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Guru3D.com » News » Windows 8.1 to bring back familiar parts of Windows 7

Windows 8.1 to bring back familiar parts of Windows 7

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 04/22/2013 08:16 AM | source: | 63 comment(s)
Windows 8.1 to bring back familiar parts of Windows 7

Paul Thurrott posted on WinSuperSite.com, via unnamed sources, that the Windows team had objections to restoring the Start button for the first major update to Windows 8. However, it appears that Microsoft's upper management made an executive decision and overruled the Windows team, telling them the Start button is back in the Windows 8.1 desktop UI. The article does not give any specifics on which members of the Microsoft executive team pulled the trigger to put the Start button back in Windows 8.1.8.1 is bringing back some familiar parts of Windows 7

With news emerging that Microsoft will be bringing the Start button back to Windows 8 in the "Blue" update and allowing users to boot directly to the desktop, one has to wonder whether there's any real strategy occurring in Redmond anymore. If the goal is to make Windows 8 more like Windows 7, maybe they should forget the name Windows 8.1 and just call it Windows 7.8. 

Mary Jo Foley has reported on Microsoft's plans to bring back the Start button and allow customers to boot directly to the desktop in Windows 8.1 And I've separately confirmed that this is really happening, with the Start button, in particular, driven by upper management, which overruled objections from the Windows team. And while there are certainly questions about these decisions, I think we should narrow the discussion to the core concerns: Why now? And why didn't Microsoft simply design Windows 8 this way from the beginning? 

Windows 8 is notable for many reasons, but one of the more astonishing aspects of that release, given Microsoft's history, is that it drove aggressive, mobile-oriented UI changes into Windows without providing ways—even hidden ways—to return to the previous interfaces. 

For example, when Windows 95 shipped with the then-new Explorer user interface, customers who pined for the previous Program Manager interface could reconfigure it for that by editing an INI file. And when Microsoft radically changed the Start menu in Windows XP, it allowed customers to return to what it called the "classic Start menu" so that the system more closely resembled its predecessor, Windows 2000. 

But Windows 8 offers none of these customer-centric niceties. A pop-up Start tip replaces the Start button, a full-screen Start screen replaces the Start menu, and the PC now boots into the mobile 'Metro' environment instead of the desktop, even on traditional computers. And in each case, there is no way to configure the system to go back to the previous interface. This is a first for Microsoft and Windows, and as I reported last summer, the firm even went to the drastic step of removing legacy Start menu code from the internals of Windows to ensure that third party developers wouldn't be able to do so either. (Developers have instead been forced to recreate these interfaces manually instead, a process that is more time- and resource-intensive.) 

Was that a good decision? No, absolutely not. On the one hand, I salute Microsoft for finally acting decisively and pushing forward with a new way of doing things without watering it down, as they'd always done, with backwards-looking alternatives. But on the other hand, doing so is deeply antagonistic to customers, in particular the bread-and-butter corporate customers that will not be buying new-age tablets and hybrid PCs anytime soon regardless. They have completely alienated too many of their own customers. 

One might theorize that this wrong-headed decisiveness is what led to Steve Sinofsky's departure from Microsoft, and that the current edict to fix things from on high is something that could never have happened with him still in charge. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that Microsoft, is belatedly, is finally listening to feedback from its customers and changing the product as a result. That is, by far, the most alarming thing that didn't happen—Windows division protestations to the contrary notwithstanding—during the Sinofsky regime. 

Put simply, Microsoft should have designed Windows 8 this way from the beginning, and didn't because the Windows division was given too much free reign after its Windows 7 successes. And it's doing it now because the leadership that triggered six years of ignoring customer wishes is no longer there.As a result, Windows 8.1 will more closely resemble Windows 7 than the original Windows 8 version.

With the leak of 9374, we expect to learn more about Microsoft's plans for Windows 8.1 which will debut later this year, but before that happens, here's a walkthrough of the build that will show you some of the early changes to the platform.








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HeavyHemi
Senior Member



Posts: 6954
Joined: 2008-10-27

#4581509 Posted on: 04/22/2013 08:23 AM
Paul Thurrott posted on WinSuperSite.com, via unnamed sources, that the Windows team had objections to restoring the Start button for the first major update to Windows 8. However, it appears that Micr...

Windows 8.1 to bring back familiar parts of Windows 7

Video already pulled Mr. H. While I've been using Win 8 for awhile and it works well, I do believe they should have left the option available for 'classic' mode.

Neo Cyrus
Senior Member



Posts: 10106
Joined: 2006-02-14

#4581520 Posted on: 04/22/2013 09:13 AM
This doesn't surprise me considering everyone and their dogs who I've encountered are annoyed by Win 8. My laptop came with Winblows 8 so I'm interested in finding out how much an upgrade license will cost. Whoever said just use Win 8 and you'll get used to it couldn't be more wrong, I still hate it. I'm more annoyed by Ribbon replacing common sense/menus than I am with Metro replacing the start menu. That and Win 8's search is far worse than Win 7's. Even something as commonplace as "Computer Management" is hidden.

HeavyHemi
Senior Member



Posts: 6954
Joined: 2008-10-27

#4581522 Posted on: 04/22/2013 09:21 AM
This doesn't surprise me considering everyone and their dogs who I've encountered are annoyed by Win 8. My laptop came with Winblows 8 so I'm interested in finding out how much an upgrade license will cost. Whoever said just use Win 8 and you'll get used to it couldn't be more wrong, I still hate it. I'm more annoyed by Ribbon replacing common sense/menus than I am with Metro replacing the start menu. That and Win 8's search is far worse than Win 7's. Even something as commonplace as "Computer Management" is hidden.


Are your Win+X keys broke? :)

Neo Cyrus
Senior Member



Posts: 10106
Joined: 2006-02-14

#4581538 Posted on: 04/22/2013 10:07 AM
Might be broken when combo'd with OEM installed Win 8. Because you know, better protect those users from themselves. Can't let them access basic tools, they might destroy their PCs.

Even when that shortcut works, that's still no reason to hide anything when it's searched for.

Edit: I like how MS's website doesn't list Win + X under their list of new shortcuts either.

thatguy91
Senior Member



Posts: 6643
Joined: 2010-08-27

#4581543 Posted on: 04/22/2013 10:12 AM
Now to make it less ugly :) The program title bars are just one area that looks ugly, along with the open-with menu (the listings use Windows 95 style icons on a square screen background, not just the icon on the open-with background).

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