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Win8 with or withourt start8

Do you use Start8 with win8

  • Yes, win8 + Start8

  • No, I don't need that old start button.

Results are only viewable after voting.
Its not needed IMHO,don't even miss it as a desktop user myself ,Win8 is very customizable that you can do without it,if you can't then you are doing something wrong,time to move forward and not back.
 
just got new laptop with win8, works fine from what I see with out it. Cant' see what all the fuss is about.
 
While I like the Windows 7 Start menu, most of it can be replicated in other ways - with some effort -, and I don't trust 3rd party UI replacements enough to install them on my system.

I wish them good luck though, and hope that MS fixes the genuine UI problems in Win8 that lead to these start menu replacements.
 
I thought I'd use a start button, but I made the decision to try and use the Windows 8 way for a while. If I'm going to despise it, I want to fully, truly have complete justification to hate it. That is, to have used it for long enough.

I did use it. I got used to it. I don't particularly love it and I think the option to use the start button as an alternative to the start screen and the corners would be great. I don't like that MS stripped them out as a FU to people who just want to go the old way. And I don't think forcing Metro apps to run in full screen or even bi-screen is the correct way to compel users to use them on traditional platforms. I think if we could run apps in windows alongside our regular applications, you'd see a huge uptick in users going to the Windows App store and buying apps.

I think they are leaving money on the table by making it an either/or proposition.

I also don't understand why MS thought the Metro UI should replace the start menu instead of the desktop. I mean, I can perfectly imagine how that would go. They'd have the Metro tiles on your desktop behind your applications. You have a taskbar like every other OS has always visible with time and power/signal integrity, but it'd be on the bottom. If it detects touch and a certain size, it adjusts the size of the bar to allow easier touch for whatever device it's on. You have a desktop button (or swipe) to go back to the default of Metro on your background. Start menu works same as always.

That'd be a perfectly blended, perfectly merged Windows and Metro UI. Instead, they seem to have just designed Windows 8 into this confrontational either/or Sophie's choice crapshoot instead. That's nonsense to me. Maybe with Sinofsky gone we'll see them go back on this stupid design and properly blend the two UI's.

But I use the corner with the start screen like MS intended. I did recently find the Windows 8 Start Screen Customizer (free) to make the Metro screen mostly-transparent over top my desktop, which mitigates a lot of the horror of a whole screen plastering itself over my desktop. But no, no start button.

Once I figured out closing apps was basically going to the left side, then right clicking on the apps shown and hitting close (instead of the god awful drag and toss via mouse), I was pretty much okay.
 
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I just hit winkey+c with my left hand and click on the magnifying glass with my mouse in my right hand. After a few days of doing it this way I don't really feel the need to install a third party program to bring back the start button to my desktop.

That's the fastest way I've found to get to the start menu. The new start menu looks a little different since it's basically an exploded view of the old start menu but it functions the exact same way. Anyone else find a quicker way to get to the start menu without using third party programs?
 
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I just finished upgrading laptop to WIN 8. I was able to maneuver around and I probably will be fine without it, but if the option were there as part of Win 8, I would have opted for that as opposed to what we have by default.
 
Used Start8 initially, now I don't bother. When I use a Win7 system, I miss having the proper start menu. I don't mind the Win8 start screen, and I can get by just fine without the start menu, but I don't think it was fair to just get rid of the start menu without having any option to keep it.
 
I didn't really bother installing any start menu replacement. It kinda bothered me when I ran Win8 in VM, but only because my mouse kept overshooting the corners. But after installing and taking a minute to learn the charmbar + shortcut keys, it's not even necessary at all to use a UI replacement.
 
As a launching surface, I tend to like the Start Screen with one exception: file search.

Start Search is pretty bare-bones though, to be fare, it's largely comparable to the old Start Menu search. I think if MS added an option to move my query from Start to File Explorer, I'd be pretty content overall. I do like the segmentation for All, Documents, Pictures, etc. It even seems to be more intelligent than Windows 7, which split items by library, rather than file type.

I don't really mind that shutdown is in a new spot. It's neither good nor bad to me, it just is.

bbhaag said:
I just hit winkey+c with my left hand and click on the magnifying glass with my mouse in my right hand. After a few days of doing it this way I don't really feel the need to install a third party program to bring back the start button to my desktop.

That's the fastest way I've found to get to the start menu. The new start menu looks a little different since it's basically an exploded view of the old start menu but it functions the exact same way. Anyone else find a quicker way to get to the start menu without using third party programs?
Click to expand...
The bottom left corner? Seems to me that'd be the easiest way unless you absolutely need the All Apps view for some reason. If that's the case, Win+Q.
 
I use Start8 but that's mostly for when I need to remote into my desktop from away from home. It's a little tough to send shortkeys through LogMeIn or RDP away from home. Those functions don't replicate over. In that instance the start button makes everything easier.

Using my laptop I don't use Start8. I just use the Win + shortcut keys. Took some learning and adjusting but it works out well. Still think MS should have included it.
 
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