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Windows 8.1 RTM Trickling Out, With Start Menu and Boot-to-Desktop

Posted by timothy on from the year-of-the-windows-desktop dept.

poofmeisterp writes "It's about time. Windows 8.1 will be released to end users in October, and RTM is being released now: 'Windows 8.1, codenamed "Blue," is introducing a number of changes designed to make the new operating system more palatable to current Windows users. Windows 8.1 is adding a Start Button, a boot-straight-to-desktop option; the ability to unpin all Metro apps; built-in tutorials; an improved Windows Store and a host of other consumer- and business-focused features. Microsoft launched its one and only Windows 8.1 consumer preview test build in late June.'"

11 of 496 comments (clear)

  1. Too little too late by Teresita · · Score: 5, Informative

    The start button takes you from the Desktop right back to the Metro screen, which is what pisses everyone off in the first place.

    1. Re:Too little too late by roc97007 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      > If you know, I don't sit on my ass and whine like a spoiled brat who can't take any initiative.

      You don't get it. (1) Yes I can fix it. But why should I buy something that I need to beat into submission, when what I have works fine? (2) Yes I can fix it, but the 10,000+ users in my company, most of whom have other jobs than being a computer geek, would struggle with it, and I'd lose my job if I foisted that off on them.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    2. Re:Too little too late by bryanbrunton · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The old menu allows quick access to the majority of system functions. It did this with a minimum of clicks, mouse movement and extraneous information.

      If I am working, I don't want to see weather information, stock quotes and baseball scores. Sure, you can remove those tiles from the start screen, but then that defeats the purpose of having that information available when I am not working.

      I actually might enjoy the start screen when I am not working, but that goes back to the core malfunction of the start screen: it is mixing core functional areas:

      (1) Program/System/Settings Launcher
      (2) Information Provider

      Why is so freaking difficult for the so-called User Interface experts at Microsoft to understand that this is a colossal fuck up to jam these two key functional areas onto the Start Screen?

    3. Re:Too little too late by roc97007 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Name one OS that is just right out of the box and needs no tweaks. Linux always needs fiddling with (that's why you love it) and MacOS's two-finger scroll scrolls the wrong way by default.

      At least with Windows 8 you can use AD to roll out suitable settings for everyone in one hit. I'm sure you can do the same thing with Linux/MacOS somehow too.

      This is more than tweaks. You don't understand what "lack of control, conveyance, continuity, and context" means to people who are not computer geeks, don't have a job even remotely close to the computer industry, and only need computers to do certain business related tasks. When you're not a computer geek or Microsoft employee, you don't necessarily touch computers every day, and trying to remember which hot corner to touch or where your application is, or how to get out of a full screen Metro app, is not something they're going to remember or even want to try to figure out. This can't be fixed by using A/D to roll out settings.

      However, there is a solution. And that is, to stick with Windows 7 until Microsoft abandons this crap. (Actually, we're still largely on XP, but are starting to roll out 7 on new hardware.)

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    4. Re:Too little too late by jones_supa · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It is a big deal if you have to replace a core component of an OS with a third party solution to make it usable.

    5. Re: Too little too late by David+Gould · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Win7 is mediocre."
      "Win7 is by far the best OS Microsoft has ever made."

      A prime example of how two different statements can be true simultaneously.

      --
      David Gould
      main(i){putchar(340056100>>(i-1)*5&31|!!(i<6)<< 6)&&main(++i);}
  2. Its dead Jim! by sinij · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Start working on Windows 9, you won't redeem this one so late in the game.

  3. Start BUTTON minus Start MENU = FAIL (again) by gestalt_n_pepper · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Bottom line? Don't make me learn new interface stuff. I hate it. If it takes a non-zero amount of time for me to think about it, it's not a value, add; it's a value-subtract.

    FYI, this goes for ALL software AND programming languages. Adding a few things incrementally to use new features is fine. Changing interfaces or behaviors wholesale isn't.

    This should fall into the "common sense" category - something the software industry isn't exactly famous for being able to perceive or implement.

    Disclaimer: I write software for a living. Please don't hate me.

    --
    Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
  4. Misleading headline by onyxruby · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Please rewrite headline, it is misleading. There is a world of difference between the Start "Menu" and the Start "Button". 8.1 forces you back into metro through the Start Button and doesn't resolve people issues in the slightest. Metro is still forced on you and it is still wholly unsuitable to the enterprise. While Microsoft at least listened to people about boot to desktop, they showed continued contempt for their customer base by refusing to replace the Start Menu.

    Fix the headline and stop propagating Microsoft's spin, this is a band-aid on sucking chest wound and nothing more.

  5. New Start menu is not so bad - Metro apps are by hsa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Once you get used to it, the new Start menu is ok. You don't spend much time in there anyway.

    The real pain in the ass are the stupid full screen Metro apps. Yeah, they just pop up with brightly colored interface that is optimized for touch. They completely disrupt your workflow, there is no visible Exit-button, and they do that for one screen only (if you have multimonitor system, you will totally hate this).

    This happens more every now and then and I have to go through some trouble to replace them with better OSS alternatives. If you are watching a video, default app might pop up, and maybe nag about codec or not being up to date - when you really just want to see the video now, with clear controls. PDF reader pops up with no clear navigation and ofcourse fullscreen, and these ofcourse always go to the same monitor, even if you would like to read the PDF on screen #2, while coding. Shit like this happens also with images and music, and the interface is just .. horrible.

    I don't even care anymore, if they fixed this. I've been downloading OSS replacements for just about every program and I am curretly ok with my Windows. But instead of fixing the Start menu, which is only a minor nuisance, they could make WINDOWED and USABLE default apps.

    They should also shoot the guy, who designed all their new software (Office, Visual Studio..) USING ONLY CAPS FOR TITLES, patch them back to normal and make my eyes hurt less.

  6. Re:Still missing an option.. by GrumpySteen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This actually isn't redundant. Windows 2.0 introduced overlapping windows as a part of the OS and those have been present in every version up until Windows 8 and Metro. Microsoft has quite literally brought back a limitation of Windows 1.0 and is new calling it a feature.