Now they're chopping up the Start Button's bones

[JorgeA]

I have just found out,classic Shell has been updated today with better support for Windows 8. In this new version of Classic Shell 3.5.1 it now boots straight to the desktop,by passing the Metro start screen.

This is great news! If I can avoid Metro altogether, then the Win8 experience goes from intolerably annoying to boringly mediocre (because of the removal of Aero and other interesting 3D screen elements). Odd as it may sound, that's a major step forward.

Wouldn't it be ironic if Start Menu restorers like ClassicShell ended up helping to rescue Microsoft from the consequences of its folly?

--JorgeA

[jaclaz]

Wouldn't it be ironic if Start Menu restorers like ClassicShell ended up helping to rescue Microsoft from the consequences of its folly?

I would like better a "conspiracy theory"

What if everything till now is a bluff?

Let's imagine that the good MS guys could not find a suitable way to to remove some bloat form the "core" and have an "external" classic menu app.

What would have been a clever move?

Make independent peeps so angry at it that someone would brainstorm until he/she finds a solution.

Then buy either the program or hire the programmer (in this case the good Ivo Beltchev ) and have something working with relatively little effort.

After all - more or less - is it not what they did with Mark Russinovich?

I mean, had they made logical and documented implementations in the NT OS's, and produced directly the useful tools that Winternals/Sysinternals made over the years, how many chances were there that someone like Mark could have matured into a better expert on MS thingies than MS itself?

jaclaz

[submix8c]

nuhi comes to mind...

[JorgeA]

Wouldn't it be ironic if Start Menu restorers like ClassicShell ended up helping to rescue Microsoft from the consequences of its folly?

I would like better a "conspiracy theory"

What if everything till now is a bluff?

Wow, jaclaz, that would be devilishly clever. It makes sense in a twisted way, but I'm not so sure anymore that the bigwigs at MS are THAT smart.

Another smart "bluff" strategy: Make everyone p*ssed that they removed the Start Menu/Button, and then bring it back in the RTM so that everybody is SO relieved and thankful that they run out to buy Windows 8. They could even frame the move as, "We heard you!!"

--JorgeA

[jaclaz]

Another smart "bluff" strategy: Make everyone p*ssed that they removed the Start Menu/Button, and then bring it back in the RTM so that everybody is SO relieved and thankful that they run out to buy Windows 8. They could even frame the move as, "We heard you!!"

Yep that would be a perfect example of a "Kansas city shuffle":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kansas_City_Shuffle

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0425210/quotes?qt=qt0441407

Just think about it:

No small matter. Requires a lot of planning. Involves a lot of people. People connected only by the slightest of events. Like whispers in the night, in that place that never forgets, even when those people do. It starts with a silly UI.

If you think about it everyone is criticizing the Metro interface and only it, or, if you prefer, all attention is on this particular botched interface and very few people are looking for (or actually finding) anything else "wrong" (which does not mean that there must be something wrong, nor that everything is perfect exception made for Metro )

jaclaz

[Fredledingue]

That was an interrresting article to read about the Start Menu, an article posted on the "Deeper Impression" thread.

"Poeple stopped using it"

...until they do.

Myself I didn't use it for ages (at least for opening a program) until I needed an application I didn't have on my desktop.

The fun part of it was that it wasn't on the Start Menu neither, so I had to fetch it in the Programs folder.

My point is that you always got to have a way to find things where you could find them.

Typing a search box is not necessarly the best way since you may not remeber how the program is spelled exactly.

Start Menu may not be used often but it comes handy when you need it.

[Tripredacus]

I use the start menu often. I don't typically use desktop icons, except for programs in which I need to have a clean desktop or minimized windows to use. For example, RDP shortcuts or games that launch into a shell mode. While I do have some things in the taskbar (apps that are not in the start menu) I use the Start Menu for everything.

[JorgeA]

I use the start menu often. I don't typically use desktop icons, except for programs in which I need to have a clean desktop or minimized windows to use. For example, RDP shortcuts or games that launch into a shell mode. While I do have some things in the taskbar (apps that are not in the start menu) I use the Start Menu for everything.

Yeah, except for the number of desktop icons that's pretty much the way I do it too. The Start Menu is my main to-go place for launching programs. I use mostly the "recent programs" list and the pinned programs, and then drill down into All Programs if I need something else. The right panel with "Computer," "Recent Items," and "Control Panel" is pretty handy, too.

Programs that I use once in a while but whose names I'm liable to forget, I keep as desktop icons -- it's clumsy to have to grub around the All Programs list when you're not sure of the name of the program or its publisher. (For Win8 fanboys: The Metro Start Screen doesn't solve that issue, either.)

--JorgeA

[MagicAndre1981]

I use the Start Menu for everything.

same here. Startmenu is my starting point to use Windows.

[tomasz86]

I use Start Menu only for rarely used applications. The rest is in Quick Launch (I use a double lined taskbar so there's enough place for ~50 shortcuts in it @ 1400x1050 screen resolution). I'm probably one of the few people that don't really care for Start Menu that much

Edited July 3, 2012 by tomasz86

[Fredledingue]

Interresting how everyone is different (please somebody send it to MS telemetry -LOL-)

I may not use Start Menu often to launch programs but I do press the Start button at least once a day: to shut down the computer.

Other use of the Start Menu for me are: "Control Panel", "Find" and "Run...".

There was a time when I used a lot of different programs, I sorted all programs in a tree with categories, with one category with only "uninstall" and another one with all the "readme" shortcuts.

It was only boring that everytime I installed a new program I had to sort the new shortcuts again. So I ended up too lazy to reproduce it after I reinstalled windows.

But I remember when everything was tidy and sorted, it rocked. It was very good. I could find any program instantly.

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

I use Start Menu only for rarely used applications. The rest is in Quick Launch (I use a double lined taskbar so there's enough place for ~50 shortcuts in it @ 1400x1050 screen resolution). I'm probably one of the few people that don't really care for Start Menu that much

Yep. Double row rulez! And it is even better at 1920 pixels.

I like to think of QuickLaunch also as QuickDrop. Nice place for shortcuts to programs and batch files that accept file(s) and/or folder(s) dropped onto them. Kids nowadays just don't understand such complicated uses for Windows..

This is how most of my systems end up looking like after a few days of screwing around. Lots of drop icons on an always visible taskbar (I just wish I could figure out a way to use that dead space below the Start Button). The VisualStyle is from one of the nice Royale themes, but I might have edited it though.

The Opera skin is a modified version of an old one from the version 9 era. The newer skins are getting too minimalistic for my taste. Notice the "Identify" and "Author" toggles in the bottom right, an easy and very useful tweak.

Edit: Image was full size 1920x1080. Now it is smaller ( probably from PhotoBucket )! updated image URL

Edited March 17, 2013 by CharlotteTheHarlot

[tomasz86]

I may not use Start Menu often to launch programs but I do press the Start button at least once a day: to shut down the computer.

True. The funny thing is that in Win8 the fastest way to shut down the computer from the desktop is to click on it and use Alt+F4 (or just press the power button).

Yep. Double row rulez! And it is even better at 1920 pixels.

I like to think of QuickLaunch also as QuickDrop. Nice place for shortcuts to programs and batch files that accept file(s) and/or folder(s) dropped onto them. Kids nowadays just don't understand such complicated uses for Windows..

QuickDrop is a very interesting idea. I'll need to try it sometime. As for the resolution then in this case the wider, the better... but I still prefer my 22" CRT with the "unpopular" 4:3 screen aspect ratio.

This is how it looks like on my desktop:

[CharlotteTheHarlot]

QuickDrop is a very interesting idea. I'll need to try it sometime. As for the resolution then in this case the wider, the better... but I still prefer my 22" CRT with the "unpopular" 4:3 screen aspect ratio.

One good use of QuickLaunch as QuickDrop is for unknown files. At the moment I have Mitec EXE, Merijn FileAlyzer and Nirsoft ExeInfo in there (and shortly PEexplorer and a few others to be added). Any of them will give some good info on an unknown file just for an example.

It looks like you have IrfanView in yours as do I. It also doubles as a quasi-FileSniffer like the others I mentioned since it examines files based upon strings in the header rather than using file extensions. IrfanView will prompt to rename when you drop a file with an incorrect extension. Of course the main purpose is for dropping images and multimedia files (or folders) which it does such an excellent job at displaying, converting and even light editing.

SendTo is pretty much the same thing since it is also a folder of shortcuts that functions the same way, but using QuickLaunch can save time because the delay for the Context Menu is dependent upon the number of Shell Extensions you have installed, and dragging file(s)/folder(s) through the Context Menu is also subject to secondary delays when you drag them past Shell Extensions with flyouts unless you move the mouse quickly and adeptly. If the Taskbar is set to be always visible then QuickLaunch really becomes the quickest method for drag/drop processing of files and folders.

I should point out that it is rather easy to mess this up though. If you drag a bunch of files onto an icon in QuickLaunch, *but* you make the mistake of releasing the button to either side of the icon, then you wind up with a mess of shortcuts or even the actual 'moved' files in the QuickLaunch bar! Undoing this can be difficult. So it takes a steady hand, a bit of practice and a feel for the responsiveness of a given system and mouse before it becomes 2nd nature.

EDIT: typos

Edited July 4, 2012 by CharlotteTheHarlot

[CoffeeFiend]

I use the start menu often

I use it fairly often too. There's just not enough space to pin everything I use on the taskbar. So I pin a few extras in the start menu (expanded to 20 items too) which also gives me access to jump lists in there (unlike Metro). And I also use it to search for stuff fairly often -- stuff which Win8 doesn't find (not without unnecessary extra keystrokes). Instead of improving things a lot like Vista and 7 did, Metro just made starting software (the main interaction we have with the OS on daily basis) and getting to things harder.