Technologizer

Windows Blue: Return of the Start Button?

The next version of Windows may look a little more like...Windows.

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ZDnet’s Mary-Jo Foley is reporting that Windows Blue, the upcoming Windows 8 update, may make it more possible to use Windows like…well, Windows:

Reports from a couple of different forums from this past weekend raised the possibility that Microsoft might be moving toward allowing users to skip booting into the Metro-Style Start menu and instead start their PCs in desktop mode. (Winbeta.org noted the thread about this on April 14.)

One of my sources confirmed this is now looking like the plan and added that Microsoft is also considering bringing back the Start button as an option with Windows Blue.

Ever since it first became clear that Microsoft planned to eliminate the classic Start button and didn’t intend to let Windows 8 users boot directly into the desktop, I’ve assumed that the odds were pretty good that it would eventually back down. The company says that usability research proves that folks quickly learn Windows 8 and don’t find it confusing. But these two changes in particular added up to a convenient excuse to avoid Windows 8 — and have therefore hurt Microsoft as much as they have Windows users.

Or is there even one person out there who wants to argue that bringing back the Start button and letting people boot into the desktop — as options — is a bad idea?