Don’t Waste Time Reinstating the Legacy Start Menu in Windows 8

The title pretty much says it all but there are some solutions out there such as Start8 trying to recreate some form of a Start Menu in Windows 8 which eschewed this fundamental feature introduced in Windows 95. Eighteen years of the Start Menu can be long enough to have users rusted on to a particular way of doing things despite evolutionary changes to it over that time.

I can understand that the new Start Screen might upset some people as it is a significant departure from the way things have been in Windows for ages (similar to how the Start Menu in Windows 95 was a huge change from Program Manager in Windows 3.11 and earlier). Technology advances and the ability to provide a richer user experience advances in line with technology. Back in 1995 the Internet was primitive, it was expensive to be online all the time and bandwidth has scarce. These days, broadband is pretty much ubiquitous and affordable while real time web services such as weather, financial data and messaging are quite plentiful.

If you have the means to try out Windows 8, I would really encourage you to try it out as it was intended. Configure the apps, see how the live tiles work and pin apps into groups that make the most sense to you. The live tiles are essentially small windows into the various pieces of information that are important to you.

Essentially, the Start Screen in Windows 8 is quite a personal yet informative means to gain information without hopping in and out of apps or between windows just to check if anything has changed. While it may seem best suited to touch interfaces like a tablet or a phone I am optimistic that the desktop experience with the Start Screen will work and makes a good compromise between desktop widgets hidden behind windows and the overcrowded system tray popping up numerous notification messages.

So give Windows 8 a good go before trying to hack a Start Menu back into it – it might just grow on you.