Microsoft Killed the Start Menu Because No One Uses It

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft recently killed the Start Menu, and their explanation for it seems fairly straightforward: no one used it. This may be a bit of an exaggeration, but Microsoft explains that use of the Start menu dipped by 11 percent between Windows Vista and Windows 7, with many specialized Start functions — such as exploring pictures — declining as much as 61 percent."

Comments

This is like GM removing the spare in trunk

[denis-The-menace]

When you can't figure out the easy way to launch stuff, look in the Start Menu.

This is change for change's sake.

Re:This is like GM removing the spare in trunk

[Anonymous Coward]

When you can't figure out the easy way to launch stuff, look in the Start Menu.

You can't. Because they didn't like the look of the big, floor-to-ceiling look of the old XP system, they shrunk it all down so that it only shows 5-6 items at a time and has a scrollbar.

In short, they made it harder to use and less functional than the XP Start Menu, and to everyone's amazement, people stopped using it, and then they claimed it was some sort of UX triumph.

Ditto with the control panel - rather than one big screen with 100+ tiny icons on it, they reworded a few things ("Display" becaome "Personalization", and there are 2-3 different UIs rather than the tabs on the old-fashioned XP display.cpl) and made them all look like web-apps. Now that it's unnavigable with words or icons, everyone uses "search" and it "feels faster". You can't write documentation that says Start-Settings-ControlPanel-Display-Screensaver, you have to say "search for 'screen saver' and clicky on whatever pops up"... *sigh*

This is change for change's sake.

Much like Firefox, most UX innovation is precisely that. If you don't get the results that match your pet UI design philosophy, move the feature around, and while your users are trying to find the feature you don't want, accumulate enough telemetry to claim your users aren't using it as often, then take it away. (Status bar, full URL in the URLbar, etc.)

Re:This is like GM removing the spare in trunk

[Sponge Bath]

It's more akin to a the owners manual not telling you where the spare tire is.

Microsoft has moved the start menu functions to the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'.

This is why I still use Windows XP

[duguk]

This is why I'm still on Windows XP; I like the Start Menu and being able to group my applications by purpose in a *menu*.
I don't want them littered over the desktop or in silly toolbars.

WTF?

[Cro Magnon]

Without the Start Menu, how do I shutdown?

Re:WTF?

[Capt.DrumkenBum]

Without the Start Menu, how do I shutdown?

Hold the power button down for ten seconds, just like always. :)

Re:WTF?

[Fallingcow]

The new Stop Menu?

Re:Indeed

[ColdWetDog]

People seem to want symbolic icons that represent the programs they want to run; they don't want to look through a long menu and read a bunch of text.

Really? Seems to be a common theme and maybe I'm just abnormal but I cannot stand interfaces with a dozen geometric shapes with random squiggles and colors that are different from every other interface with a dozen geometric shapes with random squiggles and colors.

Just put the damned labels in whatever language the system detects it's supposed to be in. Leave the squiggles and lines to the finger painting set.

Re:Ok, how do they know?

[jedidiah]

...that still leaves the less frequently used stuff to sort out.

One of the key strengths of a GUI is supposed to be tasks that you do so infrequently that you are prone to forget how to do them. A good GUI helps smooth over that sort of problem. A bad one just makes it so hard that you just want to reach for a bash prompt.

That monstrosity in Windows8 IS NOT the answer.

[rahvin112]

So in Windows 8 (for those that tried the demo, yes I downloaded the ISO and setup a VM to try it) they replaced the simple little menu in the start button with a whole screen monstrosity that takes the entire desktop. Taking over my whole desktop because I pushed the start button isn't the answer to this problem. IMO people don't use the start menu much because they put icons of their most used programs in the quick launch tool bar and on the desktop itself. Instead they take a simple menu, blow it up full screen and if you decide you don't want to pick a program and go back to what you have running, there is no logical way to do it (there isn't a close button that's obvious, ESC doesn't work, right click doesn't work). That's fucked up.

Gnome3 and Ubuntu's solution to doing away with the start button is far better than what MS has cooked up and I don't really like those either but I can see them working better). If I fail that badly using their "NEW AND IMPROVED" start menu I can't even comprehend how disastrous this will be for the less computer literate. The best part is, you cannot bring back the old start menu that I could find. It's not in the control panel, the options are gone from the right click menu, etc.

MS is making a huge mistake overlaying their Windows Phone 7 Metro interface on windows. This is a huge fuckup that's obviously being done to use the windows monopoly against the phone competition. It's going to backfire and damage windows just like Vista did.

Re:That monstrosity in Windows8 IS NOT the answer.

[Alef]

Well, you know the old saying: If you can't make phones into small PCs, make PCs into big phones.

The MS start menu is a cluttered mess

[Lussarn]

There is really nothing wrong with a start menu. Microsoft however never enforced a good practice with their start menu, the signal to noise ratio is VERY low. It's cluttered with company names, uninstallers and readme files. Why should I have to know the name of the company if I want to use a program, looks very much like advertisement to me. Instead of enforcing a good practice they have extended the start menu with "most used programs" which really doesn't cure the underlying problem, and to me it's even more cluttered. They should get rid of everything but the program starters in correct folders, Games in games folder and so on, one program has one menu entry, this was probably how it was meant to be by the original designer but never enforced. Look at Gnome, very simple, and very effective. And now MS have come to the conclusion that nobody uses their cluttered mess of a start menu, and are killing it. I say it could be fixed, but MS doesn't seem to know what's wrong with it...

Developers destroyed the start menu

[MobyDisk]

The start menu was a nice one-click or one-key access to all your programs. But a combination of Microsoft watering it down + installers misusing the start menu have damaged its usefulness:

HOW TO USE THE START MENU
1. Don't use the start menu for branding. Example:
Start\Symantec Applications\Norton Antivirus\Norton Antivirus.lnk
should be
Start\Norton Antivirus.lnk
(*) This is usually committed with Sin #2 below

2. Don't make a group for one icon.
Start\Super Editor\Super Editor.lnk
should be
Start\Super Editor.lnk

3. Don't place icons in 3 places
- Quick launch
- Desktop
- Start menu

Put them in the start menu, and let the user decide what applications are important enough to put on their desktop.

4. Don't put multiple icons where 1 will do
Start\VideoLan\Documentation.lnk
Start\VideoLan\VLC Media Player.lnk
Start\VideoLan\VLC Media Player Skinned.lnk
Start\VideoLan\Readme.lnk
Start\VideoLan\Configure VLC Media Player.lnk

Documentation is part of the application. Skinned/non-skinned is an option within the application. Configuration is part of the application.

5. Don't put control panel icons on the start menu.
Ex: Start\ATI Catalyst Control Center.lnk
should be
Start\Control Panel\ATI Catalyst Control Center.lnk

6. Don't modify the start menu when I run your app or update it. Ex: I move Quicktime under "Junk" but it reappears whenever it updates. Another one is FinePrint which re-adds itself when the driver starts.

7. Microsoft: Don't limit the size of the menu menu then add a scroll bar. Windows Vista and 7 limit it to 1/2 the screen then add a scroll bar, even if everything would have fit just fine had it resized.

8. Microsoft: The icons need to be clickable size. A 16x16 icon at 1600x1200 is inappropriate when the app provided a 128x128 icon.

9. Don't forget keyboard support! This has gone down hill since Windows '9x.

10. Don't place icons under Start - Programs. Everything is a program. Just place them under "Start"

11. Don't place applications in the registry startup - place them in the start menu's startup group so that the user can remove it easily if necessary.