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Microsoft killed the start button because it wasn't used


DKT27

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Microsoft had been relatively quiet on why it decided to drop the start button in Windows 8 but at TechED Europe, the company provided insight as to why the company made the controversial decision.

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Windows 8 brings many new features to the table but one thing the platform will remove, is the traditional start button. If you had been wondering why Microsoft made this controversial decision to remove button, we finally have some insight and the news comes from TechEd Europe.

PCpro was able to ask Microsoft this question and their response was that the button was no longer being used to the same frequency as previous versions of Windows. Chaitanya Sareen, principal program manager at Microsoft, said that "We’d seen the trend in Windows 7" that users were no longer using the start button but instead pinning applications to the task bar:

When we evolved the taskbar we saw awesome adoption of pinning [applications] on the taskbar. We are seeing people pin like crazy. And so we saw the Start menu usage dramatically dropping, and that gave us an option. We’re saying 'look, Start menu usage is dropping, what can we do about it? What can we do with the Start menu to revive it, to give it some new identity, give it some new power?

The evidence that Microsoft gathered stated that keyboard shortcuts and pinning items to the taskbar was reducing the functional utility of the traditional start button. By switching to the Metro start screen, you unlock an entire new set of experiences and avenues to display relevant information.

While many may object to this trend, data does not lie. If this is what Microsoft was seeing on their end via the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program, then maybe they were right. But the question is, do you still use the start button or did keyboard shortcuts and pinning items reduce your usage as Microsoft suggests?

:view: View: Original Article

Sorry for late news but it wasn't worth letting off.

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T4C Fantasy

its true about less usage, the fact that its still being used should still stand, i dont like putting so many pinned icons on my taskbar to the pint where you have to make it bigger or scroll down, and programmers will be furious because they love easy access to the run command

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The Windows 7 Start button is the nucleus around which everything else revolves - it's quite difficult to use Windows 7 without using the Start button. It's nothing but a lame claim. <_<

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If you use Windows 8 Release preview, you'll notice that most things you did with the start menu, you can still do them. For me search was the most common use scneario since windows vista.. and still seems to work on win 8.. so it doesn't seem that bad..

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Have used Windows 8 for a month - it's the most unintuitive OS from Microsoft across past & present iterations - simply obnoxious. :s

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The Windows 7 Start button is the nucleus around which everything else revolves - it's quite difficult to use Windows 7 without using the Start button. It's nothing but a lame claim. <_<

+1

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using the start button is like going to the fridge!!!! everyone does it, AT ONCE A DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Everyone is overlooking the obvious here. The name of the new OS says it all. Windows 8 (Ate)

Windows ate the "START BUTTON" :food: and thats why we can't have it anymore

I'm sure we all had our issues with Windows 7 when it first came out, but loved it soon enough. Its human nature to fight changes but adopt them anyway.

Let just "AGREE TO DISAGREE" and argue again when windows "X" is released :dance2:

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its true about less usage, the fact that its still being used should still stand, i dont like putting so many pinned icons on my taskbar to the pint where you have to make it bigger or scroll down, and programmers will be furious because they love easy access to the run command

I think Microsoft must have gathered erroneous statistics with regards to the usage of the start button. It is the central command and control of the OS. But i agree with what you're saying about cluttering the taskbar with so many pinned apps. Not everyone is running a high resolution setup with ample space.

Run command shortcut (Windows key + R) not sure if it'll work in Win 8

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Windows 7: Life without walls.

Windows 8: Life without Start Menu.

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maybe Microsoft does is study...with peoples doing nothing but surfing the net, read email, and maybe chat?

These peoples rarely install/uninstall programs to test them, or change setting on the Os, or use the control panel..

these people don't use the command line, or know anything about the Os.

I use the start menu pretty often (many apps are pinned on the taskbar too).

Maybe poweruser like us use it much more often than "normal" people?

they should have simply put a small icon as the start menu.

if it's gone, and i can't easily acces of all the stuff normally there, it's one more thing that will push me away from Windows 8.

Maybe Windows 8 will be the new Vista, on pc.

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something to think about...

what's the first thing anyone will do on a fresh windows 7 install????? (my windows iso are all untouched, with SP1 our other updates inclued)..

i allways get the recycle bin icon.... but i can't do anything with out my comp icon and my floder on the desktop... what's the next step on getting them there? either press windows button (very rarely i do that, unless to use the windows swith anymation from win 7) or jump to the START button with the mouse!

if it's gone, and i can't easily acces of all the stuff normally there, it's one more thing that will push me away from Windows 8.

Maybe Windows 8 will be the new Vista, on pc.

+1

vista was a big fail form microsoft...

proof of that was the high rate of acceptance of win 7 of lauch in 2009....

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SnakeMasteR

I hit the Start button over 10 times per day, pinning programs onto the taskbar is big crap,

i use the quick launch menu with a custom quick launch folder where all that stuff is in that

i installed and use often (it is like one main folder with different subfolders and shortcuts).

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Desktop=clean, Taskbar=clean with quick start, Start menu=organized with important apps.

I organize my Windows, not my Windows organizes me. I do it for myself, if i want to have a

Start button, i will crack it back to me.

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I personally stopped using the Start Menu that often, because of Rocket Dock. It is, however, a necessary part of Windows. When I tested 7 a while back, the pinning thing was annoying. Just a waste of space. -.-

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Microsoft has been credited (in advance) with having killed the Start button. I'm saying that's not murder - it's . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . suicide. :s

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