If you have any hope at all that Microsoft put any thought into the design of the Windows 11 Start Menu, do not watch this video. If on the other hand, you hate yourself and everything you care about, this is a fantastic way to develop a drinking problem.
I cannot believe they published this video. It makes what was bad even worse.
I am lost for words.
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dftf
<p>Yeah, it’s no-coincidence that if you look for websites online that let you create <em>Windows</em> or <em>Mac </em>dummy UIs (in a <em>Visio</em>-like drag-and-drop style), they often have a "pencil-sketch" style to them.</p><p><br></p><p>Plus, many 2D tile-based video games of the past, such as <em>Mario, Sonic, Donkey Kong, Commander Keen, Zelda, </em>or 3D games that use a grid-based layout, such as <em>Wolfenstein3D </em>or <em>Tomb Raider</em> (and many-more in both categories), had levels sketched-out by hand on grid-lined paper, or by using Post-Its to create a part of a level, which the level-designers could then re-order to see what worked best.</p>
dftf
<p>If they want to start listening to their customers, I’d suggest they create an app, built-into <em>Windows</em>, where users could offer such feedback. If it were me, I’d suggest calling it "Feedback Hub" ;)</p>
dftf
<p>Maybe they could try, oh I dunno… <em>NOT</em> changing it with every new <em>Windows</em> release?</p><p><br></p><p>If you look for screenshots online of the initial macOS releases (10.0, 10.1, 10.2) then modern-day macOS still looks incredibly similar: still has the <em>Dock</em> at the bottom; still has the <em>Menu Bar</em> at the top; <em>System Preferences</em> is like the old <em>Control Panel</em> in <em>Windows</em> (a grid of icons); <em>Finder</em> gained a search-box and a side-panel, but I’d imagine otherwise still offers the same feature-set. Now sure, the visual look of the window chrome and widget-set (buttons, scrollbars, etc) has changed: but if you do side-by-side comparisons, things are all still <em>almost</em> the same and in the same places.</p><p><br></p><p>Within that same timeframe, <em>Windows XP </em>was the last one to use the "Windows 9x" and 2000 style; <em>Windows Vista </em>and <em>7 </em>then did their own thing; <em>Windows 8 </em>suddenly thought everyone using a non-touch device would surely love to pretend as though they were; <em>Windows 10 </em>itself has changed a lot since the initial 1507 release; and now we have <em>Windows 11.</em></p><p><br></p><p>Maybe they could consider just adding <em>new features</em>, rather than constantly changing the look?</p>
dftf
<p>The <strong>snap-feature</strong> is likely useful on touch-devices, but I really can’t see why with a mouse you couldn’t just drag them. I bet most-users will only use two main layouts: two windows each taking half the screen, or on higher-resolutions, four windows, each snapped to a corner. But regardless, there are third-party apps that can replicate this in <em>Windows 10</em> if you really like it.</p><p><br></p><p>As for a <strong>less-distracting Start Menu</strong>, I’d assume you mean you don’t like the animated tiles. In which case, either remove those you don’t use, or right-click on some of the live ones (e.g. Weather), go to "More" and then "Turn Live Tile off" and it’ll just be a static app icon.</p><p><br></p>
dftf
<p><em>"… someone can always write a utility to add or put back what might be missing."</em></p><p><br></p><p>Yes, but it still annoying when you have to get third-party apps just to restore what you’d think would be basic features that code-wise surely cannot cost that much time to maintain?</p><p><br></p><p>I can understand some stuff justifiably getting removed: few people I’d imagine cried when MS said they’d no-longer ship the floppy-disk driver as part of the base image. Or with the modern alternatives we have now, that things like <em>NetMeeting</em> are no-longer a thing.</p><p><br></p><p>But it both irritating and presents a security-risk to have to regain basic functionality by downloading third-party apps from random sites or users. It’s the same with <em>Firefox</em>: sure, I <em>could</em> download various extensions to gain functionality many browsers now have as-standard, but <em>who</em> are the people who make them and can I trust them, given some of them need "access to data on all websites".</p>
dftf
<p>The <em>Edge Insider</em>, <em>Windows Insider</em> and <em>Feedback Hub</em> teams thesedays are likely all one-and-the-same ;)</p>
dftf
<p><em>Microsoft </em>aren’t alone in creating media post-a-change to justify it.</p><p><br></p><p><em>Google</em> also did this for one of the changes that most-irritated users in <em>Android 12, </em>where they removed the separate "Wi-Fi" and "Mobile-Data" icons, and merged it into one "Internet" tile.</p><p><br></p><p>You can view there justification-post here, along with all the "please revert it" comments here:</p><p><strong>support.google.com/pixelphone/thread/132446941/behind-the-scenes-looks-at-the-new-internet-tile</strong></p>