After months of confusion and anguish, Microsoft has announced the return of the Start menu in the latest version of Windows 8. Are you feeling emotional about its long-awaited return?
They say you don’t know how much you love something until it’s gone. If that’s true, I must have been head over heels in love with the old Windows Start menu.
All that time I’d spent using it to zap up the calculator, search for my files and dip into the Control panel amounted to a decade-long romance. And then, when Microsoft callously unveiled Windows 8, it was discarded. Just abandoned in the great Recycle bin in the sky.
Dutifully, I tried to get along with the new, Start menu-less version of Windows. Like a regenerated Doctor Who, you know you’re going to have to put up with it for at least three years, so you may as well get on with things as best as you can. Still, this didn’t stop me getting regularly lost in the Windows 8 ‘live tile’ morass.
Once, I spent a full 10 minutes stuck on its webcam page taking an endless array of selfies as I tried to get back to the home screen. It was a deeply harrowing experience.
The first, my last, my Start menu
Granted, I may be a special case when it comes to being vexed by Windows 8. That hasn’t stopped me from being genuinely overjoyed that the Start menu is back for Microsoft’s 8.1 update. We’ve got the full details on our sister site Tech Daily, but the essence is this: ‘it’s not quite the same, but it’s good enough.’
In all seriousness, Windows 8 has been crying out for a better way to navigate between its start screen and desktop pages. Plus, you can once again pin apps to the Start menu and use it as a means to shut down your computer. All of those little things that were that much harder to do without it.
Having performed another high-profile U-turn with the Xbox One recently, credit is due to Microsoft for listening to consumers and giving them what they want. Now that the Start menu has been retrieved from its metaphorical waste paper bin, I think Windows 8.1 will offer a much-improved user experience.
Certainly I’ll feel more inclined to experiment with its more innovative features knowing I have the Start menu comfort blanket to return to if it all goes wrong… again.
Could you get by without the Windows Start menu?
No - I'm glad the Start menu has returned in Windows 8.1 (66%, 233 Votes)
Yes - I'm not bothered that Windows 8 didn't have a Start menu (14%, 51 Votes)
I really, really don't mind either way (11%, 38 Votes)
I don't use Windows, stop asking me about something that doesn't affect me (9%, 31 Votes)
Total Voters: 353
