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Windows 10: Charms Bar Removed, No Start Screen For Desktops

jones_supa writes Late last week, Microsoft pushed out a new build (9926) of Windows 10 to those of you who are running the Technical Preview. The latest version comes with many new features, some easily accessible, others bubbling under, but two big changes are now certain: the Charms bar is dead, and Start Screen for large devices is no more. Replacing the Charms bar is the Action Center, which has many of the same shortcuts as the Charms bar, but also has a plethora of other information too. Notifications are now bundled into the Action Center and the shortcuts to individual settings are still easily accessible from this window. The Start Screen is no longer present for desktop users, the options for opening it are gone. Continuum is the future, and it has taken over what the Start Screen initiated with Windows 8.

7 of 378 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Good! RIP Charms Bar by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    > At work everyone has 17" monitors

    Do you work in 1998?

  2. How does Microsoft test with USERS? by mykepredko · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Seriously. It seems like Microsoft decides what are the systems that users should be working with and runs from there with no regard to what users are actually working with.

    The biggest irony is that they don't seem to understand that the people who will have the biggest problem with what they are throwing out are developers. I can't imagine that Microsoft's own developers are running their own development systems on Windows 8.1 - I wouldn't be surprised if it were a dirty secret within Microsoft that application development takes place on Win7 (and maybe WinXP).

    I understand the appeal of having one OS and UI for all devices but a Phone isn't a Tablet which isn't a laptop which isn't a desktop which isn't a server. And if you're a developer, requiring a touch screen hurts your productivity.

    myke

    1. Re:How does Microsoft test with USERS? by kolbe · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Just PM'ed a buddy of mine in Cloud and Enterprise Engineering @ Redmond, WA. about this. He says he uses Windows 2012 Server as his desktop and VMWare Workstation running Slackware Linux on it. Yeah, seems weird, but he says he is more efficient that way.

  3. But how did it happen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    What I still don't understand is how management, which is presumably comprised of older, more conservative, more experienced types, fell for the ridiculous idea of replacing the proven desktop metaphor with a tablet interface. (I'm assuming the idea was proposed by young, inexperienced marketers and junior executives.) What in the world was upper management thinking when they signed off on this, and why are they still working at microsoft after it's been proven a disaster?

  4. Re:Terrible names by jellomizer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I don't care what they call it. But I just want the ability to drill down to find my feature.
    The Windows 8 Interface, and Office 2007+ Ribbons with its tiles, kills the drill down idea, and gives you a big set of data cluttered in your face.

    I am all for a spot for shortcuts and links, where you can put the most used features right at your beck and call. But being the case I use 20% of the features 80% of the time, means I much rather have most of the stuff shoved away from my site, until I need them, and I can use common sense to find out where they are.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  5. BUT - will it auto-calculate folder sizes? by Ralph+Spoilsport · · Score: 3, Interesting

    IF not, WHY not? Apple does it. WTF?

    --
    Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
  6. Re:Three-month-old Continuum screenshot by JohnFen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    10 is looking decent enough to give a shot.

    It's good enough that I won't howl if my employer requires me to start using it. However, there is not a single thing in Windows 10 that I find compelling enough to make me upgrade unless I'm required to. There are some minor performance improvements, but nothing that makes the upgrade a "must-have". All of the new features are things that I will never use and don't care about. And I am very, very nervous about the tighter integration with the cloud.