This is interesting. “Microsoft is planning to change the way its Start Screen operates with the release of Windows 8.1. Sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans have revealed to The Verge that the company is currently testing builds of Windows 8.1, known as codename Windows Blue, that include an option to boot directly to the traditional desktop. We’re told that the option is disabled by default, allowing users to simply turn on the functionality should they want to avoid the ‘Metro’ Start Screen at initial boot or login.” This won’t disable Metro; the hot corners, task switching, and everything else that makes up Metro is still there. All this does is load up the classic desktop as the first application upon boot. Update: The Start button might be returning too.
but nothing to praise them for. That should be there since day 1 on windows 8.
I think windows 8.1 will be known as stuff that should be on win8 since day 1 😉
I’m not getting my hopes up yet. I’ll probably wait for Windows 8.2 or 8.3.
It won’t be write until at least 8.5, but most likely 8.10.
My bet is that it’ll be known as Windows 8 SP1.
As my father says, “when considering a Windows upgrade, wait for the first service pack at the very least”.
Edited 2013-04-16 17:46 UTC
They’re not likely to use service pack naming conventions for this because its more than a service pack. Service packs have traditionally been mostly a collection of previously released hot fixes and OS updates.
Blue will bring concrete features, an update to the SDK and WinRT platform, and genuine changes to the OS.
It’ll be akin to Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) and probably be marketed accordingly. Known by those who care as Windows 8.1, but still overall marketed as Windows 8.
I still need to edit my pifs!
Edit: this is a joke. Win 8 is kinda meh. Not as bad a some say, but not as good as win 7 in some ways.
Edited 2013-04-16 14:37 UTC
“This won’t disable Metro; […] All this does is load up the classic desktop as the first application upon boot.”
Enough people asked an option that the first application to load upon boot is precisely the one that is NOT Metro-ized !?
Good job, guys.
Now if Microsoft also brings back the Start button by default people might actually stop asking me to downgrade their new machines to Windows 7.
I have not had a single customer who wants Windows 8 installed on a new build, everyone seems happy enough with Windows 7, including me!
…but totally understandable. From the perspective of the IT guy of my wife’s business, this is very much an essential addition. Booting in Metro a work PC that is supposed to be running continuously a desktop application was confusing to people working there to say the least.
Eventually I resorted to http://www.classicshell.net/, which overrides Metro boot and also provides a start menu for old-schoolers to grip firmly in anxiety moments.
Can’t wait to pay full price for that ‘feature’ ..or removal of the other ‘feature’ that was in the way of the desktop in the first place. Whatever.
Windows 8.1 Ultimate Edition will probably cost 200€ and will boot into desktop, while Windows 8.1 Ultra Ultimate Edition will cost 400€ and have start menu, too.
Ideas for Microsoft: what if in Windows 9 you remove cmd, regedit and Control Panel and reintroduce them in Windows 9.1 ?
Windows 8.1 will either be free or charged at a nominal price. Something like $200 – $40. Just like that other OS vendor with the cats does.
Uhm, $200 is anything but nominal!
Ha, 20 sorry. I’ll actually blame the keyboard on my 920 for that one
Less emotional typing and more proofreading.
Cool. Now, when Windows starts, I’ll have to hit an extra key before I launch my first program. Sweet!
There’s evidence the search charm is being revamped to include search results in the pane itself in a more robust manner. So in a sense, it’d be much like people who used Windows 7 are used to.
I kinda like the charm bar, in that it makes it easy to find the search feature of apps.
It’d be more useful if it were usable in the desktop mode, but hot corners don’t work well with focus-follows-mouse enabled.
iirc I heard that focus got redone in Windows Blue so now scrolling via the trackpad works in Windows that havent’ necessarily taken focus yet.
Why?
If you prefer to start in metro, that’s still the default (like Win8).
If you prefer to start to the desktop (like Win7), that will apparently become an option.
I don’t quite get what your complaint it.
This would only be a solution if they restored the old Start Menu as well because booting directly into the classic desktop was already available with hacks like start8.com. If people want to boot to classic desktop directly they sure as hell want a start menu as well and not Metro.
So please MS add an option to re-enable the start menu and to disable those annoying hot corners and I’m statisfied.
They keep missing the point in Redmond…
I’m willing to bet that very few of the hundreds of millions of Windows desktop users think sticking something designed for mobile/touch on a desktop is a good idea — much less actually want it.
Microsoft is definitely on a roll…unfortunately going in the wrong direction in most cases.
Rolling downhill has always been easier than rolling uphill…
Hopefully next they’ll realize that Windows on a desktop and Windows on a mobile/touch have significant differences and they should have never tried to shoehorn it all into one in the first place.
I don’t really think they’re that different from a laymans user perspective.
In fact, its now easier and safer for them to find software on Windows and have it uninstall in a sane manner.
…if true. Boot to desktop and a start button? Wow. People will forgive MS for their indiscretions and flock back to Windows 8 in hordes.
Your sarcasm is right, they wont, because these were never limiting factors to Windows 8 adoption in the first place.
Called it long time ago. MS aren’t that stupid, of course that “experiment” of forcing EVERYBODY into the UI made only for touchscreen devices wouldn’t end well.
This is EXACTLY what I was talking about a week or so ago. You guys are posting up RUMORS and presenting them in the headline as fact.
They will have to call it something else, they always have when the previous version was a disgrace (we are here every 2nd version remember?). Funny how Microsoft thinks it’s the name or the number after the word windows that is associated with disgrace, but every windows user knows different
Edited 2013-04-16 20:15 UTC
I really wish Metro would die already. This braindead UI is so bad and full of usability flaws that the people responsible for this crap should be drowned in their own fecies. It is simply the epitome of incompetence which we all have to suffer under for the next year or so to come. It is a execise in futility and sheer frustration. The horror… the horror…
Edited 2013-04-16 20:45 UTC
Two steps forwar, one step backward.
If Microsoft adds the possibility to start direct in Desktop mode, there existsting sill problem that
– there existing no start menu
– desktop is only one Metro app between th others. You have an hadle at the top of it, to move the desktop down and close it with this and so on
– if you start a Metro app oder want to see a picture, video or so on, which starts Metro apps, then you will be throun from the Desktop to Metro and the other side around
The option to start in desktop direkt is only, to accept the other bad things of Windows 8.x. And if the users have accustomed on Windows 8.x, then they can in further versions of Winmdows removing the option, to start in Desktop direkt, again.
Love your faux German ;p
That Microsoft is fixing the UI problem for desktop/lapto users in 8.1, rather than 9, underscores the severity of this fiasco. Corporate sales aren’t moving forward as MS expected.
Unlike Vista, MS couldn’t wait for the next major release to fix this one. MS is in real trouble.
Of the top 5 laptop sellers on Amazon, 2 are Win 8, and of the top 10, 5 are Win 8. For any other operating system, this would be a major coup, but for Win 8, it’s a disaster – especially with Linux holding the top spot for so long. Never thought I’d see that happen in my lifetime.
Reports indicate Google has sold 500,000 Chromebooks in two years. Microsoft sold 400,000 Surface Pros in a month. 1.2 million Surface RTs in Q4.
Meanwhile Surface is a “failure” but Chromebooks are a roaring success, despite ChromeOS having a lower marketshare than Windows RT.
Windows Phones routinely top the best sellers list on Amazon, it never really correlated to anything there either.