Windows 9/8.2 (Codename: Threshold) To See Return of Iconic Start Menu
Depending on whom you believe, Microsoft is thought to be prepping either Windows version 9 or a Windows 8.2 release which will see the return of the iconic Start menu. The lack of an easy to access and familiar Start menu has often been thought as the reason why Microsoft has failed to gain significant traction with their most recent Windows release.
Whilst a Metro UI tile-based approach may look good on a laptop, not that many users have a touch screen on their laptop yet, fewer still on the monitor they have at home for a tower PC.
While flipping through screens on a tablet or smartphone has become second nature to most, this does tend to leave fingerprints and grease stains on a screen that need to be cleaned off periodically. It remains to be seen whether users really want to do that same to a desktop or laptop screen when adopting a touch screen UI.
No Start Menu, A Misstep By Microsoft
The lack of traditional Start menu in Windows 8 and 8.1 meant users often felt left out and decided to wait for when they purchase a replacement laptop and see what version of Windows is available at that time.
The idea of removing the Start menu came about from the Microsoft Customer Experience Improvement Program by surveying Windows 7 users and coming to the conclusion that the Start menu was no longer needed with future versions of Windows.
New Screen Capture of Windows 9/8.2
The latest screen capture purporting to be either a Windows 9 or 8.2 desktop shot showing a revised Start menu that looks somewhat similar to old versions in Windows 7 and earlier. The new Start menu has Metro UI tile aspects similar to the full screen version in Windows 8 to the right of the traditional looking Start menu, so it appears to be a merging of design elements both old and new together.
Theshold API
The big push behind Theshold as a release is to unify code with a single API that will help developers produce apps that will run just as well on the latest desktop Windows version, Windows tablets or Windows Phone.
This unification will help with design consistency between platforms, portability and ease of use.
