Unfortunately, after Windows 8 was released and the dust had settled, the complaints continued just as loudly. And this week, news emerged that Microsoft is going to relent over a couple of widely-criticised changes: the next version – Windows 8.1 – will bring back a pair of familiar Windows features.
The first is the option to start at the desktop. Currently, after you log into Windows 8, you arrive at the new Start screen. From there, it’s easy to get to the desktop (where most computer users need to be): you just click the Desktop tile. Alternatively, if you move the Desktop tile to the top-left corner, a quick press of the Enter key as soon as the Start screen appears will do the job.
Easy though it may be, many Windows 8 users don’t like being thrust into this Start screen at all, and in Windows 8.1 there will be an option to go straight to the desktop automatically.
The second change is the one that’s excited the most comment: the Start button is set to return. This has been widely interpreted as meaning that the Start menu is coming back, which would constitute a huge climb-down by Microsoft, but the truth is going to be much simpler.
At the moment, there are two main ways to reach the Start screen: using the keyboard, you tap the Windows key; using the mouse, you move the pointer to the bottom-left corner of the screen and click. What are you clicking? Well, nothing really – there’s nothing to see in that bottom-left corner. It’s just one of those peculiar things about Windows 8 that has to be learned or discovered by accident.
The new Start button will give you something to click, and that’s all – a visible button in the bottom-left corner of the screen which, when clicked, takes you to the Start screen.
If Microsoft really were to bring back the Start menu too, it would be like confessing that the Start screen was a bad idea. More practically, it would mean two different places from which programs could be started. And would the Start button open the Start menu, as in previous versions? If so, how would you get to the Start screen? And which one would appear when you pressed the Windows key?
For those using Windows 8 and who prefer the traditional Desktop and Start Button then you can quickly download and install a completely free application called “Classic Shell” from http://www.classicshell.net/. This is a fabulous little application which I have been using for some months and which rids me of that dreadful Windows 8 Home Screen which has been designed for touch screens but is not what I want to see when I open Windows on my Laptop or Tower Computers. Try Classic Shell, you will love it.
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