The Windows 10 beta continues to evolve. In a move to further distance the new operating system from it’s disastrous grandfather (Windows 8, because the father would have been Windows 9), the latest beta is missing the Charms Bar and the Start Screen.
Unless you suffered through Windows 8, you probably don’t know what the Charms Bar was. It was a thing that slid in from the right edge of the screen. The Charms Bar featured five big icons as shortcuts for certain activities, many of which could be found elsewhere and often easier. Buh-bye.
The second DOA feature is the Start Screen, which is odd because I thought it was gone anyway. I had configured Windows 8 to boot directly into the desktop. Now that’s apparently the default behavior for Windows 10 as well. Yeah!
Maybe Microsoft will completely sober up and remove the tiles from the Start button menu. That would utterly purge all the Windows 8 visual blech from Windows 10. Any move in that direction is healthy, in my opinion.
I’m running the latest Windows 10 Preview right now and while you can manually remove all of the tiles from the Start Menu, you’ll always be left with a giant empty space where you can pin those tiles right back. It’s probably because of that “Continuum” retardation that they do it and no, as of 9926 there’s no way to get rid of the empty space: http://goput.it/ox8r.png
Given that this is still an early build and that Microsoft is actually listening to its testers this time around, I have some hope this problem will be fixed before Windows 10 goes gold.
Comment by linuxlove — January 28, 2015 @ 7:27 am
Good to hear that Microsoft is listening. Remember, however, that they were “listening” last time as well. The Microsoft Usability Labs is a demonstrated failure in customer feedback. They brought us Microsoft Bob, after all.
Comment by admin — January 28, 2015 @ 7:36 am