Microsoft has already made it clear it sees Windows 8 as a re-imagining of the popular platform. And after weeks of talking up myriad new elements - from app store support to improving copy management - the software giant is revisiting the beginning: the Windows Start menu.
Writing at the Building Windows 8 blog this week, Steven Sinofsky, Windows Live president, provided his take on the revamped launchpad.
"We designed [Windows 8] Start to be a modern, fast and fluid replacement for the combination of launching, switching, notifying, and at-a-glance viewing of information," said Sinofsky, adding that juggling the wants and needs of old computer hands and new users alike was a constant concern.
It's hard to argue. Windows 8's new Start menu features an eye-catching if divisive Metro-style look - one Microsoft has quickly grown to love. The new Start menu looks as colorful and streamlined as the older iterations were drab and utilitarian.
Alice Steinglass, group program manager for the Core Experience Evolved team, disagreed slightly with her boss' appraisal. "The Windows 8 Start screen is not just a replacement for the Windows 7 Start menu but a bringing together of several different ways of navigating your machine," she said.
Steinglass justified the changes by pointing out that Windows 7 experts tend to ditch the traditional Start menu for the taskbar when it comes to their favorite applications anyway.
One goal for the new system is fitting more content on the screen. According to Steinglass, Windows 8 will allow for over two dozen apps on screen at once:
The full-screen Start gives you the power and flexibility to launch more apps with a single click. You can still put your most frequently used desktop apps on the taskbar in desktop. But the new Start screen has space to duplicate the 10-12 app links that you had pinned to the old Start menu, and still fit an additional 12 to 14 items on the first screen of a 1366 x 768 display. With a higher density display, obviously there's room to add even more apps that you can get to with a single click. As a reminder, Windows 8 requires a 1024 x 768 minimum resolution for Metro style apps, and as long as your screen is at least 1366px wide, you can use snap to show two apps at once.
Steinglass also promised the new Start would feature scaling search results - a feature not available in Windows 7.
"If you have only one app with the word Excel in the name, launching it works exactly the same as it always has. Hit Start. Start typing 'Ex…' and watch it auto-complete. Hit Enter, and Excel launches," she explained. "Because the search results are full-screen, we can show at least 48 items on most screens, instead of just three."
The new Start menu is meant to be a Start screen, added Chaitanya Sareen, program manager lead, Core Experience Evolved team.
"With the Windows taskbar becoming the key launcher and switcher for the desktop, and the Start menu being revealed as a poor everyday launcher, an opportunity appeared to re-imagine Start and make it into something more valuable," said Sareen. "Improved search, more room for all your programs, tiles that are alive with activity, and richer customization all suddenly become possible." (via Building Windows 8)
What do you think about Windows 8's new Start menu? Let us know in the comment section.
