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When Microsoft users launch Windows 8 this fall, they'll notice getting started with the OS may not be as familiar. The ever-present Start button, a Windows staple since 1995, is going the way of the dodo.
In a report for industry site PC Pro, Microsoft executives reveal that Windows users have already largely abandoned the Start button. An increasing number rely more on pinning favorite apps to their taskbar or simply using keyboard shortcuts to access frequently used applications. As a result, Microsoft will now present a tiled Start screen as part of the new Metro interface.
"If you’re going to the Start screen now, we’re going to unlock a whole new set of scenarios, or you can choose not to go there, stay in the desktop, and it’s still fast," Chaitanya Sareen, principal program manager at Microsoft tells PC Pro.
While the tiled Start screen of Metro is similar to the touch interface of Windows Phone, desktop users may find that the traditional mouse and keyboard input methods still work best in Windows 8. In demos earlier this year, presenters struggled to make gesture controls function properly with laptop trackpads on Windows 8 and Sareen says the touchpad drivers for Metro are "still being refined."
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