Samsung adds Start menu replacement to its Windows 8 PCs

28 Aug 12 14:22 by in category Software, Windows 8

When discussing Windows 8 you almost can’t go around it, Microsoft has decided to remove the start menu from its latest version of the Windows operating system. Many, many websites and users have commented on it and start menu alternatives like Power8 have appeared and the general consensus is that people will miss it. It seems that Samsung is also afraid that consumers purchasing a Samsung computer with Windows 8 will start flooding their helpdesk asking where they can find the start menu.

Today the Korean electronics giant has announced new Windows 8 PCs and Mashable (click for more pictures) reports that these new PCs contain software called  ’S Launcher’ which adds functionality to Windows 8 that resembles the functionality of the start menu. It’s interesting that an OEM decides to put back functionality that Microsoft purposely has removed.

Discuss this in our Windows 8 Forum

4 Comments on Samsung adds Start menu replacement to its Windows 8 PCs

ChristineBCW
Posts: 1351
Posted on: 28 Aug 12 14:44
Yes, I expect all those long-promised "cheap administrative costs" will skyrocket on Help Desk additions alone.

But I'm not sure why Microsoft would almost 'chum the waters' and offer UI Alternatives such an obvious void to fill.

"We want to be Ubuntu"? "We want to be Xerox Parc"?

I keep thinking, "Maybe MS wants to focus on the Real Operating System - writing bits and bytes, data storage, device comms, etc. Except, uh, I'd have thought they could do this already after these first couple of decades.
darkalien74
Posts: 21
Posted on: 28 Aug 12 15:17
At least samsung listen consumers, Try to see what they want. That's why they are a growing company, surpassing giants like Sony. In fact see what happened to Sony with their policy to sell all sort of proprietary things, like mp3 players with ATTRAC, among other things. Microsoft its taking that way, telling consumers that they have to use their SO the way they want, you don't have a choice.
And see for example Ubuntu, with their UNITY interface, i just hate it, but I can go back to the old GNOME interface, in fact I can choose a lot of interfaces (KDE, Lubuntu, etc), Why can't Microsoft do the same, we would be happy.
Zzyzxroad
Posts: 270
Posted on: 28 Aug 12 21:05
ViStart does a great job at making a start menu. It looks exactly like the original, but lacks the right-clickability. Apparently future versions should have that.
BradWright
Posts: 226
Posted on: 29 Aug 12 05:48
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zzyzxroad View Post
ViStart does a great job at making a start menu. It looks exactly like the original, but lacks the right-clickability. Apparently future versions should have that.
You should try Classic Shell from Source Forge: http://classicshell.sourceforge.net.
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Samsung adds Start menu replacement to its Windows 8 PCs

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