Discussion Forums > Technology
Holy Tablet OS... I mean Windows 8
Freedom Kira:
--- Quote from: lapa321 on March 25, 2012, 12:57:41 PM ---To Launch on the Different OSes, this is how i used to go through to launch Firefox as an example:
WinXP:
Click Start -> Click 'Communications' folder -> Click 'Firefox'
Win7:
Click Start -> Click 'Programs' -> Click 'Communications' folder -> Click 'Firefox'
Win8:
Click Start -> Click 'Firefox'
--- End quote ---
You have quite a painful way of starting up a program you probably use often. My route would probably be:
XP:
Start -> Internet (Firefox would be default, or whatever I use as default, which is Chrome for me)
Or even better:
Quick Launch -> Firefox
And it's not much different for 7, since the taskbar is basically Quick Launch merged with the classic taskbar.
lapa321:
--- Quote from: Freedom Kira on March 27, 2012, 07:21:51 AM ---
--- Quote from: lapa321 on March 25, 2012, 12:57:41 PM ---To Launch on the Different OSes, this is how i used to go through to launch Firefox as an example:
WinXP:
Click Start -> Click 'Communications' folder -> Click 'Firefox'
Win7:
Click Start -> Click 'Programs' -> Click 'Communications' folder -> Click 'Firefox'
Win8:
Click Start -> Click 'Firefox'
--- End quote ---
You have quite a painful way of starting up a program you probably use often. My route would probably be:
XP:
Start -> Internet (Firefox would be default, or whatever I use as default, which is Chrome for me)
Or even better:
Quick Launch -> Firefox
And it's not much different for 7, since the taskbar is basically Quick Launch merged with the classic taskbar.
--- End quote ---
You can put them on the taskbar on win8 as well. The point is, navigating through metro is easier than the previous start menu.
Right now my Win7 task bar has 13 pinned icons to it, they're the ones i use more often and would be adding more if i had the space. I add and remove them depending on the current project. If a project needs an application, i only have to go through the start menu once, and when the program is running, i simply have to pin its icon and i'll never have to go through the start menu again.
I've been talking to some of my techie friends and much like you, their own way is to also avoid using the start menu. The other solution is to put everything in the root of your start menu. But you just end up with a ton of links you have to scroll through. People rant about how they don't want the start button to disappear, yet they'll readily give tips that essentially avoids using the start menu altogether.
I've been aware of how crowded the start menu is becoming since i started using Win7 (Win7 Taskbar was the selling point for me over WinXP because of how easy it is to pin!) and i can honestly say that i'm already appreciating Metro five minutes after booting up Win8.
Right now if you wanted to run an application from your start menu. This is probably what you'd be running into
As many as 20 links in a single folder where you only really ever use 2. When you install a single application, that's another four links added to your start menu (program, uninstall, help, webpage). To keep some semblance of order, i actually made a miscellaneous folder in my start menu and just kept dumping all the other links in it.
Applications come with so many miscellaneous links now that the start menu is more like a file browser. It's like opening File Explorer (Win-E) and browsing through your C:\programs folders to get at the EXE. That's what the Start Menu looks like now.
When i tried out Win8. I found that the Start Screen now works a lot like the Win7 Task Bar, there's a secondary page that you can bring up with the right click.
It shows all the links in what would normally be the start menu. From here you rightclick and pin the applications you need. Skip all the other readme and config, just pick the actual applications you use (I have the adobe suite, but only need three or four applications) and pin them.
So now when you press the Windows Key on your keyboard. You no longer have to 'browse' for you applications. It's already right there, and if you need to access the config or readme, everything is still in secondary screen. I'm setting up the Atom rig right now and it looks like the more permanent taskbar links are going to be moved to the metro screen.
BTW, the shortcuts on my desktop are mostly games. Because the only time i ever see the background is when i'm not working.
krumm:
metro just plain sucks. I have NO problem with win7 start menu and see it as the best version to date. The only time you have to go through the list is when you are using a rarely used program that you don't know the name to. For commonly used programs you pin them to the start menu and task bar For a less used program all I have to do is type like 3-5 letters and it pops right up. Metro is painfully annoying and not good for the desktop. We should be able to disable it.
Bob2004:
Yeah, the way I see it, you can't make it possible to access all your programs quickly with a single click, because there are too many. So you have to divide them up into two groups - a small group of programs you use regularly and need to be able to access quickly and easily, and other programs which you use less frequently, and therefore don't need/expect to access as quickly as possible.
For the first group, you pin them to the taskbar/quick launch bar, or put icons on your desktop - which are the quickest ways of doing it, whichever version of Windows you use - so the start menu/Metro makes no difference. It doesn't matter if it's quicker to access those programs using Metro than using the start menu, because realistically, you're not going to use either.
For the second group, no matter what you do, you're going to have to click through a couple of submenus or folders (or, in the current start menu's case, type a few letters of the name), since having them all spread out in a single menu is too slow and confusing. And when it comes to locating and starting these less-used programs, the current start menu is far quicker than Metro.
So, basically, other than its ease of use with touchscreen devices, the only advantage Metro has over the start menu is totally irrelevant. That's why so many people hate it.
lapa321:
What's amusing is that in all the forums i've been to discussing it. It seems that the best way to use the Win7 start menu is to not use it at all.
I currently have 13 icons pinned to my taskbar. The taskbar is great and it was a selling point for me when i migrated from WinXP. It lets me easily setup temporary links depending on the immediate needs for a project i'm working one. The fact that you don't have to make new shortcuts each time and you can stack and launch multiple instances is a big thing for when you're working. WinXP also lets you stack but the Win7 is just an order of magnitude better.
However, as i've said, i have 13 icons on it right now that's constantly changing (This project doesn't need photoshop, right-click unpin, this one needs constant access to the ftp application, launch filezilla once and pin). There are more links that i also want but can't fit any more.
On Win8 i'm actually moving the more permanent taskbar links to Metro and free it up some.
--- Quote from: krumm on March 27, 2012, 06:41:22 PM ---metro just plain sucks. I have NO problem with win7 start menu and see it as the best version to date. The only time you have to go through the list is when you are using a rarely used program that you don't know the name to. For commonly used programs you pin them to the start menu and task bar For a less used program all I have to do is type like 3-5 letters and it pops right up. Metro is painfully annoying and not good for the desktop. We should be able to disable it.
--- End quote ---
Yeah, this is a pretty good example of what i'm talking about. They avoid browsing the start menu as much as possible and prefer to use the search function instead. That's not really a good way of launching an application. Your use of the find function just shows that the start menu is just too cluttered to navigate.
The 'find' function you like so much on the Win7 start button is still there in Win8. Press the start button on your keyboard and start typing, just like how you're doing it on Win7.
The find function is great, but it doesn't cover up the fact that the start menu is the slowest part of your desktop right now. They did wonders with the task bar. The ability to turn on your second monitor and move application windows around without taking your hands off the keyboard is great. You can have dozens of windows open at once and rather than just the old ALT-TAB, Win7's ALT-TAB lets you see exactly which window you're going into (Multiple instances means they all use the same icon! Win7 shows you thumbnails) and you can use CTRL-ALT-TAB if you want to go straight to the window you want. And if you want a specific instance and don't want to browse through all the open applications, you can hover over the taskbar icon and it will display only the instances of that program. They did such a good job with the taskbar that it's now an alternative to the start menu.
In one of the discussions, someone brought up the old Win95 menu. And i'll have to agree, even that was better than the Win7 one. There's no scrolling involved. If you expand a program group, it gets expanded on a new window and you simply follow it to the program you want. The Win7 treats it like a file explorer, you 'browse' your start menu by expanding and scrolling until you find your program.
There's likely another, better way to improve the start menu. But at the moment, organizing your applications is easier on the Metro.
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