Friday, 7 September 2012

Bypass the Windows 8 Start screen with RetroUI

New software lets you ignore the Win 8 Start screen so that all you ever see is the traditional desktop.

September 5, 2012 10:33 AM PDT

(Credit: Screenshot by Lance Whitney/CNET)

Still not crazy about the Windows 8 Start screen? A new app helps you avoid it entirely by taking you directly to the desktop.

Sold by a company named Thinix, RetroUI breezes right past the Windows 8 Start screen to deliver you to the desktop. You can still choose to open the Start screen and other Windows 8 UI features, or you can disable them entirely so that the Charms bar, hot corners, and other Win 8 elements are inaccessible.

The software costs $4.95. But you can try before you buy via a 14-day fully functional trial version. And that's just what I did.

Installing RetroUI sets up a shortcut on your Windows 8 desktop called RetroUI Settings. Double-clicking that shortcut opens a window where you can configure the program.

The first option sends you to the Windows desktop after you log in, while the second option takes you to the desktop from the Lock screen. In both cases, you can still access the Start screen and other Windows 8 features through the hot corners and Charms bar.

The third option disables the entire Windows 8 environment after you log in. That includes the Start screen, Charms bar, and hot corners. All such features become inaccessible via keyboard, mouse, or touch, rendering the Windows 8 UI persona non grata. The problem here is that the Start menu is still missing in action on the desktop, so you have no easy way to navigate any area of Windows.

Concerns had been raised in the past that Microsoft would purposely tweak Windows 8 to prevent people from bypassing the Start screen. But RetroUI seemed to perform without any trouble, at least in the current Windows 8 RTM (release to manufacturing) version.

RetroUI is geared toward individuals as well as businesses. The $4.95 license allows personal use of RetroUI on up to three computers. A $4.95-per-PC license for RetroUI Pro is available for enterprises, though bulk licensing is also an option. The Pro version lets IT administrators customize and deploy the software throughout their organization.

RetroUI may be of use to companies who roll out Windows 8 but don't want their users to have to learn the new environment. Personally, I'd rather keep the Start screen and other elements around and just install a Start menu replacement so I can more easily access my applications and files in the desktop. ViStart, Classic Shell, and StartMenu7 all offer free utilities that bring variations of the good, old-fashioned Start menu to Windows 8.

Thursday, 19 July 2012

Microsoft killing off Start Button in Windows 8

Ascend IT Comment
This will prove very divisive. To power users who do not want to pin literally dozens of icons on the taskbar and have their desktop cluttered completely with icons and short-cuts, the removal of the traditional Start Button will be a bad decision. Although I personally have my most commonly used icons pinned, I still use the Start Button frequently for access to those less used programs and to generally access control panel settings together with the My Computer and My Documents/Pictures commands. To remove this feature will prove irritating to say the least for me personally and to many users.

Article

Why Microsoft killed the Windows Start button

Gallery

By Barry Collins in Amsterdam

Posted on 28 Jun 2012 at 09:00

Microsoft claims it took the controversial decision to remove the Start button from the traditional Windows desktop because people had stopped using it.

The lack of a Start button on the Windows 8 desktop has been one of the most divisive elements of the new user interface. It had been widely assumed that Microsoft removed the Start button to force people to familiarise themselves with the new Metro Start screen, which is the centrepiece of the Windows 8 overhaul. However, speaking to PC Pro at TechEd in Amsterdam, a senior Microsoft executive told us that the old Start menu had already fallen out of favour with users of Windows 7.

Find out more

30 best features of Windows 8

"We’d seen the trend in Windows 7," said Chaitanya Sareen, principal program manager at Microsoft, referring to the telemetry gathered by the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program. "When we evolved the taskbar we saw awesome adoption of pinning [applications] on the taskbar. We are seeing people pin like crazy. And so we saw the Start menu usage dramatically dropping, and that gave us an option. We’re saying 'look, Start menu usage is dropping, what can we do about it? What can we do with the Start menu to revive it, to give it some new identity, give it some new power?'"

"So I’m a desktop user, I pin the browser, Explorer, whatever my apps are. I don’t go the Start menu as often. If you’re going to the Start screen now, we’re going to unlock a whole new set of scenarios, or you can choose not to go there, stay in the desktop, and it’s still fast. You can’t beat the taskbar."

Sareen also claims that people are taking advantage of keyboard shortcuts to open applications, instead of resorting to the Start menu. "Press the Windows key and 1 and you’re already in IE [if IE is the first item pinned to your taskbar]. It’s so fast."

Metro for desktops

Sareen was also quick to dismiss criticism that the Metro interface is better suited to touchscreen devices than laptops and desktops.

Demonstrations during the day had seen two Microsoft presenters struggle to make gesture controls work on laptop trackpads, with the Start screen intermittently failing to scroll when the presenters swiped two fingers across the trackpad, for instance. Sareen insisted that the touchpad drivers were still "very, very early" and were "still being refined".

He also claimed that the Metro interface "really works well with the mouse and keyboard", highlighting features such as the option to search for applications simply by starting to type its name on the Metro Start screen.

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