tend to have it opening on the smallest so it doesn't get in the way. I do think Microsoft should have made it optional - it's obvious this is what people wanted, and it's not like it would have cost them much in development/support. Still, at least there's now a huge bunch of third party software to replace/augment it, most with far greater configurability than the original Start menu.
philliphaydon 13y ago
I thought, wow, awesome, an Alfred alternative to windows. - Install - Type in visualstud... I get CALCULATOR... - Uninstall... Launchy has absolutely NOTHING on Windows 8 Key + typing.

TeddyLondon 13y ago

Totally agree, I have been using 8 / 8.1 since it's release and really don't miss the start menu, I am forced to use xp quite often and cannot stand it, the amount of times I bring up the start menu up and type to bring up an app and the start menu just does nothing just makes me cry. I have seen some people put the windows 7 style start menu on win 8 - it just doesn't make sense to me, the world moves on, things change, learn to adapt and life is so much sweeter!