If you think they are of 'critical importance' then you are really in a mess of 21st century problems...
You need to work on your analogies.

Cosmetic maybe, but as John259 said, this is what most people will see. the problem is it is not always cosmetic, a flashy GUI could slow some computers or devices down. look at Samsung phones and tablets, they seem to have great hardware specs and yet the UI seems to slow them down, my Nexus 4 phone still seems to be snappier than my mates 6 month old Samsung galaxy phone.

Choice is good, a flashy ui that can be disabled if required.

The poor user interface was the main reason for the Windows 8 disaster.

The people dripping about the loss of aero are not concerned in anyway about the performance (obviously), just about the cosmetics of it.

But, that was irrelevant on a desktop and people were still bemoaning the loss of Aero for some reason.

The lack of the start menu was the problem with Windows 8.


I myself do not worry too much on cosmetics, I use Cinnamon after all in Linux and that is not the best looking UI. But even so I still do not like the flat look of Windows 8 or 10

Yes, and those totally annoying Charm things.

And the Tiles

Theres nothing wrong in the tiles approach but all the problem was caused by how they did it, if all they had done was made it a ctrl+alt+shift+F12 to go into tile mode and given the bigger people enough chance to block the swap over then it probably would of been seen as something nice to play with and MS would of got their feedback and job done

The trouble is more cosmetic choice equals more to maintain, more likelihood of bugs etc.

I would prefer to have less cosmetic choice, and a consequently more reliable UI.

At the end of the day, an OS is a means to an end, not the end itself. It's how the programs run etc. that is important.

The failure of windows 8 was due to the interface being poor ie the legendary lack of start menu (actually easily fixed but the battle for the public heart was lost).

With 10, the start menu is superficially different but does the job.

I accept Windows 10 has some robustness issues but I would rather MS sort those out FIRST rather than fannying around with emulating windows 7 UI etc.

As far as I'm concerned, if the Windows 7 UI is really so damned important to a person, stay with Windows 7.

Oh yeah, I forgot about them, that what happens when you get a bit of software to disable them, you forget about them

With something like Start is back, windows 8.1 becomes usable.



The tiles was awful and they are still awful on Windows 10.

Aero blur is already back in part.

If you choose to make the Start Menu, Taskbar and Action Centre transparent, then the Aero blur effect is there on the Start Menu and Action Centre background (although strangely, not on the Taskbar).
So they could easily choose to apply that to the Titlebar of windows as well, if they wanted to give users the choice.

Would also be nice to have a wider choice of colours for these elements. And be able to vary the transparency level.

TBH though, I wasn't missing the Windows 7 look, and liked the way Windows 10 looked, until they insisted on bringing back coloured Titlebars.
They don't look too bad on a smaller screen (typing this on a Linx 10" tablet, but look very silly on a large monitor IMO, unless you choose a muted grey.

You would only see them if you have chosen to, therefore you can't really complain about them......You ask for choice, but, when you get it you still complain.

But there is still no choice, if you don't have the tiles then you have to go through a list of items on the start menu and some of those items you don't want and can't get rid off, like Cortana and Edge. they are displayed on the start menu and no way to get rid of them.

What is wrong with Ms going us the choice of a windows 7 still start menu or the new type? I know this is what MS have chosen to do, but then they should not moan when people do not update to windows 10.

I've just upgraded an old netbook from 7 to 10 after disallowing some of the installation options. I wish I'd read this thread first, but so far it looks OK to me, not much different from before at first glance.
I also cannot see why people are complaining about a free upgrade. You either do, or you don't.

How dare you use common sense - people would have nothing to whinge about :

Interesting app called freefilm tv series.

It has loads of US TV series including the new Supergirl series not yet shown on UK terrestrial TV. Reminds me of Swedish popcorn

What a stupid statement.....The list you refer to is the 'All apps' section which is just like all programs in W7.
If you don't use Cortana or Edge then why would you be looking at them in 'All apps'?
You will not even see them when you open the start menu. Any of your regular programs can be added to the quick access section of the start menu. Or you could just start typing and get straight to whatever program you need.
You still have the choice of Windows 7, so, I have no idea why you don't actually choose it and leave an OS you don't like alone.
MS have given you the choice of Start Menu. They could have easily broken all the TP start menu's and left you with absolutely no choice. The funny thing is that I and others actually used a TP start menu in Windows 7, so it wasn't necessarily the best.

Totally agree.

Criticism of start menu design by the hordes of 7 fanatics is now getting exceptionally tedious. It works, does the job.

MS have RIGHTLY decided to have one interface to maintain that works across all devices.

They have GIVEN CHOICE as you can install any of a number of 3rd party very low cost or free alternative menus.

So stop whinging, accept it as is, or install a 3rd party app, or go back to windows 7.

I know what the list is called. i am not looking for Cortana or Edge in all apps, but they are there and there is no way to get rid of them.
I can not find any quick access part of the start menu, with Windows 7 i could pin a shortcut to the start menu on the right hand side, I can not din anyway of doing that on the windows 10 start menu, you can pin to start, which gives you a tile or pin to taskbar.

Above file explorer, settings and power, there is a blank space up to where it displays my name. I presume that frequently used software is displayed here, I switched it off on my machine.

i do type to find things, I am used to that from Linux, but the search on 7 was on the menu, not on the task bar like in windows 10.

The Windows 7 start menu may have not been perfect, but it was not as rigid as windows 10 menu is.

I wish I could go back to 7, but I can't, I think I may stick windows 8 back on with the start is back menu again.

I don't find the Windows 10 Start menu to be a problem. My main grievance is the splitting of items between Settings and Control Panel but presumably that's on the list of things to be fixed in the future.

Long term intent is to remove control panel and only have settings.

Many people complain about this but TBH the new menu setting style is better for majority of persons as control panel is too much like an 'airplane dashboard' to them.

Interestingly, you can still use the legendary GOD mode.

Your argument is inconsistent.

"I do not like windows 10 menu, so I am thinking of going back to 8 and using a 3rd party menu"

You can use 3rd party menus on Windows 10 as well eg replace 10 menu with a 3rd party start menu such as Start10. In fact a lot of the old 8 3rd party menus still work.

Yes, Start 10 will provide exactly what Noise747 wants. It even provides a run cmd/search bar as in W7.
Windows 10 is really no different to previous MS OS to allow 3rd party configurability. It is new and I'm sure many more will appear soon.

Im really liking the tiles in W10 and also the ability to make a change on one device and it reflected across them all. Also as a start menu and the few touch devices I have, its great to have a quick touch button to press to get to those advanced menus or progs easily, that I have pinned. Control panel being one of them.
The Cortana icon and search bar can be hidden easily, if you wish to not see it.
Mind you loving Cortana with my new Linx 1010B!

For those running Windows 7 and 8.1, KB3112336 was released recently which "enables support for additional upgrade scenarios from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, and provides a smoother experience when you have to retry an operating system upgrade because of certain failure conditions. This update also improves the ability of Microsoft to monitor the quality of the upgrade experience."