Cons of Windows 8 for a Mouse and Keyboard User Part 1: Start Menu

Posted by eibrajamisrael.saenzclark on July 26, 2012 09:16 am 69

After my infamous post: Thoughts from a MS fanboy: Metro Should Not be Enabled by Default on Non-Touch devices, Period!

I´ve been requested by people to justify my opinions on how Windows 8 affects traditional mouse and keyboard users.

I will ilustrate my posture with cases I've encountered using Windows 8 on a daily basis, as it is now the main OS and I do real work on it.

(1) No frequently used apps list: One of my favorite features of the Windows start menu was the frequently/new apps list. Before, where you installed a program, the first thing you did was go to the start menu and the app would be listed there (in most cases), same case with apps you frequently used, along with a sub-menus for recent documents for those apps.

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via www.unibia.com

I understand you can still pin things to your start bar, however, that convenience not having to do so is now gone with no substitute, saddly, the Start Screen should at least give you a visual cue of for recent apps, specially when you have it crowded with lots of apps.

(2) Sub programs are no longer organized:

In the past, if I installed office, I would go to the Start menu and find all office related programs and tools under a folder, automatically organized. You did not really have to know the name of the sub programs installed, since it was all under the same sub folder, you knew it would be there.

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via www.java2s.com

Not only that but sometimes you did not really remembered the name of a tool, but you knew it was located in a folder, you headed to that folder and you would find it. Now, You need to remember the name of every individual item, since there is no hierarchical organization on the start screen.

The search charm provides some a form of hierarchical organization for tools, but is just not as complete.

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via cdn.blogsdna.com

The search charm provided something similar but is just not as full featured. I really think Microsoft should really enhance the search charm so that it is at least as useful as the start menu.

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via www.pcpro.co.uk


Fortunately, you can still add tool bars and sort of get some of the missing functionality. A heavily overlooked but useful feature.

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via www.eightforums.com


No doubt you can find work around for most of the changes if you want them the old way, however, I don't really see Microsoft helping their customers to get used to this new interface other than showing some very fancy videos and technical information.

I really wish MS gets their ass working and create some very informative tutorials for users to use the OS at is full potential, Like they had on Windows 98. I really think this is going to be crucial for the adoption of the new interface.

Next up: Mouse and touch centric apps.