Cerberus Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 For those of you that do not like the new windows 10 start button here is a new solution startisback is working on. It's still beta but makes the normal start button instead of the new one in win 10. Anyways, here it is if you wish to try it...Homepage:http://startisback.com/#home-tabDownload (Beta):http://www.startisback.com/StartIsBackPlus_setupBETA.exe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abdr Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 I though i don't need it anymore because Windows 10 already has Start Menu. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerberus Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 This is why some don't like it...I've been using the Windows Technical Preview for a week now. While I intend to post the bulk of "first impressions" in @dencorso's thread of that name, I thought that this topic deserved its own discussion.When I first heard that Microsoft was reviving the Start Menu for its next OS, I was delighted; and when I installed the TP and saw it in action for myself, I was pleased. It looked familiar enough.Then I started working with it and slowly discovered that the similarities with the Vista and Windows 7 start menus are largely confined to just that -- the looks. In terms of functionality, compared to earlier versions it's limited in significant ways.Let's start with the design. At first glance, it looks similar because it's divided into two vertical panes just as it's been since Windows XP. By default, the new Start Menu lists Metro "apps," Windows tools/accessories, and installed programs in the left pane, and a selection of Metro apps in the right pane, such as for the Windows Store, Skype, music, and Windows Feedback for TP testers. If you don't care or have any use for Metro apps, you can unpin them from the menu. If you unpin all of them, the right pane will disappear altogether and the menu is reminiscent of the one in Windows 95/98. Fortunately, you can use the right pane to add the usual Start Menu options such as Control Panel, Network, and the like. However, the actions needed to put them in the right pane are less than intuitive: if one of these is already pinned to the left pane, then you right-click on it and select "Pin to Start" (huh, I thought that's where I was already).If not already pinned to the left pane, then the process for adding the "traditional" links to the right pane is somewhat laborious: you need to go into the Start Menu properties (by first opening the menu and only then right-clicking on it), select Customize under the Start Menu tab, and then check off each item that you want to add. But this will put the item in the LEFT pane. In order to get it into the right pane, you need to right-click on that item (as described above) or click-and-drag it over to the right pane. Then, to make more room for other listings in the left pane, you again right-click on the item there and select "Remove from this list."The right pane will show the newly added items as relatively large squares (tiles) with an icon and the name of the feature or application, as if they were Metro apps. As a result, not only does the right pane clash visually with the text-oriented design of the left pane, but also the content is much less dense. You can make the tiles smaller, but then the text labels disappear and you're left with a bunch of unlabeled icons, some of which (like the icons for Documents and Pictures) look very much alike, and especially at that size.Speaking of programs used lately, there is no longer a "Recent Items" Start Menu item to give you a global list of recently opened files. In fact, an option for this isn't even available in the TP Start Menu properties. The Start Menu is generally less customizable than its predecesors. Previous versions offer more options for changing what the menu displays and what it searches for. For instance, in Vista/7 you can tell the search function to look for the term you want in communications (e-mail), favorites/history, files, and installed programs. There are no settings listed for these, either, in the TP Start Menu properties.As a result, while also automatically offering to give you results from the Internet, the TP Start Menu search might or might not show you results that are on your own PC. I tried doing a search via the Start Menu for all PDF files (" *.pdf ") on my 7 system, and got numerous results -- but nothing at all in the TP Start Menu search even though there are PDFs in there already.By the same token, in the Vista Start Menu, once you type your term in the search box, you get a list of matching items, and then two additional options to "Search Everywhere," which takes you to Windows Explorer search; or to "Search the Internet" which opens a new browser window with results from your chosen search engine.One of the TP features that's most often complained about in the tester forums has to do with the new Search button (the magnifying glass) that Microsoft put next to the revived Start Menu. No one seems to have figured out yet what that button does that isn't already done by Start Menu Search, File Explorer search, and/or launching your browser to search the Web. As a result, the complaint is that it takes up valuable Taskbar real estate uselessly -- and there is apparently no way to disable it. Somebody has figured out how to hide it, but then the space where it sits is apparently still unavailable for other use.Out of curiosity, I typed the names of a few programs I've installed, in both the Start Menu search and the dedicated search button. Most of the time the results are the same or very similar, but if you type (for example) "system restore" in each of these, then while the dedicated search button (right) will give you the sorts of results you'd expect from your PC (including "Create a restore point"), the Start Menu search (left) will give you but a single result, which when clicked on will take you to a Bing app offering results from the Web only -- not at all what one might expect.On the other hand, if you type "restore point" in each of the two search functions, both the Start Menu search and the dedicated seach will yield the "Create a restore point" result. So the relative behaviors of the two search functions are unpredictable, or at least not yet widely understood.The revived Start Menu in the Windows (10) Technical Preview is better than having no Start Menu, but it has a way to go to approach what users enjoyed in pre-Win8 versions. I hope that Microsoft will heed the feedback it's getting from its testers, and bring back the fuller Start Menu functionality and customizability that we are requesting, and in the process also allow users to fold the new dedicated search button's function into the Start Menu search.Without these improvements, if I had to buy a new computer with Windows 10 on it, I would still opt for one of the alternative Start Menus devised for Windows 8, particularly the fine ones created by @Tihiy or @xpclient's Classic Shell team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcs18 Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Quite a nice review, Cerberus - a link would have been wonderful. ^_^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cerberus Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 Its from startisback forum...under win 10 section. I was reading last night before bed, sorry about not including source link. I will in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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