Windows 8 to Drop the Start Button

The Start button. It has been a fixture of Windows PC’s since its introduction in Windows 95. But, as of the latest consumer preview of Windows 8, its gone.

Screenshots of an unfinished build of Windows 8 aimed for consumers leaked this weekend, and the photos showed a smart bar without one of Windows’ defining features. In the beta builds that Microsoft has let the public play with, the Start button has just been rethemed to match the its Metro-style interface, looking quite out of place in Microsoft’s Aero desktop environment.

The Start button will be replaced with a hot corner, instead. That means, rather than clicking a button in the bottom left, you will just drag your curser to the corner of the screen. Once in the corner, your start menu (or, in this case, the Metro-style, touch-tailored interface that will be used on tablets and ARM devices).

While to Mac users this change might seem minor, the Start button is iconic. Even computer neophytes know that clicking the Start button gets them a list of apps. But Microsoft has been trying to minimalize its appearance for years. Windows 7 brought in a Start button without any Start text, for example, just a button.

Eventually, Microsoft assumes the desktop will go away completely. I guess they believe that window management and multitasking will, too, given how hard those are to do on Windows 8. When the desktop disappears, the start button will not be misses.

But as long as we have a desktop to work with, we will want that Start button.

The Verge Photo by : Baptiste Lafontaine