Microsoft's plan to integrate a Start Menu into an upgraded Windows 8 has come to a temporary stop.
The legacy-style Start menu is a feature sorely missed by Windows 8 users who are migrating from Windows 7 and on down.
Microsoft has partially rectified the loss of this basic feature by adding a Start screen (not a menu) and the ability to boot-to-desktop to the Windows 8.1 update.
The company plans to offer a point-and-click Start Menu in the next major upgrade of Windows. The name Threshold has been bandied about as a moniker for the new OS. It may also simply be called Windows 9.
Initially, it was thought that the return of the prodigal Start Menu would take place around August of this year, packaged in Windows 8.1 Upgrade 2. The latest buzz has that the return of the old-style Start Menu will not take place until sometime in 2015 when the brand new OS debuts. For those who cannot wait, there are third-party applications that can restore that old timey Start Menu feel to Windows 8 until the real deal arrives.
Windows 8 (and 8.1) is a radical change for Windows traditionalists. The new OS is designed primarily to take advantage of touch screen interfaces on newer PCs, tablets, phablets and smartphones. In the transition, some mice-and-keyboard users have been frustrated by the reduced emphasis on input devices that the new OS delivers.
Taking full advantage of new features in Windows 8 requires a touch screen interface. For most Windows users, that would entail the purchase of, at a minimum, a new monitor for a desktop PC and in most cases a new laptop PC. That is one of the major factors inhibiting the growth of market share for Windows 8, which so far has captured only about a combined 12.7 percent of all (Microsoft and others) desktop operating systems currently in use. Windows 7 (50 percent) and Windows XP (25 percent) still hold the lion's share. As you can see, Microsoft has a long way to go until Windows 8 becomes the de facto standard. This lagging acceptance rate also hurts Microsoft significantly in its share of tablet and smartphone OS sales.
Aside from these hardware issues, the learning curve for users transitioning from legacy Windows OS products seems to be steeper than many are willing to undertake. It is imperative, then, that Microsoft takes strong steps to make Windows 8 more palatable to legacy users, especially since the older Windows XP's 25 percent share is now officially no longer supported by Microsoft (no more security, driver or bug updates).
