News - Code in leaked Windows 8.1 reveals boot to desktop option

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Also was Windows 8 really to blame for the recent steep decline in PC sales?

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Read more.

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Microsoft’s Windows Blue (Windows 8.1 for PCs) update may well bring with it an option to boot straight to the desktop. This built-in option would be popular with a vociferous section of PC users who see the new Start Screen as inferior to the old Start Menu and don’t even want to see it once per reboot.

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This sums up my reaction to that first sentence -> Hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, Hallelujah! ... (YouTube video)

And as to "would be popular with a vociferous section of PC users" you're damn straight! Nothing major against the start screen as a concept, but the fact that that in some cases you're reduced to mad clicking on screen estate to guess what you're supposed to do next, or - and this is worse - that it's not a complete replacement for the old desktop.

That said, my 11 year old daughter thinks MUI/Metro is great, and dad is "old fashioned" with Windows 7. Heck, she's such a fan that she's defected from Android to Windows Phone. :o

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However when my PC was freshly installed with Windows 8, with none of my favourite programs pinned to the taskbar or shortcuts on the desktop, at that time going straight to a blank, featureless desktop would have been pretty useless.

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Granted. On the other hand, what would be wrong with flipping the current arrangement around, so instead of getting MUI and being able to select the Desktop, you got a Desktop with a icon to show all apps, or a search box (my preferred option), or the ability to dive into MUI?

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Originally Posted by crossy

a(n) icon to show all apps

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AKA the "Start" button.

8.1 is to just fix things that they didn't have time to fix or add probably because Sinofsky and his "tyranny" on the Windows division.

Is windows 8 to blame for a downfall of PC sales? No absolutely not, we're in a problem here because regardless of Windows 8 being what it is now.

If Windows 8 was another increment for desktop OSes then MS would clearly be under fire from every tech blog saying "Tablets and mobile devices are the way forward for consumer devices, why is MS making software for traditional PCs when the market is declining". Since Windows 8 is what it is today (a Frankenstein experiment, it's literally two OSes in one), tech blogs will blame that MS has become irrelevant.

What to consider is the overall market, 2-3 years ago, people wanted laptops as they did pretty much everything. For those people who bought laptops 2-3 years ago, are still using that laptop to this day and have no need to purchase a new one. PC sales are going down because they were at a high point and now they're starting to level back off. Remember some laptops used to be in the £300-£400 range, that's now the range for tablets and a consumer who already owns a laptop/pc would prefer picking up a tablet because it's a new experience.

Unfortunately for what Windows 8 is, there is a negative perception from just the overall media, they think it's another vista because they believe in the "good, bad" pattern alongside comments made by developers like notch and gaben, who weren't talking about the OS's performance and stability but more about ideals about an open platform.

There is negative perception in my family around Windows 8, I had my older brother ask if windows 8 was sh*t, which is the one thing that many people believe, which doesn't make sense, since it's technically Windows 7 with extra features added, so if you did get a new PC you can use it like Windows 7 90% of the time (the 10% being any metro notifications) if people wished to.

I do believe MS did not explain Windows 8 well enough to users, I have not tested this with others, I've gotten positive responses regarding how metro looks in windows 8 from people that don't know what it is but from people using windows 8, I've found out they don't know how to use the newer features. This is however on traditional laptops, on a touch tablet based system it would be more intuitive however these cost a fortune when you compare the price against Android tablets like the Note 10.1 which can be purchased from £250-£320 depending on where you shop.

Both parties are at fault here, MS and OEMs. MS has done a good job on seeing the future but they're too far into the future, they need to take a step back as people are not this quick enough to embrace metro. For an OS like Windows 8, it needs great hardware which unfortunately the OEMs haven't been doing a great job in reaching the £300-£500 market. I would purchase a surface pro(if it was out) or an smart pc pro or aspire s7, because they are laptop replacements however to the average consumer it's too much for what they believe is a tablet. Also instore sales assistant factor as well, Windows 8 shines when a users personal information is put into and customised, but when demonstrating a stock out of the box experience, it doesn't translate that well.

Microsoft should have given the user a choice in the first place with the default being the Metro interface, or whatever the hell they call it now. During initial use there should have been a quick tutorial informing users how to navigate the new interface and how to change back to the desktop should they want to.

Giving users a choice is a far better option than simply taking features away and saying this is the way forward like it or lump it.

Waiting for windows 9 - code name Windows 7 2014 :)

finally

My girlfriends grandfather turned up the other day with a iPad, he said it was the best thing ever and does everything a PC can. That's a fair enough point if all you want to do is consume content.

He then went off on a small rant telling me that Windows 7 and Windows 8 are awful and we were all better off with Windows ME. Now I've long regarded Windows ME as a cruel joke that Microsoft played on the world, so I thought this was rather funny.

Anyway, my point is that the negativity in the media surrounding Windows 8 is clearly having some impact on sales if this 70 something end user has heard about it and it's likely influenced his purchasing decisions.

I've just got a new work laptop and have the option to keep the pre-installed Windows 8, or revert back to Windows 7. I thought I'd be reverting, but I actually quite like the new interface having got used to it.

Having said that, I would prefer it to boot into the desktop by default and then have the option of opening the Metro bit as and when needed.

Is Windows 8 to blame for bad PC saleS? Hell no, that's just a ranting frothy-mouthed statement with less truth than the average 911 conspiracy.

Reality is that a cash strapped marketplace has more devices than ever to choose from and is turning to newer more exciting form factors that also encompass cheaper devices and offer quick ease of use to do the essentials with great portability. Most people probably still have a bigger laptop or PC at home or office but the hardware from a few years ago can still do everything except PC gaming pretty well so people feel no pressure to upgrade the whole machine, perhaps just enhancing parts of it instead. I write this on a Core 2 Q6600 I use at work, it has 8GB DDR2, supports 3 monitors and is running Windows 8 just fine with not a trace of overclocking. It's had an SSD added, HDD replacements, a new PSU (only precautionary, the old one actually worked fine it was just noisy) and added RAM during it's life but same CPU/motherboard/case etc since 2008 and is more than fast enough for me to do daily duties. The PC market is declining because less people per year need a new one, it's that simple.

Microsoft's problem with Windows 8 is those who deride it because it has changed the usage rules and confused them so their muscle memory is now wrong. Sadly these self-proclaimed "techies" make far more noise than their numbers should allow and influence their completely non-technical friends against Windows 8. Windows 8 was designed for touch and many people who complain about it on the desktop totally ignore that, as a touch driven UI it's a quantum leap over Windows 7 and absolutely Microsoft had no choice but to make strident UI changes to accommodate a changing market. There are plenty of 3rd party add-ons for people who don't want to learn anything new, Start8 etc. People also need to remember that just because they don't like something and don't want to change doesn't mean the whole world has to think and do the same, there is always the option of just sticking to Windows 7 if that's what you prefer!

If people *actually* use Windows 8 for a while and learn the usage patterns it offers a lot, tellingly my non-technical Mrs hasn't said a word since I upgraded the whole house (if she had a problem I'd more than know), she just got on with it after a 30sec tutorial. Anyone who was really a good "techie" should be able to pick up the new UI very easily if they bothered to try, it's not exactly complex. I've found it also has great benefits on the HTPC screen as a partial 10ft UI as well, I like it and I'm yet to even make much use of it with a touch device.

Of course there are easy improvements to be made (8.1 sounds like there are some good ones) and greater customisation in Windows 8 is great. Hopefully by allowing more customisation and a little more legacy stuff to accommodate as many usage styles as possible (including the old style ones) some of the noisy people can save face by saying it's a new version and then the world can just get on with it quietly.

I hope this is true it will make my job easier. I tend to put clients in front of the Metro interface for five minutes to see the reactions. I've not had a single positive one yet. So far I have been just installing Start8 to fix the major issues of the metro interface.

Silly thing is that if they are had this option all along (As the default too), Windows 8 would have been far better received. That way touchscreen enabled tablets could have metro as default, but everyone else have the choice.

Customers bringing in a PC that needs a clean install will welcome this option. I will not sell Windows 8 to end users if they do not have a touch screen. Too many returns. If I can set it to boot to desktop, and have a start button, they would be happy. I will check out Start8 Gordy, perhaps that is enough. Microsoft really needs to get in front of this and make it (metro) optional.

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Originally Posted by YenRug

(a(n) icon to show all apps) AKA the "Start" button.

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Actually if you're meaning "Start button a la Windows 7" then I'm going to disagree. What I was thinking of was the app presentation that MUI uses - so no need to go trawling through upmteen different folders.

A better way though, (imho of course), would just be to slap the search charm's icon where the Windows 7 "windows" icon is. I've been using this kind of "unified search" with Ubuntu also and I'm going to argue strongly that this works better, and is more n00b friendly, than the old tree hierarchy that Windows 7 and earlier used.

At the risk of getting reaction from aidanjt, I'd like to see the Windows 8 desktop (the classic one, not MUI) updated to be similar to Ubuntu/Unity. So that's a search icon along with whatever apps you want to pin for fast access and that's it.

EDIT: on second thoughts, update that last sentence - I'd want search icon, user-selected pinned apps, and a non-removable icon to switch to MUI. As I've just been reminded, (ahem), there's times where MUI actually works very well indeed, so fast switching to it would perhaps help the naysayers start to appreciate MUI's advantages.

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Originally Posted by AGTDenton

Microsoft should have given the user a choice in the first place with the default being the Metro interface, or whatever the hell they call it now. During initial use there should have been a quick tutorial informing users how to navigate the new interface and how to change back to the desktop should they want to.

Giving users a choice is a far better option than simply taking features away and saying this is the way forward like it or lump it.

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Agree entirely with that.

If MS want to start the migration of users to Metro, fine. But give me the option to keep working the way I currently do, and want to. Let me switch in my own good time, at the rate I want to, and if I want to, but don't try to ram it down my throat, because it'll give me a bad case of indigestion.

On a multi-monitor setup I get the Start menu on one screen and desktop on the others. Don't feel the pain and don't miss the close to silly start button.

That's probably the best solution I've heard to easing the migration for people, a button for start screen on the task bar would bridge the gap neatly. I like the start screen, the death of sub folders coupled with the existing easy search (hit start and type) is intuitive.