Tag Archives: Start Menu

(Hopefully) Helpful Hint: Start Me Up, 2015 Edition

The return of the Start menu was one of the things that made many a Windows 8 Haters stop griping about Microsoft and take a look at Windows 10. Yes, a variation of that handy little button is back, baby, hanging out in the lower-left corner of the screen.  But if you’re used to the text-based list of items like in Windows 7, Vista and XP, this new-fangled Windows 10 Start menu looks and acts a little bit different.

How different? For one thing, it takes up more space when you pop it open, because Microsoft has shrunk down the old Windows 8 Start screen (the one with the little colored self-updating live tiles) and stuffed it into the Start menu. You can tap or click a tile to open its app, like Weather, Photos or Mail. You can ditch or resize the tiles within the Start menu as you see fit. So that’s nice.

PTJ_StartMenu

For a lot of people, the Start menu was where you went every day to, well,  get started — by opening your programs. The Windows 10 Start menu has a variation of the old All Programs menu found in previous editions, except now it’s a vertical list of little app tiles. Links to the File Explorer, system Settings and logout/shutdown button are all here in the new Start menu, too. And as with previous versions of Windows, you can pin your favorite and most-used items to the Start menu so they are always nearby. You can even combine pinned apps into a group.

Windows 10 brings along some new things as well. For one, Cortana is hanging out down there at the bottom of the screen, waiting for you to ask her stuff. Think the Windows 10 Start menu is too small and you miss the expansive Start screen of Windows 8? You can go back to the Windows 8 days when Start takes up the whole screen by changing your settings. You have options.

No matter if you’re coming from Windows 8 or an earlier version of Windows, elements of the Start menu will look vaguely familiar. For those who avoided Windows 8 and clung to XP or Windows 7, popping open the Start menu in Windows 10 can feel  just like coming home again — albeit to a slightly bigger, colorful redecorated house that talks back to you.

Ten Forward

Technical preview versions of Windows 10 have been out there for months and have already started to get reviews from testers, but Microsoft had a big Windows 10 event last week anyway. Part progress report and part consumer preview, the event also served as a reminder than the much-maligned Windows 8.1 is not long for this world.

One thing that got immediate attention: Microsoft announced that for the first year, Windows 10 will be a free upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 users. Windows Phone 8 users also get the free update.

To recap previous peeks, yes, the Start Menu — or a variation thereof — is back into the system, no add-on software required. Also, instead of having the old familiar Windows Control Panel in the Desktop Mode and the colorful “Change PC Settings” world of Windows 8 off the Charms bar, Windows 10 brings all the system settings into one place.

desktop

And speaking of that frustrating hybrid of desktop and Modern UI, there’s a Continuum feature  that automatically switches the interface between the more desktop-y mode with floating windows to the full-screen app style of the touch interface. The Notifications Center, or Action Center, will let you adjust settings with one click.

That new streamlined  “Project Spartan” browser (still a code name) has been confirmed for the Windows 10 mix. Among other things, it’s got markup and a reading list function built in so you can spend more quality time with your webpages.

As previously leaked to Windows Watchers, Cortana, the voice-activated personal assistant from Windows Phone is coming to Windows 10. You can verbally command Cortona to pull up files and photos, just like those computers do in the movies. The Xbox and Windows X, er 10, are also going to be getting a lot closer.

holoHowever, it was the HoloLens headset and its gesture-based holographic projection system that got most of the attention at the Microsoft event. These augmented-reality goggles were demoed (and some journalists got to try them out) for the first time in front of an audience, and earned a number of predictable ooohs and aaahs.

hologram

Microsoft managed to cram in quite a bit into the event (check out the video supercut from The Verge to see the highlights) and the company’s shift into a more nimble, less-tied-to-selling-boxed-copies-of-Windows way of life has gotten praise.  But it may be the HoloLens that got developers and other techies excited about Microsoft again — after the high-tech goggles were unveiled, tickets for Microsoft’s 2015 Build Conference sold out in less than an hour. Game on, Apple and Google.