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Microsoft Releases Windows 10 Build 18290 With Start Menu Improvements (betanews.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the new-and-improved dept.

DarkRookie2 shares a report a report about Windows 10 Build 18290 for Insiders, which comes with a number of improvements and additions. BetaNews reports: The most noticeable change is to the Start menu which gets a touch of Fluent design, making it look more attractive. Icons have also been added to the power and user menus. The Search and Cortana areas have been given a bit of a cleanup as well. Also new in this build is an option in the Date & Time Settings that will let you manually synchronize your clock with the time server. If you suspect your PC clock might be showing the wrong time, this will let you check and correct the problem if you're right. You can now also check to see which app is using your microphone (just hover over the microphone icon to see), and when your PC has an update that requires a reboot, you'll now be informed via an orange Windows Update indicator in the system tray.

5 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. Call me when they roll it back by Shaitan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The start menu has gotten worse and worse with each release and peaked somewhere around XP pro. 7 was the last functional one.

    1. Re:Call me when they roll it back by sexconker · · Score: 5, Funny

      Besides having a weird time delay (experienced on many systems) where the OS doesn't pick up the first couple of letters in the password field, start menu, etc. So you have to 'wait' for it to catch up after pressing alt-ctrl-del when logging in, pressing start to search, and all number of actions that should be quick and thoughtless...

      You have to wait for the "telemetry" service to wake up sometimes.

    2. Re:Call me when they roll it back by hudsucker · · Score: 5, Insightful

      For one thing, the Windows 10 Start Menu doesn't allow for program subfolders.

      For example, if you had something like a "Microsoft Office" group, containing the key applications at the top level, but the lesser used utilities in a subfolder "Microsoft Office Tools", all of that nice structure is gone. It just throws all of the program icons into the single folder allowed per application.

      Microsoft's answer is, apparently, to redesign the application so it doesn't use the Start Menu for program links. But what happens when you have an application that was designed for Windows 7, which has a perfectly functional Start menu, that supports subfolders? It is just a horrid mess.

      And what possible reason is there for this limitation? Oh yeah: it is because Windows 8 was designed for tablets, not computers, hence the whole "metro" interface. For some reason Microsoft didn't bother to fix the Metro-emphasis in Windows 10, so we're stuck with limitations that make no sense.

  2. Classic Shell by toejam13 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Call me when they include a classic shell option. I absolutely hate the new Windows 10 start menu. Yes, there is a third party utility that can provide such a menu, but the author has complained about how each new version of Windows makes it increasingly difficult to keep the utility functional.

  3. Change != Improvement by schwit1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If MS really wanted to improve windows 10 they would start by moving PC Settings back to Control Panel. And don't install so many services and apps until the user starts them for the first time.