Will MS ever get the Start Menu Right?

badrobot said:

Start menu is mostly a personal preference. It can be anything out of the box. What it needs is a ton of personalization options.

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Exactly. Because you cannot please all the people all the time.

The closest they would have to doing this is to allow full customization, and they'll never do that. Ergo, no. they won't ever get it 'right'.

johnlgalt said:

Exactly. Because you cannot please all the people all the time.

The closest they would have to doing this is to allow full customization, and they'll never do that. Ergo, no. they won't ever get it 'right'.

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I agree. Microsoft is far more likely to take away customization rights than to give them. After all, they always know better than we do what we need.

No, they won't. At least not in the foreseeable future as they are heading in the wrong direction.
Start menus are getting worse, not better.

Found this on YouTube. I've yet to try it.

Well.. in the end "right" is a personal choice. I like the current start and I will not change it.

They got it "wrong" with Windows 8 -- and Stardock make millions of dollars selling a customizable Start Menu -- Start8.

Stardock continued that with Start10 -- as clearly, MS did not get it "right" then, either.

Now, they are back with Start11, and although I have not used it, I did read a review about the Beta and they raved on about all the customization options.

So not surprisingly, it looks like MS is not getting it "right" again.

Mark Phelps said:

They got it "wrong" with Windows 8 -- and Stardock make millions of dollars selling a customizable Start Menu -- Start8.

Stardock continued that with Start10 -- as clearly, MS did not get it "right" then, either.

Now, they are back with Start11, and although I have not used it, I did read a review about the Beta and they raved on about all the customization options.

So not surprisingly, it looks like MS is not getting it "right" again.

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How did they get it wrong??

I seem to be in the minority but I like the W11 start menu (apart from the ever constant recommended section) I followed the now defunct W10X and had that running on the emulator. When they announced it's death I assumed everything would die with it, so I was glad to see they kept the start menu concept.......call me weird

CornishRattler said:

I seem to be in the minority but I like the W11 start menu (apart from the ever constant recommended section) I followed the now defunct W10X and had that running on the emulator. When they announced it's death I assumed everything would die with it, so I was glad to see they kept the start menu concept.......call me weird

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I know I'm weird and I like the new start menu. It's fresh and different. .I like different.

Steve C said:

Open Shell works except I can't get mouse hover to open the OS menu

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I can with one click of my mouse.

I don't hate it nor love it. Haven't really payed much attention.

I use WINKEY or WINKEY + R and start typing for what I wanna run. WINKEY + X and a character if I wanna open up any of the entries in the START context menu and CTRL + SHIFT + ESC for Task Manger. File Explorer i open by presding WINKEY + E.

As long as these work, I'm fine with whatever they stick into the Start menu.

My issue is that features have been removed.

BunnyJ said:

I know I'm weird and I like the new start menu. It's fresh and different. .I like different.

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My issue is feature I use have been removed. I amnot that interested in cosmetic flim flam.

Also ergonomically, this is less friendly e.g. more wrist movements.

With no ability to customise, it is a very poor design overall.

cereberus said:

My issue is that features have been removed.

My issue is feature I use have been removed. I amnot that interested in cosmetic flim flam.

Also ergonomically, this is less friendly e.g. more wrist movements.

With no ability to customise, it is a very poor design overall.

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Add me to the list of happy users. I like the new Start Menu and Settings layout. I am not aware of any missing features, certainly none that impact my daily use.
The areas that need a new make over (to at least use system colours) are the Control Panel, Services, Scheduler, Event Viewer, Task Manager, and all their sub menus.

Quandary said:

Add me to the list of happy users. I like the new Start Menu and Settings layout. I am not aware of any missing features, certainly none that impact my daily use.
The areas that need a new make over (to at least use system colours) are the Control Panel, Services, Scheduler, Event Viewer, Task Manager, and all their sub menus.

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And,, and me to that list. The only feature that I'm aware of losing is the one that lets you put the task bar on the other side and not just at the bottom. I love the new settings panels and the look of the start menu.

Overall, they did a nice job.

This thread seems to clearly demonstrate that Microsoft can't possibly 'get it right', as comparatively few people in any room can actually agree on what "right" looks like; and many views are, of course, purely based on personal prejudice. As a direct comparison, one only has to look at at the vast array of Linux Distributions and the enormous variety of Desktop/interface designs they offer; and even then, there's an army of avid 'tinkerers' who spend endless hours making what's on offer out of the box look and perform like something else, including visually emulating every possible variant of Windows and MacOS design.

Still, like all previous attempts at designing a 'best compromise' Windows interface for a particular era, it tends to keep open source, 'freeware' and commercial utility developers, graphic designers and hobbyists in business building on what Microsoft decides to provide as the base system.

BunnyJ said:

And,, and me to that list. The only feature that I'm aware of losing is the one that lets you put the task bar on the other side and not just at the bottom. I love the new settings panels and the look of the start menu.

Overall, they did a nice job.

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I do like the new settings,, but usability features removed include

The clock on the taskbar of a second screen
The ability to have named "folders" in the start menu as well as named catagories
The ability to customize context menus
The taskbar context menu
Listing of all apps directly on the start menu for quick access

There hasn't been a version of Windows yet that users haven't found a way to customise and there has never been a start menu that everyone is happy with, however it seems pretty pointless trying to personalise anything until the actual release version is out and we can establish what can be done or not as the case may be.

meanwhile I have a compromise in Open Shell on the left and the Win11 Start menu in the middle.

geneo said:

I do like the new settings,, but usability features removed include

The clock on the taskbar of a second screen
The ability to have named "folders" in the start menu as well as named catagories
The ability to customize context menus
The taskbar context menu
Listing of all apps directly on the start menu for quick access

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and ability to group tiles.

geneo said:

I do like the new settings,, but usability features removed include

The clock on the taskbar of a second screen
The ability to have named "folders" in the start menu as well as named catagories
The ability to customize context menus
The taskbar context menu
Listing of all apps directly on the start menu for quick access

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Clock.. yes. I just hooked up a second monitor and I just noticed that. Weird
The others I don't find as being an issue but to you they are and so it matters.

What I really don't like is not being able to use a third party app for the taskbar clock.

cereberus said:

and ability to group tiles.

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^^This.. That's one feature I like in the 10 start menu. I wish we could do something like that in 11