Windows 11 is getting a new start menu. EDIT: this replaces the "all apps" page by default, not the home screem
More info about it here: https://www.ghacks.net/2024/08/13/windows-11-start-menu-is-getting-a-new-layout-to-organize-your-apps/
I love how microsoft never learns their lessons.
Ugh, fine Microsoft. I'll finish my migration to Linux this weekend.
I tried it but stopped once I realised there was no hdr support :(
Not sure why you're getting downvoted. It literally only exists on a single desktop environment and even then it's practically beta. On my TV it just shows everyhing as green and purple when I enable HDR.
I love linux and want it to keep improving but man people need to stop circlejerking linux so much when it comes to people using windows when it suits their needs
Was this a call for help or...?
Depends on your desktop environment. HDR works just fine in KDE.
Welcome. We have cake and assorted treats.
With more room for ads, I hope?!
ha, oh look another revision no one asked for.
i had to use this recently, and its all kinds of useless now. the 'search' didnt find my installed app, the 'all apps' list is a click or two in, and then absurdly inefficiently styled.. the win98 start menu was easier for me to navigate.
I love how modern UI = eating up as much space as possible, while displaying as little information as possible. Glad I can watch this shitshow from afar.
It's hard to even take Windows seriously as a business OS when they're shoving this overly padded UI down everyone's throats. Windows 10 supported small task bars, among many other things that Windows 11 doesn't. There seems to be a lot of really tone deaf people at Microsoft working in silos, not really aware of the features people care about in their own product.
I doubt it will happen, but I’m hoping that windows 12 will make windows a more reasonable operating system.
Can’t wait until my work will be able to be done 100% on Linux.
Every update with these new UI changes seems to increase empty wasted space each time
And create more steps to get places.
how else are they supposed to get you to use their AI for everything
Oh cool, good to see the power button is still on the other side of the fucking menu. You know, the thing that I'm clicking on 90% of the time I'm opening the Start Menu? Why have that easily reachable like in past versions of Windows? Silly me I guess.
This isn't the first time Microsoft has done this, I remember this being a huge gripe for me with Windows 8/8.1
Then you wouldn't notice all the fun and exciting recommendations they have for you! /s
genuine question, why do you click that button? Why not use the physical button on the device?
Software shutdown button presser chiming in.
There's two reasons I tend to use the software button. I know for a fact that clicking "Shut Down" will actually shut down the computer. If I press the hardware button, the computer usually is configured by default to sleep. Yes, I could change this default behaviour on all the devices I use, but then there's the second reason:
From a psychological perspective, I tend to associate the hardware button as a "only use if system is locked up" button.
I'm sitting at my desk and my computer tower is out of reach unless I get up and reach over. Gotta showcase that RGB
Power options: sleep after 5 minutes
Power button action: shutdown
You're welcome
Alt+F4
Sorry if you already know but if you can also do win+x to get to shutdown menu
Win+x, u, u shuts down.
Pressing Alt + F4 on the desktop brings up the Shutdown menu. You can fully navigate it using the keyboard. Back in my Windows times I found this more convenient than using the start menu.
Oof, that's a very good point.
Looks like someone at Microsoft saw someone's iPad and went "That's what we need! Icons in boxes that need an extra click to be used!" and their MBA boss figures they'll get a bonus for "increasing user engagement" by making everything take two actions instead of one now.
Sigh.
Oh for fucks sake, auto categorization is one of the thing I dreaded the most on iOS because it's almost always incorrect and it doesn't fit my usage at all. Hopefully it will be possible to disable this crap.
Agreed. I miss live tiles, but I want full control over that menu.
They want to be as sleek as apple but it comes off as an old man trying to be hip
And maybe I'm using it wrong, but it just...doesn't work. I use spotlight search on my MacBook to find programs and things and it just finds them. It's fast enough to be faster than me opening things off the dock.
I try to use the search on my wife's Win11 computer and half the time it sends me to a website for a program she already has installed.
Like if you want to imitate, even badly, the imitation should at least be functional.
Apple hasn't innovated in decades... It's anything but sleek if we're talking about macs.
Interesting design but I've literally never used the start menu for the past 5 years I think. I only ever press the windows key and then type the name of the app I need.
PowerToys Run > Start Menu
To my surprise, I even recently discovered that PowerToys is open-source, even though it's made by Microsoft. It really drastically improves the terrible Windows experience. Thankfully I don't have to use Windows at all anymore, but if I had to, PowerToys would be the first thing I'd install.
On Linux (KDE) I enjoy using KRunner
Not even that,I have like 5-10 programs I use regularly and I have those pinned. Only knew they changed that thing due to postings here on Lemmy.
What the fuck is the point of the start button in the middle? Like, did they forget why the space to the right of it even exists.
i keep forgetting it's in the middle by default. first thing i did was change the setting to put it back on the left corner.
well they essentially copied the Mac dock for no reason. The icons will still go to the right of start but overall the elements will be centered.
It’s actually ideal with an ultra wide I have come to realise.
Makes sense on ultrawides.
Also, a start menu that opens in the centre is technically the best. It's in the most prominent part of the screen, and your mouse typically isn't far from there.
The start button is harder to hit than simply flinging it into the corner though, definitely.
If you're the kind of person who opens the start menu with the Windows key, a centre start menu is only an upgrade IMO.
Makes sense on ultrawides.
In which case, the question becomes: what percentage of users are actually using ultrawides? If it isn't >50%, then the default should be the setting most appropriate to non-ultrawides. Unless you're going to autodetect screen resolution and set the button's location appropriately.
This is not rocket science, but Windows has been blowing it for quite some time now.
Never thought about ultrawide screens, that makes sense. Other than that I see no improvement whatsoever. Corner space is way easier to hit with a mouse, but even when using keyboard shortcuts having it in the middle is just an additional adjustment from what it used to be.
An OS should get out of my way and let me do what I do. Changing design language forces me to relearn what I had already had a flow for. In other words it's utterly useless.
And I just know I'm gonna hate that automatic categorisation of apps, just as I hate web searches from start menu. Alphabetical order is predictable, but this I'd have to relearn.
I actually use it like that. I dont really see the reason pepole hate it so much. Geniuenly a better place for it (mind you im only talking about placement. The design itself is something else ). Since generaly if you use start menu you focus on it to launch something so it might as well be in tge middle of your screen.
I guess that's fair, but then keep the button on the left.
Another 500k lines of new code? Yay more bloat!
Win 11 still looks ugly.
My main desktop OS in Linux. But on my Windows 11 VM I'm using StartAllBack app. It makes start menu, task panel to be normal again, like it was in Windows 7 and XP.
I'm using StartAllBack app.
God, I hope MS doesn't find out this exists. I'm sure they'd find some way to break it on an update.
This reminds me of the time when they broke the ability to disable the god damn Windows 10 lockscreen from the registry. Like why??? What the actual fuck is the reasoning behind this microsoft?!?!? You're actually paying people to put in the work and make the user experience worse for absolutely no reason, while not even benefitting from it in any way??? This is one of the reasons I will never touch any of this proprietary Microsoft garbage again and strictly use FOSS software, which actually respects the user.
Clearly they learned nothing from windows 8...
Oh it's good they have the "Messages" and "Calls" buttons right there for easy access since so many people message or call my desktop PC.
"The return of the Windows Phone"? 🤷♂️
No wonder why alot of people are on windows 10
Windows 10 IOT Enterprise LTSC until the heat death of the universe
Oh yeah it's for business
Uggggh fucking whhhhhy.
I don’t even use Windows and I have to put up with this shit. My parents are going to call and ask how and why they have to use this new thing.
What was gained from this exercise in self-lobotomization? Pick a design language and stick to it.
Stirring the pot like this is driving away even enterprise users. My last org only approved Macs and Chromebooks because we didn’t want to deal with the headaches that windows brought. Imagine saying that statement 10 years ago!
If there aren't any visible changes then the lusers won't upgrade. "Why did I have to switch to Windows 11 if nothing changed??" etc.
By shuffling the look and feel of the product constantly they can give an impression of actual upgrades being made. The system looks different after your update, after all.
Microsoft already knows that anyone with technical knowledge is looking to dodge this update, they don't need to make the regular users want to dodge it too.
Uhhh! Ahhh! How about the mouse pointer? Make it AI! Nobody likes the little ⬆️ arrow following all the stupid motions. Plus when you loose it and you had wanted to click somewhere, where the fuck is it? Make it jiggle around! That's it! A jiggling mouse pointer that is composed of the two letters AI and jiggles around randomly is surely something everyone could use!
Amazing! Reading this headline made my bazzite partition grow by 2 whole disk drives!
Another shitty clone of the KDE launcher
the kde launcher is very nice
Indeed it is! And customizable
"Another shitty clone of the KDE launcher", not "Another clone of the shitty KDE launcher" 😜
We've come full circle. KDE imitating Windows, and now Windows trying to catch up with KDE.
Microsoft can not stop fucking up. I have to wonder what the turnaround is like on their UI teams that every god damn version needs a complete rework.
It's not just Microsoft... Most big companies are absolute trash. Google, Apple, Microsoft... They're all garbage, and they're bad for us.
Holy hell, does every Windows 11 device require touch-based input soon or what?
I was just pissed at my PC for "Update and Shutdown" and returning to my PC with it at the lock screen. I think this might be enough for me to leave windows.
Edit: on my gaming PC. Everything else is already KDE Neon or ubuntu.
Fam, jail that windows into a gaming partition and either get a Mac if you aren’t a computer nerd or use Ubuntu if you are. My computing quality of life improved greatly when I didn’t have to use Windows anymore.
Who even plays games that don't run well on Linux/proton these days?
You don't need to be a nerd. Just need to watch a vid or follow ubiquitous guide on how to partition a disk or install second disk. Installing and running Linux is easier than windows these days with most common distros.
The learning curve is easier than the one for each windows update too. At least for plasma, i would assume gnome too.
Still, some enterprise class software only running on windows is a reasonable excuse(for the user). Also not everyone has the drive space or can afford extra hardware. Obligatory privilege check ig.
Mac has a terrible UI though.
I disagree. Microsoft is learning its lesson. It's just that the vast majority of people are teaching Microsoft that its actions are perfectly acceptable, or, at the very least, not totally unacceptable... so it continues.
After Microsoft Edge decided to import all my chrome passwords and data I decided to get rid of windows as much as possible.
Oh, dang. Laughing in KDE Plasma.
I die every workday when I have to boot in windows because our CAD doesn't work on Linux. On the other hand it makes switching back to plasma at the end of work feel as sweet as day 1! I don't feel like I'll ever take it for granted.
I'm really enjoying my Mint 22 experience, the only downside is that I have to switch to windows to play Once Human.
why? protondb says it works fine.
Yes, i saw that, I was troubleshooting it for a while and when I got it to run the performance was ass but today I tired again and basically the problem is that the game must absolutely not be run from an HDD. It's running fine on linux now.
It's not that new if it's been a thing on Windows 8.
Why do they keep changing the thing? Linux mint Cinnamon desktop has kept the same look and I appreciate that.
New manager need to prove themselves -> can't do that by small improvements -> dreams up major changes -> gets promoted -> repeat
Is my guess
^ this guy corporates
Also, new manager would be part owner in a UX design firm of "experts" that conveniently, via their expert advice, convince management that a major redesign is needed and their firm is the only one that can do it (since everyone knows you can't get expert advice internally)
80% of the way through the project, the manager gets promoted and moves on, leaving a new manager with no vested interest in their predecessors project to try and clean up the steaming dumpster fire that is now 300x over budget
and why do they keep making it as actively shitty as they possibly can?
like, I get it, there was room for improvement back when it was just 'good'. they filled all that room with crap.
the good things about crap, though? nitrogen, phosphorous.
not the home screem
if had to use windows at home i'ld screem too.
not too surprised they didn't change that.
Cool, will this one work, or will it still go unresponsive and/or fail to find the app called the exact thing you typed?
it only changes the look, not how search works, unfortunately for windows users
So is Nadella redesigning all this stuff? Because it certainly doesn’t look like someone who is familiar with UI is doing it. Reminds me of when the CEO of Yahoo decided she could create a new logo in Corel Draw one night.
tvf this is still in canary, the final implementation will be more polished
Looks even worse than the one they had before
oh yeah, now one can accidentally close the Start menu by clicking in the gap between the panels.
I was worried this was going to be a problem when I bought new Windows 11 laptops for my octogenerian parents to use. Fortunately, it turns out they never even knew how to use the start menu on earlier versions of Windows - they always just used the desktop or toolbar shortcuts I had set up for them. "The more things change, the more they never were in the first place".
Linux and gnome pretty much gtfo of the way for me - as an OS should. I used to care a lot about what Microsoft did, now I couldn’t care less - F em
KDE is the best and much easier and polished to ex windows users
Can write reskin Windows 11 to look like 95/98?
Cuz that would be cool. Just hide all the bullshit. Have a functional desktop again.
You can't rewrite windows to look like that, but you can make linux look like this:
That's awesome.
I genuinely in 2024 I don't see why would anyone want to use any Microsoft product. They (alongside with Google) present themselves as malicious companies that only care about user data and providing user notorious ads.
unfortunately they are like the only two competitive corporate email providers. all the business tools integrate with gmail or outlook and almost never anything else. shit is annoying af
Ugh, I just had to get an organization outlook and they've been screwing with backend server protocol support, which kills most third-party apps. For E-MAIL! Nothing about this need a new standard!
they need to bring back a windows 2000 classic style start menu
Well that looks like pure garbage. Glad I no longer have to deal with it.
Windows 11 gets a new all apps screen in the start menu*
These people are stupid fucks.
Looks like a welcome change, assuming you can edit everything fully.
Bold of you to say something nice about Windows here on Lemmy, of all places.
Bold of you to use the word bold
I need to start doing that
Not my home screem!
Looks like they're going full speed ahead towards their mobile/tablet/TV/PC unishittification.
I believe they want you to seamlessly transfer stuff from device to device, regardless of which, where and why.
unishittification, that's a new one.
I like it!
but why not use an iterface optimized for each device?
I mean, I know the answers, but I find all of them deeply insulting.
Hmm. Not a marketing person, but I'll try to make an idea that sounds only slightly insulting.
Think of it like this. You're working from home, a coworker is out in the field doing live research and your boss will be doing a presentation in front of the shareholders. The coworker in the field records data with their phone, sends it to your laptop, you arrange it for your boss, send it to their tablet and the boss just slides it over on the giant TV as they take the credit for your work.
Or a more personal example. You're at home in the mood for a movie or a game on your budget smart TV, but you're too lazy to do all the whatever to get it going. So instead just sync your phone, PC/Xbox and TV with a Microsoft/Xbox account and do everything remotely using your phone/tablet as a controller, from the comfort of your couch.
It's Microsoft NSYNC, baby! And that's why everything has to be tailored to fit your lovely, greasy fingers. Comfortable comfort. You know you want it!
It looks like the little windows you'd use to organise your applications in Windows 3.1
bunch of fucking interface designers so deep into their shit that they're forcing everyone to chase the UX meta and play ranked competitive UI when 90% of everyone is just trying to be casuals and play what they're accustomed to so they can unwind at the end of the day
"yes well you see moving every interface element on your computer to a totally new location results in a 0.0001% improvement in the average user's workflow, therefore: bite the pillow, changes are coming, we're the experts you dumb schlubs!"
When was it ever about improving it for the end user? From the picture, it's absolutely terrible. You have what, four folders taking up the whole menu? Yeah, Windows XP had a more efficient workflow than that.
When was it ever about improving it for the end user?
back in the day when it was about building the best interface you could to last the product lifespan, maybe.
that's not profitable for the designers tho - chasing the current design meta is their version of planned obsolescence for interfaces. "oh that interface looks old so it doesn't work anymore" - statements dreamed up by the deranged and greedy.
I actually liked how the start menu works in Win10, with the rearrangeable/resizable tiles you can put wherever and categorize however you want. That was closer to what's pictured here, but this is still worse.
How do I get that back?
(...I actually liked Windows 8's Start Screen as well. I understand this puts me in the minority. Everything else about the Win8 UI was a five alarm dumpster fire, but I liked having a big colorful full screen app launcher that could be arranged in any way you wanted.)
How do I get that back?
you can change the kde (linux) launcher to look like that
It's awful, but KDE will copy it one day.
i guess they couldn't find a way to not make it look fucking awful
